Burnley FC: Scott Parker should be wary of Sean Dyche, Michael Duff moment | OneFootball

Sean Dyche's decision to ditch Michael Duff in December 2015 was a huge call that led to promotion

It's hard to draw too many comparisons between Burnley's 2015/16 Championship title-winning side and the current crop of second-tier hopefuls, but there was at least a common goal between them in the fact the ultimate goal was promotion.

Whether the current side are successful or not remains to be seen, but they're making a solid fist of doing so as they find themselves in the thick of the automatic promotion race.

They've got players in the squad who've been there and done it with Burnley before - the likes of Josh Brownhill, Josh Cullen and Lyle Foster, while new recruit Joe Worrall has also experienced promotion to the top-flight.

Manager Scott Parker has also overseen two promotions, and although that's as many as Sean Dyche, there is one thing that he could learn from Dyche's 2015/16 side.

Dyche made one huge call during that season that ultimately proved the catalyst to a huge upturn in form, and Parker should be cautious not to make the same mistake Dyche made in the first half of that campaign.

Up until December 2015, Burnley weren't having it all quite their own way in the Championship despite being one of the freshly relegated sides and shouldering the weight of expectation to go straight back up.

A 3-0 defeat against Hull City on Boxing Day proved to be the final straw for Dyche, who had seen enough and knew something drastic had to change if the Clarets were to go straight back up.

Most Burnley fans had been campaigning to see the ageing Michael Duff dropped and Ben Mee slot in at centre back alongside Michael Keane, and although those calls had largely fallen on deaf ears, Dyche eventually made the switch and the rest is history.

Burnley went 23 games unbeaten across the rest of the season with Mee partnering Keane at centre back, and with that the main change of note after that Hull defeat, it's fair to say that change was the catalyst for success.

Ultimately, without that 23 game unbeaten run, the Clarets would never have gone back up and who knows where they'd have been now.

Scott Parker faces a similar dilemma at the moment

Burnley boss Scott Parker faces a similar dilemma at the heart of his defence at the moment, although it's almost roles reversed to the dilemma Dyche had to deal with.

There's usually no substitute for experience in football, but with experience usually brings age, which in itself causes a whole host of issues, as Burnley found out with Duff.

The Clarets have had CJ Egan-Riley slotting in at the heart of their defence for most of this season, and although he certainly doesn't carry all that much experience, similar to how Mee was in 2015/16, he's the best option to play there when fit.

That's despite Worrall nearing a return to fitness after his summer move to Turf Moor, and despite it being widely regarded that he would be the man to play alongside Maxime Esteve, Egan-Riley has now made that spot his own.

While Worrall has the experience like Duff did, Parker should follow the example Dyche set back in 2015 when he opted for the less experienced option which ultimately yielded better results.