Burnley boss Sean Dyche delighted as Charlie Taylor's powerful running pays off

After James Tarkowski held off a robust challenge from Dominic Calvert-Lewin, the centre back fed Taylor, who surged past Jonjoe Kenny, drove to the byeline and picked his head up, before providing the perfect pullback for Rodriguez to finish.

It was only a second assist of the season for the former Leeds man, but it was exactly what Sean Dyche has been demanding of the left back all season.

Back in November, after an assist for right back Matt Lowton in Burnley’s first league win of the season against Brentford, and subsequent impressive display against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in a 1-1 draw, Dyche spoke about what Taylor needs to add to his game to give himself any chance of being part of the conversation surrounding an England call up.

Dyche said: “Charlie Taylor, if he continues what he's doing – it's still a bit early yet, but I'd be surprised if he's not at least getting thought of around the England set up.

"The detail in the front third is always relevant, of course, particularly when you go to international level, passes into the box...the game is changing now, I think if you look at top teams, it's not just a cross any more, they actually pass into the box, find passing lanes in the box.

"I think that's an ongoing learning curve, we keep looking at, the top teams, your Man Citys, I know they have very clever, technical players, but they actually pass it into the box, even from wide areas, they see a slot and drive it into those key areas.

"We talk to our players about that, not just putting it into the box with quality, but can we find those right areas, find players in the box, and I think that's another thing that has changed in the game over the years, the detail in the front third.

"Teams, including ourselves, are saying 'can we open passing lanes in the box, can we open up different ways of scoring?', and that's the way football continues to change."

Wednesday night was the perfect example of Taylor doing just that, maming full use of his powerful running, and Dyche smiled: "I am constantly on him, and he'll be bored of hearing about it, but just get turned and run forwards.

"He is a powerful boy and gets into great areas.

"It's only when he starts playing backwards...a lot of modern academies now, it's just rotate and recycle the ball, and they get tuned into that.

"We have to break that when they come here – we want you playing forwards first, if you can't, then go backwards.

"When he does that he is a powerful player, and he did it so well for the goal, runs at them, and good movement from Jay, he drifts into a nice area.”