Vincent Kompany to turn to big guns for Burnley’s derby clash with Blackburn

Posted Friday, November 11, 2022 by PA

Burnley boss Vincent Kompany is likely to turn to his big guns once again for Sunday’s top-of-the-table Sky Bet Championship derby clash with Blackburn.

Kompany rested nine of the men who started last Saturday’s shock 5-2 defeat at Sheffield United for Tuesday night’s Carabao Cup third-round victory over League Two Crawley with only Samuel Bastien and Manuel Benson keeping their places.

Josh Brownhill, Vitinho and Anass Zaroury were all used from the bench and will hope to be among those restored to the starting line-up as the leaders attempt to preserve a two-point advantage over their neighbours.

Kompany does have a doubt, however, over striker Jay Rodriguez, who missed both games through injury.

Rovers boss Jon Dahl Tomasson went even further than his Clarets counterpart in midweek when he changed his entire starting XI for the League Cup penalty shoot-out victory at Premier League West Ham.

Callum Brittain, Daniel Ayala, Scott Wharton, Harry Pickering, Lewis Travis, Ryan Hedges and Sam Gallagher did not even make the trip south and will be well rested as a result.

Dom Hyam, Sam Szmodics and Ben Brereton Diaz were introduced as second-half substitutes at the London Stadium, while Thomas Kaminski and Tyler Morton were unused.

Tomasson’s men bounced back from a first league defeat in five last weekend when they beat Huddersfield 1-0 at Ewood Park.