Match Day Thread Burnley FC v Sunderland AFC - Saturday 23rd August 2025 - KO 15:00

Official Highlights
2 mins:

Extended:
https://www.safc.com/videos/40fdd8b1-5b9e-419f-8aea-efc4918ab777

Full 90:
https://www.safc.com/videos/019d1333-c5b3-4c6d-9318-140a9d3afa8d

 

I dont think we have 2 wingers good enough to start games , Burnley tactics cried out for drawing them forward and hitting them on the break our attacks were so slow and ,predictable we just kept running into a brick wall. It was obvious the tactic was not working after they scored, it was a walk over for them after that . Reg got it wrong yesterday.

 

Same token, we likely to create more chances against teams that want to play us.

West Ham didn’t come to defend, nor will Brentford, Wolves, Leeds.

It’s gonna be the games like Palace, Brighton, Fulham, Forest and Bournemouth that decide which league we in next season.

These are quality, established PL sides but they are sides we can compete with.

We were able to compete with parachute clubs last season. We were superb in the games against Leeds, Burnley and Sheffield United.

We lost to Plymouth.

 

Taking off all three forwards yesterday at once at 60 mins was a mistake imo. I worry with Isidor that coming on upfront alone chasing a game, he doesn’t play in a way that will change it for us. Le fee shifted out to the left didn’t make sense to me. I would have took any of the three in the middle off for le fee and changed one of the front 3

 

Sorry, not my intention, I was trying to reassure you.
As I say, we’re a seriously smart club now, make so few missteps, if you and I are considering this then you can guarantee that the club have and that they will have put a load of contingency planning and mitigation in place.

 

I do agree with this, I guess it remains to be seen if we can keep doing what we did vs West Ham, hopefully we can.

The thing you said earlier which definitely did help me is about us being in a stronger place than we were even if relegated. I agree with this. That makes me feel better.

When the realistic worst case scenario is better than things were a year ago you know you’re in a good place.

 

This is absolutely true and it's the reason why I think we're equipped to stay up by being set up as a counter attacking team.

However, we need to have a plan B for when we go a goal behind, because most of these clubs will be capable of shutting the game down and holding a lead.

 

yeh this. People keep saying (rightly) that teams won’t sit back versus us but for some that will only be true until they score.

 

I see people suggesting wingers aren’t good enough, but the CM 3 aren’t putting them in behind.

We have 2 bench players, Enzo and Paddy, who can do that consistently centrally.

A CM tweak brings the whole thing into shape.

 

I agree, I am still reading through this thread and am on page 42 atm, but yes. your spot on imo.

 

It did disrupt the game in hindsight. That said, at the time I had no complaints. IMO they were all poor and wasteful. RLB probably thought the other lot deserved a chance to change it.

 

this was my problem with the friendlies approach. RLB favours connections and it’s almost like he has to change everyone at once.

for example I don’t think Roberts has played a single minute with Mayenda all season or pre season.

 

Aye but we need wide players who can add goal threat. Think Clarke two seasons ago, Mundle when fit last season. We never had it from the right. I think both our current players add something but we need more goal threat from more places.

 

ballard has all the attributes to be a very good ch in this league, shame his body is made of mash potatoes, very poor that second half, the good thing is we'll not play many teams who will just let us have the ball, team set up for counter attacking football
very hard to stay up as seen in the past but we'll make a good go of it,

 

Roberts centrally was picking through balls for fun pre season.

 

Oooohhhh page 42. There's a twist coming soon.

 

Big picture, the trajectory is still up. I'm clinging to that this morning.

This was our 'Plymouth' performance.

 

Very good point this. All of the midfield 3 were poor yesterday imo. I thought Xhaka was the worst performer of the 3 as such, but in the way we set up, it's Diarra who has to drive on and make the links between our defence and attack and I don't recall him doing it at all yesterday. Enzo is the one who can change the game but he was brought on out wide which is a repeated mistake by RLB (in my opinion anyway).

Leaving one of the wingers on, bringing Le Feè on centrally and having Isidor on would have made us more effective in the last 20 minutes for me.

 

He definitely was. I thought he was at West Ham too. He is great on the ball, but I worry how easy he gets ran off. He got a bit span around yday by Cullen. We need to tighten up in the midfield after yday. We didn't seem to work as hard yday. Maybe a sit in approach but I didn't like it and Burnely took full advantage.

 

Agree.

Enzo for Diarra was the play.

Also Mayenda out right for Adingra with Guiu central.

That would have actually changed shape and given more balance; we were crying out for that.

Mayenda runs brilliantly with the ball, and also picks through balls.

We have the options there.