A lot of eyebrows were raised when Vincent Kompany was announced as the manager of Burnley in the summer of 2022. For a team that has consistently been in the Premier League and progressed gradually during that period, the appointment, rightly, was doubted, after getting relegated and wanting to get back to the top flight at the first attempt.
But roughly 5 months on, Burnely have probably become one of the most attractive teams in all of English football. Vincent Kompany, having played under Guardiola, is trying to implement a similar style to that of his former coach at Burnley and have, so far, been very successful in doing that.
The below visualisation shows Burnley’s three-game rolling average Expected Goals For(xG) and Expected Goals Against (xGA)
Burnley have been the best attacking unit in the Championship so far with Kompany’s men scoring 40 goals in their 21 games so far. They failed to score in only one game in the season so far, against Watford, one of their two losses. Looking at the trend line in the above visual, Burnley’s attack has progressed since the start of the season, with impressive performances most recently coming against rivals Blackburn Rovers. Their best attacking performances in terms of xG came against Milwall and Rotherham United.
Defensively, Burnley have been above average but not one of the best teams so far. The Clarets have conceded 23 goals so far keeping 6 clean sheets. However, the trendline shows that Burnley are improving defensively as well going into the international break.
Vincent Kompany’s Burnley have surprised a lot of people with their performances this season. They have been completely opposite to how they have played all these years in the Premier League. The Clarets clearly look like one of the favourites to win the automatic promotion to the Premier League. It will be interesting to see if they continue their impressive form post the World cup break.
