Danny Higginbotham: Burnley’s incredible home form is similar to when Stoke made the Britannia a fortress following promotion
The Clarets have won their last seven home matches and host Premier League leaders Chelsea next on Sunday
AT Stoke in 2008-09 we just knew we were going to win our home games — we were that confident.
We had just been promoted but had a small pitch at the Britannia which suited us perfectly and made us horrible to play against.
We were a big side. We could win a throw-in ten yards into the opposition’s half and Rory Delap would launch the ball into the box causing havoc.
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We left the grass long, so a long pass over the top would hold up, forcing the retreating defenders to boot the ball into touch and putting us on the front foot.
We used to say to each other that we’d hate to play against us at home.
You could almost see opponents turn white when they ran out at Fortress Britannia. The crowd were all over them.
The small pitch meant that we could play non-stop, in-your-face football. Every header was a 50-50 challenge.
It became a momentum thing and each time we won we would get more confident that we would win the next one. Our boss Tony Pulis didn’t need to say much.
That season we only lost to Man United, Chelsea, Everton and West Ham at home and beat the likes of Arsenal, City and Spurs. Not bad for a newly-promoted side.
Away from home was a whole different ball game, though.
Bigger pitches blunted our weapons and meant we couldn’t be as effective. Opponents would use little tricks like moving advertising boards around the pitch closer to the touchline to stop Rory’s run-up for his long throw.
The negativity about away games spread through the players and it became hard to change. On the road we only beat West Brom and Hull . . . and the first of those victories was on April 4!
But so good were we at home that if you took those six points away and gave them to West Brom and Hull we would still have finished four points clear of the relegation zone.
Which Burnley would take right now!
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Sean Dyche’s team are experiencing a very similar season to the one we had as they too try to avoid the drop.
But, keep up the fine home results and — like us — they should be fine. Avoiding relegation is often built on solid home form for newly-promoted teams.
There is a clear reason why Burnley are better at home than away. And it’s explained by our average position maps.
Away from home they are on the back foot and defend deeper — as you can see from the map showing their match at West Ham. This leaves their front two, Andre Gray (No 7) and Sam Vokes (No 9), isolated.
When Burnley win the ball one option is to go long but with no midfield support for the top two that is ineffective. So the other option — which they are choosing — is to try to pass it up the pitch.
At home, as you can see from the position map against Leicester, they are getting support up to the top two. Look how much higher up the pitch Jeff Hendrick (No 13) and George Boyd (No 21) are.
They are so much closer to the top two. Even the full-backs are pushing on to get crosses in.
So they can play long, quickly and have more success. Only Chelsea and Spurs have more home points than Burnley.
Counter-intuitively, all this means they are winning home games by having less of the ball. In fact, seven of their ten lowest possessions this campaign have been at Turf Moor.
It is quick and long at home with support for the strikers. Away it’s sit deep and try to play out.
This means when they cough up possession away it is in dangerous areas near their own box.
The other key for Dyche is scoring first. In their 13 home games they have taken the lead 11 times and won nine of them. In 11 away they conceded first nine times and lost them all.
All in all, they are doing a great job. If they could just translate that home style of play to the road, they’d be top of the league!