Burnley “need to have a clear focus”, says Parker ahead of West Ham test | OneFootball

Scott Parker addressed the media ahead of a crucial match against West Ham at Turf Moor on Saturday, largely reflecting on the importance of his team’s mentality.

The Burnley boss assured that his team were “all good”, despite their dismal 3-0 defeat away to Sunderland on Monday night, choosing to speak candidly when discussing his team’s need for a reboot.

The 45-year-old shot down suggestions that the result required the harsh words for his players, stating that he would rather strike a balance between criticism and positivity.

He said: “In these testing times, you need to have a clear focus.

“When you’re under stress, under serious stress, the easiest way is to probably just try to narrow things down, and have just a clear one or two things or three things about what we need to be.”

He also did not get ahead of himself when talking about what a potential win against West Ham could do for the momentum of Burnley tomorrow.

Parker said: “We’ve been in this position at times this year where you feel that there’s that momentum at times then we’ve let ourselves down.

“I think they’ve had a big, big improvement over the last three or four weeks, obviously brought some players in.”

Before playing Chelsea, West Ham had won their last three games in all competitions, including wins over Tottenham Hotspur and Sunderland.

When asked about his fixation on the word “resilience”, Parker maintained his honesty in stating that it’s what is needed despite the lengths to which it has been tested this season.

He credited the leadership qualities shown by the club’s senior recruits Kyle Walker and goalkeeper Martin Dúbravka, in being able to help guide his team through a tough period – going without a league victory since mid-October.

Parker expressed the desire to employ aggressive tactics, yet also his intent to make the most of the players currently at his disposal.

He said: “You’re constantly trying to weigh up different things for the game.

“I think this year there’s been many games where we’ve varied different things. We want to be an aggressive team.

“We’ll try to work out what is the best way to go against this team in terms of the personnel they’ve got and in terms of where I see best to do that.”

Parker confirmed that there were no fresh injury concerns heading into tomorrow’s clash with West Ham, and that the current long-term injured players were still unsurprisingly absent.

He said: “The longer-term boys are still the longer-term boys/obviously James (Ward-Prowse) can’t play this weekend due to him playing against West Ham”.

The match will take place at Turf Moor on Saturday, February 7th, with kick-off scheduled for 3pm (UK time).