You blow my mind, hey, Mickey!

Also...should we?

Right, I wanted to get this one under the wire to address what we’re all thinking about on this Tuesday on the Fourteenth of May in Twenty Twenty-Four of the Common Era.

I refer, of course, to the Burnley match.

Ha.

With today’s match approaching, Saturday’s 2-1 win over the Clarets somehow seems weeks in the past. It began in a now-familiar manner as we surrendered a first-half goal on the counter during which we made multiple mistakes. Pedro Porro has had a very good season and has adapted surprisingly well to a new position under Ange, but his attempted challenge on Sander Berge, who assisted Jacob Bruun Larssen’s opening goal, may have given Porro’s doubters some ammunition again.

But our right back showed his brilliance in scoring the equalizer when he linked up on a give-and-go with Brennan Johnson and blazed a clear path toward goal, culminating in a blast of a shot that rippled the netting behind Aro Muric.

The biggest talking point of the match, though, came from Mickey van de Ven, who switched over to left back at the 75’ mark, spelling Skippy from his emergency start, with Radu Drăgușin coming on to pair with Romero. It only took the Dutchman seven minutes to leave his mark from this unfamiliar position as he received a pass on the run from Maddison, set himself up while barely breaking stride, and opened up his left foot to slot in the winner with as skillful a finish as you’re likely to see from any left back in the league. What a talent we have in Mickey.

Many supporters have wondered why we haven’t tried VDV on the left before, which Ange would address after the match:

Yeah, at the same time I’ve been mindful with Micky that he’s had a couple of injuries and the demands of playing left-back are a lot different to playing centre-back. I just have to be careful - what’s more important is what we’re trying to build here, and I was reluctant to put him out there for that reason alone. It’s been quite a disrupted season and playing full-back as opposed to playing centre-back is a lot different from a physical perspective.

But yeah I thought for the last bit of the game it made sense, Skippy was only ever going to be able to play for more than about 60 minutes, he hasn’t played for ages. And Radu coming on I thought was very good when he came on as well, so it helped us get over the line and Micky’s goal was outstanding.

What may be even more important than Mickey’s winner is the confirmation that Ange will at least consider VDV as support for Destiny Udogie, which might enable us to focus our attention more so on other areas of need during the summer window.

Meanwhile, with Dane Scarlett coming off the bench to play striker, pushing Sonny to the left, we clearly became a better team. Truly, I went away sure we had won 3-1. (And it felt as if it could’ve been 5-1.) It’s become increasingly clear we need to sign a prototypical striker this season, along with the dribbly winger we all keep talking about.

Next up: …Should we?

But seriously, I see Ange has started the strongest possible team available to him for today’s match, and anyone who thought he might do differently greatly misunderstands how managers among the elite ranks view their jobs. Did you really expect anything else from Big Ange?

Win or not, I fear this match may well be a difficult watch…