Vincent Kompany makes exciting Burnley squad prediction after comfortable cup win

The Clarets boss used his full squad on Tuesday night for the Carabao Cup third round tie against Salford City, making 11 changes in total from the side that lost narrowly to Manchester United last weekend.

Anass Zaroury was the standout performer during the comprehensive 4-0 win, having a hand in all four goals.

There were also four first-time scorers in Sander Berge, Jacob Bruun Larsen, Dara O’Shea and Wilson Odobert.

When asked if any of his so-called fringe players gave him food for thought for Saturday’s league encounter against Newcastle United, Kompany said: “There’s enough players in the team who will play an important role for us in the Premier League.

“You can’t force it, these moments for us make it a little bit clearer that we’ve got a lot of young talent coming through and that will strengthen the squad as the season goes.

“I said it to you last season, a lot of the players that will be real stars for us this season might not have even featured for us yet.

“We just need to blend them in at the right time and a day like today is a step forward for a lot of the players.”

Burnley will now be desperate to take confidence from this win, even if it came against League Two opposition.

Both of Burnley’s victories have come in the Carabao Cup this season, while in the league they’ve only taken one point from their first five games.

The fixtures don’t get any easier for Kompany’s men with a trip to St James’ Park coming up this Saturday, but the Clarets boss is confident his side are heading in the right direction.

“If you take the Forest cup game, Forest in the league and a good performance against United and a good performance today (against Salford), you just have to carry on,” he said.

“The Premier League is not supposed to be easy, especially for promoted teams. This team is a team that has every right to be hopeful and compete.”