SEAN Dyche believes his players enjoy the 'nitty gritty' side of defending as the Clarets back four continue to win praise for their performances this season.

Burnley have been at their resilient best in recent weeks, conceding just twice in their last three games against Tottenham, Crystal Palace and Liverpool despite facing 86 shots in those outings.

A large number of those attempts have either been from range or have been blocked, with clear chances on the Clarets' goal limited.

"We all know the quality of chances is the key, particularly the higher up you go. Any team can shoot from 30-odd yards and put it 20 yards over the bar," Dyche said.

"There were a long of long efforts from Liverpool. Within the number of shots against us, I don’t think there have been that many golden opportunities."

Last weekend Match of the Day pundit Phil Neville said Dyche's side looked like they 'enjoyed defending', and while the Clarets chief he is happy to take the compliment he said his men aren't going out there just to do the defensive side of the game.

"It sort of represents that we want to defend, we don’t, we want to attack," he said.

"But when you’re playing Liverpool at Anfield it’s sometimes difficult, you end up defending by the power of the opposition and that happens a lot in the Premier League.

"If I had a team of technical attacking players that would be the strength of the team, and therefore we would constantly attack. I don’t think we’ve got that, and if you want that it’s probably going to cost you hundreds of millions of pounds.

"Therefore we work with what we’ve got, we work in the right fashion so that they enjoy the nitty gritty of the game as much as they enjoy the attacking side, because that’s important to what we do here, and the players know that, they accept that."

Dyche believes having a solid defensive unit can be the bedrock for success, as it has been for Burnley since his early days at Turf Moor.

"Most managers down the years have believed success starts with defending properly, not all but a lot of managers believe that," he said.

"I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel, I’m just trying to make the best wheel I can. If many top managers think that’s an important factor then it probably is.

"I was a defender, I think I know how a team should defend as a team, not just the back four, I think the whole team has to defend, more so in modern football.

"If you are defending you’ve got to defend right, from organisation and with an individual will and demand to make sure you get something from the game.

I think we’ve done that over a longer period of the time, even in the Championship when we were more dominant with the ball we still defended well.

It’s an important part of the game, it is there to be enjoyed and there’s a belief and a confidence that comes from that.