Brave Josh Cullen call can help Scott Parker solve Burnley FC issue | OneFootball

Dropping Josh Cullen can help Scott Parker unlock Burnley’s attacking potential by getting players into their preferred positions

After a stunning 2022/23 season in which he scooped the Player of the Season and Players' Player of the Season in his first 12 months with Burnley, it seems unthinkable that there may not be a spot in the starting XI for Josh Cullen anymore.

It's a position he finds himself in though, and Scott Parker now has a huge decision on his hands to get the balance of the team right.

You'd be forgiven for thinking he's got it right already with Burnley sitting second in the league, but that masks some underlying on-field issues, particularly in the final third, where Burnley continue to struggle.

Only Swansea (five) have scored fewer goals across their last ten Championship games than Burnley (eight), and while they've picked up an impressive 17 points in that time, it's disappointing draws against the likes of Oxford, Preston, Hull and QPR which have left a bitter taste in the mouths of some Clarets fans.

After being booed off at the end of Saturday's 0-0 draw at home to QPR, in which Burnley lost pace in the race for the title, there's now serious pressure building on Parker to find a solution to the issue.

Dropping Cullen would allow for an extra attacker

Playing with the handbrake on would probably be the best way to describe Burnley at the moment, but with a midfield trio of Josh Laurent, Josh Brownhill and Cullen, that's hardly a surprise.

All three of those players are similar in terms of how they want to play, with all three better coming from deep rather than occupying a more advanced role.

That's almost certainly where the root of Burnley's creative issue lies, but Parker faces the tough decision of whom to drop to get an extra attack-minded player onto the pitch.

Most Burnley fans will tell you that Laurent has been among their best performers this season, so he'd be a starter, while Brownhill is the club's top scorer and also captain, which you'd imagine rubber stamps his spot in the XI.

That leaves Cullen, who hasn't done anything drastically wrong to warrant being dropped from the XI, but hasn't shown as much as the other two this season and should probably be the makeweight to bolster the Clarets' attack.

He's also probably the most passive of the midfield three in the sense that he doesn't bring anything different to the side that the others don't, where Laurent brings physicality and stature and Brownhill brings goals and energy.

Burnley are short of options in attack

They're so short of options, in fact, that lately Zian Flemming has been plugging the striking gap left by Lyle Foster, who is sidelined through injury.

That certainly wouldn't have been the plan Parker had in mind for Flemming when he signed him in the summer, with most Burnley, and even Championship fans, recognising that his best position is playing as a No10.

The fact he's been shoehorned into a striker role shows what little faith Parker has in Jay Rodriguez and Andreas Hounhondji, both of whom are struggling for minutes despite a lack of goals.

But Parker's hand may now be forced into playing at least one of them, as Flemming is unable to play against Millwall on Sunday due to the terms of his loan-to-buy deal.

When he does return though, Parker simply has to make the brave call of dropping Cullen to the bench, playing Flemming in his natural 10 role and bringing a striker into the side to release the handbrake, and that could be just what Burnley need.