Scott Parker launches impassioned defence of Burnley's style of play following Leeds United bore draw

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Scott Parker launched an impassioned defence of Burnley’s style of play after being labelled “boring” following their drab draw against Leeds United.
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The Clarets, and Parker in particular, bore the brunt of the criticism, given that Leeds are the Championship’s top goalscorers with 53 goals from their 29 games.

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Burnley, by comparison, have only hit the back of the net on 36 occasions in the league so far this season.

When asked if the ‘boring’ tag bothers him, Parker replied: “No, it doesn't bother me too much.

“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.

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PLYMOUTH, ENGLAND - JANUARY 22: Scott Parker, Manager of Burnley, looks on prior to the Sky Bet Championship match between Plymouth Argyle FC and Burnley FC at Home Park on January 22, 2025 in Plymouth, England. (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)PLYMOUTH, ENGLAND - JANUARY 22: Scott Parker, Manager of Burnley, looks on prior to the Sky Bet Championship match between Plymouth Argyle FC and Burnley FC at Home Park on January 22, 2025 in Plymouth, England. (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)
PLYMOUTH, ENGLAND - JANUARY 22: Scott Parker, Manager of Burnley, looks on prior to the Sky Bet Championship match between Plymouth Argyle FC and Burnley FC at Home Park on January 22, 2025 in Plymouth, England. (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

“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.

“After a brand new group coming in, the absolute reality is that that can't fully happen in such a quick space of time.

“We've put a tonne of work in to build a group and clearly the bulk of work has gone into building a defensive unit. On the flip side, there's elements constantly, which I keep saying, that we're trying to nudge along.

“If anyone was out there believing that I'm sitting here going: ‘yeah, this is us and this is what we're going to be’, then that's not the case. This is a progress. This is us trying to develop and we're going to maintain that.

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“It was only a week ago we scored five goals against Plymouth. Maybe some will just sit there and easily say, ‘oh well, that's probably what should happen’. If only the game was that easy. Perception of teams or perception of what a table looks like or players on team sheets is vastly different to what the reality is.

“Yes, we scored goals there and on Monday night, we don't score against Leeds, who are top of the league.

“It’s a team that averages around 1.8-2 xG per game, but we reduced them to about 0.37. I get they're just numbers, but we didn't score against Leeds and quickly the narrative swings that we're a really boring team.

“That was the game, it wasn't a classic. I'm not going to sit here and deny that. I get that totally.

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“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.

“What we did manage to do was pretty incredible on the defensive side of things. What we didn't manage to execute was us trying to be a bit of a threat, but we keep working on that.”

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