Burnley are well organized and hard working who are more than capable of hitting on the break. Long for me gets the nod as Pelle would get sucked into a deep losing defends where movement from the front players will be needed to make space
I didn't think Long was that good against Chelsea, he did a decent job by working hard and keeping it simple (Take notes Grazi!) but he didn't actually do much and didn't do well with his one chance after Tadic squared it to him after taking about four players out of the game. However I'd still keep him in the team as it was overall a very good team performance which should be rewarded, and I think the dynamic of Long and Pelle could work best this way round in this kind of game. The only time Long may find any room to stretch the Burnley defence will be early in the game, if we're hunting goals late we'll barely be able to fit a sheet of paper between their back line and their box, which is when we'll want our bruising target man and erstwhile goalscorer on fresh and fuelled on the anger of being left out rather than 60-70 minutes of frustration and disappointment.
Good chance to really show that we mean business with 3 points here, but Burnley are a well drilled team, who are compact and defend well as a unit. It will be very difficult, especially if they park the bus for 90 minutes. My team would be: Forster Clyne Fonte Alderweireld Bertrand Wanyama Schneiderlin Mane Ward-Prowse Tadic Long Bench: K. Davis, S. Davis, Pelle, Yoshida, Elia, Djuricic, Targett.
Davis was excellent against Chelsea - particularly second half. When he came off, despite the fact Chelsea were already in the ascending, they dominated the game, and Ward-Prowse just cannot win a 50/50 challenge. His set piece delivery on Sunday when he came on was terrible. You know that I am a huge fan of Davis, and always have, and i'm still yet to be convinced on Ward-Prowse. Each to their own.
Davis for me at the moment, experience and better all round game than Ward-Prowse but next season could be a different story.
I'd swap Djuricic for JWP. Really liked the look of him thus far, and we're going to need dynamism in and around the box to break down that Burnley defense...also, I'd fancy him to hit the target from 18 yards more than JWP. Will be very disappointed if we don't win obviously, but I badly want Burnley to survive, so if we're going to have an unexpected slip-up this is the one where it'd wound me the least.
I want Burnley to stay up too (but after a defeat on Saturday please). They must have the lowest cost squad in the league, and Dyche is getting every ounce out of them.
I'll be disappointed if Pelle starts. The movement of Long and Mane will cause more problems for Burnley than Pelle being used as a target man. Plenty of mobility and movement will be needed to try and unsettle their defence and create openings as they will be very well drilled and organised.
I still don't get everyone's fascination with Long. He was the worst player on the pitch for us. Granted, it wasn't that he was horrible but rather that everyone else was really good. But still... Basically, he had one shot he kinda flubbed. It was Mane who did most of the attacking, along with Bertrand/Tadic. We were actually playing kind of a 4-4-2. I don't mind sticking with that. Davis-Wanyama-Schneiderlin-Tadic. Mane and Djuricic/Pelle. Long as a second half sub for whoever isn't working.
I'm not a huge fan of Long, but he does one thing well: he runs around like a headless chicken and forces the defense to react. While I'd rather have a purer goalscorer up top, there's real value in a guy who is constantly on the move...openings appear when defenders fail to communicate, the back four loses shape and plays people onside, etc. Mane got quite a bit of space early in the game because Chelsea was keeping just the two CBs at home, and Long was constantly looking to peel away into space. Pelle, conversely, is very static in the center; most of the time he can be defended even when the opposition is shorthanded without sacrificing their shape.
You won't like this but.... This just tells me how much you don't understand about the game. Long held the ball up more in the first half than Pelle has for three months. Long isn't fantastic, but when I've spent three months coming away from every home game shaking my head with frustration that Pelle has tried flick after flick and a killer pass most times he has had the ball, Long becomes an option. It was refreshing to see a CF want to just get to the ball before the defender. He won more in the air than Pelle has been recently. I like Pelle, however I have watched him closely recently and seen him stand and wait for the ball when it is coming toward him rather than coming to meet it. This allows defenders to step round him and intercept and they have been. I can't recall the last time he just got to the ball, held it up and laid it back simply to a teammate. So in short, there is no fascination with Long, but a temporary de-fascination with Pelle and a change was needed (for me, nothing to do with Chelsea's slow defence) and it showed an improvement. If you can not see that Pelle has been off his game (and I am not on about the goals), then you either don't watch the games live, have never played it or just don't understand some of the more subtle intracacies of play. That's not a rude dig, because many fans don't see these. If you don't get what I mean, go and watch the Swansea game and look at just two players. Pelle for us and Gomis for them.
