Scott Parker addresses Burnley's 'brave' tactical switch for Chelsea game
It might not have earned Burnley a positive result against Chelsea, but Scott Parker was pleased with how his tactical switch worked.
For the first time this season against one of the league’s bigger and better sides, the Clarets lined up with a back four.
Parker himself admits there were “risks” attached to his decision, having previously adopted a more conservative back five against the likes of Tottenham, Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal.
Burnley were noticeably more front-footed during the first-half, getting into some promising attacking positions but without capitalising.
In fact, the Clarets’ accumulation of four shots in the opening 12 minutes was a higher tally than they’ve produced in their first 12 minutes of all their previous 11 games combined.
Their quality and decision-making let them down in the final third though and they ultimately came away empty-handed, losing 2-0 to suffer their third straight defeat.
As a result, they also slip into the Premier League’s relegation zone.
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Looking beyond the result and focusing on his side’s performance, Parker was pleased with how the tactical switch paid off.
“I thought it went really well and there's risk to that,” he said.
“Of course, there’s a lot of hours on a laptop and in an office thinking: ‘is this the right way because of the level of player we're playing against and the level of team you're playing against’?
"We decided to be a bit more brave and I thought it worked really, really well, to be honest with you.
"They changed the way they went about it in the second half and obviously protected things a little bit more. I think that was credit to us in the first half in terms of where we were exploiting them.
"But I was pleased with the way the back four went.”
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