EDDIE Howe says criticism from pundits "has no relevance to us" and Cherries will continue to do their "talking on the pitch".

The manner in which Howe's side conceded three goals at Burnley on Saturday attracted attention, with their weakness in the face of the Clarets' direct approach coming under the microscope.

Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher, who was at Turf Moor, suggested other teams will now believe they can undo Cherries by copying the often rudimentary tactics employed by Sean Dyche's side.

The former Liverpool defender also claimed Cherries are "not quite up to scratch in both boxes".

Howe told the Daily Echo: "I don’t think you can listen to them (pundits). I don’t seek opinions from anybody, other than my coaching staff and myself.

"It has no relevance to us, what people outside the camp feel.

"The only thing we can do is try to respond in the right way, which is to do our talking on the pitch rather than in the press room – which is easy to do."

Howe also insisted it would be erroneous to cite one afternoon's work as evidence Cherries can't cope when confronted with physical opposition.

He said: "Historically we’ve done very well against that style of play. There are other games and examples I could give you where we’ve dealt with any threats in that respect.

"But you have to be judged on what you deliver and we didn’t deal with it very well against Burnley. That’s something we were aware of after the game ourselves, but I don’t see a long-term problem there for the team."

Cherries have conceded three goals in each of their past three games, a statistic Howe claims reflects slightly unfairly on his team, given their opponents in that time have included Arsenal and Liverpool.

He did acknowledge, however, that some of the defensive reshuffling enforced on him during the past month might have affected the team's chemistry, something he wants to rectify when Cherries welcome Premier League champions Leicester to Vitality Stadium tonight.

"We’ve looked solid this season," said Howe. "But in recent games we’ve conceded some goals, so you can’t turn a blind eye to that.

"I think it’s a collective thing throughout the team, we’re looking to make sure we go into this game with a better defensive mentality.

"Individually we’ve been OK., but maybe as a unit we haven’t been as strong as we would want."

The manager is also taking plenty of encouragement from his side's form at the other end of the pitch.

They've scored six goals in their past two games – despite a paucity of chances for leading scorer Callum Wilson.

"We’re always looking for positives." said Howe. "We’ve scored goals in those games and we look a threat going forward.

"We always look to get our attacking players in goalscoring situations.

"The important thing is the team functions to allow that to happen. So it’s never an individual thing, it’s always around the team."