Burnley 1 - West Bromwich Albion 1

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Ratings submitted so far: 15

Brendan Clegg:

The lineup was certainly eye-catching and it looked very much like we were focusing on our match on Saturday. A lot of important players missing and a change in shape too, although until we kicked off it was hard to work out what.

It ended up being a sort of 3-4-3 with Holgate, Diakite and Heggem at the back, Mowatt and Swift in the centre with Styles and Price in either wing and then a front 3 of Grant left, Grady through the middle mostly and Armstrong off the right. It was, however, very fluid with rotations a plenty.

To describe the game, we were never fully in control, there were spells where we had to dig in and couldn’t keep it BUT there was a charming, enjoyable kind of lunatic chaos about us. I would call it Bielsa-esque.

We pressed high and were brave all over the place. Every player ran themselves into the ground. As soon as we lost it we were back after it aggressively. We played brave passes, were over eager sometimes but fought for everything.

As a fan, it was brilliant. A high tempo end-to-end game which, on balance, I felt we did enough to win. Our goal was outstanding, their equaliser a really poor goalkeeping error.

We both hit the bar. Adam Armstrong fluffed a very good chance and there were breaks on for us late on that we rushed the pass on or else we were in.

Hugely encouraging and proving we can play more than one way. Also, and I felt this after the Leeds game, it demonstrated that there are no teams to fear in this league. There is no gulf in quality, just more consistency from those teams above us.

We’d have taken a point before the game and it’s still a great one. We could’ve had all 3.

• Wildsmith - 5 Big error. It probably is time to change it.
• Holgate - 7 Right in there and decent
• Diakite - 8 Rock solid, very good on the ball. Incredible he’s not starting games.
• Heggem - 8 What a buy. Superb and so durable.
• Price - 7 Energy, intelligence, kept getting a foot in.
• Mowatt - 7 Pressed and harassed, broke it up.
• Swift - 7 Put the yards in and a wonderful goal.
• Styles - 7 An animal. Ran like a man possessed.
• Armstrong - 6 missed a chance but covered a lot of ground and blocked a lot of breaks.
• Grady - 7 led the press, ran harder than I’ve seen in a long time
• Grant - 8 All of the effort, battled away, stretched them. Brilliant.

• MJ - 6 Dangerous
• Lankshear - 6 held it up well

Excited for Saturday’s game already!

I’ve been absolutely humbled by the number of readers who’ve donated already and sent such lovely messages, thanks so so much.

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