We have to try and learn from the last time
Burnley fell to a 3-0 defeat against Leicester at the King Power as the champions moved above us in the table. The result was a pleasing one for manager Claudio Ranieri who had beaten Club Brugge by the same score in the Champions League three days earlier.
“It was important to win back in the Premier League,” Ranieri said after the game. “We won our match against Brugge, our first in the Champions League, and now in the Premier League it’s important we move up the table.
“We made a fantastic performance against a very well organised team. It was very difficult at the beginning to find the solution but we pushed hard and at the end of the first half we scored the first goal. It was good to score at the beginning of the second half and again Slimani scored twice, it was a fantastic evening.
“I said to them (at half time) keep going because we are playing well. We did. It was important to score again and also to keep a clean sheet. We kept control of the match, moved the ball well from left to right and I’m very pleased with the performance.”
It was a disappointing day for Burnley and manager Sean Dyche described the minutes either side of half time, which brought Leicester two goals, as four minutes of madness.
With the game in stoppage time at the end of the first half, and the score still at 0-0, it looked as though we would go in level, but they scored from a free kick to change things totally.
“Until that point I’d been really pleased with the players,” Dyche said. “We came to slow the tempo down by keeping the ball, which is why we played the five in midfield. I felt that worked really well and it was only the last couple of minutes when we lost our shape and gave away a poor free kick.
“In the second half it’s a poor ball from us and they break away, get four bobbles on the trot and it hits their lad on the head and goes in. At 2-0 down here, to the Premier League champions, it’s difficult then.”
It had been a good first half for us during which we looked every bit as likely as our opponents. Dyche added: “We came here with a game plan we thought could help us and although we didn’t create too much we thought it worked well. We went in scratching our head s and the team talk had to change considerably at half time.
“In the second half, you are two minutes in and 2-0 down and it’s tough. They are good players, and with a 2-0 lead, guess what happens, they start playing better. Goals change the psychology and they then controlled large parts of the second half. It’s a different level in the Premier League and when sides get their tails up they are hard to break down.
“We kept going and in the end I felt for Ben Mee because he was absolutely outstanding today. It’s an own goal trying to do the right thing, but he and Michael Keane’s performances were very good.
“Days like today are all a part of our growth. We are trying to get results and develop a side to get used to being in the Premier League and that’s difficult. We have to try and learn from the last time and twist and change things accordingly, and as I said, apart from four minutes of madness, it had worked pretty well up to that point.”
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