Extremely early I know but today has left me intrigued as to what it could be. Marshall Elmo Dawson (if fit) Davies Robertson Henriksen Clucas Livermore Snodgrass Mbokani Maloney Maybe Maguire instead of Dawson, maybe Huddlestone should start, Mason for Maloney perhaps, a completely different formation even, I have no idea.
He's not setting the world on fire for sure. Early days though, I thought he looked better after Clucas went off and when Hudd was on, I just wonder if he hasn't found his proper role in the lineup yet?
He's barely played any football in the last 12 months, he'll take half a dozen games or so. People seem to be getting their knickers in a twist tonight. We got beat by Chelsea, hardly a surprise, and we played very well first half.
It's too early, too soon to be thinking about the next game, next weekend I can ignore football because it's ****ing England playing & I really don't give a **** about it. So in under 2 weeks I'll have a bit of enthusiasm for football after the break of no football!
If you stood Mason and Clucas next to each other and asked someone who had watched both players play, which one was the £13m pound player - I bet Clucas would get the nod every time.
I'm disappointed in what I've seen so far, but not enough to be writing him off yet. He's going to be better when we control games more I think, the next few we should see why we paid the money for him.
Hendrick's not a great player from what I've seen of him since he's been at Burnley, however he was one that I thought we should have got, Mason will be the better player long term, I'm convinced he'll show the class against the upcoming teams. Once confidence kicks in, the team will gel & we'll see the best of us.
To be honest, I think we should have got a much more aggressive defensive midfielder like Kayal from Brighton. He can break up play, good passer and spur an attack, unlike our midfield who have little urgency to go forward. Kayal's like a poor-man's Paul Scholes but still good. Surprised nobody from the Premier League came in for him in the summer; he was Brighton's player of the year and a better all-round player than Hendrick.
Again a Championship player, we already have that! Mason is a step up from the Championship, that's how Stoke did it year on year, 1 bit at a time. It takes time for most players to adjust to the PL, Hendricks might be good by Feb/March, but he might suddenly be this years star midfielder. For me he's good, but it'll take time for him to show it, hopefully too late to save Burnley!
