Is Burnley's back four here to stay? Scott Parker discusses ahead of Wolves trip
Scott Parker is keeping his cards close to his chest when asked about the future of Burnley’s back four.
The Clarets reverted to a 4-3-3 system for last weekend’s 2-0 win against Leeds United, having predominately played with a back five during the early part of the season.
The tactical switch paid off, as Burnley recorded their second victory of the season to move out of the relegation zone.
Ahead of Sunday’s clash against bottom side, Parker was inevitably asked if the back four is here to stay, but the Clarets boss – as you might expect – refused to give too much away.
“We were really pleased with that,” he said.
“I suppose I was more pleased with the actual players and the group. We've worked a lot on different shapes and different systems this year for us to try and be flexible.
“The work we did regarding the weekend's game was probably a couple of weeks, so the real compliment from me comes to the players in terms of executing that, because there was a limited amount of time and they needed to have a real clear understanding and then go and execute.
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“As always regarding shape, I think we're in a good position at this present moment in time to vary that. Whether we want to go with a back three or a back four, how we change structure and how we change shape will be good for us really.
“I'm not sure it's here to stay, but certainly there's going to be parts that we can definitely use this year.”
While the Clarets do a lot of tactical work, both on and off the training ground, Parker admits it’s important not to get too bogged down with what the opposition are doing.
“There's two sides to it,” he added.
“The game's evolving and the game's becoming more flexible in terms of structures that you face. We put a large element on both sides, how we can nullify an opposition in terms of what they do or how their main structure or their base structure and highlight the areas of how we're going to go about it and certainly our pressing structure.
“On the flip side of that, it's where we can expose it, so of course, as always, when you sit in a position here, when you're delivering a message, sometimes the one thing you don't want to do is make that very complicated.
“You want it to be very clear and a clear understanding to the players of what you need to do, so I'm always very conscious of that.”
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