Burnley travelled to Leicester City on Sunday 20th September with the score line finishing 4-2 in the home teams favour.
Leicester held the lion share of possession and it showed as they had attacked and scored more than the Clarets.
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Won it Well
The exact split of the possession was 67.8% - 32.2%. Burnley are known for the lack of possession they have in games and this particular fixture was no different, In fact The Foxes' control on the game's possession would have been helped by the back four. New signing Timothy Castange and regular midfielder Wilfred Ndidi both featured in a backline that seemed comfortable on the ball.
Kasper Schmeichel could play it out from the back knowing that Castange, who can play as a winger, and Ndidi would be able to deal with the high press from Burnley because of their ability to play in midfield. The midfield of Youri Tielemans, Nampalys Mendy and Dennis Praet is trio that provided solid link up play, the 526 accurate passes and 85% pass success rate proves this.
Brendan Rodgers setup with an attack that was diverse in the way it could play. Jamie Vardy was at the tip whilst Harvey Barnes and Ayoze Perez could play as wingers or as wide-midfielders in a four. This was highlighted in the amount of corners that the Foxes were given. Barnes and Perez had to attack wide because of Burnley's narrow defence and therefore won a lot of the corners from deflected crosses into the box.
Going forward Leicester's attack was centred around the pace they possess. Their first was a through ball to Vardy that was eventually finished off by Barnes from inside the box. The third was very similar, a quick move from out wide found Perez who squared to James Justin an his first time strike got the better of Nick Pope.
These two goals will probably be put down to to the inexperience of Burnley's centre-halves and their positioning when marking the scorers. The fourth was sweetly struck from Praet and as for the second goal, whilst that was just unfortunate on Erik Pieters' behalf.
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Piling on the pressure
Despite losing the game, Burnley continued to pile the pressure on Leicester until the final whistle and now the fans will be doing the same to Mike Garlick. Quite simply Burnley's depleted squad was the the main issue for the loss.
Of course, it isn't the only reason, the Clarets gave away 13 fouls and had eight of their 15 shots off target. They also fall to Burnley in total passes completed, accurate passes and pass success rate. Sean Dyche's side have earned a reputation for lacking in their ability to play a possession based style of football and this would have been impacted even more by no Johann Berg Gudmundsson, Jack Cork, James Tarkowski.
The only victory Burnley did have was in the air. The Clarets won 30 aerial, although most of these will have been won by the defenders who defended the many crosses and corners Leicester had.
The two goals were quite similar. A wide ball into Chris Wood was finished with a sweet strike into across goal and into the far corner. The second was nothing eye catching and was a typical Burnley goal as Jimmy Dunne finished off a wide free-kick from Dwight McNeil.
The main issue at hand is still the lack of depth in the squad and lack of spending in the window. Robbie Brady, who went off in the match is accompanied by Ben Mee, Tarkowski, Cork, Gudmundsson, Matt Lowton and Ashley Barnes. Yet the only first team signing Burnley fans have been gifted is another keeper, a position where Burnley have plenty of players.
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Final Verdict
As for this game though Leicester were clearly the better team and made more from their chances, giving them a comfortable victory over a depleted Burnley squad.