Jeff Hendrick scored a goal worthy of a Dennis Bergkamp highlight reel on Saturday afternoon.
The Republic of Ireland midfielder hit a looping, dipping volley to open the scoring for Burnley in their 3-2 win over Bournemouth, after controlling a high pass played through to him with a wonderful touch.
The goal came after 13-minutes, and if Hendrick had left the pitch at that point he could have been happy with his afternoon’s work. But he wasn’t finished yet, not by a long shot, and put in a brilliant all-round performance that went down a storm with the Match of the Day pundits.
“He showed a lot of desire, a lot of tenacity today,” Ian Wright said on the BBC show.
The former Arsenal striker highlighted Hendrick’s desire to break from midfield and support the Burnley striker Sam Vokes.
Wright said Hendrick was unlucky not be awarded a penalty after timing a run into the Bournemouth penalty area, after he appeared to be knocked over by his Ireland teammate Harry Arter.
“We can see it here, to get into the box, to drive into the box and he should’ve got something here,” Wright said.
Wright then highlighted how Hendrick made a similar run beyond the midfield for his goal a few minutes later.
“He just kind of drifts into that area, it’s a great ball in but this touch is super and then why not? Bam! Brilliant goal. Fantastic goal, I just love that.”
Hendrick’s strong tackling and high work-rate also came in for praise.
“(He was) very tenacious today. I could’ve showed loads of these, winning the ball back for his team, fantastic stuff.”
As did this brilliant piece of play late in the game.
Late in the game, Hendrick collected the ball in his own penalty area, and, with the tie in the balance, he could have been forgiven for launching it as far from his own goal as possible.
No doubt the home fans at Turf Moor were screaming for the Dubliner to do just that.
Instead, Hendrick got his head up and played a wonderful pass for Andre Gray, setting the striker through on goal.
Gray didn’t score, but Hendrick’s pass was fantastic.
“This was brilliant, this wasn’t an accident, he knows what he’s doing here,” Wright said.
“That is brilliant. He had a really, really good game today.”
The statistics back-up Wright’s praise. Hendrick was named man of the match by football statistics website WhoScored.com, earning a 8.1 rating out of 10.
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