Scott Parker took plenty of learnings from Burnley’s final pre-season friendly of the summer against Lazio.
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The Clarets delivered an encouraging showing in their one and only Turf Moor pre-season outing despite falling to a narrow 1-0 defeat.
“It was a really good test against a very good side,” Parker told the Burnley Express.
“I thought first-half we were very good, to be fair. I thought we had a real patience about us, certainly in the out-of-possession structure.
“We limited them to very, very few chances and I thought we created some really, really good chances ourselves and probably should have gone in ahead.
“We had some half-ish chances and some good chances, I think there’s the one that hit the bar. Second-half as well, we come out and we started very, very well. Jaidon [Anthony] has a big chance but we just didn't manage to obviously get our noses in front today.
Scott Parker gestures on the sidelines during Burnley's friendly against Lazio (Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images)placeholder image
Scott Parker gestures on the sidelines during Burnley's friendly against Lazio (Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
“The back end of the game probably dies off a little bit and it's disappointing the way we conceded that goal, that's a little bit of a disappointment. But overall, a good test for us and I thought we come out of it very, very well.
“We get some more fitness in the legs as well and some really positive signs.”
Despite losing, Parker’s side had otherwise been the better team, creating the more clearer-cut chances and limiting their Serie A opponents to very little.
Regardless of the result, Parker will be able to take plenty from the friendly outing - with the Clarets looking comfortable out of possession in their back three system, while also looking fluid with their build-up play.
“I thought we looked very disciplined out-of-possession,” Parker added.
“We tried to prep today to be the team that we're going to have to be and I thought our distances, how compact we were…we really limited them to very, very few chances.
“Then I thought in our spells with the ball, I thought we cut through and we added real tempo and speed to our game and became a real threat. We were just missing that goal really, which was key to it.”
Parker was also pleased to face top opposition, having faced Shrewsbury Town, Huddersfield Town and Stoke City in their previous public runouts.
“That was key, playing against a really good side,” the Clarets boss said.
“Obviously, we played Wolves early on in pre-season as well and that was a similar case.
“I was pleased at this level of opponent we played today because, obviously, you can put it to a real test game, which is obviously a very competitive league for us this year, so I’m pleased with that.”
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