Tarky hoping to kick out the basic errors

James Tarkowski says the Clarets need to cut out the basic errors and resurrect the club's reputation as a strong defensive unit in the Premier League.
Burnley's James Tarkowski during the pre-match warm-up 

Photographer David Shipman/CameraSport

The Premier League - Fulham v Burnley - Sunday August 26th 2018 - Craven Cottage - London

World Copyright © 2018 CameraSport. All rights reserved. 43 Linden Ave. Countesthorpe. Leicester. England. LE8 5PG - Tel: +44 (0) 116 277 4147 - admin@camerasport.com - www.camerasport.comBurnley's James Tarkowski during the pre-match warm-up 

Photographer David Shipman/CameraSport

The Premier League - Fulham v Burnley - Sunday August 26th 2018 - Craven Cottage - London

World Copyright © 2018 CameraSport. All rights reserved. 43 Linden Ave. Countesthorpe. Leicester. England. LE8 5PG - Tel: +44 (0) 116 277 4147 - admin@camerasport.com - www.camerasport.com
Burnley's James Tarkowski during the pre-match warm-up Photographer David Shipman/CameraSport The Premier League - Fulham v Burnley - Sunday August 26th 2018 - Craven Cottage - London World Copyright © 2018 CameraSport. All rights reserved. 43 Linden Ave. Countesthorpe. Leicester. England. LE8 5PG - Tel: +44 (0) 116 277 4147 - [email protected] - www.camerasport.com

Following a clean sheet against Southampton at St Mary’s on the opening weekend of the campaign, Burnley went on to ship seven goals in defeats to Watford and Fulham.

The England international contributed to 12 clean sheets across the board last term, with only the top flight’s top five conceding less goals, and he’s determined to overcome this stumbling block and get back on track.

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With Sean Dyche’s side shipping goals early on in halves, and often twice in quick succession, the 25-year-old centre back said: “We’ve got things we want to improve on at the moment, it’s not where we want to be at as a team.

“We’ve had a great few years and been progressing well and this is one of the first real stumbling blocks we’ve had.

“There’s only us who can really change it so we’ve got to concentrate on getting things right and working at it.

“We pride ourselves defensively so to concede three last week, three in Greece and then four on Sunday it’s not like us at all so we need to get back to what we do well.”

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He added: “We’re just making basic errors. You see it sometimes and it happens to teams and just seems to sort of filter through the team and keep occurring so we need to get it out of our system.

“We’ve got to work at it ourselves and get our head around it. We just seem to have hit a bit of a stumbling block in terms of conceding early goals.

“They don’t help and it puts us on the back foot a little bit. We’re responding really well and then we just seem to shoot ourselves in the foot again.

“We’ve got to sort it out as a team. We’re not going to start pointing the finger at individuals and changes in style or anything like that, we know our jobs and what we need to do and we need to get back to it.”

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Tarkowski has scored in successive league games for the Clarets, his first goals since joining from Brentford two-and-a-half years ago, but accepts that he’d rather keep clean sheets and pick up three points.

“The Premier League’s our bread and butter, it’s what we’re about and what we need to get back to,” he said.

“I’ve not scored in a long time and then I score two. I’d much rather not be scoring and winning games and keeping clean sheets.

“That’s what I’m there to do, that’s my job so as a team we need to get back to that.”

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Meanwhile, the defender believes that the game against Manchester United at Turf Moor has come at the right time for Burnley.

With Jose Mourinho’s men getting off to their worst start in 26 years, Tarkowski said: “We’ve played against (Manchester) City and Chelsea in this league and got positive results, so we know how to cope with teams who play good football.

“To be honest they’re probably the best team to play to get a bit of expectation off our shoulders and go against a so-called top six side.

“Last year we did well against top six sides, so it’s probably the best game that could come for us really.”