Roy Keane’s Vincent Kompany slam rings true as ‘dreadful’ Burnley condemned by Bournemouth

Will Ford 03 Mar 2024 3:05 PM

Roy Keane didn't hold back in his criticism of Vincent Kompany and Burnley.

Burnley dominated but can’t score and can’t defend. Roy Keane took aim at Vincent Kompany before the game, and his criticism rang true in defeat to Bournemouth.

Dara O’Shea displayed his brainlessness after just 30 seconds. Apparently unaware of the multiball system that’s been in effect since the start of last season, he raced his own defensive header to the touchline so that he could boot the ball into the stands, with his momentum taking him to the advertising hoardings. Dominic Solanke picked up a ball from a cone and O’Shea was shown a yellow card for heading it from the Bournemouth striker’s hands to prevent a quick throw-in.

It wasn’t a hugely significant moment in the grand scheme of things, but typifies Kompany’s Burnley, who are easy on the eye but make error after error through a mixture of absent-mindedness and overconfidence in their own ability.

Roy Keane didn’t hold back in his pre-match assessment of their season so far, which had seen them pick up 13 points, the fewest number after 26 games and now inevitably 27 in the club’s history, which surely condemns them to the Championship next season.

“Do you know what, they’ve been dreadful. They’ve been dreadful. We talk about teams having a style of play in the Championship and trying to compare it to the Premiership, it’s chalk and cheese. It’s impossible. They look weak physically. The goals they’re giving away, it’s schoolboy stuff. They gave away a goal against Arsenal last week. You wouldn’t see it on a Sunday morning, it’s dreadful. I admire managers who have a philosophy and a style of play, but you’ve got to adapt. They’ve been nowhere near good enough, it’s embarrassing the way things have been going for them.”

Sunday league centre-halves would have been embarrassed by O’Shea’s efforts to prevent Bournemouth’s opener. It was an excellent finish from Justin Kluivert, who cut inside and smashed the ball past James Trafford. O’Shea was entirely diddled by Kluivert’s dummy, which wasn’t ideal, but it was the ease with which he was beaten to a simple ball over the top which was the most embarrassing aspect of his defending, and left Keane stewing in the studio at the break, perplexed – as he was before kick-off – that a team managed by one of the best centre-backs in Premier League history look like conceding every time the opposition attack.

“Kompany, an outstanding centre-half, he must know defensively his team are all over the place, they’ve got to do better. You’ve got to give yourself a chance of winning football matches.”

They really should have won this football match. They were somehow 1-0 down at the end of a first half in which they had 13 shots, their second highest tally of shots in any half of Premier League football ever, and 75 per cent possession, their most in a half ever.

Wilson Odobert and Vitinho both spurned very good chances, Neto denied Jacob Bruun Larsen with one of the saves of the season from a free-kick, and Burnley were by the far the better team between both boxes. “But that’s football!” Keane said with exasperation, mystified by the praise for pretty build-up play given their toothlessness in the crunch moments.

“I think we’ve gone too easy on some of the teams there at the bottom,” he added.

It’s been a pretty pathetic attempt to rise to the Premier League standard by Burnley, who broke the record for the earliest Championship promotion last season and duped the majority of us into thinking they would ruffle some elite feathers this term.

Were it not for an apparent acceptance of relegation from the owners, who are evidently convinced their current boss will be the man to get them back up again, Kompany would be long gone. Because even with the upcoming points deductions for two of their relegation rivals, Burnley aren’t staring down the barrel, they’re a chalk outline in the Premier League basement. Cause of death?