It's been a bleak start for all Lancashire clubs in the Championship, but none more so than Burnley.
Relegated from the Premier League last season, it was hoped the arrival of former Club Brugge and Gent boss Nicky Hayen would spark an exciting new chapter, but the Clarets have endured a miserable opening month to the Championship campaign.
Burnley are one of only two sides in the second tier that are yet to a win a league match and exasperated sections of Turf Moor were not afraid to voice their discontent when the Clarets slumped to defeat at home to Bristol City.
A 1-1 draw with Wrexham means Hayen's side have at least climbed off the foot of the table, but Burnley are a long way off where they want to be.
Our EFL expert Gab Sutton assesses the contributing factors to Burnley's struggles.
Late squad arrivals
For a club that had realistically known they were likely heading into the Championship for much of last season, Burnley’s preparation for the campaign has been highly questionable.
If we count Jamie Vardy as a signing from the summer window, even if technically he arrived just after it closed, the Clarets made 12 signings, of which only two were made by 27th July.
So, there’s been a lot of new players to integrate straight away, bearing in mind head coach Nicky Hayen, himself, only arrived on 10th July due to the club reportedly missing out on other managerial targets.
It hasn’t given the Belgian a lot of time to settle new players in or prepare pre-season. Speaking of which…
Fitness issues
It may be that a lot of the new additions haven’t had a proper pre-season, at least, not one at a level that’s befitting of the intensity that Hayen demands.
The 46-year-old is widely associated with an aggressive pressing style, and he’s been criticized for not implementing that yet, in a way that would give natives the confidence to overlook poor results in favour of encouraging signs from performances.
However, this may be because the squad doesn’t have the physical wherewithal to do what he wants them to do, and the head coach is trying to be pragmatic about the circumstances. Which leads us to…
Lack of discernible playing style
Hayen seems to want a proactive, positional side that builds play from a back-three, occupies the half-spaces with their number eights and presses with purpose – but only fragments of that actually show up.
Thus far, what they’ve instead demonstrated is possession that doesn’t hurt the opposition, barring a few bursts from Jacob Bruun Larsen down the left, a press that disappears, a defence unsettled by rotation, and a team that is still physically and mentally catching up.
There have been glimpses of the Hayen identity coming through, and the midweek 1-1 draw at Wrexham offered some promise, but not nearly at the volume that supporters would have hoped for.
Individual errors
The first half an hour of the 4-1 loss at Norwich on the second weekend was an absolute disaster.
Anel Ahmedhodzic endured a disastrous debut by gifted the opener with an inexplicable error, Kyle Walker uncharacteristically stood off his winger for the second and botched a clearance for the third, while Max Weiss let one squirm under him for the fourth, before goalscorer Josh Laurent was sent off.
Selection challenges
Some of the selection issues expose the lack of balance in the squad. For instance, Hayen is often criticized for a lack of consistency at right-back, when neither Kyle Walker with his experience, nor Oliver Sonne with his more youthful energy, have excelled, for different reasons.
Some would like to see Connor Roberts deployed there, having been successful at this level in 2024/25, but is currently needed at left-back with Lucas Pires unfancied and Igor Julio only just through the door.
Mental hangover
We’ve seen in recent years that while relegated Premier League clubs have the significant advantage of parachute payments, they also have the disadvantage of the mental hangover and possibly cultural strife that Luton and Leicester have suffered from in recent years.
Burnley lost 24 of their 38 league games last season, that’s nearly two defeats in three, and it’s difficult to go from that psychology to winning consistently.
Sure, the Clarets have done it before, but in 2022/23, they’d made nine signings by 27th July, not two, and the new players had rubbed off on those remaining with some positive energy in pre-season, whereas this year they’re relying on the old guard to lead the preparations when they are, themselves, mentally depleted.
Alan Pace criticisms
There has been a lack of identity at Burnley, who don’t quite know what they’re trying to be. They wanted to move on from Sean Dyche with a more attractive vision, which was initially emphatically successful under Vincent Kompany, but then binned over question marks over Premier League efficiency.
Scott Parker’s pragmatism then delivered a 100-point Championship season in 2024/25, albeit with that side being nowhere near as good as the 2022/23 outfit as a footballing entity, and very reliant on extraordinary goalkeeping from James Trafford, as well as defending from top young centre-halves in Maxime Esteve and CJ Egan-Riley.
So, when Parker failed in the Premier League, the East Lancashire outfit sought an aggressive pressing style from Nicky Hayen with a bit of football, in hope of finding that balance, but the 46-year-old is incorporating players recruited from different eras, for different managers, and it’s created the hodgepodge we see in front of us.
Perhaps, with time, for Vardy and stalwart Josh Cullen to get fit and available after the international break, and more time to bed players in, we may see improvements.
But, for now, this season has already become a test of patience.
