Burnley boss looks to tighten defence

Burnley have shipped 12 goals in six games so far this term due to a mix of unstoppable strikes, bad fortune and sloppiness at the back.

The side have scored 11 themselves - and according to attacking effectiveness statistics are in the top five clubs in the division, a constant threat, creating lots of chances, while being clinical in taking them.

If they could be more miserly at the back, it would be a potent mix, and ahead of the trip to Derby tomorrow, Howe admitted: “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know we’re conceding too many goals.”

Burnley led 1-0 at half-time at Leicester through a thumping strike from Dean Marney.

But after keeping the hosts at bay in the first period, restricting them to efforts from outside the area, the Clarets conceded two goals in 10 minutes after the restart.

The first came from a long throw as Burnley continue to struggle from set pieces, and Howe mused: “We were happy at half-time.

“We came with a gameplan and scored a good goal from our perspective – great play by Pato and a lovely finish from Deano – and we frustrated Leicester in the first half.

“We restricted them to long-range shots, but the killer blow was conceding straight after half-time, and the manner of the goal as well was hugely disappointing considering of how well we’d defended in the first half.

“To then open the half up with that was really poor.”

Jamie Vardy’s winning goal came courtesy of a huge slice of luck, flying in via a decisive deflection off Jason Shackell, and he groaned: “That’s how our luck is at the moment in terms of our defending.

“It was a huge deflection and nothing Granty could do about the second goal and then we were chasing the game.

“To be fair we came out, had a right go and had a couple of really good chances at the end.

“Sam (Vokes)’s really unfortunate with both because I think it was a fantastic save for the second one.

“I thought he did really well when he came on.

“He gave us another dimension, a platform to play off and I thought he was excellent and really unfortunate not to score.”

Howe had spoken before the game of being harder to beat, but the match didn’t quite pan out as he had planned: “We didn’t want to soak up as much pressure as we did and I didn’t want to defend as deep as we did but that’s sort of how it transpired really.

“In the main we defended really well and restricted them to long-range shots.

“I felt we could have kept the ball better, we tried but we were a bit negative with our passing and ended up putting Granty under pressure with a few back passes where I felt we could have been a little bit more positive and look to play forward quicker, get the ball into Pato.

“I felt we did that better towards the end of the game, definitely, when you’re chasing it. On another day we’d be sitting here with a point.”

Howe certainly went for it as he chased an equaliser, moving to 3-4-3, and he explained: “I felt we needed to change something. We weren’t playing particularly well at the start of the second half and I felt it needed something drastic.

“Credit to Leicester they caused us problems in the second half and we felt the change was the right one.

“It was difficult – it was slightly forced with the personnel we had available.”

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