The 2021/22 season has been an uncomfortable season for Burnley. The club nicknamed The Clarets has finally experienced relegation after 6 successive seasons in the Premier League. Burnley ended the season in 18th position while ensuring that this one team appeared in the EFL Championship in the 2022/23 season. In the same season, Burnley ended their partnership with their coach for 9.5 seasons as well as the person who played a role in bringing Burnley up for the first time to the highest caste in the Premier League era, namely Sean Dyche.
At the start of the 2022/23 season, Burnley appointed a new coach to lead the team. That name is Vincent Kompany, a former defender and captain of Manchester City who previously coached Belgian club Anderlecht. Kompany also brought in one of the legendary players, Craig Bellamy, as an assistant. At the same time Burnley also refreshed the squad.
Burnley sold several players in order to get fresh money to move in the transfer market. The players sold are Nathan Collins (24.3 million Euros; Wolverhampton), Maxwel Cornet (20.7 million Euros; West Ham), Dwight McNeil (17 million Euros; Everton), Nick Pope (11 million Euros; Newcastle), and on loan Wout Weghorst (2.96 million Euros; Besiktas). In total, Burnley received fresh money of 76.46 million Euros from releasing these 5 players. Not only selling, they also released several senior players, namely Ben Mee, Ashley Westwood, Kevin Long, Wayne Hennessey, and James Tarkowski.
A special note from this release is that the players who were released either because their contracts expired or were bought by other clubs were only 3 players aged 25 and under, namely Nathan Collins, Maxwel Cornet and Dwight McNeil. The rest are at least 29 years old. This proves Burnley’s commitment to refreshing the squad.
Burnley are also moving quite aggressively in the transfer market to replace those loose players. The Clarets bought 11 players in the summer market, 4 in the winter market, plus 6 players on loan for a total of 21 recruits. The 11 players Burnley recruited in the summer were Arijanet Muric, Denis Franchi, Vitinho, Josh Cullen, Samuel Bastien, Scott Twine, Anass Zaroury, Darko Churlinov, Benson Hedilazio, CJ Egan-Riley and Luke McNally.
In the winter market, Burnley strengthened their squad again by recruiting Hjalmar Ekdal, Ameen Al-Dakhil and Lyle Foster. The players recruited by Burnley all have an age range of 25 and under except for Josh Cullen, Samuel Bastien and Benson Hedilazio. Amazingly, there was only 1 player who was recruited for over 5 million Euros, namely Lyle Foster.
The 6 players loaned by Burnley are young players with lots of potential, namely Taylor Harwood-Bellis, Jordan Beyer, Ian Maatsen, Nathan Tella, Michael Obafemi and Halil Dervisoglu. The players on loan are all aged 23 and under. Also at Burnley, some of them were able to show their best performance. These names are Taylor Harwood-Bellis, Jordan Beyer, Ian Maatsen, and Nathan Tella who have become crucial Burnley players under Kompany’s tutelage.
Burnley had their season in the second division very convincingly. As of 8 April 2023, Burnley has confirmed that they are the first team to be promoted to the Premier League with 6 matches remaining. This happened after Burnley successfully defeated Middlesbrough and Luton Town, who were only able to draw results, making Burnley’s points no longer catchable by the team in third place.
Burnley has so far only touched 2 defeats in the EFL Championship, making them have far fewer defeats than any other team in this competition. The 2 teams that have been able to inflict injuries on Vincent Kompany’s team are Sheffield United and Watford. However, apart from that, Burnley under Kompany was really difficult to beat, even though Kompany won the Manager of the Month title 4 times, namely in October and 3 times in a row from December to February.
One appreciation for Vincent Kompany is the transformation he brought to Burnley. Under Sean Dyche, Burnley played a defensive tactic by relying on quick counterattacks. This tactic was indeed quite successful at Burnley because they were able to survive long enough in the Premier League with a makeshift squad. Under Kompany, Burnley changed their playing style to be more lively. Kompany’s strategy emphasizes attacking play with active wing movements.
The active movement of this wing also produced very sweet results because in the EFL Championship these wingers became players who had the highest goal contributions. Starting with Nathan Tella who became the team’s top scorer with 17 goals and 4 assists. Tella’s partner on the other hand, Anass Zaroury, has also scored 6 goals and 5 assists.
The backups on the wings also contributed quite a lot with senior players Johann Gudmundsson who scored 2 goals and 6 assists and Benson Hedilazio with 8 goals and 3 assists. The main wing-backs did not miss to contribute. The main right-back and one of Burnley’s old players, Connor Roberts, has scored 4 goals and 3 assists. Left-back on loan from Chelsea, Ian Maatsen, was even more ferocious with a contribution of 4 goals and 6 assists.
Not only the wingers, the midfielders also made a big contribution in moving the ball forward. This can be seen from the contribution of assists from 2 main midfielders, namely Josh Brownhill with 8 assists as well as the top assist at the club and Josh Cullen with 3 assists.
A much livelier game proved successful in bringing Burnley back to the top league in England. Vincent Kompany proved that he is someone who is capable as a coach. Finally, congratulations on Burnley’s return to the Premier League. Hopefully Vincent Kompany will be able to show his fangs with Burnley in the 2023/24 Premier League season.
ASL
