The Watchlist – Cork And Alexander

Brian Laws must have struggled to look for the positives in a limp second half Burnley performance that saw Aston Villa come back from a goal down to tear his team apart in last weekend’s 5-2 away defeat.

Having taken just three points from six games since his arrival, Laws’ team are embedded in the battle for Premiership survival and with Burnley badly in need of inspiration, one flicker of hope for Laws would surely have been the performance of young midfielder, Jack Cork…

The on-loan 20 year old arrived at Turf Moor from Chelsea at the tail end of the January transfer window in a move that has pretty much slipped under the radar. The son of Wimbledon legend Alan Cork, he comes with a footballing pedigree, and has represented England at every level from U16 upwards.

The Villa game marked Cork’s full Premiership debut, and despite the comprehensive manner of defeat, he still managed to catch the eye. As this chalkboard shows, Cork performed his midfield duties admirably, continually getting forward to support his forwards in a tireless performance that saw him grab an assist for Martin Paterson’s injury time consolation goal.

In spite of their poor form, Burnley players are currently under consideration for FPL investment due to two reasons: the next five gameweeks see them play four times at home (POR, ars & STK, WLV, wig, BLA), and, on the back of last night’s FA Cup replays, they join Lancashire neighbours Bolton in being the only clubs to have a double fixture in gameweek 29, a week when a good few teams will be postponing their Premiership duties to participate in the FA Cup.

Having played only twice at home in the league under Laws, Burnley have beaten West Ham and lost out only to a late John Terry header in a spirited performance against Chelsea, suggesting they may well replicate the good home form shown under Owen Coyle at Turf Moor before the Scotsman’s move to Bolton.

Priced at just 4.0m in the Fantasy Premier League (FPL) and classified as a defender, Cork is already looking promising as an out-of-position player. With club captain Graham Alexander soon to return from a calf injury, however, it will be interesting to see whether the youngster has impressed his manager sufficiently enough to justify his inclusion in the Burnley first XI as Laws looks to take advantage of a potentially promising set of fixtures.

Brian Laws was talking up the prospect of a return for Alexander earlier today, stressing the importance of his experience and composure on the Burnley side. Should he make a return to the starting lineup, he will of course bring with him the promise of attacking points from penalty kicks. Given that Burnley have the run of four home matches in six, Alexander will be fancied to bring in some returns to supplement any clean sheets that may come their way.

Alexander has already contributed five goals this term – form that saw his FPL price rise to 5.0 from an intial 4.5. Now standing at a reasonable 4.7, Alexander is more expensive than the likes of Cork and Daniel Fox, but arguably offers greater security over Cork and stronger attacking potential over Fox. Should he be declared fit in tomorrow’s Burnley team news, he looks a worthy investment once again.