Roy's View From... Pre-Match View From Burnley

[Brother-Leech]

Small town club getting above themselves after one season of "VK".

Can’t help but think of Viktor Krum from the Harry Potter books when I read VK

 

[Champagneblade]

Burnley aren't "way better" than us at all.

Had it not been for the ridiculous amount of injuries we've had this season then we'd have ran them fairly close.

If you take October, we had 4/5 first teamers available in total. The rest were reserves and the bench was teenagers.
We got 3 points from 6 games. Had we had everybody fit, we'd have probably got the usual 2 ppg return and be 9 points better off.
We'd then be going into tomorrow's encounter chasing them down for the title.

They have a better midfield and play more appealing football but that's about it.
Hopefully we go there, show them no respect and try to rough them up again.

That being said, they're very worthy champions, have been consistent all season and there's a lot to admire in the job Kompany has done there. Fair play to them.
Will be intrigued to see what level of backing ALK put into them this Summer. We nearly fell under them.

Firstly Kompany has done a good job. Let's get that bit out of the way first. He's brought in plenty to call it his own team whilst blending them with some current players and got them playing a style that works.

I'd also point out that a fair bit has also gone his way too:

1. Incomparable injuries. They've had odd players out. As above, we had an entire team unavailable plus subs which saw us take 0.5 points per game from a 6 game spell, having raced to 23 points from the initial 10 games.

2. Successful sales. Kompany/Burnley have been able to raise funds to meet commitments and invest in the team because they had takers for their relegated squad. We were well into the season when we offloaded Rammers and still didn't shift Berge. They brought in around 70m from sales of Collins, Cornet, McNeil and Pope as well as losing ageing and heavy waged Mee and Tarkowski as well as Lennon, Weghorst, Vydra, Pieters, Stephens and Beardsley, all of which gave Kompany money in the bank and licence to build his own team.

3. Absence of challengers. You'd normally expect the relegated teams tl be favorites and even the parachute teams. Neither Norwich nor Watford have got it together so the bit rival with similar resources simply didn't emerge. Likewise West Brom have also been indifferent and even fellow Play off team Huddersfield have been out of sorts. So in that sense they've fallen on a decent season. No Newcastle, West Ham or other big hitter blocking up a spot.

I do think injuries have deprived us of a tilt at the title but it is what it is. Under Wilder we went up having had very few so sometimes it goes your way, sometimes it doesn't.

Next season could see a few from Leeds, Leicester and Everton and Forest so there could be some well resourced teams in there. But you can only beat what's in front of you.

I said before the last game how I thought we could beat them. I applaud Hecky on him going for the jugular. Will he do the same or try something surprising? I guess it just depends if Gannon is fit to wing in his corners and if Vinnie Jones starts for his long throws!

 

[XH536]

Burnley fans are more than warry of the Blades, reading between the lines.
I believe Blades player are better decision makers, individually, whilst in play and have two better ball players than Burnley.
Watched their game last Friday, not enormously impressed by either side though away win V then third in table not to be sniffed at. Both sides, many individual mistakes, mainly giving ball away on lots of occasions.
Confident blades to get summot today, but need to be up for it as they have been last few games.
Could Blades become Kompany's bogy team?
Thank You Roy.

 

[CarlMcBlade]

We don’t want to be just another guest at the Burnley promotion party…We want the 3 points

 

[Snowflake]

It was the same guy v boro

I thought he was injured, but I am often wrong !!

 

[Champagneblade]

Burnley fans are more than warry of the Blades, reading between the lines.
I believe Blades player are better decision makers, individually, whilst in play and have two better ball players than Burnley.
Watched their game last Friday, not enormously impressed by either side though away win V then third in table not to be sniffed at. Both sides, many individual mistakes, mainly giving ball away on lots of occasions.
Confident blades to get summot today, but need to be up for it as they have been last few games.
Could Blades become Kompany's bogy team?
Thank You Roy.

We’ve witness first hand a team coming on our Board telling us how they’ve got us rattled.

Somehow Burnley and VK seem to have rattled themselves!

Don’t recall us mentioning the 5-2 all that much since that game. Them being extra pumped up may well be their downfall. I think Hecky will be just “we focus on the next game”, his usual approach rather than harping back to a game months back.

That said I don’t think Tiny Tim at left back has grown that much.

I’d almost be inclined to play Ndiaye down the middle and McBurnie to the right going full Jostein Flo for flick ons. I’d certainly have Wes belting them to our right all the time. I’d have JLT taking the throws from both sides too. I think that would be an excellent shithouse move.

Or maybe this is the best rope-a-dope of all time and Hecky just goes there and out footballs them!

 

[dsr-burnley]

Who were our last minute winners against? I can only think of one against Swansea? Unless you are counting the Cup games?

You're right. I might have misread the Stoke last minute goal but that was 3-1, or something like that.

 

[Bladey_blade]

Watched Burnley a few times and Muric is anything but dominant, he's absolutely piss poor at most things just lucky he's been carried all year

 

[Hagan's boot]

Have I missed something, when did we sign a new player called Bakdrick ?.

 

[Bennyand the Blades]

Have I missed something, when did we sign a new player called Bakdrick ?.

It looks like a very cunning plan........

 

[Bobby b]

"We all know these love to launch balls into the box" I'd love to know which team I've been watching all season, all I know is they play in stripes and they're the one that I keep on shouting "stop fannying about and get it int box"

 

[CarlMcBlade]

Have I missed something, when did we sign a new player called Bakdrick ?.

I’m guessing it’s hard to text with too many fingers.

 

[BarcaBlade]

Thanks Roy.

As Champagne says, don't really get many of their comments relating to the first game this season. Who cares?

In some ways, I don't really see why Burnley or even Blades fans care that much about today's results. Sure, we'd both like the points for our own reasons (securing title/promotion), but Luton and Middlesborough probably care more.

I'm sure the players will 'want it' more.

 

[ben1987]

Interesting game tonight.

On one hand they could play sublime free flowing football under absolutely no pressure what so ever and muller us. They could take their foot off the gas having already been promoted or most likely somewhere in between.

The last meeting involved Benson walking past stevens like he wasn’t there repeatedly and a JLT first half nightmare. Neither of those things will happen again. If Baldock plays on the left again we’re guaranteed a dogged and determined perfance all evening where he won’t give up on a single 50/50.

They seem to remember us just arially bombarding them got 45 minutes… we did absolutely bully them in that second half but it wasn’t just a bombardment. We played some nice clever football to work angles to exploit their obvious weak points it was a brilliant attacking performance.

They don’t seem as physically frail now, looks like they learned a valuable lesson that game. They were also missing Brownhill in the middle who I really like as a player. Often thought he’d be quality for us but we’ll out of our price range.

Looking forward to it in a relaxed kinda way now boro and Luton have dropped a few points it’s a free hit.

A win / draw or loss wouldn’t surprise me whatever comes tonight.

 

[GymClassHero]

Who the fuck is VK?

(genuinely asking, not being facetious)

It's an alchopop, similar to WKD but a cheaper, shitter version.

 

[Roygbiv]

Probably use my last free hit tonight. Not interested in Burnley thinking that was some of revenge when we ruined the game after 15 minutes

 

[Moan? Nope-I saw Longhorn]

It's an alchopop, similar to WKD but a cheaper, shitter version.

There’s a shitter version of WKD - or any alcohol-pop come to that ?!?

 

[GymClassHero]

There’s a shitter version of WKD - or any alcohol-pop come to that ?!?

Amazingly it would appear so!