This Saturday has an incredible line up of fixtures, namely West Hams away trip to midlands team Burnley. With national matches over, it’s time to look towards the domestic league once again. But how will the Hammers cope with Kompany’s “renovated” side that took the championship by storm last year?
West Ham are currently in 9th place on 17 points. After a brilliant start to the season, they have fallen off the gas a little bit. Burnley however, have fallen off the wagon completely. They dominated the championship with expansive, creative football. Kompany was being called another one of Peps dicibles and they were favourites of the promoted clubs to avoid the drop back down to the championship.
They are sat in bottom place, with 4 points and a -21 goal difference. What went wrong?
With Kompany’s appointment, Burley undertook a complete transformation in play style. Dyche’s “hoof it up to the big man up front” tactic was thrown in the bin. Instead Kompany sets his side up to dominate possession, pin teams back, and create, create, create. This worked brilliantly in the championship against sides such as Rotherham, Hull city and Blackpool, but against the likes of top flight teams, they’ve shot themselves in the foot.
The gap in talent from the 1st to the 2nd devision in English football is large, so large that the 101 point Burnley team that won the championship look like an easy 3 points for just about any side in the league. The prediction is that eventually Burnley will swap back to a more pragmatic play-style as at the moment teams are tearing them apart. They must make themselves difficult to play against. But when will this change come, if ever?
Main points:
Brownhill and Berge, there is talent somewhere?
Josh Brownhill and Sander Berge are the two central midfielders for Burnley, and they are great players. Yes this sounds ridiculous when most of this article has been stating how bad Burnley have been, but who’s fault is it? Brownhill is the clubs top goalscorer this season with 3, he also boasts 3 assists, and is the central playmaker in a side that struggles to make any plays. Sander Berge was a shock signing after performing brilliantly for Sheffield United last year. The Norwegian central midfielder is a great box to box, with immense strength and the ability to pick a pass. These two have the capability to run a midfield, but with the current play-style, they get outnumbered and overrun. Stopping these two has to be a priority for West Ham come Saturday.
JWP, a man on a mission:
Ward-Prowse was hard done to by Southgate this last international period, as the Englishman was wrongfully left out. Especially when considering Kalvin-Phillips was in the squad, but that’s for another discussion. The perhaps, signing of the season, has 9 assists so far in all competitions, which is phenomenal. He averages 2.4 key chances per game, which is one of the best in the league. This is more impressive when considering that West Ham are a largely pragmatic side. James Ward-Prowse deserves a spot in that squad for the Euros, and he knows it as much as the West Ham fans do too. So let’s hope he can keep putting in great performances so that Southgate has to take him next summer.
“Bowen’s on fire, and he’s …”
I can’t finish that one off but you know the rest. Jarred is the Hammers top scorer this season with 9 to his name. That’s the same number of goals that Burnley have scored this campaign all together … His link up with Kudus is brilliant to watch, so let’s hope they are both on fire come Saturday.
Scoreline predictions:
There’s only one outcome, a Hammers win. Burnley are heading straight back to the championship unless they can pull a miracle. However, if Kompany finally drops his philosophy and try’s to grind out a result, Moyes could be in trouble. I can’t see anything other than a convincing West Ham win, I’m going with 2-0 West Ham, Come On You Hammers !
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