'Let’s put it into perspective': Scott Parker issues passionate defence of his 'young' Burnley side

Despite sitting third in the Championship table, just one point adrift of leaders Sunderland, some fans have vented frustration at Burnley’s lack of goals in recent weeks.

Since the opening two games of the season, where the Clarets ran in nine goals, Parker’s men have found the back of the net on just five occasions in their following seven games.

Defensively Burnley have been superb, conceding just four goals all season and keeping three clean sheets in a row, but at the other end of the pitch they’ve often looked devoid of ideas.

Despite failing to beat Preston on Saturday, Parker felt there were still positives to take from the stalemate.

“For sure they will learn a lot from this game and it is a young team,” he said.

“Put things into perspective and look deeper than ‘it’s Burnley coming out of the Premier League’.

“In the world we live in, in terms of Burnley being in the Premier League and yep, we should be top of the league and we should have won every game now, let’s put it into perspective and judge what we’re seeing currently.

“That back four must be one of the youngest back fours in the Championship. In terms of experience, I don’t think there’s many games in that back four, but that back four has now kept three straight clean sheets.

“At times they are learning on the job, so I have nothing but admiration for all of them and as a group as well.

“It is a very young team. It’s a young team in age, it’s a young team in development as well, so I back them all the way.”

Given the summer’s squad overhaul, Parker also remains delighted with where Burnley sit in the table after the turbulence during the first few weeks of the season.

“We all understand [where we need to improve], players as well,” he added.

“Look, how many games have we played? Nine. I can’t express enough how delighted I am with this group, how delighted I am where we currently are and where we sit.

“At the same time I can’t emphasise enough where we need to improve and what needs to get better. That’s part of developing.

“While a lot of people might not want to hear that, the facts are in life there is no magic wand that can just wave and all of a sudden things click into place.

“Certainly there is a lot of work for us to do, but I’m going to sit in a neutral position as a manager of this football club and look at a group of men that work absolutely tirelessly every single day and I will back them to the absolute hill.

“Second to that is a group that sit in this division where we sit, with the results we’ve got, which is brilliant. That’s the cold, hard facts.

“There’s loads of improvement like I keep saying, there will be loads of improvement next year, there will be loads of improvement in game 36, but we’re all on board with that and we all understand the work we’ve got to do.”