Kelechi Iheanacho put in a tireless shift at Turf Moor, but Burnley pressed well and were handed a deserved point

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Sean Dyche’s Burnley came away with a point against top four Leicester at Turf Moor in an impressive showing from the Clarets.

Matej Vydra opened the scoring after forcing an error from Hamza Choudhury and slotting away just minutes into the game, before Kelechi Iheanacho provided a moment of magic with a beautiful volley that levelled affairs on the half hour mark.

Brendan Rodgers’ side looked shaky in possession for most of the first half, with a number of slack passes particularly in the makeshift defensive three that included Wilfred Ndidi, opening opportunities for the hosts who uncharacteristically pressed high.

Burnley had a number of chances at the start of the game, an array of unforced errors from the visitors giving Chris Wood the upper hand on his return to the starting lineup.

Wood was instrumental for the Clarets, leading the line with an intensity that had been missing in their recent games and it set the tone across the rest of the pitch with Dwight McNeil and Josh Brownhill both closing off the channels in the first half exchanges.

The New Zealand striker’s hold up play allowed Vydra much more freedom that he has been awarded alongside Jay Rodriguez, allowing him to stretch the Foxes backline that was already fairly low on confidence.

Whilst their were a lot of warning signs for the away side in this one, Kelechi Iheanacho was a real standout player.

He provided the outball for the team with Jamie Vardy anonymous for most of the night.

When Leicester were in an attacking build up phase in the first half, Burnley would sit with two banks of four, quite compact with no real space in between the lines for Youri Tielemans to exploit.

Having said that, Burnley were not sitting particularly deep and looked to still engage the initial build up high with the two strikers.

What Rodgers seemed to have set up was almost a direct-dummy approach.

Iheanacho would peel off Ben Mee and feign to make a run in behind when Mendy looked up to play a direct pass, this meant that the two home centre halves would follow that run, dropping a couple of yards deeper.

Yet, Mendy would not make the direct pass on a number of occasions, instead waiting for that movement to be made and then feeding the ball in behind the Burnley midfield to Tielemans who had peeled off into the pocket of space now created by Iheanacho’s run.

This was where Leicester would find their joy for the remainder of the first half, opening up a number of good chances in between the lines, but their final ball and touch was poor and not what we have come to expect from this team across the season as a whole.

The one time the visitors did elect to take the direct option to Iheanacho following his run, he duly delivered.

Peeling off Tarkowski at the back post he drew out the onrushing Nick Pope whilst the direct ball travelled over the Burnley defence. Iheanacho fired a first-time volley into the bottom right corner and out of the reach of the goalkeeper.

It was a deserved goal for what was an incredibly hard-working performance from the Nigerian striker who has had a number of critics during his time at the King Power Stadium.

Sean Dyche knew it would be important to cut off that supply line in the second half to allow his side to regain the control of the wide areas that Leicester had increasingly overran.

Burnley sat a couple of yards deeper in the second half, but kept their full backs wide so that the space Tielemans or Choudhury could find was in the small gap between the full back and wide midfielder, they were quickly pressed and lost possession when the ball eventually found them.

Rodgers could sense that his initial tactic with Iheanacho had been sussed out and took action in the 67th minute replacing Iheanacho for Mark Albrighton and Nampalys Mendy for Wesley Fofana, allowing him to change to a 4-3-3 and take control of the wide area once again.

“Kelechi put in a great performance but I sensed we were starting to lose a grip on the wide areas, Burnley had more joy after the break there, so moving to the 4-3-3 helped us compose and control possession,” Rodgers said.

From then on in, both sides tussled for the lionshare of the chances with both sides going close as time ticked away.

Burnley looked to run out of steam given their overexertion in terms of press compared to what they normally produce and settled for a low block in the final five minutes but Leicester could not take advantage.

This was an entertaining 1-1 draw in the end and a fair scoreline on balance, Brendan Rodgers must be growing increasingly concerned given his injury list is no closer to being mended.

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