[NoSkillz]

Sat. September 21, 2024

Barclays Premier League
Burnley (0-2-2, 2 points, 17th) vs. Dover (3-0-1, 9 points, 4th)
Turf Moor, Burnley, UK

Betting Odds: Burnley: 11-5 Draw: 11-5 Dover: Evens
Past Meetings: 2W 0D 2L

This is a bit of a trap game, as Burnley are the last team to gain promotion last year from the Championship and we’ll have played all three after five games of the new season. This is their fifth trip back to the Premier League in 16 years but only once did they last for more than one season and that was a two year run from 2016 through 2018. Burnley finished sixth last year in the Championship but won the playoff to gain promotion. Haris Seferovic has led the team in scoring for five consecutive seasons, scoring 30 last year. The 32 year old striker is still here but his effectiveness is muted in the top flight. They reinforced their lineup with 9 additions, most notably spending £1.7 million on Dutch midfielder Kees van den Berg, who has blazing pace.

With the major injury to Paul Moses and with fellow striker Zoltan Bardi still on the shelf, we only have three healthy strikers on the senior team right now. We’ll need to be careful and also start considering one striker formations. The lads are prepared to move to a 4-2-3-1 should the need arise but for now, I’ll stick with a flat 4-4-2. Full lineup of starters today, with Andy Broomes taking Moses’ spot and Manuel Lugo is on the bench and could come on as a substitute for the first time in a league game. Manuel Perez is in goal for a second consecutive game. We have a League Cup match midweek and will be using all backups in that game so our starters today can go hard.

Dover: 4-4-2 Control
GK - M. Perez
D - Renato Gaucho, C. Contreras, R. Hamon, S. Loucif
M - A. Bamba, N. Cairney, Jose, G. Bolis
S - A. Broomes, Chiquinho
Bench - Emerson, S. Nasri, A. Rocca, B. Raab, G. Allan, M. Pedersen, M. Lugo

Burnley are in a flat 4-4-2 with Seferovic and Harry Kane leading the strike force. Former Dover player Cameron Murray is starting at left midfield and Dwayne Miller is their keeper. We hope that complacency won’t be an issue and I tell the team to perform well for the travelling support.

45’+2 - Another poor first half effort, as we seem to be sitting back and losing the midfield battle but we strike first. Andy Broomes weaves through the middle of the field and spots Gianluca Bolis getting past his man on the right. He leads him into the box with a great feed and Bolis makes no mistake, continuing his fine early season attacking play. DOVER GOAL 1-0

HALFTIME - Boy, we simply can’t hold onto the ball these days, as a Championship side from last year holds a whopping 58% of the ball but we outshoot them 7-3 (2-1 on target). Not impressive whatsoever from our main starters. While there is no outward complacency issues, there is something amiss here. I encourage the team to keep pressing in the second half.

46’ - Right off the opening kick off, we attack on a mistake, stealing possession in midfield and Jose sends a pinpoint pass up to Broomes. His first touch is a bit heavy and the Burnley keeper charges out but Broomes has blazing speed, just like Paul Moses, and he wins the race and has a wide open net to shoot at. Lovely goal and Broomes is impressing in Moses’ absence. DOVER GOAL 2-0

54’ - I’m not entirely sure what happened but Burnley striker Harry Kane is whistled for a foul and gets a straight red card! Burnley are down to ten men. BURNLEY RED CARD - Harry Kane

Burnley move to a 4-4-1 formation.

67’ - We pull out Jose and bring in Andrea Rocca.

77’ - Gianluca Bolis has a yellow and just got whistled for another foul so I pull him out before he loses his discipline and bring in Graham Allan.

We were in complete control in the second half and while more goals would have been nice, we’ll take the three points.

Burnley 0 - 2 Dover
Goals - Gianluca Bolis (7.7), Andy Broomes (8.7)
Assists - Andy Broomes, Jose (7.5)
Man of the Match - Andy Broomes
Other Dover Notables - Manuel Perez (7.0), Salim Loucif (7.1), Rayane Hamon (7.0), Renato Gaucho (7.3), Arsene Bamba (7.0)
Attendance - 22,290

After only 42% possession in the first half, we must have held the ball almost the entire second half, as we end the game with 56% of possession and a huge 21-5 (9-3 on target) shot advantage. Certainly, the Burnley red card early in the second half contributed to those numbers. We didn’t do much with our chances and our shots were mostly from distance. I’m not impressed at all with Neil Cairney this year and he’s soon going to be threatened for playing time by big offseason signing Benedikt Raab if this continues.

-- In other action, Spurs lose a shocker to Sunderland, Middlesbrough and Newcastle, after losses last week, get back to their winning ways and United beat Liverpool. Man City and Arsenal battle to a draw as do Chelsea and Reading.


BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE - STANDINGS
(ALL TEAMS HAVE PLAYED 5 GAMES UNLESS NOTED)

1. Manchester United - 15 points
2. Arsenal - 13 points
3. Dover - 12 points
4. Middlesbrough - 12 points
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5. Newcastle - 12 points
6. Chelsea - 10 points
7. Tottenham - 8 points
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Transfer News

-- Umm, wow. Olympique Lyonnais make a bid for our midfielder Jose, offering us a whopping £23,446,000 for his services! That would easily be the largest sale in our team’s history. That said, I’ll be rejecting the offer, as I paid £16.5 million for him last year and I’d need at least £30 million to start thinking about it.



Premier League Team of the Week

-- GK Manuel Perez and MR Gianluca Bolis both make the team of the week.



Next Up

-- We are two-time defending League Cup champions and we start our defence again today in third round action, heading to Leicester to face the League One minnows.