Leicester City are just two and a half months — and three Premier League games — into the Steve Cooper era, but they are already changing as a team.
The 44-year-old, who succeeded Enzo Maresca after the Italian’s departure in June to manage Chelsea, has repeatedly voiced his admiration for Leicester’s achievements under his predecessor — the team secured an instant return to the Premier League as EFL champions back in May, in his sole season in charge, playing with a clear identity and a particular style of possession-based football.
The debate over whether Leicester could have continued with that approach in the Premier League and whether they would have been able to dominate possession in the same way against better sides, as Russell Martin and his promoted Southampton side are trying to do, is now moot after Maresca’s exit. However, it is clear Cooper is putting his own stamp on Leicester in terms of how they will play and who the personnel in the team will be.
Tactically, there are subtle differences between how Leicester played under Maresca and how they have started this season with Cooper calling the shots.
Out of possession, the shape remains a 4-4-2, with a lone striker supported by an attacking midfielder to start the press, and when they have the ball it is a 3-2-5, similar to Maresca’s approach — but with a few tweaks.
While Maresca had no use for conventional full-backs (he would have one of them move infield to act as a second holding midfielder — a role Ricardo Pereira played so effectively — and the other operating as a third central defender), Cooper does.
Like last season, one plays as a third central defender in possession, usually James Justin. However, instead of stepping into midfield, the other full-back will play high in attack, with the freedom to bomb forward — as Victor Kristiansen has done.
That means the winger on that side of the pitch will step into the inside channel to make room for such runs, becoming a second No 10 to partner the starting No 10, who plays off the striker.
Whereas Maresca played with two No 8s — usually Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Wilfred Ndidi — Cooper starts with a No 10 in behind the lone front man, with a winger coming inside to become a second No 10 when Kristiansen gets forward.
Just like last season, it is a front five, becoming six when required with one of the holding midfielders pushing forward as a Plan B; under Maresca, that was Ricardo, against Aston Villa in their most recent match almost two weeks ago, it was new signing Oliver Skipp.
The shape Leicester adopt in attack is very similar to last season, but the mechanics of how they get into that shape are different.
The above charts show Leicester’s average positions against Aston Villa in their most recent Premier League match and in the home win against Watford in the Championship last November.
In the Villa game, Kristiansen plays high while Justin sits in with Wout Faes and Caleb Okoli. Skipp, Ndidi and Harry Winks are in midfield, with Abdul Fatawu able to help Justin out defensively. In the Watford graphic, Ricardo is pushed higher up as Leicester try to operate with a front five.
Cooper knows Leicester will have a lot less possession this season on average compared with the last one in the Championship and to cover that he wants his side to be more dynamic.
Whereas Maresca’s game plan was mapped out precisely through hours of training-ground work on the positions each member of the team has to take up in any given scenario, often with the Italian physically moving players, like human chess pieces, to illustrate his point, Cooper’s sessions have placed greater emphasis on athleticism.
Cooper’s Leicester have to run more than the Maresca version, and that was a big factor in midfielder Skipp being one of the summer’s priority signings.
Whereas Leicester’s main plan of attack last season was down the flanks, with Fatawu and Stephy Mavididi key to their success, Cooper wants them to go down the middle more this campaign. Again, there are similarities to last season in that, with two holding midfielders and two high No 8s/No 10s, there is a small, four-player square to try to dominate and create an overload in central areas, but also a big pitch view, which is to be more of a threat on the counter.
Leicester weren’t widely recognised as a counter-attacking side last season (though they were very effective at times when they did do it, especially in the away games against Blackburn Rovers and Birmingham City, through the pace of Mavididi, Fatawu and Jamie Vardy) but it is a definite tactic Cooper will employ in the coming weeks and months.
So far, there has been plenty of visible evidence of Leicester’s change of approach in terms of how Cooper wants his side to be more industrious in certain areas and more pragmatic against the Premier League’s stronger teams in order to maintain the top-flight status all at the club worked so hard to regain.
The Welshman isn’t wedded completely to one playing style, but the glaring issue has been the lack of creativity in attack.
Yes, it has only been three games, but the stats are pretty grim.
Leicester rank 15th among the 20 Premier League clubs for passes into the final third and dead last for ones that end in that part of the pitch. Only Wolverhampton Wanderers and Ipswich Town, the third promoted side, have played fewer passes into the opposition penalty area, and the latter are the only team with fewer touches in the 18-yard box (36) than Leicester’s 37. They have had 26 efforts on goal, the second lowest in the division (ahead of Ipswich) and put 10 on target, more than just Newcastle United, West Ham United and Ipswich.
How Leicester connect their play in the final third in the coming weeks, especially with so many new arrivals bedding in, could be key to their season.
Those first three league games have been just a snapshot, and now the summer transfer window is closed and the season’s first international break done and dusted, there will be more evidence of how Leicester are going to evolve under Cooper.
It was a difficult window for the club in many ways, with targets who seemed close to joining them eventually signing elsewhere. The lingering issue of profit and sustainability rules (PSR) and a possible points deduction certainly had an impact on persuading some of those players that Leicester was the place for them.
But overall, Cooper has managed to add new faces, including some Premier League experience in Jordan Ayew and Bobby De Cordova-Reid and promising youngsters in Okoli, Skipp, Fatawu (joining permanently following last season’s loan), Facundo Buonanotte and Bilal El Khannouss.
We have already seen a churn in on-pitch personnel.
Ricardo, the team captain last season on the days Vardy didn’t play, has been benched, as has Mavididi, a player who was so effective last season. Jannik Vestergaard, such an integral part of Maresca’s game plan he was rewarded with a new three-year contract in June, was replaced by Okoli to counter Villa’s pacy attack. It remains to be seen, once the new signings bed in, whether Ndidi also keeps his spot as one of the attacking midfielders from last season.
“This isn’t the usual way a manager comes into a job, when a manager moves on after a promotion, but it is always the intention to do it your way and imprint what I believe into the team,” Cooper said on Thursday at his press conference to preview the weekend trip to Crystal Palace.
“You have to respect and identify what has gone on before, and what has worked, and that balance of continuing with some of those things but also (teach) what I want us to do, because this is a completely different challenge, the Premier League.
“We have been clear since day one with the players about what we want, how we want to train and play. What’s good as a coach is you see the players that are really buying into it, really going for it and then can do it, because the way I’m asking the team to play is not easy. We have a lot of meetings with the players. We ask for their opinion and they’re really on board, and if there’s ever a situation where they’re not, then they get left behind.”
It may take more time for Leicester to truly embody Cooper’s vision, but with each game there will be more indications of what he is trying to achieve with this group.
“I am not going to be naive and say it will happen in six weeks or three months,” he added. “You need to see things straight away, and I have had teams where you get positive performances and results straight away, but this is the first time I have taken a team on the back of a promotion.
“We all know the difference in the challenge (of being back in the Premier League), but we’re really positive about what we’re doing and where we’re going to go. But we’re also really mindful of not just talking the talk, it’s about walking the walk as well.
“We’re definitely at that stage.”
On September 28, Leicester travel to Arsenal, which will be a real test for Cooper’s side.
Before that daunting fixture, they face Palace tomorrow (Saturday) and are at home against struggling Everton (September 21).
Those games could be the best test yet of the new manager’s signings, his system and his approach.
(Top photo: Plumb Images/Leicester City FC via Getty Images)
