Talking Tactics: How Did Scott Parker Get One Over On Sunderland?

Sunderland experienced their first Premier League away day on Saturday, coming up against a familiar foe in Burnley at Turf Moor in the first real relegation scrap of the season.

Having played the reverse fixture on the same weekend as last season in the Championship, both teams were fighting it out to retain a seat at the Premier League table come May.

Having faced one another twice previously, Régis Le Bris and Scott Parker are no strangers to one another, and both squads had a new look to them following a combined summer spend of over £300 million.

Despite a strong start, Sunderland were undone by the only two real moments of quality in the game and came away from Turf Moor empty-handed, so how did Parker stifle Le Bris’ men — and what can we learn from our first league defeat of the season?

Sunderland lineup

The old motto of ‘never change a winning team’ nearly rang true for Le Bris as he opted to stick with the same team that ran out victorious against West Ham on opening weekend with the exception of Omar Alderete, who came in to replace Jenson Seelt after making his debut during the second half against the Hammers. 

Despite late fitness tests for both Dan Ballard and Habib Diarra — which we were made aware of on the eve of the game — the front six remained unchanged and Sunderland went with the tried and tested 4-3-3 shape which saw the Lads marshal the middle of the park against West Ham a week prior.

With the front three all coming off the back of goal contributions, Le Bris felt that sticking to his winning side was the best course of action and allowed Diarra to push up alongside Eliezer Mayenda, forming the 4-4-2 out of possession we’ve all become accustomed to away from home.

Opposition lineup

Scott Parker made several changes to his side after Burnley’s opening day defeat to Spurs as Josh Laurent and Oliver Sonne made way for Jacob Bruun Larsen and Lesley Ugochukwu in the starting eleven.

Looking to provide some additional attacking output, Parker switched between the 5-4-1 he deployed at Spurs and a 4-2-3-1, in order to allow more bodies in the final third as they looked to punish Sunderland.

Switching shape provided more natural stability in midfield, with Hannibal rotating between linking up with his lone striker Lyle Foster on the attack whilst also dropping into his midfield to support the double pivot of Josh Cullen and Ugochukwu when Burnley were under pressure.

Interestingly, Bruun Larsen — whilst traditionally deployed as an inside forward or striker — would often drop in to form a back five out of possession, which is something we’ll touch on later when looking at Burnley’s defensive solidity.

Elsewhere Cullen held the captain’s armband in midfield whilst the hero of last season, Maxine Esteve, retained his place in the heart of central defence.

Sunderland rue missed opportunities

We came out of the gate as early aggressors in this one, applying some early pressure through both our field presence but also in our ability to win early fouls and put the onus on the Burnley defence.

In what ultimately turned out to be game-defining moment, Mayenda had the opportunity to light the touch paper early on after a well-executed set piece which saw Ballard lay the ball across goal for the striker. Unfortunately, Mayenda wasn’t able to get a firm enough connection on the ball, which allowed Martin Dubravka to make an easy save to keep the game level.

Mayenda’s chance actually turned out to be the second most valuable opportunity of the game with a 0.3 xG (0.7 xGOT) which was ultimately only bested by Jaidon Anthony’s rounding of the goalkeeper in the closing stages of the match at 0.58 xG (0.83 xGOT) to seal the game.

Mayenda will ultimately know he has to do better in future and will doubtless learn from the fact that at the highest level, the difference between winning and losing games comes down to taking every opportunity that comes your way — as he did against West Ham. In Premier League games, there may only be two or three chances in any one game and therefore when one comes your way, you have no choice but to make it count.

If we’d been able to capitalise early doors, Burnley’s raucous home crowd would’ve been silenced, allowing the Lads to settle into their usual counter-attacking style and providing Burnley with more of the possession.

With the score remaining level, we were forced to dictate play with their personnel on the field and therefore went into the interval with 52% possession — an almost unheard of number for a Le Bris side.

Forcing unwanted possession

After a raft of summer transfers, Sunderland have leaned more than ever into the Le Bris mantra around playing fast, direct and fluid counter-attacking football in order avoid relegation and break the mould this season.

As a result, over £150 million has been spent on carefully crafting a squad that can get the most out of the playing style, by focusing on players who excel in transition but can also stand up to the physical strains of the Premier League.

Although the vast majority of Premier League sides will see themselves as superior to Sunderland and will look to retain the lion’s share of the ball, teams such as Burnley, Brentford and Wolves may look the other way and decide to force us to work with the ball.

Despite featuring as the home side, Parker placed emphasis on Sunderland occupying possession and consequently stagnated the chance creation from a Sunderland perspective.

For additional context, whilst the scores remained 0-0, through the first forty six minutes of play, Sunderland averaged 52% Possession and completed 254/296 (85.8%) passes during this period.

Compare this to last week, where Sunderland only completed 250 (77%) passes across the full match and walked away with a 3-0 win and all three points.

Although I don’t see many more similar situations arising this season, Brentford managed a 1-0 home win against Aston Villa with 24% total possession and completed even fewer passes, with 128 (72%).

Therefore, we can expect Le Bris to be working on this during the week ahead of our next home fixture. 

Burnley close the door

Known for their astounding defensive record during the 2024/2025 campaign, Scott Parker knows a thing or two about defending a lead or looking to retain a clean sheet during games at Turf Moor, and once Sunderland conceded the first goal just after the second half began, it looked like a long way back given the lack of chance creation during the game.

Once Burnley got themselves settled in their low block system which saw Bruun Larsen shuffle across to right wing back and allowed Kyle Walker to operate as an auxiliary outside centre half, they never looked like conceding any shots on target, let alone goals.

In contrast, Sunderland were reduced to playing all of their football outside of the Burnley box — about which Parker was perfectly content for the remainder of the afternoon.

By compacting their shape and forcing Sunderland to play out wide, Burnley were able to limit us to just six shots in the second half, all of which were blocked. Furthermore, Sunderland were forced into retaining a whopping 65% possession during the second half, and completed 280 (87%) passes — more than double Burnley’s in that timeframe.

With both Sunderland wingers doubled up in the wide positions, neither Chemsdine Talbi nor Simon Adingra were able to exploit their pace and dribbling ability, which resulted in a combined 0% dribble success rate prior to their substitutions in the second half. Even Mayenda, who’s renowned for his direct running ability in tight spaces, was only able to muster up 1/1 dribbles during his hour on the field.

Synergy and familiarity

Against West Ham, Sunderland’s new-look side worked together as if they’d already racked up a century of appearances alongside one another.

At Turf Moor, however, things looked a little more disjointed and the understanding in the build-up was a little off at times.

As can be seen from the passing maps throughout this one, despite completing more than double the amount of passes as we did against West Ham, the majority remained ‘passive passes’, played within unthreatening areas and not looking towards the trademark Le Bris triangles.

Although this was to be somewhat expected, it’s clear that it’s going to take several weeks for the squad to click and those ‘bounce’ passes we see in the midfield to become second nature for our preferred midfield three.

In games where we’re going to be forced to play through a low block as we did last season, the players are going to have to utilise the foundations of Le Bris’ style of play in order to break down teams when required.

Looking ahead

With Brentford next up at the Stadium Of Light, Sunderland will once again look to take advantage of home dominance and collect another three points against a side who’ll view them as vital in their bid for survival this season, being under new management in Keith Andrews.

Interestingly, Brentford are another side who’ll look to totally cede possession to Sunderland in a bid to catch us on the counter attack, therefore I wouldn’t be surprised to see Enzo Le Fée come in for this one, given the additional time we’d expect to have on the ball.

With the knowledge that every game this season is going to be a tough one, the Lads will certainly take some time to reflect on their performance and look to get back to winning ways, with an array of tougher fixtures coming up following the conclusion of the September international break.