Burnley manager Scott Parker has leapt to the defence of his team after recent criticism surrounding their style of play.
The Clarets are pushing for an instant return to the Premier League after suffering relegation from the top tier last season. They currently sit just outside the automatic promotion places in third but missed the chance to move level on points with Leeds United on Monday night.
The two sides met at Turf Moor in an eagerly awaited clash, but it failed to live up to its billing when the game finished 0-0. Furthermore, the game finished with just one shot on target, which came from Leeds’ Daniel James in the 89th minute.
Remarkably, it was Burnley’s 20th clean sheet of the season and their seventh in succession. They haven’t conceded a goal since beating Watford 2-1 on December 21st.
Parker Defends Style Of Play
There was criticism of the Lancashire-based side following Monday’s draw, with many claiming they are ‘boring’. Parker has been quick to dismiss that label, telling The Burnley Express:
“Like I’ve said many times, defensively we’ve been pretty remarkable. We’ve been very, very good on the defensive phase. But that’s not the way I solely want to see us getting promoted, we want both sides.
“That’s not a sole decision on us or certainly me as a coach. We’ve not decided: ‘okay, let’s just be this defensively rock-solid team that get to the end of the season and hope we get promoted’. We want both, that’s the intention.
“Every day we’re trying to be this defensively rock-solid team and on the flip side of that, trying to be an attacking, free-flowing team that looks the full package.”
Continuing, the former England international did concede the game against Leeds wasn’t a classic:
“That was the game, it wasn’t a classic. I’m not going to sit here and deny that. I get that totally.
“Was that intention or was that our intention to go into that game? No, our intention was to go into that game to put a marker down for us to replicate what we did against Plymouth. But we didn’t, we didn’t manage to do that.”
Writer’s View
There’s no doubting that Burnley and Leeds played out a pretty miserable affair, but this is two teams that have the same end goal. To have conceded just nine goals at this stage of the season is remarkable and Parker should be commended for that. The boring label is a pretty lazy one. Admittedly, they’re not a team that score bags of goals, but they showed that they have it in their locker when they beat Plymouth Argyle 5-0 the week before.
