Jamie Carragher ponders Burnley's tactical approach on their return to the Premier League following Man City opener

The former Liverpool defender was on punditry duty at Turf Moor on Friday night as the Clarets made their top flight return with a 3-0 defeat to reigning champions Manchester City.

Speaking on Sky Sports’ Gary Neville podcast, Carragher spoke of how surprised he was at how Vincent Kompany’s side bravely “went after” their opponents.

“People talk about difficult starts but the cameras are there, it’s a great way to start the season and no-one expected them to get anything from it,” he said.

“It was interesting listening to Vincent Kompany before the game saying ‘we will get better each game going forward’. He didn’t say that after the game, it was just the cohesion of his team, there’s been a lot of changes, when they came up from the Championship they had a lot of loan players, they brought a lot of players in so I think he believes in the way he does things – him and Craig Bellamy on the training ground – and that his team will grow and get better week after week.

“But listen, any team that comes up from the Championship is more often than not in a dogfight and they’ll be delighted if they can stay up.

“It will be really interesting if at any point in the season they feel like they need to change. Not necessarily go long ball and direct, but just change things and maybe drop off teams, because they really went after Manchester City, really tried to press high and went man-for-man at the back.

“They had one of the worst records for defending corners last season in the Championship and they’ve conceded two against Man City. It’s not necessarily what they need to do with the ball, it’s what they do without it - maybe sit off the opposition a little bit and hit them on the counter-attack.

“They haven’t got the players to play like Sean Dyche, go long ball and put the ball in the box, but they really went after Man City and left themselves one-vs-one at the back. If they’re going to do that against Man City I think they’re going to do it against most teams.

“It will be really interesting how the results go and if they alter things going forward.”

Neville, meanwhile, revealed he was a little bit more “nervous” about Burnley’s chances this season coming away from the game than he was pre-match.

“There’s no doubt they’re a good football team and they’ve got good players, but they were very diminutive - certainly in midfield and up front,” he explained.

“You look at Steve Cooper and how he changed Nottingham Forest and in some ways he had to alter his values and principles to keep Forest in the Premier League.

“How do Burnley do that with the current make-up of their squad? Even the substitutes that came on, they’ve got a young goalkeeper as well, I was a little bit more nervous about Burnley coming out of the game.

“Look, it’s Manchester City, it’s the first game, there’s no panic and they could go and out-football teams. But if they don’t out-football teams and they don’t out-run teams, which I think is the plan and you go to, for example, Crystal Palace away and they think this is a game where they could do well but they get beat by them, all of a sudden it sets in a little bit.

“There were some early warning signs a little bit for me in terms of they have to play their way and impose their style. I don’t think they can change.”