Promoted Team Preview: Vincent Kompany’s Burnley look to surprise
By Evan Curnew
After winning the EFL Championship last season, Burnley looks like a completely different club from their previous Premier League tenure.
Key Facts:
Manager: Vincent Kompany
Captain: Jack Cork
Top Goalscorer: Nathan Tella (19)
Table Position Last Season: 1st (Promoted)
Three of the last five Championships winners have survived relegation in the Premier League the following season. Norwich City’s previous two first-place finishes have resulted in the club finishing 20th place in the Premier League the next year. Burnley will look to follow the likes of Leeds, Fulham and Wolves in recent memory to retain Premier League status the season following promotion.
The club has a new look under Vincent Kompany, who arrived last summer from Belgian side Anderlecht as club manager. Burnley also saw a significant amount of incoming transfers that separated themselves from the rest of the Championship in terms of talent and ability. The Clarets finished the season with 101 points, ten more than second-place Sheffield United. Kompany’s side secured promotion to the Premier League on April 7th and won the league title on April 25th in a win over their fierce rivals Blackburn Rovers.
The club lost some significant players after relegation from the Premier League following the 2021-2022 season. Key centre-backs Ben Mee and James Tarkowski left on free transfers, while the club also lost Nick Pope to Newcastle, Nathan Collins to Wolves, and Dwight McNeil to Everton. Long-time manager Sean Dyche also left, now plying his trade at Everton.
Some of the most important names for the club last season include Nathan Tella, who was on loan from Southampton and Ian Maatsen, on loan from Chelsea. Irish midfielder Josh Cullen picked up the club’s Player of the Season award and Player’s Player of the Season award. Josh Brownhill, also a midfielder, was a massive contributor to the club’s league success this past season.
Kompany instilled a possession-dominant style of play last season for Burnley. Fullbacks Maatsen and Roberts are essential figures in all aspects of the club’s tactics. In more recent times, a pressing team can be accused of gegenpressing when sometimes it is not the case. Burnley focuses more on pressing the opposition without sending too many players up the pitch at risk of being caught out defensively. Instead, the club will press the opposition into areas of the final third where they can set a trap to catch the defenders off-guard. The club last season was able to find a perfect mix of attacking excellence while retaining a solid defensive structure, something that will be vital to maintaining Premier League status next season.