Burnley FC: Scott Parker has to take bullish Lyle Foster stance in January - View | OneFootball

With just a solitary goal to his name this season, Lyle Foster's spot in the team will come under a greater threat if Scott Parker recruits in January

Lyle Foster was signed by Vincent Kompany back in January 2023 with the intention of being their go-to man in the Premier League but now struggling to score in the Championship, the move hasn't really worked out for the South African.

With a greater focus currently on where Burnley's goals are coming from, all eyes are on Foster, but Saturday's performance against Preston showed yet again that he just isn't the type of magic man to dig you out of a hole when you need him most.

If there was ever a stat to sum up how far your striker has fallen, having four times as many yellow cards as goals this season would probably be it, and if promotion is a real aspiration for the Clarets this term, then that simply isn't good enough.

A veteran Jay Rodriguez and the unknown quantity of Andréas Hountondji are all Burnley have behind Foster in the striker ranks, so his position in the team seems relatively secure on the basis they don't really have anyone else to choose from.

But with the January transfer window three months away, boss Scott Parker has a chance to bolster his striking options and add some much-needed firepower to his misfiring front line.

Foster's Burnley career so far

Signed from Belgian Pro League side K.V.C. Westerlo for a reported €10 million back in January 2023, Burnley fans thought they'd finally signed the number nine their side had been crying out for since the departure of Chris Wood a year prior to Foster's arrival.

That wasn't the case in the infancy of his Turf Moor stint though, where he netted just one Championship goal before the end of the season and many suspected he'd struggle to step up to the Premier League.

He surprised many though, and incredibly looked at home in the early stages of Burnley's top-flight campaign, amassing five goal contributions in six games to open the season - form which earned him a new five-year deal in the North West.

Things quickly went west after that when it was revealed that Foster was struggling with mental health issues, and even after returning to the fold in December, he never truly regained his early-season form.

Two late summer transfer window bids to land Plymouth's Morgan Whittaker proved that Parker was looking to add goals to his side, and although not known as an out-and-out number nine, Whittaker in the Burnley team would release the load on Foster.

A mere five goals scored across their last seven Championship games would vindicate calls for January recruits to bolster the Burnley front line, and if it's not to be Whittaker arriving through the door, then it will likely have to be someone else.

Cynics would argue that he's only played so many games this season simply because of Burnley's lack of true goalscoring options, with Rodriguez approaching the twilight of his career and Hountondji failing to deliver any noteworthy performances since his summer arrival.

That stay of execution gives Foster the chance to prove his worth before the January window opens but in a 46-game season, Parker, a man who's already overseen two promotions to the Premier League, will be all too aware that he can't rely on a hit-and-miss frontman all season.

On that basis, Parker needs to be ruthless in January and portion a chunk of his warchest to recruiting the goalscorer that will propel Burnley back to the top flight at the first time of asking.