DEFENCES might win you titles, but fans of “toothless” Burnley are demanding football’s tightest team start scoring some goals too.
The Clarets are second in the Championship largely due to their miserly backline.
Scott Parker is bidding for Premier League promotion with a third different side[/caption]
The Clarets sit second in the Championship but have scored 37 goals this term[/caption]
But they could blow their immediate return to the Premier League thanks to their less-than-impressive strike rate.
To say that Burnley’s football hasn’t been riveting would be an understatement.
They have irked fans with ten 0-0 draws so far this term – the joint-most by a club in an entire Championship season since 2008 – with 16 games to go.
But the Clarets have by far the best defensive record in English professional football, conceding just NINE goals in 29 matches.
That’s ten fewer than any other side in the country, with Leeds and Birmingham next best on just 19, while they have conceded five fewer than any team playing in the top two tiers of any league in Europe.
In fact, Burnley have conceded the fewest goals of any team in Premier League and EFL history after 31 matches.
Their record even surpasses Jose Mourinho’s famously stingy 2004-05 Chelsea side, who had conceded ten goals after 31 games on their way to a Prem record low of 15 goals conceded in a season.
Burnley’s rock-solid defence, which boasts the likes of Chelsea loanee Bashir Humphreys and Manchester City product CJ Egan-Riley, has seen them keep 22 clean sheets this term.
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And while England’s young goalkeeper James Trafford has been excellent between their sticks, the Clarets can’t do the business up the other end of the pitch.
It’s been 46 days and counting since fans have watched one of their own score at Turf Moor – a fortress where they remain unbeaten.
Chelsea loanee Bashir Humphreys starts at left-back for Burnley[/caption]
Michal Helik’s Oxford own-goal on Tuesday was the first goal scored at Turf Moor since Burnley’s 2-1 win over Watford on December 21.
Turf Moor had witnessed four consecutive goalless draws before Tuesday and the home fans ironically chanted “we’ve scored a goal!” earlier this week.
Nonetheless, the hopeful Clarets are pushing for automatic promotion due to an extraordinary defensive record of NINE consecutive clean sheets.
That is one of just 12 runs of nine consecutive clean sheets in Football League history.
The last side to record a longer run was Torquay United in August 2010, when they registered ten straight clean sheets. Burnley can match that record at home to Hull next week.
Manchester United hold the English record with a run of 14 shut-outs in 2008.
Many Burnley fans are sick of watching 0-0 draws at home[/caption]
But despite their league position and just two defeats all season, a section of fans are turning on manager Scott Parker’s “predictable” style of play.
Burnley supporter and TurfCast Youtube host Joe Redmond told talkSPORT: “Hindsight is a wonderful thing.
“I wanted to keep Vincent Kompany last season and at the start of this one.
“It’s a tough debate. If we get back to the Prem, I think we’ll be more pragmatic than what we were like last season.
“But at the moment we’re not winning enough games. We should be beating more teams. Us fans expect 0-0 draws now.
“It’s not us just missing chances, it’s the fact that we’re not creating anything.”
Burnley have been held to ten 0-0 draws this season[/caption]
After Tuesday night’s win, a contributor told TurfCast: “I’m not a fan of Parker. He’s so predictable.
“I won’t escape that 1-0 win. We are toothless in front of goal.
“We look terrified of putting the goal in the back of the net.”
Burnley’s non-penalty expected goals total of 28.2 is the third lowest in the division.
Combine a lack of goal-mouth action at both ends of the pitch, and Burnley’s league games this term are currently seeing the fewest goals per game in a season in EFL history.
Meanwhile Parker has repeated the defensive soundness that got his Bournemouth and Fulham sides promoted a few years back.
But unlike times of old, Parker doesn’t have a reliable goalscorer like he once did in Aleksandar Mitrovic or Dominic Solanke.
The club’s 37 goals leaves them 11th for most scored, with midfielder Josh Brownhill the top goalscorer with nine this season.
By comparison, promotion rivals Leeds, who sit two points clear of the Clarets, have scored 60.
But do Burnley fans even want their side to go up after how bad last season went?
Redmond said: “Me personally, yeah. Don’t get me wrong it is a slog in the Premier League.
“Last season was my worst-ever season as a Burnley fan. I hated every single minute of it. We were getting tanked every single week.
“But you want to be the best you can be. You want to be dining at the top table with the top teams.
“If it means getting battered every week and we have to regroup, then so be it.
“But eventually, if you keep going up, you’ll stay up and level up.”
What, perhaps, is most telling is what happened after Parker led Fulham and Bournemouth up.
The Cottagers sacked the Englishman after they were relegated upon their return, but sealed an immediate promotion under Marco Silva in 2022/23.
Meanwhile, the Cherries stayed in the Prem but axed Parker within a month of him guiding the club there.
If Mitrovic’s 43 goals brought Fulham back to the Prem, Burnley‘s lack of goals might cost them.
In their last 100 Championship matches, Burnley have lost just FIVE games. But they also have old gaffer Kompany to thank for that.
Unlike Kompany’s side, Parker’s aren’t exciting to watch.
Parker defended his side’s defensive strength as “remarkable” amid claims they lack entertainment value.
The 44-year-old said: “Our default position as a team is let’s get out of here, let’s protect our goal, let’s keep this to a nil.
“And I get that it’s not fashionable or certainly not what some people want to hear.
“But currently what this team have and what we have as a group is nothing short of remarkable, what we’ve done in the defensive phase.
“I understand on the entertainment side, it is probably less so, but that’s a work in progress.”
Former Tottenham star Marcus Edwards signed from Sporting Lisbon in January, and fans were asking for him to play against Oxford.
The Clarets meanwhile did hit five past Plymouth Argyle at the Home Park Stadium at the end of January.
Burnley’s run of 18 games unbeaten is the second-longest stretch behind Liverpool (19) in the top-four tiers this term.
While, an FA Cup fourth-round victory away at Southampton on Saturday will surely boost morale. Especially if they bang in a few goals.
