Cooper: We’re Putting The Jigsaw Together
- Leicester City defeated Shrewsbury Town 2-1 at The Croud Meadow on Tuesday
- Stephy Mavididi and Kasey McAteer scored in each half for the visiting Foxes
- Steve Cooper assessed his side’s performance and second runout of pre-season
- City now head to Chesterfield to take on Italian outfit Palermo this Friday
Pre-season continued for the Foxes at The Croud Meadow on Tuesday evening as they saw off Sky Bet League 1 opposition, with 21 players getting more minutes under their belts just 72 hours on from triumphing against Villarreal in Évian-les-Bains.
For the new Foxes Manager, it was a good first runout back in the UK, after a week of intense work in France. He came away satisfied with aspects of the performance, also identifying areas to improve on heading into Friday’s fixture with Palermo in Chesterfield.
“Winning is not a bad habit,” the 44-year-old commented following full-time. “I thought some of our play was really good and I thought some of it wasn’t, if I’m being honest. Some bits were really high tactically, and then we fell short technically, which isn’t quite like the lads, because they are a good group of footballers.
“I thought that we got into some really good areas with our front players and turned it over a bit too much, because we want to play our football in the opponents’ half. And then, because of those turnovers, I thought the game was too open for our liking.
“It’s all a great challenge and how we are going to learn about the players. I wouldn’t say it’s disjointed but when you’re changing the team at half-time and putting young boys in, it’s never going to be completely fluid. We’re missing some players in certain positions, but the boys are really taking on the ideas. At the moment that is all you want really.”
The new top-flight season starts against Tottenham Hotspur on Monday 19 August and all the preparations have been geared towards that opener on home soil, which is now less than a month away.
Cooper explained: “All we’re talking about is getting ready for the Premier League because I believe it’s the biggest step up in world football domestically, from the Championship, and those are the sort of things you get punished for in the Premier League.
“It’s how we learn and get better. It’s good because we know why it wasn’t quite right. We’ve got our way of playing and we know where it fell short a little bit.
“In saying that, there’s some really good bits as well and if we had just done the final bit a little better around the box, we could have been a little bit more productive. But I quite like that we get back on the bus motivated to improve.”
Stephy Mavididi was the man to break the deadlock in Shropshire, adding to the goal he scored over the weekend, before Kasey McAteer’s fine lob ensured it was City who came out on top, coming shortly after Caleb Okoli’s own goal had levelled things up. Cooper praised both goalscorers for their output.
“He’s done well, Kasey,” the former England youth coach reflected. "He’s got some really good attributes. He’s still a young player in terms of games. We’re working on the way we build-up to get him on the ball to play forward.
Winning A Good Habit, Says Cooper
Reaction from Manager Steve Cooper following two wins from two for his Leicester City side in pre-season.
“What is good about him is that he can run with the ball as well. I just felt he could have done that on a couple more occasions because he is dangerous when he does. That’s probably a good example of good tactical play to pick up the ball in a good area and not making a good decision with it.
“He scored a great goal; a fantastic run, good ball from JJ (James Justin) and good composure, because you can get hit with the ‘keeper. He’s done some good things. I wanted to get so many players onto the pitch tonight, particularly in an attacking sense.
“He’s a talent, Stephy. I know him from my work with England so it’s nice to pick that up again with him. We wanted to see Abdul [Fatawu] off the left because I think we can have variety down both sides of the pitch.
“We were just trying one or two things, but it’s also a little bit of getting certain minutes for certain players and just trying to put a jigsaw together with what we’ve got at the moment.”