Vincent Kompany raves about Jarrad Branthwaite as Everton ‘investment’ claim made

Burnley manager Vincent Kompany insisted he couldn’t criticise his strikers for only having one shot on target at Goodison Park as he hailed the defensive display of Everton’s Jarrad Branthwaite.

The Belgian said: “Full credit to Everton, there were loads of blocked shots. If that kid Branthwaite keeps putting his body on the line like this, I can’t keep telling my strikers.

“The kid is sliding across five times and he’s doing really well. Tarky is doing a really good job at the backline and they’ve done that really well.

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“Branthwaite is a young defender and sometimes it’s important to stay away from the hype a little bit. It’s just a really objective analysis of moments where my strikers have done so well and he gets back, sometimes his team-mates get beaten, but he reads the moment to go and cover.

“It’s a side of the game that he has that is really promising for the future.”

Kompany was pleased with how the Clarets played and didn’t think they got the result their display deserved. He said: “You like good performances to always be rewarded with the maximum amount of points. It’s not the case today and there were some key moments again – it’s football, they are things that happen.

“Focussing on the manner has no real value because it’s belted around this season in a variety of ways. The big thing is ‘what did you do to give yourself a game at Goodison?’

“We know the strengths of Everton. I thought the team handled it really well and did exactly what it needed to do to frustrate the opponent while at the same time building momentum in the game.

“Our momentum collapsed twice with moments of our own undoing. I can’t for one second criticise the effort of the team and the idea to come here and play like this.

“People forget, we’re a team that’s just come up, playing in a really important game against a team that has seen a lot of investment over the years. Sometimes the harshest thing is the result.”

Asked if the defeat was a damaging one for his side, Kompany said: “It’s damaging if your mindset is to feel beaten up when you lose. That’s not my mindset.

“My mindset is this game makes me feel like I want to play the next game much quicker. The frustration doesn’t translate into being defeated in my head, the frustration translates into wanting to play here another five times in a row until we get the points, or playing the next game as quick as we can until we get what we feel we could have earned in a lot more games this season – you keep going, always.”

When it came to Dara O’Shea’s sending off for a professional foul on Dwight McNeil, the former Manchester City captain was also unsure. Kompany said: “The letter of law says he should have been denying a goalscoring opportunity to be sent off. I’ll let you guys make your own judgement on that, there was a lot of force on that ball, it was a pretty comfortable pick-up for the goalkeeper.”