Leicester City fans are still learning about Steve Cooper and his team.
He was appointed manager this summer and has only overseen seven league games. Leicester are a work in progress, developing a fresh identity to replace the clear vision of Enzo Maresca, who masterminded Premier League promotion in his sole season as manager.
Cooper’s on-pitch ideas are becoming clearer each week, including his use of a high full-back and a winger-turned-No 10, while his more pragmatic approach has been evident in his selections and formation. Their setup is evolving game by game, with his latest bold move coming in Saturday’s 1-0 win over Bournemouth when he benched Harry Winks after six successive league starts.
The Welshman had already marginalised Ricardo Pereira and, to a lesser extent, Jannik Vestergaard. All three were key players in Maresca’s possession-based passing style. Leicester are moving in a different direction under Cooper now they are back among the domestic elite.
There has been another noticeable trend in Cooper’s approach to game management — his use of substitutes and how late he makes his changes.
Leicester have made 27 in-game changes so far in the 2024-25 Premier League, an average of 3.9 per match. Only Crystal Palace and Manchester City (26), Arsenal (24) and Everton (21) have made fewer. In the seven league games, Cooper has used the full complement of five permitted substitutions on two occasions, at home to Aston Villa and away against Arsenal, and just three on three occasions.
However, it is not the number of times he turns to his bench that is particularly significant, but when he does so.
Leicester have made the latest substitutions, on average at 79.7 minutes, which is well over the league average of 70.9 minutes (as shown in the table below). In that 4-2 defeat against Arsenal, Cooper made all of his five changes after the 85th minute, with four coming in stoppage time as Leicester were trying to hold on at 2-2 for a valuable point.
|
Team
|
1st sub
|
Subs per game
|
|---|---|---|
 Leicester City |
79.7
|
3.9
|
 Arsenal |
75.9
|
3.4
|
 Fulham |
75.5
|
4.9
|
 Tottenham Hotspur |
75.3
|
4.4
|
 Ipswich Town |
74.6
|
4.9
|
 Brentford |
74.3
|
3.9
|
 Wolverhampton Wanderers |
72.5
|
4.3
|
 Liverpool |
72.3
|
4.1
|
 Chelsea |
70.9
|
4.4
|
 Manchester City |
70.7
|
3.7
|
 AFC Bournemouth |
70.1
|
4.9
|
 Brighton & Hove Albion |
69.7
|
4.7
|
 Everton |
69.3
|
3
|
 West Ham United |
69.2
|
5
|
 Manchester United |
68.8
|
4.6
|
 Nottingham Forest |
67.6
|
4.9
|
 Crystal Palace |
67.1
|
3.7
|
 Southampton |
65.7
|
4.7
|
 Newcastle United |
65.7
|
4.1
|
 Aston Villa |
65
|
4.7
|
Typically, changes are made in the second halves of games, but if we split that period into two sections, the 46th minute to the 75th, and then the 76th minute onwards, to account for the increasing number of added minutes at the end of matches these days, we can see Leicester go from being one of the least active in terms of changes in that first 30-minute period to one of the most active for the remainder of their matches.
|
Team
|
Ave. subs made
|
|---|---|
|
AFC Bournemouth |
3
|
|
Ipswich Town |
2.9
|
|
Wolverhampton Wanderers |
2.4
|
|
West Ham United |
2.3
|
|
Nottingham Forest |
2.3
|
|
Newcastle United |
2.3
|
|
Brighton & Hove Albion |
2.3
|
|
Southampton |
2.1
|
|
Liverpool |
2.1
|
|
Chelsea |
2.1
|
|
Fulham |
2.1
|
|
Aston Villa |
2.1
|
|
Manchester United |
1.9
|
|
Crystal Palace |
1.7
|
|
Brentford |
1.7
|
|
Manchester City |
1.3
|
|
Tottenham Hotspur |
1.3
|
|
Leicester City |
1.3
|
|
Arsenal |
1.3
|
|
Everton |
1.3
|
|
Team
|
Ave. subs made
|
|---|---|
|
Tottenham Hotspur |
2.7
|
|
Fulham |
2.6
|
|
Leicester City |
2.4
|
|
Arsenal |
2
|
|
Ipswich Town |
2
|
|
Manchester City |
1.9
|
|
Chelsea |
1.9
|
|
Brighton & Hove Albion |
1.9
|
|
Brentford |
1.9
|
|
Wolverhampton Wanderers |
1.9
|
|
West Ham United |
1.7
|
|
Nottingham Forest |
1.7
|
|
Manchester United |
1.6
|
|
Liverpool |
1.4
|
|
Aston Villa |
1.4
|
|
Crystal Palace |
1.3
|
|
Everton |
1.3
|
|
Southampton |
1.1
|
|
AFC Bournemouth |
1.1
|
|
Newcastle United |
1
|
Cooper effectively makes two-thirds of his substitutions after the 75th minute.
When we focus on the last 10 minutes of games, plus added time, Leicester are top of the rankings with over half of Cooper’s changes coming after the 80th minute (2.1 out of the 3.9 average changes per match, equating to 54 per cent).
|
Team
|
Ave. subs made
|
|---|---|
|
Leicester City |
2.1
|
|
Ipswich Town |
2
|
|
Brighton & Hove Albion |
1.7
|
|
Fulham |
1.6
|
|
Manchester City |
1.4
|
|
West Ham United |
1.4
|
|
Nottingham Forest |
1.4
|
|
Crystal Palace |
1.3
|
|
Tottenham Hotspur |
1.3
|
|
Chelsea |
1.3
|
|
Arsenal |
1.3
|
|
Everton |
1.3
|
|
Brentford |
1.3
|
|
Wolverhampton Wanderers |
1.3
|
|
Manchester United |
1.1
|
|
Southampton |
1.1
|
|
Aston Villa |
1.1
|
|
AFC Bournemouth |
0.9
|
|
Liverpool |
0.7
|
|
Newcastle United |
0.6
|
The trend is not exclusive to the Premier League either. In the Carabao Cup, Cooper made five changes in the 4-0 second-round win against Tranmere Rovers, four of them after the 72nd minute, while in the third round at Walsall, a tie that Leicester won on penalties after ending goalless, three of his four substitutions came after the 79th minute.
Each manager has a different view on making changes. There were criticisms last season of Maresca’s substitutions, that he did not make enough of them or act early enough in games. But he argued his side were largely dominant in those matches in the Championship, even when they were struggling to break down defences, and making too many changes may have had a detrimental effect. In other words, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Cooper’s Leicester are not in that position following promotion. They have conceded the first goal in five of the first seven Premier League fixtures and so are chasing games rather than managing them.
Facundo Buonanotte scoring Leicester’s consolation in the 2-1 home defeat to Villa five minutes after being introduced in the 68th minute is the only occasion that a substitute has made a significant impact this season in a positive sense.
At Palace two weeks later, Leicester were defending a 2-1 lead when Cooper made three changes, the last being the introduction of Conor Coady as a third central defender on 83 minutes, only for the England international to give away the stoppage-time penalty that allowed Jean-Philippe Mateta to snatch a draw from the spot.
Cooper defended his decisions, noting that Palace had thrown on all their attacking substitutes and had a front line of six or seven — numbers he needed to cover. “I wouldn’t say we invited (pressure), but we accepted it,” he said after the match. “They put so many players forward that you have to try to manage the numbers.
“You want the balance for sure, but when they’re putting six or seven around your box, you have to try to manage both sides of the game. We had players who could counter-attack and we had players who could defend the numbers as well. Maybe it’s a silly thing to say because we concede a goal in the end.”
Leicester have been in a winning position on two occasions this season, but have thrown away two points while they have also gained two points from losing positions. Cooper’s use of his bench and squad, especially his reluctance to give Pereira any minutes in the league, have been talking points among supporters, especially after the team’s difficult start to the season.
However, he was not reluctant to make in-game changes two seasons ago, his last full campaign as manager of Nottingham Forest, when they averaged 4.2 per match in the Premier League — sixth-most in the division.
It will be interesting to see if this turns out to be a temporary trend as Cooper gets to grips with this new squad.
(Top photo: Plumb Images/Leicester City FC via Getty Images)
