Scott Parker's Start at Turf Moor
Scott Parker's Start at Turf Moor
Burnley are in the top 2 and the fans don't seem happy, why? Burnley-Series-#2.
It’s a strange time for Burnley fans and as people often say, “Football’s a funny old game”. When they say that, it’s usually in reference to odd things happening such as winning a game 1-0 with only one shot and spending almost all of the game defending for your lives or losing at home to the team bottom of the league one week and beating the team that are top of the league away the next.
Football tends to bring up a lot of strange things whether it be unexpected or just crazy results, odd transfers, un-timely or puzzling sackings, and cup shocks etc. but at Burnley, it’s something very different and I’m somewhat baffled. I understand some of the complaints from fans, but for the life of me, I can’t understand why everybody can’t see the whole picture or maybe they can, but have now got such high expectations nothing but hammering every team 5-0 will do. My first thoughts were many of those complaining were younger fans that have grown up to only know of Burnley being in the top 2 tiers of English football with many of those years in the Premier League and a 7th place finish gaining entry into the Europa League qualifying rounds, but I’ve since found out that it’s a good cross section of the fanbase.
What’s strange then?
Given Burnley sit in 2nd place of the Championship, you have to wonder why so many fans are frustrated and taking to social media to voice their concerns and many even booed at the final whistle after the 0-0 home draw against QPR. A game Burnley were expected by all to win and with the R’s barely laying a glove on the home side, it seemed inevitable that the Clarets would pick up a comfortable 3 points. If it was just this one result, then it would easily be put down as one of those games especially when you look at the stats where Burnley with 75% of the possession managed 22 shots on goal and QPR managed just 2 and neither of those were on target, but it’s been several games now and fans are complaining that Burnley don’t have any firepower and look lost in the final third.
When you consider the opening two games of the season saw Burnley win 4-1 away at Luton followed by a 5-0 thrashing of Cardiff at Turf Moor, Burnley have managed just 8 goals since then and have conceded only 4 goals in the following 10 games. The stats show a solid defence, but also a goal shy attack even though as a team, they are now unbeaten in the last 9 games.
Are the fans being too hard?
Before I tackle this question, I think it’s best to go back to where I feel it all changed for the fans, mainly in terms of expectations because no matter how you look at it, these expectations are what’s at the root of it all. Of course many of those fans with genuine concerns that are making a lot of noise at the moment won’t agree with that because it could make them sound like a Man Utd fan that expects their club to be winning something every season and challenging for all major titles because they’ve been doing that for decades and just can’t accept the recent baron years. No, these Burnley fans aren’t like that because at the end of the day, they just want to see Burnley win or at least excite them.
For what it’s worth, I do personally believe some of the criticism is over the top and the expectations are too high. I expected too much last season and was very disappointed with our disastrous season in the EPL and in all honesty, my expectations are probably still too high now due to the way we started the season and prior to the crazy transfer dealings at the end of the transfer window. All those transfers in and out, followed by the results since have now lowered those expectations, yet I know we are more than capable of an immediate return to the Premier League. I’m not complaining though and many others aren’t either.
Where it began!
Some will think it was Vincent Kompany that raised expectations, but for me, it was before that. I have a series of articles planned about former Burnley managers in the near future that will dig deep on each in turn, but it began towards the end of the reign of one of our most successful managers, Sean Dyche. Some may wonder why he is considered successful at Burnley when others before him have won major titles, but most fans won’t remember them and neither do I, but Dyche managed us in the top flight for 7 seasons and got us there twice. He managed 2 top half finishes and even made it to the Europa League albeit the qualifying stage.
Dyche helped to build the foundations for the club that Burnley are today with his focus on leaving the club in a better position than it was when he became the manager. He worked with a very restrictive budget that allowed the club to rebuild the academy and make massive improvements throughout the club and its infrastructure. The limited budget forced Dyche to find players that were low value, but had the ability to play a certain way and playing to the players strengths is what Dyche does best. It’s how he gets the best out of players and with a small squad, it makes it easier to create a tight-knit group that can bond closely which often shows on the pitch because all his players give a minimum of 100%.
Once Dyche had built his own team, the club went from strength to strength on the pitch aided by the new facilities built with the funds Dyche sacrificed from potential transfer funds. He basically built the team with nothing, but you would never know it by looking at the results that came in although the style of play was never easy on the eye. The best word to describe the style is one Dyche uses a lot, effective.
Funds became even tighter after lockdowns and then a takeover by Alan Pace and ALK Capital which took a little time to complete once again restricted spending. During the 21-22 season the team had become a little stale mainly due to a lack of investment and players ageing. Fans were now split on Dyche, some backing him no matter what and some wanting a fresh start and a different brand of football. Spending so much time in the Premier and seeing the football now being played by the top teams, perhaps some believed we needed to play that style to be able to compete, but even if the top players would come to Burnley, the club would never be able to afford either the transfer fee or the wages. However, the new owners were making big statements which promised long term success, but it would take some time to materialise.
Fans believing the club to be an established Premier League club now had expectations of competing at the highest level and slowly closing the gap to the big 6 or so clubs. Again though the problem is money and in all reality Burnley would need a transfer fund of about £1billion to get a new starting 11 and same again to cover wages plus some squad players. Due to FFP rules, it’s not going to happen, but the new owners are finding various ways to increase the money generated by the club which makes it easier to spend more money once you have it.
Expectations ramp up.
With Kompany coming in as the new manager after the club were relegated to the Championship, fans saw the old team dismantled overnight and a complete new squad brought in and the buzz word was “potential”. Everybody got onboard straight away with good results and a new style of play that was exciting and a joy to watch. With each result, the expectations ramped up. After strolling to the Championship title and an immediate return to the EPL, the fans were completely energised and couldn’t wait to see this new young and highly talented side compete with the best. A top half finish was expected by many on social media. I too thought we could be there and relegation would never need to be contemplated.
Many more players were signed which raised eyebrows among fans, but once some of them played regardless of results, fans expectations rose more. Koleosho and Odobert being prime examples of more new talent that were better than what the club already had with Kompany saying he’s got a £100 million player on his hands, but not knowing which one. Fans automatically and naturally get carried away with it all, so were able to accept the early poor results. As the season went on the high finish expectations dropped to just stay up and we will be able to improve with experience and all the costly mistakes would stop. However, the mistakes continued and fans began getting disillusioned with Kompany and his stubbornness to change tactics or rather not change them. He seemed determined to prove his way was the right way and he unfortunately only proved that the players were too inexperienced to play that style against some of the best in the world condemning Burnley to an immediate return back to the Championship.
Kompany gone and Parker takes over.
And here we are, Parker becomes the new Burnley manager and a new era begins, but the fans in general were quiet on the appointment. Parker has proven that he can take teams up to the Premier League having done it twice with Fulham and Bournemouth, but fans of those clubs seemed to have plenty of negative comments about him on social media and he’s not done much since, so very much been out of the managerial merry-go-rounds of recent years. No doubt every Burnley fan had a favourite choice for the job, but I would be surprised if any had Parker. However, he is named as manager and he’s got a great squad that in fairness anybody would love to inherit making his task look very easy. The only question really, is can he do something different to Kompany the following season when he inevitably gets Burnley promoted. Fans expectations are still high because the squad is far too strong for the Championship and seriously let themselves down in the EPL, so everybody expects them to excel and improve with another year together. Yes, the squad was too big and several needed to go in order for Burnley to comply with the EFL regulations, but fans expected some of the fringe players to go and send some out on loan. The transfer news was quiet at first and no signs of anything drastic happening, so onto the start of the season. Luton away first match was probably the hardest start Burnley could’ve had given they had put up a better fight than Burnley in the Premier, but were ultimately not good enough. Hoping to come away with a point was what most were thinking, but Burnley ripped Luton wide open time after time and winning convincingly 4-1. This was followed up with a 5-0 hammering of Cardiff for Parkers first game in charge at Turf Moor.
What a start.
During those first two games, it was clear that the team were too good based on the goals they created and scored as well as the results in general, but there were a couple of signs that were quite noticeable. Burnley were deadly when they got a chance, but given the scorelines, there were few chances being created. Generally when a team scores 4 or 5 goals, they usually miss a dozen other opportunities, but this wasn’t the case for Burnley. The team looked like they had instantly erased the memories of the previous disastrous season as well as moving on from the old manager and the style of play was not much different in basic terms such as formation and building from the back, but there were some slight differences and these would soon start to become obvious.
Once again Burnley dismantled the team selling player after player during the last week or so of the transfer window and although some were expected, some weren’t and even though the large amount of money from the sales kept coming in, the club were losing players and they were the main key players which would clearly weaken the squad. At the time, alarm bells were ringing for many fans because it was happening so fast and crazy rumours hit the social media platforms compounded by Blackburn fans commenting and adding more false speculation. I saw all kind of claims such as Pace was selling the club and getting as much money from the team as possible before running off back across the Atlantic. Others said, none of the players wanted to play for us again and were demanding to leave and of course Scott Parker had apparently resigned too. Very little information came out from the club at this time and the most news from within the club was about the head of the academy was sacked for passing on information to an agent by providing his opinion of players which were very negative in many cases. This type of thing happens all the time, but he made the mistake of sending the information to the wrong WhatsApp group and stupidly sent it to the under 21’s squad which was then forwarded to the 1st team players and it all quite rightly kicked off.
Those were some of the longest days I’ve ever endured as a Burnley fan and like everybody else, I just wanted it to end asap. Several players were brought in at the last minute to get the numbers back up a little bit, but so much had happened, nobody really knew what we were left with and what really was happening within the club.
In my first article of this Burnley series, I explained the finances around all the transfers in and out since Pace took over which go to show the need to balance the books and this is exactly why they were sold. The club would’ve been financially ruined had they not sold those players and would probably have been hit with some fines from the EFL due to the number of players and FFP. Transfers often take a while to negotiate, so some of these deals could’ve been going on for weeks, but they all completed at the same time which caused a problem. Sales needed to happen before new players could be brought in and this is part of the long term plan, so it’s something the fans need to get used to which is difficult given under Dyche most of the players were there for several years and very few transfers. Under Pace, the club have gone from one end of the scale to the other.
Another new team.
The next game away to Sunderland was a bit of a shocker mainly because the new players had not arrived yet, so a team was assembled from what was left of the 1st team and bulked up with some youth players mainly due to several injuries. That ended in a defeat and fans worried by the line-up and performance especially with the next match being the derby against Blackburn. What a time to play them, but at least there was time to bring in some new players and hopefully put a decent team together even though they had not trained together and probably didn’t even know each others names yet. Not a good performance, but for the fans considering what had just happened, most were relieved to get through it without losing.
That result and the 8 since make Burnley unbeaten in 9, winning 4 and drawing 5, so what is the problem especially when they are 2nd in the table! Is the problem with the players not being as good as the ones sold or is it Parker and his tactics or is it Pace for selling all those star players?
Maybe it’s a little of them all as well as some frustration because everybody had already lifted the Championship title again and were already looking forward to another crack at the Premier League after the first two games of the season. The fans know that even with creating few chances, the players that started the season would continue to find the net and cut teams open at will, but have little confidence in the current players doing that.
A little context.
I completely understand why the fans have mixed emotions right now. We are all disappointed that many of those players were sold even though we all know the club needed those funds to balance the books. At the end of the day, all fans put the survival of the club first. There is a lot of frustration due to the high expectations being somewhat obliterated due to the sales, but also the way Kompany left and the way he handled last season. Fans had started to question the manager around Christmas, but not just his tactics. Not playing players like Muric, Benson, Zaroury etc. The main point of contention was the price paid for James Trafford and him remaining the number 1 when he was looking to lightweight to command his area, but that’s for another article. Those concerns followed by the transfers out and the realisation that a simple stroll to winning the league had been massively harmed has built up a lot of frustration.
Some still blame Pace, but he’s not at fault. Some blame Kompany, but because he’s gone, they need to blame Parker. I’ve explained the finances, so that covers Pace, but what about Parker?
You have to consider it all from Parkers point of view first. He was given the job and no doubt knew there was a long term plan which was more than likely reset a little following the departure of Kompany, but in terms of the playing staff, the plan is still working and on track. Books are balanced and the club own a squad under lengthy contracts currently worth around £200million with the potential to dramatically increase. He would’ve known some players would be gone as soon as deals were agreed, but did he know about them all! Even if he did, I doubt he expected to lose them all at once and on top of that the academy manager upsetting the rest of the team. Of course he had a lot of issues to deal with in a short space of time and then find a way to put a team together while bringing in new players again in a short space of time, so there was a lot of upheaval and I would suggest it’s only just settling down.
At the moment the results are very much in-line with those from the first season under Kompany, but the goal threat is not there yet. Defensively sound and churning out results is not enough for some even though they endured it under Dyche in a far less pleasing on the eye way. Did Kompany spoil them being the Man City of the Championship and is Parker trying to copy that without the same firepower which would explain the renewed calls for the club to go and buy Tella. Yes, we could do with his pace right now, but I don’t believe it that simple. Opposition analysts would’ve watched the first couple of games of the season and reported back on how Parker has the team set up and the strengths/weaknesses, how to defend against Burnley and how to exploit them. It’s clear most of the clubs are going for the park the bus approach while doing anything they can to prevent any momentum which means time wasting from the kick off, lots of little fouls and plenty of rolling around on the floor to take the sting out of the game.
Parker needs more time to get his style and system working and looking at the large number of injured players, he will be glad to get some of them fit because many will be like new signings and will definitely give the team and fans a big lift. I’ve seen improvements every match and I’m sure other have too. The passing is getting quicker creating a higher tempo and the emphasis on attacking is lasting longer. If a team attacks Burnley like Leeds did for example, then they will come undone, so the best tactic is to defend and try to score on the break and be delighted with a point. This is likely to happen until Christmas because that’s how the Championship generally is. Teams either start to become desperate for points as games run out or become more confident depending on early results.
Burnley might start to get some big wins in the new year and maybe that will ease frustrations, but it shouldn’t take that really. The team will play better being backed and they are early in games, but the longer the game goes on without a goal, the more the frustrations build.
It is a new era and it will be successful, but it needs time. I know it’s difficult to stay calm, accept draws or a lack of goals, but fans need to stick with it a little more. We all want results now and want to celebrate plenty of goals, but consider the context of it all. Give it time to settle down and for the new manager and players to settle in. We all know that individually, Burnley have a team full of talented players with many more on the treatment table.
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