GARY Rowett praised Burnley and manager Vincent Kompany ahead of tonight’s game at Turf Moor.
The Clarets have drawn all three of their home matches so far this season, but they come into the clash on the back of a 5-1 win away at Wigan Athletic.
Kompany has had to transform the team since taking over in June after losing the bulk of his squad due to their relegation from the Premier League. As a result, he’s used the opportunity to transform their style of play from Sean Dyche’s incredibly direct approach that saw them drop down to the Championship after five seasons in the top flight.
“Under Vincent Kompany, I think they’ve passed the ball really well,” the Millwall boss told NewsAtDen.
“They’re really possession-based, they’ve got good movement as a team, they’ve obviously got good players and have been in the Premier League for a long time.
“They’ve got a really good balance to their squad, but that’s the same with any of the teams that come down I think. For us, you can only look at the games they’ve played so far. At home, they’ve obviously drawn three of their games and been pegged back late on in a few of them, but their performances have been pretty good and they’ve caused teams problems so far without maybe winning as many games as I’m sure they would’ve liked at this point so far.”
Kompany, a Manchester City legend and four-time Premier League winner, is still fairly new to the managerial scene compared to the other head coaches in the Championship. However, at just 36-years-old, he already has two full seasons of experience under his belt with Anderlecht, his boyhood team. He guided them to the final of the Belgian Cup in 2021-22 and helped them reach the knockout stages of the Europa Conference League.
Taking over at Burnley is his first step into English football management, however, and Rowett has been impressed with what he’s seen from the Clarets so far this season
“When you’ve had a distinct style before that was incredible successful under Sean Dyche, for someone to come in and decide to go down a different route is always difficult. They’ve got good players there, players that people underestimated at times in the Premier League. I think they qualified for Europe in one of the seasons and they have the ability to mix the game up, they’ve always done that.
“I think he [Kompany] is one of the best managers around. He’s played at the highest level, he’s led a team at the highest level, so those experiences transition quite easily into management. That’s what you’d say so far. Getting out of this division is tough for any team that’s been relegated from the Premier League and I think that’s the challenge for a number of teams this season, to see if they can be one of the ones to step up and be in that top two.”
Photo: Millwall FC