MATCH REPORT – CITY 0, BURNLEY 3

Let’s face it. Burnley was always going to be a tougher test than that posed by either Coventry or Preston. And so it proved.

From the off, the Burnley game plan was evident – you may say a taste of City’s own medicine.  Their backroom staff had obviously done their homework on City. 

They deployed a line of three directly in front of the City back line, presenting an imposing wall to Tim Krul, Grant Hanley and Andrew Omobamidele and restricting the spaces to play out from the back. 

This was coupled with a high midfield line too. Whenever Gabi Sara or Kenny McLean dropped into the gaps to receive the ball, they were swarmed upon by the Burnley midfield.

City were unable to get going and other than a long ball to Max Aarons, were unable to make serious progress into Burnley territory. The writing was on the wall after 6 minutes, a heavy touch from McLean was pounced upon by Tella and took a great block from Hanley to deflect a seemingly goal-bound shot.

After 8 minutes, Krul made the kind of error with which he has become synonymous; the kind of error that saw him dropped by Dean Smith in favour of Angus Gunn.

Aarons had dropped deep in order to provide an option for Krul as a counter to the bank of three. Krul woefully misdirected his pass straight to Zaroury who calmly slotted past Krul and the despairing Hanley on the line to make it 0-1.

This rattled both the City players and the fans – evidence of how fragile confidence for both. Every time the ball came back to Krul, a murmur of discontent rumbled around Carrow Road, hardly the atmosphere that Wagner wanted.

And every time the ball came to a City player, it felt like they would concede the ball. Dimi Giannoulis, McLean and Sara gave it away cheaply in quick succession.  It was nervous – far from the swagger of the last two games, yet somehow Burnley only mustered one attempt on goal which was straight at Krul, who palmed it up and away.

Then City should have scored. 

McLean hit a fantastic low long ball into ‘the area’. Teemu Pukki was on it in a flash and through, albeit too wide to pose a direct threat. His cutback was met by the onrushing Kieran Dowell. Somehow Peacock-Farrell managed to twitch his foot and deflected the ball clear and wide for a corner.

Except it wasn’t. Bizarrely the ball hit Teemu Pukki who was a yard off the pitch, and back into play, and the referee waved play on.

Burnley continued to dominate possession but only had a Maatsen shot – again straight at Krul – to show for it.

As the half wore on, City gradually began to find their feet. After a sustained Burnley speel of possession, from 30 minutes only City began to exert some pressure onto the Burnley back line, proving that they too could press high and win the ball back in the opposition half. 

A good spell saw Onel Hernandez and Giannoulis play dangerous balls into the box but much like Burnley at the other end, serious chances were thin on the ground – only a Hanley header from a rare corner which sailed comfortably over the bar to show for their efforts.

The second half saw no changes from either manager and City started on the front foot. 

City were more organized in their press and were in a good position following a corner when play was halted for a blow to the head of Josh Sargent. Burnley reorganized and then hit City on the break, Omobamidele making a great tackle on Tella to concede a corner.

Tella was then substituted, much to his disgust, to be replaced by Vitinho.

Never make changes at a corner they say. Whether this set piece was a tactical masterstroke, or just a failure to organise against the new player is anyone’s guess. 

Vitinho took up a position in the center of the goal. As the ball came in he ran towards the near post.  Aarons was guarding the post and saw him as he came past his shoulder line and moved to go with him but too late.  The sub flicked the ball into the back of the net to double the visitors’ lead.

Again, a body blow to City and the coup-de-grace was administered eight minutes later. 

This most definitely was a training ground routine. Another corner, this time to the far post. Maatsen started his run unmarked from outside the area. As the ball dropped beyond the far post, he got a foot to it to put it across goal. Sargent was watching the ball rather than his man meaning Ekdal stole half a yard and rammed the ball home.

Adam idah and Marcelino Nunez were bought on to replace Hernandez and Sargent. The American had not really made an impact upon the game, whilst the Cuban had shown moments. A few minutes later Christos Tzolis replaced Dowell.

The returning loanee looked desperate to impress but made little impact; Idah made a couple of impressive, powerful runs but to little effect. Only Nunez offered much more than the players replaced. He looked busy, industrious and played two or three tasty looking through balls into the areas that Pukki loves.

Yet for all the undoubted effort, City struggled to make an impression. Burnley were able to do exactly what City did in the second half against Coventry – stroke the ball around and retain possession to frustrate the home team.

Burnley were clearly the better team, yet for all their dominance, fashioned little in the way of serious chances – not that they had to after such an early gift. 

City won’t play a team as good as Burnley again this season, but the weaknesses were familiar from recent Premier League forays. Omobamidele and Hanley, in isolation, are both excellent defenders. Yet somehow, when Gibson plays, there is a better balance to the defence when the left-sided man plays. 

Yet Gibson, like Krul, always has an error up his sleeve. But without this balance, playing out from the back against an effective press is considerably harder.

When City went long, Krul was unable to consistently target Sargent, the main aerial threat, and his ‘chipped’ balls wide were wayward too – perhaps as a result of his jilted confidence following his earlier gaffe.

These were all themes in Daniel Farke’s Premier League campaigns – or should I say ‘topics’.  While in the championship, Burnley are a one-off good team, if promotion is to follow, City will face this issue every week.

It wasn’t the catastrophe that many have presented, but it gives Wagner plenty to think about for the weeks ahead.