Burnley v Aston Villa - Player Ratings

[CaptJohn]

Pope 6 Did OK.
Bardsley 5 Villa left him alone 2nd half because they knew he wouldn't hurt them.
Tarkowski 3 Was he interested in any way in the 1st half. Seemed to resent being on the pitch.
Mee 5
Taylor 6 Put in a decent shift in the 2nd half
Westwood 5
Cork 5
Barnes 3 Something is clearly not right with Ash.
Wood 5
Rodriguez 6
McNeil 6 Took a knock mid 2nd half and should have been pulled.
Brady 3 Invisible
JBG 6 Huffed and puffed.

[Jakubs Tash]

Pope 7 Made a couple of good saves

Bardsley 4 Doesn't offer enough going forward
Tarkowski 6 Not his best game but still decent enough
Mee 6 As above
Taylor 7 Good energy and desire

Brady 3 Not a realistic option going forward. Not good enough.
Westwood 4 Poor but didn't hide
Cork 4 As above
McNeil 6 Easily best player first half and kept probing

Barnes 3 Dreadful. If he's injured then get it sorted.
Wood 4 Ineffective. Again.

JBG 6 Added more impetus
Rodriguez 7 Linked play well.

[Scott Arfield's Swag]

Pope 6
Bardsley 6
Tarkowski 5
Mee 4
Taylor 7*
Brady 4
Westwood 4
Cork 5
McNeil 6
Wood 6
Barnes 4

Gudmundsson 6
Rodriguez 6

[ksrclaret]

Pope 5
Bardsley 5
Tarkowski 5
Mee 5
Taylor 6
Brady 3
Westwood 4
Cork 4
McNeil 5
Wood 4
Barnes 3

JBG 5
Rodriguez 5

As soon as I saw Villa had gone 5 at the back and were prepared to sit deep against us, I knew they'd won the game. That's how easy we are to play against, we don't do anything different, ever. Hit a distgustingly inaccurate, hopeful ball into a channel and hope one of Wood or Barnes is up against someone lightweight so they can win a free kick, corner or throw in. Absolutely wretched, rancid and turgid tactics. It belongs in 90s non league football.

Highlight of the game was when Rodriguez hit the tamest of efforts from outside the box miles wide, and Dyche started gesturing for everyone to calm down. No shooting guys, you know the rules.

[CrosspoolClarets]

Pope 6 - some decent moments and good throwing
Bardsley 5 - ponderous today and stood miles off Grealish for second goal
Tarkowski 4 - mistake after mistake, slack passing and dozy in possession
Mee 7 - at least two crunching tackles to try to regain momentum
Taylor 5 - woeful delivery after good dribbling as usual
Westwood 4 - by far the worst I have seen him, mugged time and again
Cork 4 - very, very slow and seems to be getting slower
McNeill 7 - played very well at times but drifted out of the game occasionally (cannot understand why he didn’t attack much in the last 10)
Brady 4 - mugged for the second (?) goal and didn’t get to grips with the game
Barnes 4 - totally anonymous, if he was injured why the heck did Jay not start?
Wood 6 - won some balls and scored but had little delivery.

Gudmundsson 7 - lively and caused problems
Rodriguez 7 - also lively but missed a good chance

I don’t normally comment much on individual players but today is an exception because it seemed that some did OK and some were beyond woeful.

We cannot blame their system when we are slow into the challenge, misplacing passes and getting mugged on the ball. We have no creativity yet get away with it, but recently our defenders seem terrified and teams know they can press them into errors.

To Dyche’s credit at least he was (unusually) bold at half time but the Drinkwater one was baffling - we were desperate for new ideas, particularly as Westwood was so poor, so to sit him back down after we scored was bizarre. Lo and behold we did nothing in the final 15 minutes of play afterwards and the stand in keeper had nothing to do other than take one cross. Big decisions aren’t Sean’s forte, he much prefers to leave things as they are, fine if we are playing well, not fine if we are not.

[Damo]

Pope 6
Taylor 7 (mom)
Bardsley 3 (we need to replace him asap. Everything breaks down as soon as he has the ball at his feet)
Tarky 5
Mee 5
McNeil 7 (not sure why we started him on the right. Tried his best and was out most creative player)
Cork 5
Westwood 5
Brady (dreadful. Not going to rate him sorry)
Barnes 5. (No service. Absolute passenger today)
Wood 6

[JohnMcGreal]

Pope 5
Bardsley 3
Tarkowski 4
Mee 4
Taylor 6
McNeil 5
Westwood 3
Cork 4
Brady 3
Barnes 3
Wood 4

Gudmundsson 6
Rodriguez 6

Second half was dire, first half was unacceptable.

[Parkvilla]

Pope 5
Bardsley 3 never a prem starter for anyone but aa Dyche team.
Mee 4 can't pass wind
Tarks 4 started bad and didn't improve
Taylor 6 tried to make things happen
Brady 3 like Brady but think the injurys have finished him
Westwood 3 awful. But keep posing with a brew before every game.
Cork 3 my god absolutely appalling
O'Neil 7 mom. Get out before Dyche ruins you.
Barnes 3. Can't trap cement, can't shoot, can't hold ball up but falls over continuously. Becoming a joke
Wood 3 as above except the falling over.
J Rod 5 Not good enough. And yes I know he's from Burnley
Jbg 5 tried but hard playing with that shower
Dyche 0 Everyone before game knew how they would set up except our great leader. Stop picking a team that needs changing every week at half time and bring the same players off. stop playing 44 bloody 2 and stop playing with your face and talking to your assistants cos NOTHING ever changes.
Garlick 0 stop saying we have 40 million in bank and we owe nothing and look at the shambles on the pitch and either BACK him or SACK him. If the rumours about the Hong Kong lot is true then just go.

[Steve-Harpers-perm]

Pope 6 kept it at 2
Bardsley 5 committed but first touch and passing awful
Taylor 5 gets down the line but his final ball is often a let down
Mee 6 defended ok
Tarkowski 4 could tell early on what type of game he would have.
Cork 3 woeful how many times does he lose the ball in the middle.
Westwood 4 tried to make something happen but everything was sideways.
Brady 3 woeful finished at this level.
Barnes 3 he cannot be fit can’t remember the last game he actually did anything of a positive note.?
Wood 5 scored but managed to miss two absolute sitters. Another one who doesn’t look fully fit.
McNeil 5 tried to make something happen.

Jay Rod 5 thought he was poor.
JBG 5 didn’t beat his full back once.

Woeful performance. No energy and no tempo. We have players who are playing with zero confidence who can’t do the basics like pass to a teammate a few yards away. We are desperate for a midfielder who can put their foot on the ball and show a bit of composure.

[ChristheViking]

Pope -5

Bardsley -4
Tarkowski -4
Mee -5
Taylor -7

Mcneil -5
Cork -3 I refuse to believe we cannot upgrade here
Westwood -4
Brady -3. If we could offload him in Jan for just a fraction of the 13m

Barnes - 3. Don't think Ive seen him play worse
Wood - 5

JBG -6
JRod 6

Another shocker to.follow the last one which followed the one before that etc etc etc. . Its Groundhog Day except it may be getting worse.

So what to do? How do we arrest this slump? Well, off the field Garlick and Rigg have to wake up now and do what they have failed to do in recent windows and that is namely get some quality into central midfield now. If we do nothing else this month do that.

On the field its hard to know where to start. Re personnel I wouldn't be playing Brady at all let alone starting him. Cork isnt keeping his place based on performances either

Re systen - . Lumping it up to 2 strikers just isn't working but that's all we seem to know. It feels like we've been found out. I dont kmow the answers because it times it looks like we can't string 2 passes together with players who are earning thousands every week.

I'm almoat as baffled as I am.bemused.

[Tread Warily]

Entire team-3,SD and Garlick Minus 3.

[bfcmik]

Probably our worst ever Premier League performance
Pope 6
Bardsley 3
Tarkowski 4
Mee 2
Taylor 3

Brady 3
Westwood 2
Cork 4
McNeil 5

Barnes 1
Wood 4

Gudmundsson 4
Rodriguez 5

Dyche 1 - absolute lack of motivation in the players, strange team selection, failure to sub either McNiel if he was injured or Westwood if he wasn't!

[RVclaret]

Pope 6 - some decent saves but poor for their first I felt

Bardsley 4 - slows down/messes up any progressive play down the right
Tarkowski 4 - worst I have ever seen from him in the first half
Mee 5
Taylor 7 * - if only we had a right back who gives us what he does down the left but our recruitment are probably still 4 windows away from finding someone

Brady 4 - gave the ball away more or less every time he touched it?
Westwood 4 - ponderous + 1 for the assist
Cork 4 - likewise
McNeil 6 - tried things but looked absolutely shattered. Time for him to start in CAM and get him involved more

Wood 5 - good header, little else
Barnes 3 - wow

Jbg 6 - needs to start and stay fit
Rodriguez 7 - needs to start, linked play far better than anyone else though should have scored around the 50 minute mark

That first half was the worst I’ve seen us under Dyche against a bang average team who were there to be got at.

Changes needed to the starting 11. I would start McNeil behind Wood and Jay Rod from the left and allow them to be fluid in their positioning. Drinkwater needs to be given a go now too.

A new right back is an absolute priority too. We often work overloads for the full backs due to wingers tucking inside but Bardsley just isn’t up to it unfortunately.

[Burnleyareback2]

Can we do first half second half scores again

There was no way that we would of played like that in the 2nd half of it was nil nil or if we were 1 nil down.

[Hibsclaret]

Pope 7
Bardsley 5
Tarks 5
Mee 5
Taylor 7
Westwood 4
Cork 4
McNeil 5
Brady 5
Barnes 4
Wood 6

Rodriguez 7*
JBG 7

[IanMcL]

Pope 6
Bardsley 6
Tarkowski 4
Mee 6
Taylor 7
Brady 4
Westwood 5
Cork 5
McNeil 6
Wood 6 1 for eventual goal
Barnes 5

Rodriguez 6
JBG 6

Abysmal first half, where overall Mark's improved, owing to 2nd half showing. Otherwise, 3/4 would have been generally been the mark.

Did something upset them before the match?

[ashtonlongsider]

For me this was potentially our most important game of the season against a team with key men out and devoid of confidence. However from my vantage there was one team who wanted it. We looked poorly prepared and that's my worry. We should have come out on the front foot. You can't start playing at 2-0 down.

Pope 6-Can't really find much fault, the defence gave him little protection.
Bardsley 6-Didn't have a good game but he's a trier. That said, I wish he'd tried harder to close Grealish down for his goal.
Tarkowski 5-Worst 1st half he's had for a long time.
Mee 6-Defending was in the main ok but distribution was woeful.
Taylor 7*-One of the few to come out with any real credit.
Brady 4-Needs to be moved on imo like a few others.
Westwood 4-Busy as usual but how many times did he give the ball away?
Cork 4-I'm a big fan but he was very light weigh yesterday.
McNeil 6-Best of the midfield quartet but he needs support around him and it was sadly missing at times.
Wood 6-If we are going to survive and it's a big 'if', we need this lad firing on all cylinders, not trying to hit the upper tier of JMc.
Barnes 3-Not just today but for a while he's well off the pace.

Rodriguez 7-Can't for the life of me understand why he didn't start instead of Barnes. He offers us so much more.
Gudmonson 6- As like JayRod, he should have started instead of Brady.

[MACCA]

" we started playing at 2-0"
"We played well 2nd half"
"Why does it take for us to be 2-0 down to start playing"

We didnt start playing, Villa stopped.
At 2-0 they sat back and asked us to break them down, and they played on the break. Realistically they should have gone 3 up early on

We do exactly the same, we didnt play, they let us have the ball, and we looked clueless whilst ponderously shifting it sideways.
There was no urgency.

We continued with our deep crosses for the entire game, and 1 broke for us, but Villa were never in any trouble.
Nor Heaton or the sub GK made a single save all game.

If that's us playing, we are in a real big mess.

[Dark Cloud]

Pope 6 (first goal?)
Bardsely 5
Tarks 4 (must have been a great party, but sobered up a bit at half time and had a better second half)
Mee 6 (wasn't invited to the party, so had an early night)
Taylor 7 (another who gave the party a miss. Good lad)
Cork 4 (pi**ed and wants dropping for that)
Westwood 4 (ditto)
McNeil 8 (too young for the party and did better than almost all of the others put together, even when limping)
Brady 4 (another pi** head)
Barnes 3 (another who was clearly still pi**ed)
Wood 3 (not just pi**ed, but also bloody useless as he really did get some chances!! And I've given him +1 for the goal btw!!!)

Jayrod 4 (didn't make much difference)
JBG 6 (showed energy and tried to up our pace, but was struggling with all the hangovers around him)

A number of players had clearly had a great New Years Eve party and we were as awful in the first half as I can remember under SD and really SHOULD have been at least 3 down. Second half we were marginally better to an extent, but it's all relative tbh. However, chances DID come and when you look at the ones we missed we could easily have bloody won it. We missed from 2 yards early in the second half for goodness sake!!! Ultimately a team who before yesterday many must have thought were nailed on to go straight back down made us look like a poor Div 1 team and with the run of games we have to come, we really are likely to be in the bottom 3 by Feb! Fair do's to SD for changing things early, but with Drinkwater stripped and ready to come on Wood's goal shouldn't have made any difference and either Cork or Westwood needed to go (preferably both!!) Why on EARTH were we passing it like Barcelona all of a sudden in the 97th minute when a goal behind and steadfastly refusing to throw the ball in to the box?? Awful. Slow, lethargic, lacking quality and SD being too loyal (again). Give Drinkwater (if he stays) a go, give Gibson (if he stays) a do, give Vydra (if he stays) a do, but stop picking Cork, et al on what they were contributing 2 years ago! They're too complacent.

[Dodobdobodobo]

Pope 5
Bardsley 5
Tarkowski 4
Mee 5
Taylor 6
Brady 3
Westwood 4 - would give 3 but there’s no way am I marking him less than Cork (time to go oh oh oh oh)
Cork 3
McNeil 6
Wood 4
Barnes 3

JBG 6
Rodriguez 6

[randomclaret2]

The last word of Dark Clouds post sums up the club perfectly

[the_magic_rat]

Pope 6

Bardsley 5
Tarkowski 5
Mee 7
Taylor 7

McNeil 6
Westwood 4
Cork 4
Brady 3

Wood 5
Barnes 4

Rodriguez 6
Gudmundsson 6

[BOYSIE31]

Pope 6
Bardsley 4
Taylor 7
Tarks 3
Mee 3
Cork 3
Westwood 3
Mc neil 6
Brady 2
Barnes 2
Wood 5

Jay 5
Jbg 5

Woeful springs to mind and I have warned plenty on here that this is where this team is heading with our diabolical recruitment - we have gone further than stale and dont see a way out

We spent 9 mins of injury time getting our passing stats up after lumping it for 90 mins - was criminal to watch with a new keeper on the pitch.

[strayclaret]

Pope 6
Bardsley 5
Tarkowski 4
Mee 6
Taylor 7
Brady 4
Westwood 4
Cork 4
McNeil 4
Wood 6
Barnes 4

Rodriguez 6
JBG 5
One dimensional, slow, too much sideways and backwards, predictable.
Villa, came, saw and conquered. Oh for a player half as good as Grealish.

[Roosterbooster]

Pope 5 I think its naive to concede at the near post, when it doesnt even go next to the post. Great hit, but I think he could have done better
Bardsley 6
Taylor 7 superb early second half. Need this all game, getting forward. Helped by McNeil conjng more central and giving him room
Mee 7
Tarks 6 very sloppy start
Cork 5 Doesnt do enough
Westwood 5 Worst game for sometime
McNeil 7 Needs to play more inside
Brady 4 Just nowhere near it
Barnes 4 same
Wood 7 OK. I'm not his biggest fan. And I stand by my criticism of him. But yesterday was one of his best games. I'll ignore the 2 chances he missed. They were terrible. But the finish was superb. He ran the channels, and hardly ever gave the ball away. Superb link up play. I've been screaming for him to play like this for months. He has a good touch. Yesterday his movement matched up. Well played son

JBG 7 Plays too wide for me, especially as he is a left sided player playing on the right. But made a huge difference, and saw alot of the ball
JRod 7 Dropped deeper and made AV suffer with him DM and JBG all looking for the ball in the gaps. Sure starter ahead of Barnes atm

Drinkwater. Bizarrely will never know....

Dyche
- team selection: 0, unfathomable starting Brady given his recent form. Barnes too
-first half tactics: 0, self explanatory
-second half tactics: 7, so much better, but then no idea what happened last 10. Villa were holding on. Should have peppered the box, pinned them in, and allowed a mistake. In stead we just played via mee and Tarks
Subs made: 10 Spot on
Subs not made: 0. We needed 2 goals. Suddenly we only need one goal, and the tactics change??? God knows why

[ClaretMov]

Pope 6
Bardsley 3
Tarkowski -10
Mee -10
Taylor 6 mom
Brady 3
Westwood 3
Cork 3
McNeil 4
Wood 3
Barnes 2 Needs the operation

Gudmundsson 4
Rodriguez 6

On the subject of my scores of Tarkowski -10
Mee -10

I was in the cfs and saw Tarkowski raising his hands as if to say come on lift us, get behing us, I think this was totally insulting to the fan's, how dare he say that after a shocking first half display like that, the players shouldn't need the fans to lift them they should be up for every single game

Ben Mee was staring at fans and shaking his head in disbelief of fan's booing, he should think himself lucky its not happened more often home and away over the past few seasons with the crap we are dished up.