After Jay Rodriguez’s impressive season with Championship side West Bromich Albion last year, Burnley sparked interest in their former player, with reports suggesting that the Clarets completed the signing for an initial £5m fee earlier last week.
Rodriguez rose through Burnley’s youth system and played for the Premier League side professionally for five years before moving on to Southampton and the former mentioned West Brom. Injuries plagued the Englishman’s early career but during his time with the Baggies, he seems to have regained full fitness and is ready to challenge both Chris Wood and Ashley Barnes at his former club.
Burnley have been active in the transfer market, with Rodriguez becoming their second signing of the summer. But with competition in the forward’s department at Turf Moor, will turning over five million pounds on another striker prove to be a wise decision?
How much will Rodriguez feature?
While at West Brom, and Southampton before that, Rodriguez displayed his versatility in attacking areas, having opportunities to play on either wing or as a deeper attacking midfielder. However, last season in particular, the 29-year-old played predominantly as an out-and-out striker, grabbing an admirable 22 goals and six assists in 45 appearances.
But since Sean Dyche has a well-established pairing of Ashley Barnes and Chris Wood in his attacking lineup, you wouldn’t imagine that Jay Rodriguez will be on the starting team sheet on a regular basis. Peter Crouch has just announced his retirement, but Rodriguez will surely be hoping for a bigger contribution than the England veteran made whilst at the Clarets last season.
Perhaps as a solution to this problem, Dyche will opt for a rotational system, with each player benched every few matches. This approach would be a risk, especially considering the success of the Barnes-Wood pairing last season – 22 goals between them ensured safety after an uncertain start to the season.
This record is impressive considering Burnley’s standing in the Premier League. However, as Rodriguez achieved this same tally on his own last season, albeit with eight extra matches, he will certainly be looking for a considerable amount of game time that makes his return to Turf Moor worth his while.
A lot of work is certainly needed during the remainder of the pre-season to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of each combination of attackers. As mentioned, Rodriguez could be used as a winger this season and we may even see the new signing feature more frequently than those at the club already.
It’s usually a positive thing to have competition within the squad, but will the already established pairing suffer if Rodriguez is given the game time he desires?
Burley’s dilemma: three forwards or squad depth player?
Jay Rodriguez is undoubtedly a big asset to have in your squad and a player with plenty of Premier League experience and experience of performing under pressure within struggling sides. But with many of the “bottom-half” teams being very competitive in the transfer market, will Jay Rodriguez provide the spark to ignite Burnley’s fire for this season?
Fans may ask if he is going to add anything to Burnley’s forward line? The answer to that is yes. He’s a top striker who scores plenty of goals, but scoring goals hasn’t really been a huge problem for Burnley recently. Rodriguez won’t provide extra pace or flair in the team and seems similar to what they already have. However, it might be how Dyche decides to play the Englishman that could determine his worth this season.
The gaffer may choose to revert Rodriguez back to his old playing style on the left-wing; this may force Dwight McNeil, who was Burnley’s most intriguing young talent last season, out of position or even out of the starting lineup, which could be detrimental to the youngster’s development.
With the versatility the forward has shown since leaving Burnley, Dyche may favour the tactic of allowing Rodriguez a more central role in midfield, behind the two strikers. This sounds ambitious on paper and would require a change in playing style, but with Ashley Barnes also able to occupy a deeper role too, the possibilities are certainly there.
If he is chosen to take up this midfield role, he may be given license to overlap with the two strikers filling their attack with natural finishers. This technique may work effectively for Burnley and help ensure another season of Premier League safety.
However, defending is certainly not Rodriguez’s strong point, nor was it Burnley’s strong point last season. With this being said, playing the 29-year-old in a midfield area may not sound too appealing to Sean Dyche, who tends to stick to his ideology, so the most likely outcome seems to be a rotation system between the three strikers.
Squeezing Rodriguez into Burnley’s plans would almost certainly require a change in formation, so it’s difficult to see this former Claret being immediately introduced to the starting XI. The team will already be working hard to prepare for the new season and Jay Rodriguez will hopefully provide more than adequate cover for the two main strikers but how he fits in at Turf Moor is unknown for now.
