Burnley boss Sean Dyche believes his side deserved ‘a bit more’ in their 4-1 defeat to Manchester City on Saturday afternoon.
The Clarets fell to a heavy loss at the Etihad Stadium as Sergio Agüero’s quick-fire brace cancelled out Ashley Barnes’ opening strike. Leroy Sané and Bernardo Silva rounded off the scoring but Dyche implied that the heavy score-line was harsh on his team.
‘The team are giving a lot’
Dyche said: “I think the team are giving a lot and not always had the breaks. You look at the last few results, I think we’ve been a little bit hard done by - whether it has been a decision here and there. [We] probably deserved a little bit more.”
Despite that, the Clarets boss praised the showing put in by his team against their far more illustrious opponents. He continued: “I thought there was real good energy, real good platform for the team to play from with the organisation. We countered on them many times and a threat from set-pieces.”
‘We looked a bit punch-stung’
The 46-year-old also expressed his frustrations at how easily Manchester City were allowed to snatch the lead via Agüero’s two strikes in as many minutes.
He said: “That [conceding again quickly] was really my only over-riding gripe with the team. We were very, very good up until their first goal.”
“We looked a bit punch-stung. We didn’t clear our lines on two occasions, our shape went a little bit and teams like this [Manchester City], they have the power to almost smell that moment and then pick up their tempo which they did and they scored the second.”
“You’ve got to stay focused all the time, especially against teams like this. It can be flat, it can be quiet and then three, four passes, three, four movements and suddenly it’s a goal.”
“Once they were in front, it’s difficult,” Dyche continued.