A LOT has changed at the King Power Stadium since Burnley last visited that part of East Midlands just under two years ago.

Back then the two sides had been promoted from the Championship in first and second and were trying to establish themselves in the Premier League.

MORE TOP STORIES:

Fast forward 23-and-a-half months and while the Clarets are back in the promised land, the Foxes are champions of England and got their Champions League campaign off to an emphatic start on Wednesday night.

Plenty of column inches have been dedicated to the similarities between the two teams - the 4-4-2 formations, the work-rate of the players - but Sean Dyche has plenty of admiration for his opposite number in the dugout, Claudio Ranieri.

Nigel Pearson was in charge during both meetings two years ago, so tomorrow will be the first time Dyche has come up against the Italian. And he has been impressed with his approach to allowing his players to thrive, something Dyche has been replicating at Turf Moor.

“A brilliant thing that Ranieri’s done is playing to players’ strengths,” said Dyche.

“He has flexed it and allowed them to get the best from themselves. He’s formatting it more on what the players offer rather than, ‘I’m the manager, I’m going to tell you what to do’.

“It’s a fantastic way of management in my opinion. I’ve tried to do that here. It’s always designed to get the best out of the players and so far our record is pretty good at getting the best out of the players.”

He added: “I’ve been enjoying his press conferences. I don’t remember him coming out with a brand.

“He just said, ‘This is what we do’, he’s said his team is going to play with energy.

“They played Man City away and he was asked what are you going to have to do at City? He said, ‘Run and run and run’. It’s refreshing to hear a manager say that. They did that and they won.

“We’ve got to this level of football life where that would normally be done down, but because they won at Man City and then went on to win the league it’s been rightly lauded.”

As defending champions Leicester have had an indifferent start in the Premier League, winning only one of their four games and suffering a surprise defeat at Hull City on the opening day, as well as a resounding one at Liverpool last weekend.

Their performance in Bruges on Wednesday night suggested there was plenty of mileage left in their style, and Dyche is aware it will be hard to stop the Foxes if they are in full flow.

“Teams, whatever way you play, will try to find something that will stop that. The good teams keep going, which they did last season,” he said.

“It’s hard to just stop good teams but there might be a better way of getting your game plan to impress upon theirs. The good teams, invariably, have different ways of winning.

“They’re a very good side. I really like the way they play.

“They’re playing exciting effective football - exciting to watch, exciting for the fans.

“If they’re winning, that’s a good start. If they happen to be good on the eye, even better. If they happen to be exciting, even better still.”