I know the headlines will be all about "Man Utd needed a last minute penalty to beat Burnley at home" and supporters of other teams will take the piss and I get it. But watching this game you see us create chance upon chance but it's Zirkzee or Amad hitting it over, or Bruno hitting it just outside the box. Sesko had a decent header as well. And then on the other side Burnley have like 2 chances all game but because of our goalkeeper they get 2 goals. For me the 2-2 goal is one of those goals that simply doesn't happen if you have a decent keeper. Fumbling a rebound straight out to a Burnley player like that is just not acceptable.
So it really felt like a 4-0 much more than a 3-2 but in the end it's the effectiveness in both penalty boxes that matter. Much needed 3 points and hopefully it does something positive. But I was really hoping for us to get a solid win that you couldn't question under scrutiny.
You aren't wrong all the headlines are still about having our blushes spared & pundits like Paul Merson & Tim Sherwood trying to act like we were all over the place. Absolute rubbish, anybody who watched the game it's entirety should know this wasn't the case, we actually played well for most of the game, created a dozen or so good chances & Burnley really weren't any sort of consistent meaningful threat going forward for most of the game.
They had three sniffs of goal & scored from two of them, the first was a Dalot brainfart for some reason tucking in ridiculously close to de Ligt leaving Larsen acres of space to pick a space for a cross.. which he did.
The second was another goalkeeping blunder IMO, messy, nervous scramble from a long throw & flick on, shot straight at Bayinder who palms it onto his legs straight back into the danger area & into the feet of Anthony.
Outside of that, we were in control & actually played some good attacking football, particularly in that first half we really should have scored more than one with the second half being more about managing the game & twisting the knife than what it degenerated into which was a mad scramble to get the second, then the third after Burnley equalised twice against the run of play.
Yeah a last minute dodgy pen to grab 3 points against Burnley is hardly going to silence the doubters though. Its not great but at least it moves us up the table and above a few heading into the International break, would be a whole lot worse without the win. Its worrying Sesko doesnt seem to be liked very much already or trusted by Amorim. I hope he's not just Hojlund v2.0 but hasnt really hit the ground running.
Sesko is effectively another project striker, he's further along than Hojlund but he is someone we're banking on becoming a star rather than already being one.. big risk for the money paid, when we probably needed a midfielder more & could have just given Hojlund another year.
The team needs to realise when he plays, we have the ability to go more direct, he's got more power & size than Hojlund so there will be CB's he can target for bullying with the ball at his feet or in a foot race.
Probably even more importantly, we need to float a few more crosses into the box & see if he can get after them. He has an absolutely ridiculous vertical jump combined with his height, he can be a massive problem for defenders to deal with, actually near scored against Burnley. I'd like to see us play a few more crosses into the box when he plays as opposed to trying to play our way in.
I was a bit surprised seeing Zirkzee come on for Cunha when he went down against Burnley though, although in fairness Zirkzee actually did well so maybe Amorim was right bringing him on at that point, although it's just odd that Sesko wasn't brought on until later. Only thing I can think off is maybe he's not fully fit. He reportedly had cramp during the Grimsby game which is why he allegedly didn't take a penalty until 10th.. or perhaps maybe the club are trying to avoid the same mistake as Hojlund by thrusting all the pressure onto him immediately & destroying the lads confidence.
