Just in and can't be asked to go through everything but ... Fab - 7 great job and gives confidence .. needs to sort out distributin with the back four and midfield who didn't help him. Rangel - 7 good solid game with a lot done in midfield to make up for others Amat - 7 solid and had his hand full, got done on speed a couple of times but is working well with Ash. I like Amat for his cool, doesn't get flustered Ash - 8 another captain' game. MOM Taylor - 5 we need a left back. A few tackles and blocks and one effective pass. Routledge - 6 didn't get into the game a few good plays in the first half, poor in the second (like so many others) would have changed him for Montero Ki - 6.5 MOM of first, poor in the second but still best of midfield Siggy - 6 inconsistent Shelvey - 3 nuff said, almost nothing went right, a couple of long balls went to the player but so much didn't and gave up on 50-50 balls Dyer - 7 good goal, worked hard and I thought he should have stayed on, heavily marked Bony - 7 worked hard but had little support in the second half, should have scored but named up for that with a few headed clearances out of defence. Subs didn't really make a difference. Officials 5 - Lino on the West was a disgrace & I was convinced we'd concede to a poor refereeing decision. Our fans - 5 quiet and moaning 3 points were fantastic but quite fortunate. Very similar performance to the Villarreal game? play like that against better teams and we could be in trouble. The midfield were largely AWOL for the second half and with only Leon to come in Monk needs to work on this area. The shape, speed and commitment from Siggy, Ki and Shelvey should have been better and consistent throughout the game. Burnley played some good quick fancy stuff and had a quick lump of a centre forward who might have picked up a booking or two from another ref. Although Burnley did well, especially in the second half, they a going to struggle.
I don't think Bony can last the 90 mins yet,he's still not match fit after coming back late from the World Cup. Midfield faded badly second half,but we had no one on the bench to replace. We need an aggressive player like Stambouli to bolster defensive midfield,and getting him in should be a priority next week,with Britton out for a while.Not sure on Carroll,he looks very frail. Great goalkeeping from Fab,and Ash/Amat were rocks in central defence. Taylor,uncharacteristically made a few mistakes,and we need Timothee in to give him good competition for the left back spot..
I was at the game and I'm a bit worried after that. The midfield (Ki exclude) was poor all afternoon. Playing the 3 man triangle we can't afford for 2 of them to have a bad game, which Shelvey and Sigs did. I'm surprised at how easy the Burnley midfield controlled things seeing as they played 442. There wasn't one occasion 2nd half where we outnumbered them, which should logically be the case. Taylor, without really having had a bad game just looks like he's got a calamity or two in him. Rest of the defence were very good though. I think I'd have preferred a switch to 442 bringing Gomis on to partner Bony at the hour mark. A flat 3 man midfield might have been the way to go once we were being outnumbered though. Not to wind anyone up but il finish by saying I think we missed Michu yesterday.
Agree with mpst of this keith appart from Taylor, he was shocking last week but improved to be only piss poor this week. A new left back is desperately needed.
Thought Taylor was OK actually and much improved from last week. Most of Burnley's more effective attacks didn't come through him. Can't disagree we need competition at LB though.
Got to give Monk a bit of credit for staying with Dyer and Taylor .Would have been easy to start Montero in Dyers spot after Montero's great minutes last game coming off the bench. Taylor just needs time every game to get back to where he was .When Davies came in to take over Taylors spot when Taylor got injured , Taylor has never had a series of games since .Like someone said elsewhere on here , you dont just become a bad player out of the blue . Shelvey and Siggy should share a midfield position to push each other for it from game to game .Both need to be hungrier without an assured spot .
Recovering from op so unable to take my usual seat at the Liberty. Watched the game on football first and didn't think we were lucky at all. Good defending prevented Bony scoring and Gylfi should have buried his first chance. With a bit of good luck we could have been three up at half time. Ki should have also buried his chance in the second half which was more clear cut than any created by Burnley. As expected Burnley put a lot of physical effort into the second half but in reality had one shot on goal and a couple of half chances. So come on you half glass full moaners and cheer up. I didn't agree with Bony coming off but read somewhere he was carrying a slight knock which may explain things.
We were lucky. Burnley could, maybe should, have had a couple in the first half. And we were just giving them the ball back throughout the second half.
Agreed Bob. Our players' passing was shocking at times. OK Burnley had one shot on target but that was down to poor finishing. The guy who slid past the post was inches away from getting a foot on it and Inges' shot first half looked bound for the top corner. Draw would have been fair over the whole game but I'll take it. Still think our defence has improved from last season though. I think the game said more about Burnley than us and they will give some teams a real game this season imo. No surpise to me that's the first away game they've lost in 2014.
The lad sliding in on the post was in front of me, I closed my eyes waiting for the cheering Burnley fans , huge sigh of relief when nothing happened. Still poor performance by the lads, but we were gritty in defence so happy to win ugly.
As long as out luck holds we'll pick up points but may lose patience. Given we got three points yesterday the mood of most (?) fans leaving was relieved disappointment. Deffinate noises around agreeing that a Stoke, West Brom or West Ham would have taken all the points on that performance. Two games at home (Villarreal & Burnley) have been similar in set up, pattern and second half midfield collapse. Still celebrating 100% record but not with a great deal of confidence for September. As ever .. hope I'm wrong.
disagree we limited them to just one shot on target. We did enough to get the 3 points and that's all is required. Burnley gave us everything they had but we stood firm and did not look like loosing. we looked as if we could have gone up a gear if we really needed too but it was not needed. Last week we had to give it our best but this week Burnley had no choice but to throw everything at us in the second half after the hammering we gave them in the first half.....the lads weathered the storm superbly and that's a sign of a good team....
"did not look like loosing" Disagree. And you can't spell. "we looked as if we could have gone up a gear" Disagree. We looked clueless second half. "after the hammering we gave them in the first half" Hammering? Er... disagree. We were one nil up and they had almost scored too. We were the better team first half but 'hammering'? No. "the lads weathered the storm superbly" Disagree. We should not have won that game but I'm glad we did. Draw was a fair result. "that's a sign of a good team." Possibly right. But we were fortunate and we need a lot of work. Monk has conceded we need to be better.
I disagree about us being able to go up a gear Dai - we looked like a boxer clinging to the ropes for a lot of that second half. This is our fourth season in the PL - we should have a strong team now, and shouldn't be bossed at home by a team that has only just come into the division. Everyone is happy that we have 6 points from the 2 games, but most are still disappointed by our performance. We need to improve before our luck runs out. It's all very well taking the attitude that points are the most important thing - but not at the expense of enjoyable football in my opinion. Look at West Ham - they got the points to stay up last season, but there was very little enjoyment for their fans watching that dross all season. There's no point in being in the PL if you only get enjoyment from watching other teams play good football. We have been spoilt with good football in recent times - it's hard to watch when that quality drops.
That's a red herring. Burnley had a couple of chances that were off target that they should have converted. They dominated second half and deserved a point. We sat (were pushed) right back and couldn't compete in midfield. Unlike the Man Utd game where we had nothing to lose going into the game, it looked like we panicked second half and were trying to hang on to the lead. After the first half we really should have been pushing on confidently. I thought Monk would field the same team as last week as he doesn't have the tactical experience (yet) and would go with what appears to be working. He even made almost identical substitutions. The West Brom game's going to be very interesting. Monk needs to show us what he's made of now. He did reiterate on the MOTD programme this morning that he's looking at another two players to come in this week, so that will bolster his options. I'm not getting carried away with where we live realistically in this division and don't expect too much, so six points right now is actually fantastic. There's no reason why we shouldn't go for it next weekend though and nine from nine is a distinct possibility. My main worry right now is Monk being too cautious due to his lack of experience and trying to play safe. He's learning as he goes and I'd rather he learn from games like West Brom at home by being attacking minded. There'll be plenty of games where he can learn from being cautious and we have enough fire power to take West Brom at home next week. Exciting times!
We are not going to batter teams and win comfortably in any game however much fans think we should because it was only Burnley and we were at home. football don't work like that im afraid and every team we play will have seen and studied our previous games and will give us problems. So far we have coped very well and did enough to win. Burnley never looked like getting a draw even though they tried their hardest. Next game will set us another set of problems to which monk will have to deal with and he will select his team and decide on a game plan and it may work or it may not...that's the nature of football. A 1-0 win is all that is needed and that is exactly what the achieved against a team with nothing to lose and restricted them to just one shot on target. That to me was a job well done and another 3 points in the bag. No problems so far but we will lose sometimes as every team does at some point.
