I know you’re probably getting fed up of having to stay inside with no live football on, but don’t worry: I’m here with another installment of my short-term Football Manager 2020 challenge.
In Part 1, I took over a Burnley side who were floundering at the bottom of the Premier League. Part 2 saw me go through the January transfer window and add some new faces to a struggling squad.
It’s now February, and it’s more important than ever that we hit a run of form to keep our survival hopes alive. Unfortunately, the PL’s fixture generator hasn’t been kind to us. Time to begin Part 3…
BURNLEY vs CHELSEA (Premier League – Match 25)
We entered February with a 12-point deficit on Newcastle in 17th place. Ahead of us was a daunting six-game stretch which included meetings with Chelsea, Manchester United, Wolves, Leicester and Liverpool. If ever there was a time to just go for broke, this was it.
To kick things off, we put our usual counter-attacking game aside and tried to play more expansively at home to Chelsea. Yeah… turns out it’s quite difficult to get much of the ball when your opponents have as much technical ability as Frank Lampard’s side.
Jóhann Berg Guðmundsson sent a couple of early shots wide before a powerful header from Nampalys Mendy was kept out by Kepa Arrizabalaga. Aside from those Burnley chances, though, it was all about Chelsea. The only real surprise was that they didn’t break the deadlock until three minutes from half-time.
A skilful passing move unravelled our defence as Ross Barkley spread the ball out left to Mason Mount, whose first-time ball sent Chelsea’s striker clean through before he calmly finished. At least I thought it was Chelsea’s striker… until I realised it was N’Golo Kanté who’d burst behind our backline to notch his first goal of the season!
We tried to put up more of a fight after the break. Arrizabalaga turned behind an angled shot from Guðmundsson in the 53rd minute, thus keeping the scoreline at 1-0. It wouldn’t remain that way for long.
Fresh from realising that he really could do anything on a football pitch, Kanté followed that up with an assist for Mount in the 67th minute. The young England midfielder shrugged off Joel Ward to control his French colleague’s pass and rifle a dipping shot beyond Nick Pope.
And that was basically that. Arrizabalaga denied Scott McTominay a late consolation as Chelsea put another dagger through our hearts.
We took another hit when relegation rivals Watford won 1-0 at Wolves the following afternoon. The Hornets’ first victory under new manager Volodymyr Gorilyi (no, me neither) increased the gap between us and safety to 14 points.
MANCHESTER UNITED vs BURNLEY (Premier League – Match 26)
Which football ground do you least want to go to when you are hanging by the thinnest of threads? The correct answer, as always, is Old Trafford. Manchester United had lost just one league game there this season – against Arsenal.
McTominay couldn’t play against his parent club, and for our weakened team, the Theatre of Dreams very quickly became a Hall of Nightmares. In the fifth minute, our centre-backs failed to pick up Luke Shaw’s centre before it was lashed into the net by Anthony Martial.
Our woes looked set to continue just two minutes later, when Dwight McNeil clumsily brought down Aaron Wan-Bissaka in the box. Marcus Rashford absolutely never misses penalties, so our fans probably feared the worst when he stepped forward… but Nick guessed correctly, pushing the spot-kick away to his right.
Pope’s decision-making was not so great in the 12th minute. Our goalkeeper dived early in anticipation of a Rashford shot which was actually blocked by centre-half Alessandro Bastoni. That allowed Juan Mata to roll the rebound into a gaping net for 2-0.
The Red Devils were red-hot again soon afterwards. Mata played a one-two with Rashford before playing in Martial, who defied James Tarkowski to unleash a shot that Pope could only help into the net. After 20 minutes, United were already 3-0 to the good!
We were now desperately trying to stem the bleeding. Pope did all he could, but with our defenders looking bewildered, we often relied on United’s growing complacency. Had they been more clinical, we could’ve entered the dressing room trailing 5-0 or 6-0.
Things didn’t get much easier in the second half. Brady and Guðmundsson were each suffering from knocks by the 56th minute, leading to their substitutions. The latter was replaced with deadline-day signing Valentin Eysseric, who had two shots at goal – both off target.
Our only shot on target had come right at the start of the second half, with Cork being thwarted by David De Gea. For the third time in four games, we were left goalless… but we were able to keep a clean sheet in the second half. At this time, I was willing to take any positives I could get.
I’d now managed Burnley for 10 matches, racking up five goals, seven defeats – and not a single victory. If that sorry state of affairs continued, my Premier League managerial career would be shorter than Bob Bradley’s.
At least my job wasn’t in as much peril as my old friend Steve Bruce’s. Newcastle were probably wishing they’d kept hold of Rafa Benítez now.
TIME FOR A QUICK BREAK
I swear Jay Rodriguez is always injured…
Anyway, as part of the Premier League’s ‘winter break’, we had the next weekend off, while those teams who’d put their feet up a week earlier returned to action. They included Watford, who played out a goalless stalemate with Manchester City to move a further point ahead.
We wouldn’t use our free weekend just to relax, though. This was a team which badly needed a confidence boost, and so I sent everyone off to Bury for a friendly against local non-league side Ramsbottom. Stop sniggering at the back!
We flew through the first half, as McTominay broke the deadlock in the sixth minute before Ashley Westwood set up goals for Jack Cork and Ashley Barnes. Despite our utter dominance, the scoring seemed to stop at 3-0 before Eysseric and midfielder Jeff Hendrick struck late on to complete a five-goal rout.
Imagine if that’s the only match we win all year…
WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS vs BURNLEY (Premier League – Match 27)
After our first victory since 1986, we looked to get our campaign back on track before it was too late. Taking at least a point away from Molineux against Wolves – who were again chasing a Europa League place – would be a start.
I tweaked the midfield triangle in my 4-3-3 before this match. Captain Cork (I don’t think I can trust Ben Mee with the armband anymore) would be our playmaker sitting behind box-to-box midfielder McTominay and mezzala Hendrick.
With these changes, we at least gave Wolves some competition in the first period. McNeil produced another stunning solo run in the 15th minute, only to waste it with another awful shot. A greater threat came on the right wing from Guðmundsson, whose 29th-minute volley was saved by Rui Patrício (though to be fair, the Icelander was offside).
An even bigger opportunity came to us after 34 minutes, when Wolves right-back Jesús Vallejo brought McNeil down in the box. Jóhann confidently strode up to take the penalty, only to fire it straight at Patrício.
Despite that penalty miss, I was encouraged by our first-half performance and reckoned we could really take the game to our hosts in the second. That was until the 58th minute, when Pope parried Rúben Vinagre’s shot on to Italy striker Patrick Cutrone, who headed in the rebound.
Wolves doubled their 1-0 lead nine minutes later, as we again fell prey to an opposition set-piece. Playmaker João Moutinho’s free-kick was nodded home by new arrival Berat Djimsiti – the on-loan Atalanta defender who had been on my radar in January.
Facing yet another loss, I started to question not only my ability, but also my sanity. Not even a 78th-minute consolation strike from Hendrick, who flicked Guðmundsson’s cross past Patrício, could raise my spirits even one bit.
This survival challenge wasn’t becoming much fun anymore. We’d now completed three months without winning a single competitive match. Even worse, Watford’s 4-0 demolition of Newcastle (who sacked Steve Bruce as a result) had made the league table look an even more daunting sight to Burnley fans:
18 points behind Watford. 11 games remaining. It would surely take an escape act even greater than 2004/2005 West Brom for us to survive now.
Our home game against title challengers Liverpool had been postponed due to their involvement in the League Cup Final, where they thrashed Wolves 4-1. That meant we had to wait a couple of weeks before returning to action at Leicester. By then, Watford had racked up yet another win (1-0 at Everton), thus leaving us another point adrift.
LEICESTER CITY vs BURNLEY (Premier League – Match 28)
Leicester hadn’t made quite as much of a barnstorming impact on the Premier League in-game as they had in real-life (at least not before Christmas). Even so, Brendan Rodgers’ outfit were 7th and would be sure to give us a major test.
Though early efforts from Jamie Vardy and Youri Tielemans went wide, the Foxes gradually cranked up the pressure. Their first shot on target was a 13th-minute header from Kelechi Iheanacho, which Pope caught in typically comfortable fashion.
Pope came good again in the 29th minute, keeping Vardy out after the Yorkshire terrier had latched onto Daniel Amartey’s long ball. The two met again a couple of minutes later, and Nick once again prevailed over the ex-England frontman with a vital low save.
Our resistance was eventually broken on 33 minutes, when Leicester hit us on the counter. McTominay was muscled off the ball by Wilfried Ndidi, and Vardy then played a searching ball through to James Maddison. The young midfielder was wide open and easily drove an angled shot past Pope.
We had chances to equalise before the break, but a couple of headers from Barnes and Guðmundsson cleared the bar. Meanwhile, McNeil pulled up feeling some tightness in his groin, and so Eysseric made an early appearance from the bench.
The Foxes hunted more goals in the second half, with Vardy twice coming close to putting them 2-0 up. At the other end, Barnes was struggling badly, and so I brought Chris Wood on for the last half-hour. The Kiwi could’ve marked his cameo with an early assist, but a killer pass to Hendrick was fired straight at Kasper Schmeichel.
Jeff’s unbelievable miss would cost us dear. Leicester made their second breakthrough on 73 minutes, as Amartey’s cross from right-back was emphatically volleyed home by his left-back colleague Ben Chilwell.
Eysseric narrowly missed a great chance to grab one goal back in the closing stages, while Wood was unlucky to be denied by Schmeichel. That didn’t exactly raise my spirits at full-time, as we were left goalless for the third time in five outings.
There comes a point where you have to stop saying, “Unlucky, boys,” and instead tell your players exactly what you think of them. Pope and Cork aside, I couldn’t name many Clarets who had performed anywhere close to what they were capable of. We really couldn’t go on like this, especially with the table making for such grim reading:
Long ball is ugly and stupid. I don’t like it, the players don’t like it, and the fans don’t like it. You know what… it’s time for a different approach.
Firstly… Alastair, you’re fired. Secondly…
BURNLEY vs SOUTHAMPTON (Premier League – Match 29)
… if we’re going down, I want us to at least go down playing my type of football. This version of vertical tiki-taka isn’t quite Fiorentina-style Fullerball, but to be fair, we weren’t exactly blessed with mezzalas. Indeed, after Hendrick was ruled out for three weeks with a twisted ankle, we didn’t have any.
We tested this new approach out on 15th-placed Southampton when they arrived at Turf Moor. The early signs were promising, as we pressured the Saints’ defence and created some decent opportunities. Guðmundsson’s 4th-minute free-kick had to be kept out by Angus Gunn, while Eysseric began his full debut by volleying over the bar four minutes later.
That said, Southampton still posed a significant threat through captain Pierre-Emile Højbjerg. The workaholic Danish midfielder clipped the post from long range in the 9th minute, but he fared even better eight minutes later, heading in a Sofiane Boufal free-kick.
Our frustration only grew after we fell behind, as more mistakes crept into our game. It was a particularly rough afternoon for Eysseric, who cut his hand late in the first half and was replaced with McNeil early in the second.
This Burnley team needed a saviour… and it came in the form of our mini Makélélé. In the 64th minute, Papy Mendy – all 5ft 6in of him – headed Boufal’s corner out of our penalty area. As our counter-attack clicked into gear, the French midfielder sprinted to the edge of Southampton’s box, where he received a cut-back from Barnes and hammered it into the top corner!
With that stunner, we were on course for just our ninth point of the campaign. Then this happened 13 minutes before full-time…
What the hell was Pope playing at?! Thank God that Shane Long didn’t score, else I would’ve excommunicated him!
Having been let off the hook, we almost stole victory through Guðmundsson, whose injury-time shot from a difficult angle was tipped behind by Gunn. As it was, we had to settle for a 1-1 draw, and that sought-after victory would have to wait for a while longer.
Sadly, there was no stopping Watford’s late surge, as they overcame Aston Villa 1-0 for a third win in four. Marcelo Bielsa’s Everton also boosted their survival hopes by scoring twice in the last nine minutes to beat Leicester 4-3. Our ‘mission impossible’ was now a ‘mission ridiculous’.
If we didn’t win our game in hand the following Tuesday, we would effectively be just one more defeat from relegation – with Sheffield United potentially playing the role of executioner at Turf Moor on Sunday.
And our midweek opponents? Only the reigning European champions.
BURNLEY vs LIVERPOOL (Premier League – Match 30)
Things looked ominous for us after just four minutes, when Sadio Mané cut inside from the left to have a pop at goal. His low shot hit the post, and Tarkowski missed the rebound as he tried to clear it from harm’s way. Roberto Firmino charged forward to try and slide it home, but Pope managed to palm it behind for a corner.
After surviving that early scare, we looked to strike against the early run of play. Eysseric’s 13th-minute shot failed to get close, but a long-range effort from Cork two minutes later did test Alisson in the Liverpool goal.
Normal service resumed later on, as the Reds continued to attack us. Not for the first time, Pope was on top of everything the opposition could throw at him, and he kept the scoreline goalless at half-time.
It was clear Liverpool needed some help – but I don’t think many expected it to come from Everton. Well… not their city rivals, obviously, but their new £24million Brazilian wing wizard from Grêmio.
The visitors’ breakthrough came about nine minutes into the second half. Right-back Joe Gomez got a cross beyond our left-back Charlie Taylor and into the box for Everton, whose ‘bolt from the blue’ delighted thousands of red Scousers.
Barely a minute later, McTominay’s limbs were flying in Everton’s direction. Unfortunately, Scott sprained his ankle ligaments in a mistimed challenge, and he had to be substituted.
Without our star midfielder, a fightback was virtually impossible. Obviously, we gave as good as we got, but that wasn’t enough to dirty Alisson’s clean sheet.
Less than three months into my Burnley tenure, I was already into double figures for defeats. This latest one left us teetering on the edge, and one more defeat would officially tip us over into the Championship. The last thing we needed now was for our best midfielder to get injured…
Gawd help us.
BURNLEY vs SHEFFIELD UNITED (Premier League – Match 31)
So, if we were to delay our relegation until April, we needed to beat the only team who’d ceded three points to us all season long. It no doubt helped that Sheffield United had not won any of their last nine matches in any competition.
Of course, the Blades’ cold streak was nothing compared to our 19-match winless run, but hopes were high that this would be our day. Those hopes increased in the 20th minute, when Ward exchanged passes with Mendy before his deft through-ball was stroked home by Guðmundsson.
Of course, we quickly found another way to jeopardise ourselves. Two minutes later, Bastoni laxly headed a Ben Osborn clearance on to Blades right-back George Baldock, who set up a simple equaliser for Oliver McBurnie.
Despair was replaced with fresh hope on 37 minutes, as United made a defensive mistake of their own. McNeil’s flick-on was missed by centre-back Kean Bryan, but not by our frontman Barnes, who just had to beat Dean Henderson to restore our lead. Henderson kept out the initial shot, but Ashley’s follow-up was clinical.
That goal sent the Turf Moor faithful into raptures – and the noise levels only rose five minutes afterwards. Guðmundsson sent an outswinging corner deep to Barnes, whose header across the six-yard box was finished from point-blank range by McNeil.
Even a 3-1 lead wasn’t safe in our situation, mind, so we had to keep the pressure on. Eysseric obliged after 56 minutes, beating Baldock to power his header from Cork’s cross beyond Henderson and open his Burnley account! It was like watching him and Sandro Tonali thrill the Fiorentina tifosi all over again!
And that really was that. Taylor rippled the side netting with a free-kick, while Bastoni and Guðmundsson also missed chances, but it didn’t matter. The blunt Blades offered so little resistance that I could afford to give a first-team debut in midfield to 20-year-old Ryan Cooney, who joined us from Bury in the summer.
Our own crisis was eased by the sweet sound of the final whistle. For the first time in four months since Wood netted twice at Bramall Lane under Sean Dyche’s management, Burnley fans could finally celebrate a hard-earned win!
We’re staying up! Well… for another two weeks, anyway! Hold up… what’s this old fella on Sky News ranting about?
“We’ve all been very good – including those of us who were kicked out of the club – we let Chris Fuller run his survival campaign. We didn’t criticise it too much and tried to avoid relegation.
“But it’s failed. And the reason it’s failed, everywhere you go, particularly on Twitter, all you got was Fuller. To say that was to upset the cult, it was to have people say ‘you’ve never accepted him’, etc, etc.
“The Premier League decided a while ago, they’re not having Fuller as a manager and they’re not having his tactics. If Burnley says now that it’s really bad, but let’s keep going and eventually the fans will see it, Burnley’s going to destroy itself.”
CAMPBELL!!!
It’s all looking hopeless, but I’m not giving up just yet. Please join me again next week for the FINAL chapter of “Saving Burnley”.
Until next time, keep calm, stay safe – and remain indoors.
Fuller FM 
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