Shearer ...

[ClaretTony]

Shearer’s right, but it’s hardly news.

I actually think defending in the PL generally this season is poor. It’s probably an art that’s being lost a little bit.

I’m sat watching the West Ham vs Arsenal game and some of the early defending from the former has been **** poor. How does tiny Trossard drift on between West Ham’s giant centre halves for a free header for example? Then 4 really **** goals to concede on a par with anything we did yesterday. This is an expensively assembled dour David Moyes defence averaging the best part of conceding 2 goals a game this season.

It’s evidenced through the rise in goals scored in the PL over the last half a decade. All of the highest goal scoring years in the PL are from recent history. Is the attacking better or the defending getting worse?

I actually think our bigger problem is at the other end. We don’t score enough, so too much focus is on our defence. Yesterday was a prime example. We miss 3-4 gilt edged chances and all the analysis from Shearer is on our defensive frailties.

Not many sides come up and have solid defences. The sides who stay up are the ones who score goals. For all the plaudits Luton have had for being fiercely competitive this season, their defensive record isn’t much better than ours. They score more goals and important times. We miss too many chances at important times.

We'll never be prolific goalscorers at this level - we have always scored at around a goal per game and that's what we are doing this season. Our best ever goal return was in 2018/19 when we scored 45 and then 42 in the following season. I've mentioned this in my report, that we just can't afford the quality of player to vastly improve that. What we have to be is smart defensively and now we aren't. We've already conceded more than in two of the previous full seasons and another five goals in our net and only the Coyle/Laws season will be higher. I've never seen a Burnley team so inept at defending set-pieces and defending in general.

[PremierLeagueClass]

We'll never be prolific goalscorers at this level - we have always scored at around a goal per game and that's what we are doing this season. Our best ever goal return was in 2018/19 when we scored 45 and then 42 in the following season. I've mentioned this in my report, that we just can't afford the quality of player to vastly improve that. What we have to be is smart defensively and now we aren't. We've already conceded more than in two of the previous full seasons and another five goals in our net and only the Coyle/Laws season will be higher. I've never seen a Burnley team so inept at defending set-pieces and defending in general.

Even when we were at our peak last season, I did worry about how we were going to cope defensively upon promotion, as I know many fans will have.

The trouble is, you need to be very, very good and have players of immense quality to play the way we want to play. Obviously we can’t afford the finished article so we were never going to get instant results at Premier League level. I think part of the problem is, a lot of fans thought we were going to stay up comfortably and brush the lesser teams aside.

If we are going to stick with Kompany long term, he will have to find a way to be more dynamic. That said we have to remember this is a massive learning experience for him as well. If we go down and bounce back, that will be the true test of his managerial ability. I think he’s shown us enough that he will learn and improve from this season.

[South West Claret.]

...on MOTD
"From a defensive point of view, Burnley are miles off."

Can't really disagree.

A Lousy example.