Steve Cooper has his Premier League experience from a time with Nottingham Forest, coming back this summer to a job, looking far from similar to what was the case at City Ground.
He is not the only new man in charge of a Premier League club. Enzo Maresca (Chelsea), Arne Slot (Liverpool), Julen Lapetegui (West Ham) are Fabian Hurzeler (Brighton) are others having the same challenge, but not really to compare as they have a more robust environment to build from.
There are of course positives with new players coming in. Hopefully those new recruits will be in a way contributing as players in a first eleven line-up, or just behind in a role on the bench. The fact that Steve Cooper no longer have Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall around, is in real a massive negative, hopefully the loan of Facundo Bounanotte can fill the gap. The 19 year old is a Argentina full international with 2 caps in the bag, so potentially his career can rocket, given the chance by Steve Cooper.
When taking Forest up and starting his job over the summer to prepare his team for the start was a bit different as he had a budget to buy new players and managed to get in people that possibly had to take steps and build from scratch. This is a bit different at Leicester having a more settled group and also a more solid foundation, hopefully Steve Cooper can be able to build some sort of identity with what he got and what is coming in, but it looks a bit thin in all areas, regarding Premier League quality.
Listening to Steve Cooper and his press conference yesterday, he looks on the front foot and ready to go, having a number of experienced Premier League players to chose from as well as experience, hopefully being able to find a good blend.
Pre-season started well for Steve Cooper with wins vs. Villareal and Shrewsbury, as his approach possibly slided a bit and selections were often random to try to look at different pieces in the set up rather than playing forward a team to the start of the season, also experimenting with players in and out of position. For the fanbase it looked a bit of this and that, moving slightly away from the total possession into a more faster attacking style, so in a way Enzoball looks fragmented, and still searching for the Cooperball project to start.
With the treath of a points deduction in the shadows and possibly being sanctioned when coming into the latter parts of the season, you never really know what it could look like, coming May, but being tipped down almost before it has happened makes it all a difficult journey. Steve Cooper is a survivor and Leicester should be his optimal challenge. He is a fighter and one that can bring results to the table. The challenge will be to find a type of play that will suit the players and how they adapt to something less strict in organization that the players were used to with the former man in charge, Enzo Maresca. The Italian, building heavily on passes, back and forward, and patiently finding those pockets and holes that eventually would open the opponents defence.
Leicester will face Spurs at home on Monday the 19th, in their first game of the season. Getting away with a point, would be seen as a major result for Steve Cooper, as he starts a new chapter in his Premier League journey.
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