Dave Thornley has gone all Gaga and actually missed the Terriers getting turned over by Vincent Company’s new look Clarets.

Anyway, the man himself writing on behalf of Clarets Mad muses and asks the question; “It’s been quite a while, how was your mid-summer break from football?”

Much has happened since my last posting: we’ve had Paul at Glastonbury; heatwaves; Baz-Ball; Lionesses; travel chaos and Boris Johnson’s abuses of power finally proving beyond the pale for even Tory MPs to tolerate.

In the narrower confines of Burnley Football Club; the rate at which both incoming and outgoing transfer deals have been done has resembled a Wall Street bull market. For Vincent Kompany there has been no cosy settling-in period; no time to sniff the air, familiarise himself with his surroundings and hang the family pictures on the office wall.

From day one there were deals to be done and a whole new team to create virtually from scratch.

With Dwight McNeil becoming the latest to follow Tarkowski, Mee, Pope, Collins, Hennessy and Weghorst (have I missed anyone out?) through the exit door – with Maxwel Cornet almost certain to follow – there was a distinct lack of familiarity to the Clarets’ opening fixture of the 2022-23 season.

An unfamiliar month for football – July; an unfamiliar day – Friday; an unfamiliar division – the Championship; an unfamiliar venue - Huddersfield’s John Smith Stadium – and an unfamiliar team line-up playing in an unfamiliar formation for an unfamiliar manager.
After the reassuring consistency of the Sean Dyche era, all this felt so very un-Burnley; we are a club which prides itself on its continuity and its traditions. We are not Watford; indeed, we are the Anti-Watford.

Now a confession; the descriptions of play which follow have been gleaned from second hand sources, for while the game was being played, I was in London with my daughter experiencing Lady Gaga at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium, a venue I hope to revisit next season in its more traditional format to watch Burnley.

For that to happen (unless Spurs suffer a cataclysmic season) the Clarets need to secure promotion with this largely youthful, callow, and inexperienced set of players assembled with purpose but in haste by a manager untried at this level.

Fortunately, the early signs were probably beyond most Clarets fans’ wildest expectations. Burnley 2.0, Kompany’s Burnley, passed the ball around with fluency, imagination, and poise; cherishing possession and using it to construct a series of dangerous attacks.
Burnley held possession of the ball for 70 per-cent of the game’s duration – yes, it’s true - seventy percent!

They outshot their opponents (who were the home team, remember) by 16 to 2 with an on-target ratio of 7 to zero.
But as we have all been fond of reminding any and all throughout Burnley’s time in the Premier League, the only statistic that matters is the score-line, and for such domination of the ball to mean anything at all, it must yield goals and points.

Fortunately, at about the same time that I was watching Lady Gaga belt out “Poker Face”, one of those bright, young new additions to the Clarets’ family, Ian Maatsen was calmly slotting the ball into the corner of Huddersfield’s goal, following a move which involved a neat passing interchange and a clever dummy from Ashley Barnes – whose appearance provided a reassuring presence for the travelling Burnley supporters.

Another of the new arrivals, Josh Cullen was impressive in midfield and the deployment of Charlie Taylor in the centre of defence and Jack Cork in the “Fernandinho role” as a holding midfield player,
were unexpected tactical nuances which worked to great effect, another surprise was the selection of Dara Costelloe in attack. A statement, surely, that Kompany is keen to give youth its chance.

It is, of course, a long season ahead and there will inevitably be matches where the football doesn’t flow so smoothly, and results need to be ground out. The relentless churn of matches will weigh heavily on young limbs and the cockiness and confidence of youth can, at those times, give way to uncertainty and anxiety. Managing the team through those periods will test Kompany’s expertise as he seeks to graft resilience onto the skill demonstrated on Friday night.

But let us not concern ourselves with such matters just yet, let us instead enjoy an important victory achieved in a manner not seen, but craved for, throughout the majority of Burnley’s time in the Premier League.

It’s the Hatters up next, I wonder who Alan West will be rooting for? I hope he can say a little prayer for us too! (TEC.)

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