Dave does Bournemouth away.

[The Bedlington Terrier]

Dave Thornley fresh from competing in the Lancaster 10k run comments on Burnley’s fall into deep misery heaped upon even deeper VAR misery.

At the start of this season, Burnley were losing games to good teams projected to finish in the upper reaches of the table, that was disappointing, but understandable. Since then, Burnley have regressed to losing to moderate teams and now, to very poor ones.

There can be no more ironically named venue than Bournemouth’s Vi-ta-ity Stadium, for v-it-ality, in this and other games, is distinctly absent in Burnley’s play. Very much present on the other hand were the recurring themes of defensive disorganisation and panic in possession.

Burnley virtually gifted Bournemouth their first win of the season, loose passes being picked off in midfield exposing a muddled defence for the home team’s first goal and a stranded James Trafford, lobbed from a distance covered by an adjacent post code for the decisive second.

This after Charlie Taylor had put the Clarets ahead early in the game. To say that Taylor doesn’t score many would be the mother of all under-statements, but when they do come, they are worth the wait, a fiercely struck volley low into the corner from the edge of the penalty area.

Once Bournemouth equalised however, the spirit seeped out of the Clarets, there was no meaningful threat and they merely invited Bournemouth, a team struggling for any sort of form remember, to dominate the remainder of the game.

That said, there was a slight improvement late in the game when Sander Berge and Jay Rodriguez were introduced. Rodriguez finding the corner of the Cherries’ net with a neatly worked move only to create a VAR seminar, which lasted longer than a rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody, or an average England World Cup innings, to conclude that some barely detectable part of Jay Rod’s anatomy had strayed offside.

As the game limped towards its conclusion, Berge saw his header clawed away from the Bournemouth goal, a header he did well to perform since his shirt was being grasped by a Bournemouth defender whose arm also contacted the ball. There was no VAR check, and it is unfathomable to understand why not.

And so, Burnley’s season continues its swirl around the plughole of increasingly probable relegation; there are few glimmers of hope, little prospect of any imminent improvement. To add to Burnley's current woes Josh Cullen managed to get himself suspended with yet another yellow card.

Footnote: I was one of the unfortunate 1000 or so Clarets fans who made the 600-mile return trip to Bournemouth over the weekend and can only concur with David while I watched deep Burnley misery be heaped upon even deeper VAR misery. (TEC.)

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[ClaretinBudapest]

Worst start to a season in 119 years.Enough said.VK knows how to break records.

[outwoodclaret]

Last time I went to Bournemouth was 25 years ago and a lot of water has passed under a lot of bridges since then. We lost 5-0 by the way in the old Division 2. Last season in the Championship was like a wonderful dream and we have awoken into a Premier League nightmare. VAR is utter sh*te and teams at the top have vaults full of prospectors money. Improvement from us is necessary and cannot come soon enough. We should not get any worse (I hope). Getting rid of VK at this juncture would be like sawing one of your own legs off before entering an arse kicking contest. If the tumbrils do keep rolling towards the guillotine I might not be joyously singing “Aux armes Citoyens” but I could surreptitiously be giving Mademoiselle Corday a pot of unguents and directions to Marat’s house.

[Swissclaret]

Although, rightly, comment is made about JayRod and Berge, i thought that Redmond made a difference too. A bit of vision and a good ball to set up JayRod.

[army88]

Swiss I think my quip re jay rod and Berge was by a slur at them it was just an analogy that we were that rubbish that I’d probably have made a difference.
Also with respect J rod should only be featuring for us for 15-20 mins at most to close out games or try and get us a header from a set piece - he’s off the pace hence why he’s pulling people back and late with challenges- also Berge as I’ve alluded to isnt a bad footballer but doesn’t have the legs / pace for the position- formation we are playing at the minute.

Redmond maybe an acception to that as if fit I still think he has something to offer for longer periods in games

[Supersub6]

Any good team is built on a soid defence, no matter what sort of fancy football you are trying to play. This is the area where we are failing very badly and is not helped by us constantly giving the ball away by trying to concentrate of keeping possession.
We are conceding an average of 2.5 goals per game, taken to its logical conclusion and if things do no improve, this will mean 95 goals conceded during the season and that will only lead to one thing.
The most goals we conceded in our 7 seasons under SD was in 2018/19 with 68 against, this was also the season that we scored our highest number, 45, and finished on 40 points and in 15th place, some 6 points ahead of 18th place.
The season that we finished 7th we conceded only 39 goals, however, we only scored 36 and finished iwth a minus goal difference even though we got into Europe.

Possession is fine, however, without scoring goals it is pointless as has been shown this season with only 8 goals scored in 10 matches.
Get the defence sorted and we have a chance, however, the best form of defence is attack and scoring goals ----we certainly have a problem.