Burnley suffered their first defeat of pre-season on Saturday with a disappointing 1-0 reversal at the hands of Stoke City.
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Why Scott Parker was left with 'bitter taste' after Burnley's friendly defeat at...](https://www.burnleyexpress.net/sport/football/why-scott-parker-was-left-with-bitter-taste-after-burnleys-friendly-defeat-at-stoke-city-5254391 "Why Scott Parker was left with 'bitter taste' after Burnley's friendly defeat at Stoke City")
The goal itself was a sloppy one to concede, goalkeeper Max Weiss failing to claim an aerial ball leaving his goal completely empty for Wilmot to steer home.
Scott Parker’s side never seriously looked like breaking down the Potters’ resistance and things went from bad to worse for the Clarets when former Stoke man Josh Laurent was bizarrely sent off.
Here are some of the key takeaways from Saturday’s trip to the bet365:
A not so friendly ‘friendly’
While this wasn’t the most entertaining or fascinating of affairs, there was a point in the first-half - potentially when a mass brawl threatened to break out on the halfway line – where I was beginning to enjoy the needle on show. We all know how sanguine and pointless some of these friendlies can be, so it was good to finally get a bit of an edge to proceedings. But the referee Steve Martin, who had a bizarre day at the office, saw things differently. He wanted to put an immediate stop to any notion of a physical, well-contested and sometimes tense affair, so he clamped down on anything and everything. So much so, he dished out five yellow cards and two for Josh Laurent in the space of six minutes, resulting in a red card in a pre-season friendly, which is something of a collector’s item. Why Martin couldn’t just apply a bit of common sense and request Parker substitute Laurent off, rather than brandish a red, I don’t know. Even the Stoke bench knew it was the right thing to do. But the man in the middle, who was apparently told by his superiors to officiate the friendly as if it was a ‘normal’ game, didn’t have his best afternoon. He missed a number of glaringly obvious fouls and failed to apply consistency throughout.
Walker showed his class despite Burnley's disappointing display (Photo by Nathan Stirk/Getty Images)placeholder image
Walker showed his class despite Burnley's disappointing display (Photo by Nathan Stirk/Getty Images)
Avoidable goal
Having conceded just 16 league goals last season, seeing Burnley concede any goal still comes as a surprise. But to see them let in a goal of such a soft nature was an eye-opener. A harmless-enough corner was partially cleared, ballooning up into the air. Goalkeeper Max Weiss saw the opportunity to rush off his line and claim, but he got held up by a sea of bodies and failed to make any real contact. With the ball allowed to bounce in his area, Wilmot had the simple task of slotting home into the back of Weiss’ empty net. It was a bit of a howler, it has to be said, but the young German stopper redeemed himself later on with a couple of late stops to deny Stoke a second. He also distributed well and looked comfortable with the ball at his feet, so all was not lost.
One-dimensional
The usual caveat applies that this is just a pre-season friendly and the most important thing is to get minutes in the bank and avoid picking up injuries. But given the fact Burnley fielded close enough to their strongest XI, and considering we’re only two weeks out from the season opener at Spurs, I think it’s fair to make a studious assessment of what we witnessed, both good and bad. The Clarets didn’t offer a great deal in the centre of the park, there was a lot of safe, sidewards passing, reminiscent of the opening months of the Championship campaign. There was no dynamism or player willing to take the game by the scruff of the neck. In the final third, meanwhile, Jaidon Anthony and Marcus Edwards always carried a threat, but too often failed to produce an end product. That’s easier said than done when you’re coming up against a deep backline who have men behind the ball, but Burnley should be used to that by now. Playing without a recognised striker didn’t help either, as the Clarets struggled to make the ball stick. Of course there’s still time to rectify these faults and you’d expect the Clarets to only get stronger as time goes on, but they might need to look to the transfer market to inject some added quality.
Walker’s still got it
Making the drop down from Manchester City to Burnley, having just finished an apparently not-so-successful loan spell in Milan, there was some suggestion that perhaps Kyle Walker’s legs had gone. He was on the way out. While we’ve only witnessed two pre-season games, there’s been nothing to suggest that is the case. If anything, Burnley fans will be pinching themselves that a full-back of his quality is wearing the famous claret and blue. Walker was Burnley’s standout performer on Saturday, not just because of his electric turn of pace – which is certainly still there, despite claims to the contrary – but his quality on the ball, his positioning, his willingness and drive to bomb up and down the pitch, his thunderous challenges, his pinpoint crossfield balls and so on and so on were all on show. Of course the real acid test will come away to his old club Spurs in two weeks’ time, not Huddersfield and Stoke away. But the signs so far are good. Despite Burnley performing poorly, Walker was still a class above anyone else on the football pitch.
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