Cooper: We’re Going To Get Better

- Leicester City’s third runout of pre-season came against Italian outfit Palermo
- The Serie B side triumphed 1-0 in Chesterfield on Friday night
- Manager Steve Cooper gave his take on the narrow friendly defeat
- He saw improvements compared to the performance at Shrewsbury

Federico Di Francesco’s goal on the hour-mark separated the sides at Chesterfield’s SMH Group Stadium on Friday evening, though Cooper took away some positives from the runout against Italian opposition, despite failing to find the net for the first time this summer.

The 44-year-old reflected: “It’s the best we’ve been in pre-season, certainly with the ball, apart from in and around the box. I thought we got into enough good positions and in final pass positions to be more threatening on goal than what we were.

“And even when we had those chances, we seemed to scruff volleys and mistime headers and didn’t look clinical in the box. I thought we played against a decent team as well, certainly in the first half.

“But once we got to grips and attacked down the sides, we played some decent stuff, but you do that to go and be productive and that wasn’t at the level tonight. I thought, up until the final third, I liked us. Of course, we are going to get better and there’s a lot of room to improve.”

The Foxes entered their third match of the pre-season schedule after beating Villarreal and Shrewsbury Town over the past week, and getting more minutes in the tank will prove invaluable as part of the preparations for the new Premier League campaign next month.

The likes of Mads Hermansen, Victor Kristiansen and Bobby De Cordova-Reid all featured for the first time, having been allowed extra time off following their international exploits last month.

“We were miles better than we were on Tuesday in terms of our general play,” City’s Manager continued. “But of course, with the ball, you want to play in a way in which you can get up the pitch and your attacking players can go and make a difference.

“I thought Abdul [Fatawu] looked really dangerous. We talked about narrowing up the pitch and getting him the ball quicker and it’s a pity that we had to bring him off because he started to become a bigger threat.

“But we have to stick to the plan and the minutes, it’s the right thing for getting ready for the season. It’s good minutes, everyone has got through it, returning lads and we tried a couple of different people in different positions.

“We’re back in training tomorrow (Saturday) morning. The returning players need to train hard and then we’ll go on camp again on Monday.”

German opposition will provide the next test, facing FC Augsburg of the Bundesliga on Saturday 3 August, a chance to put more of Cooper’s ideas into practice on the pitch and take the learnings from the last three games.

“It was a soft goal and that can happen,” Cooper admitted. "I’m okay with mistakes, certainly in pre-season. Ricky (Ricardo Pereira) is obviously an experienced player and those mistakes do happen. More of a learning area was what the gameplan was, to play wider quicker.

“You learn from mistakes, it’s how you get better and that’s we’ll aim to do. We’ll look at the good out of the game and where will need to improve. I was quite enthused by the build-up play but in the final third we’ve got to be more of a threat.

“It was much better in getting where we need to be and now it’s how we can score more. Chances will be a lot less [frequent] in the Premier League than what they are in the Championship so we have to make the most of them.”