Burnley boss Scott Parker leaps to the defence of former Everton striker Armando Broja after recent criticism
The striker completed a £20m transfer to Burnley this summer
Burnley boss Scott Parker has jumped to the defence of summer signing Armando Broja despite his underwhelming start to life at Turf Moor.
The former Chelsea protégé spent the entirety of last season on loan at Everton but was limited to just 10 league appearances and 11 across all competitions. The Toffees had an option to turn the loan into a permanent at the end of the campaign but unsurprisingly decided against that option over the summer.
Broja struggled with an achilles tendon injury for most of his time at Goodison Park and briefly returned to the line-up in December before being stricken with an ankle injury. He regained fitness in time for the rest of the season but never really won the trust of David Moyes. He was an unused substitute for three of the final five matches and failed to make the matchday squad at all during the other two.
The 29-time Albanian international had arrived with high hopes after a productive loan spell with Southampton earlier in his career. While he’d also shown plenty of promise in Chelsea’s youth team. However, it’s fair to say that many eyebrows were raised when Burnley agreed to pay the £20m required to bring him to Turf Moor over the summer.
Armando Broja’s career at Burnley so far
Since making the move to Burnley, Armando Broja has failed to score in three appearances across all competitions. He started a Carabao Cup match against Derby County and got an assist in a 2-1 win but failed to impress in a lacklustre 78 minute outing against League One Cardiff as his side were eliminated from the competition.
Broja failed to make the squad in any of the opening three matchdays and has so far played just a minute of Premier League football against Liverpool in a narrow 1-0 loss.
As it stands, there’s not too many demanding that he starts league matches just yet due to the manner of his performances in cup competitions, with some supporters criticising him on social media. However, Scott Parker has called for calm despite the fact that he admits there’s plenty of work to do with the player.
Scott Parker jumps to Armando Broja’s defence
Burnley boss Scott Parker is adamant that the best is still to come from Armando Broja. He told The Burnley Express: “Look, I think Amando just needs some work at the moment. He's not had a lot of football over the course of the last couple of years really,” he said.
“I think we all need to be very calm where Amando is at this present moment in time. He needs work, I agree.I think we definitely saw a better version tonight with him [compared to the last round]. But you can also see that he probably just needs minutes in his legs. He needs more training. He needs to keep working. He's going to be vital for us this year, for sure. We just need to take care of him and we need to get some serious work into him as well.”
“Obviously he’s not had a lot of minutes, he’s been out injured for large parts of pre-season as well, so this will be good for him. Goals certainly will be good for him and just the minutes in his legs is a big thing as well.”
Broja, who struggled at Everton, is hoping to break into the team for the match against Manchester City this weekend, although Lyle Foster is the favourite to start. He can look forward to facing on 27 December at Turf Moor.