Clarets will seek right-midfield alternative
Burnley’s summer thus far has been sensible if unspectacular.
Jack Cork, Jon Walters and Phil Bardsley have all been acquired and manager Sean Dyche has been keen to stress the valuable ‘experience’ that they all possess. However, Burnley’s work on the transfer-front is not complete; the wide-man midfield position is certainly an area Dyche will be looking to reinforce.
Dyche has deployed a 4-4-2 system for the majority of his reign at Burnley. He has briefly flirted with a 4-5-1 but has ultimately always reverted back to his preferred setup. There are ways in which the system works. Ideally, Dyche likes his wide-midfielders to be pragmatic, or at least one of them; rather than take on their full-back, the pragmatic wide-man would instead sit deeper, move into the middle and retain a compact shape.
The danger of having offensive wide-men in this system is a breaking of the structure. If both the left and right players power to the byline and the ball switches sides, the formation quickly changes from a 4-4-2 to a 4-2-4. This would be counter-attacking heaven for a Premier League side with pace.
This setup initially worked wonders for Dyche in concealing the flaws of some of his players. Scott Arfield and George Boyd weren’t blessed with pace or technical genius but they did have a willingness and desire to work for the team. They were perfect pieces of the puzzle; players who knew their deficiencies but understood the bigger picture.
Yet with the Premier League comes a step-up in terms of player calibre. Johann-Berg Gudmundsson and Robbie Brady are wide-players with genuine quality. They don’t want to be passive — quite the opposite. Beat a man, whip a ball across or strike for goal, they are players who want to take the game.
Belgian midfielder Steven Defour represents arguably the best player Burnley have ever had at their disposal and yet struggles to nail down a starting berth. Many supporters feel a switch in formation is essential; a 4-5-1 would allow he, Brady and Gudmundsson a license to be creative.
Dyche is at a crossroads. The talent he has now is being limited by his tactics. Yet these are tactics that he has succeeded with and the chances of him changing this successful way of playing are very minimal.
It makes the need for another wide-man essential.
Scott Arfield and George Boyd were keeping Gudmundsson and Brady on the bench at times last season it must be remembered; Dyche struggled to accommodate one of the latter two players last season because of how it would affect his defensive solidity. His mind is always focused on how Burnley are focused without the ball.
Dyche may be starting the season with Gudmundsson and Brady at right-midfield and left-midfield but he won’t like that. He’ll be content with playing one of them but will want their attacking eagerness to be balanced out with someone on the opposite side of the pitch. At the moment, that man is Scott Arfield, but Dyche will want another man who is willing to prioritise his defensive duties.
It’s worth noting that Scott Arfield was a central-midfielder when he came to Burnley and is now established on the right. So Burnley could very well do that with another newcomer.
James McArthur had been speculated and would fit that bill. It wouldn’t be unfeasible to see Dyche use him wide and expect that passivity.
George Boyd leaving on a free will have frustrated the manager. He was a huge fan of Boyd’s selfless approach to matches. Many supporters felt Boyd wasn’t Premier League quality and weren’t too bothered at him leaving. What they fail to realise is that Dyche will be targeting a player to perform a very similar role to that of Boyd. Ironically, whoever does come in may receive the same criticisms.