Steve Cooper: The Tactics Thread

[Fazzer 7]

On 27/07/2024 at 01:12, lee7 said:

I think all the hard work Enzo put in to create a possession based side will be very quickly undone. 

 

I'm not overly impressed with any of the signings that we have made so far either. 

Me neither. It's going to be horrific I think. 

[NAKC20]

10 hours ago, enmac said:

Know it's off topic, but Chelsea are currently playing Celtic in the "Leicester City" derby. (0-0 after 20 mins)

Finished 4-1 to Celtic 🤣🤣

[davieG]

Perhaps we should rename the thread Steve Coopers Antics Thread judging from the comments. Never mind no Plan be it seems plenty think he has no plans at all.

 

I'm not terribly optimistic but then I wasn't re Enzo in the PL but it's way too early to make any sort of definitive judgment.

[Ashley]

On 27/07/2024 at 01:12, lee7 said:

I think all the hard work Enzo put in to create a possession based side will be very quickly undone. 

 

I'm not overly impressed with any of the signings that we have made so far either. 

At least certain fans will be happy he's gone though hey?

 

Puel started the footballing philosophy that King Power want/wanted. Rodgers then took over arguably the best young squad in the country and carried it on - should have been sacked sooner with the way it went, but that's a different conversation. 

 

Enzo was a very good appointment, but it looks like he was lied too by the heiracy at the club. I honestly think he could have been great here and created his own legacy, he left and good luck to him. 

 

We are a strange fan base. Get it forward merchants etc, we'd rather have a player like Iain Hume who runs around like an absolute cvnt rather than someone like Yakubu who scored goals 🤯

 

I've said it before on this forum, during my lifetime Leicester have played effective Football not the best.

 

People need to ask themselves a question, Do you want us to be a club like we were under Rodgers challenging the 'Top 4' and Europe every Season or are you happy with mediocrity? 

 

If it's the top 4 challenging then you need to accept that we will be a heavily poasesion based team(like all the other good teams are). Mindsets need to change amongst fans. 

 

Obviously for this to happen we need to be ran like we we were previously with a clear model. Buy young, sell for a profit but have ready replacements. 

 

Be careful what you wish/wished for. 

[dr.o.ball]

10 hours ago, Lillehamring said:

Not sure what this has to do with tactics but....

 

Nelson, Alves, braybooke and golding have practically no first team experience - nelson is by far the most experienced with just a couple of hundred minutes in the championship.

We're talking about the PL with a likely points deduction, having lost our top player and having to adjust to a new manager - these players are more likely to be loaned out than to even make the bench this season.  Cooper has a lot to work out and a squad of regular first team players to get to match fitness, now is not the time to be 'bringing youth through'.

 

The amount we've seen so far is healthy: he's having a look at the young lads, getting them involved, giving them some confidence and experience - i'm not sure what the problem is?

Got to be extra careful with the youth team, like all players not playing, they can appear better than they are. One thing for sure is that they are more mentally/physically fragile than experienced pros. Steve Copper has had 5 years with the best under 16/17s in England, he knows enough to use them properly. 

 

I'm so looking forward to this Premiership season with Cooper in charge, he's got good experience, and a lot to prove. He's a hungry manager and his own man. Not an idealistic sycophant trying to copy greatness.

[Jazzy_Jeff]

Interesting that Coops said after the games on Friday that there were players having to play out of position.

 

Who we thinking? 
 

Ndidi for definite.

 

Fatawu pencilled in for left hand side with JJ the right back moving into a 3? If so, where does this leave Ricky? 

[Edingleyfox]

Cooper was clearly frustrated that the club hasn't signed anyone to even partly fill the void left by KDH leaving. Ndidi did his best playing out of position but I would have loved to see Alves or Golding given more time. Similarly I've seen so little of Cannon I don't know how good he is but I'm sure there will be a queue of  clubs wanting him on loan which would be a shame IMO

[davieG]

https://www.lcfc.com/news/4068829/well-keep-working-says-justin?fbclid=IwY2xjawETAvhleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHYk-OfOCMWR94tfRqpOhNRq-_3O-f5eubV-1La8pPIT8nPof8Psbfg3Sig_aem_CBz9KR9HfWq2sWJxOpxE5A&lang=en

 

We’ll Keep Working, Says Justin
LCFC MEN

James Justin believes the progress made so far in pre-season is indicative of the methods that Manager Steve Cooper has instilled within the squad.

'A Lot Of Room For Us To Improve'
- James Justin provided an update on Leicester City’s pre-season so far
- The full-back was speaking after facing Serie B side Palermo on Friday
- The Foxes lost 1-0 in the friendly at Chesterfield’s SMH Group Stadium
- He sees promising signs from the work done in the build-up to 2024/25

 

Leicester City’s preparations of the 2024/25 Premier League campaign took another step forward with a runout against Serie B outfit Palermo on Friday evening, ending in a 1-0 defeat at SMH Group Stadium.

Naturally, the result was not the most important part of the exercise, but Justin felt that the scoreline could have been very different had City been more clinical in front of goal, both before and after Federico Di Francesco’s strike for the Italian side.

 

“We actually played quite well today,” the full-back expressed following full-time in Chesterfield. “Even though we lost, it’s probably the best we’ve played in pre-season. We’re slowly building on what the Manager wants with our patterns of play.

“You know what you are going to get with Italian sides. If they go 1-0 up, they’ll keep the back door shut and they are a well-drilled side. They were really hard to break down, a lot like what we faced last year as well.

“We had some good chances but tonight we just couldn’t stick the ball in the back of the net. On another day, I feel like we’d come away with a win. It’s something that we’ve got to work on, but it’s early days yet and things are going well. We’ll keep working.”

Several weeks of training under the new coaching team has laid the groundwork for what will be a big step up for last season’s Sky Bet Championship title-winners. It’s been an enjoyable start, according to the defender, who cannot wait to put those methods into practice in a competitive fixture.

“It’s been a breath of fresh air,” the 26-year-old explained. “The new gaffer has come in with fresh ideas and wanting to build on what we’ve done last year and I’m really looking forward to the season and how we do.

“One of first things that he said to us was that we had a good last season, but the Premier League is a whole different level and we’ve got to evolve on our ideas and get Premier League ready, that’s been his big mantra so far.

“We’re working step by step to get there on the training pitch. We’ll go away next week and that’ll be a good chance to iron out some creases. Everyone has their own goals and wants to do as well as possible.”  

[volpeazzurro]

4 hours ago, NAKC20 said:

Finished 4-1 to Celtic 🤣🤣

Shame. 

[Silva Fox]

19 minutes ago, davieG said:

“It’s been a breath of fresh air,” the 26-year-old explained.

Interesting comment

[volpeazzurro]

18 minutes ago, davieG said:

https://www.lcfc.com/news/4068829/well-keep-working-says-justin?fbclid=IwY2xjawETAvhleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHYk-OfOCMWR94tfRqpOhNRq-_3O-f5eubV-1La8pPIT8nPof8Psbfg3Sig_aem_CBz9KR9HfWq2sWJxOpxE5A&lang=en

 

We’ll Keep Working, Says Justin
LCFC MEN

James Justin believes the progress made so far in pre-season is indicative of the methods that Manager Steve Cooper has instilled within the squad.

'A Lot Of Room For Us To Improve'
- James Justin provided an update on Leicester City’s pre-season so far
- The full-back was speaking after facing Serie B side Palermo on Friday
- The Foxes lost 1-0 in the friendly at Chesterfield’s SMH Group Stadium
- He sees promising signs from the work done in the build-up to 2024/25

 

Leicester City’s preparations of the 2024/25 Premier League campaign took another step forward with a runout against Serie B outfit Palermo on Friday evening, ending in a 1-0 defeat at SMH Group Stadium.

Naturally, the result was not the most important part of the exercise, but Justin felt that the scoreline could have been very different had City been more clinical in front of goal, both before and after Federico Di Francesco’s strike for the Italian side.

 

“We actually played quite well today,” the full-back expressed following full-time in Chesterfield. “Even though we lost, it’s probably the best we’ve played in pre-season. We’re slowly building on what the Manager wants with our patterns of play.

“You know what you are going to get with Italian sides. If they go 1-0 up, they’ll keep the back door shut and they are a well-drilled side. They were really hard to break down, a lot like what we faced last year as well.

“We had some good chances but tonight we just couldn’t stick the ball in the back of the net. On another day, I feel like we’d come away with a win. It’s something that we’ve got to work on, but it’s early days yet and things are going well. We’ll keep working.”

Several weeks of training under the new coaching team has laid the groundwork for what will be a big step up for last season’s Sky Bet Championship title-winners. It’s been an enjoyable start, according to the defender, who cannot wait to put those methods into practice in a competitive fixture.

“It’s been a breath of fresh air,” the 26-year-old explained. “The new gaffer has come in with fresh ideas and wanting to build on what we’ve done last year and I’m really looking forward to the season and how we do.

“One of first things that he said to us was that we had a good last season, but the Premier League is a whole different level and we’ve got to evolve on our ideas and get Premier League ready, that’s been his big mantra so far.

“We’re working step by step to get there on the training pitch. We’ll go away next week and that’ll be a good chance to iron out some creases. Everyone has their own goals and wants to do as well as possible.”  

A good start would be JJ not constantly passing to the opposition, a squad player on the right only for me. His comments about not being clinical in front of goal are worrying too as I can't imagine the words 'clinical' and 'Daka' appearing in the same sentence!

[kingfox]

Don’t think this has been posted anywhere, many have probably seen it, but to those who haven’t...

It’s clear as day we need reinforcements in the final third, but why on earth did he only give Will Alves 10 minutes. 

[Finnegan]

34 minutes ago, Silva Fox said:

Interesting comment

 

I mean, he's a full back that just spent a year playing for a manager that doesn't play full backs. 

 

[MPH]

Until we know our points deduction, I don’t think we are going to get any of our top targets to sign, which is going to mean we either start the season with a threadbare team unprepared for the prem, or we sign mediocre aging prem players. Personally I’d take a mediocre prem finish this year definitely.

 

 

Anyway, my point being there has to be some acceptance for the situation Copper has inherited. It’s going to affect us and I really hope he doesn’t catch all the flak for it. I wish we hadn’t of signed him, but I felt our manager search went the same way as our player search is going..

[Claudio Fannieri]

1 hour ago, Silva Fox said:

Interesting comment

I would imagine by the back end of the season a few of the players may have become frustrated by the rigid structure that Enzo implemented, I am sure at the beginning it was different and an air of something that many wouldn’t have experienced. 
 

I think the players will enjoy playing more off the cuff and be able to play with more freedom to express themselves. 
 

Some of the patterns of play under Enzo at times were superb however due to the philosophy and structure it also led to us quite often playing with the handbrake on and over time that will frustrate players as much as it did the fanbase. 

[sbfox]

26 minutes ago, Claudio Fannieri said:

I would imagine by the back end of the season a few of the players may have become frustrated by the rigid structure that Enzo implemented, I am sure at the beginning it was different and an air of something that many wouldn’t have experienced. 
 

I think the players will enjoy playing more off the cuff and be able to play with more freedom to express themselves. 
 

Some of the patterns of play under Enzo at times were superb however due to the philosophy and structure it also led to us quite often playing with the handbrake on and over time that will frustrate players as much as it did the fanbase. 

At least now players will be able to lose with more freedom! 

 

On a more serious note, this kind of thing always bugs me. We're talking about professional footballers. They should absolutely be buckling down and playing the system they're told to - it's not like they're flair merchants playing Sunday league for a laugh. 

[Matt]

32 minutes ago, Claudio Fannieri said:

I would imagine by the back end of the season a few of the players may have become frustrated by the rigid structure that Enzo implemented, I am sure at the beginning it was different and an air of something that many wouldn’t have experienced. 
 

I think the players will enjoy playing more off the cuff and be able to play with more freedom to express themselves. 
 

Some of the patterns of play under Enzo at times were superb however due to the philosophy and structure it also led to us quite often playing with the handbrake on and over time that will frustrate players as much as it did the fanbase. 

I'm not for one moment claiming a conspiracy of "the players did their own thing" but that players only meeting towards the end of the season and the improvement in results, form and performances were quite the coincidence.

 

It was probably as simple as a few home truths and a "Come on, let's get our shit together" meeting but even so.

 

As you say at the beginning it was something different, but it soon got found out. It was very predictable. You've gotta mix it up.

[Gamble92]

Not wanting to see Faes pass to Vestegaard 300 times and not having any answers to beat teams like Plymouth and Millwall does not qualify you as a get it forward merchant. 

[sbfox]

42 minutes ago, Gamble92 said:

Not wanting to see Faes pass to Vestegaard 300 times and not having any answers to beat teams like Plymouth and Millwall does not qualify you as a get it forward merchant. 

I think we need to move past the Plymouth and Millwall games as anomalies. The former scrapping for their lives and grinding out a very lucky result (Daka should have had 3 alone) and the latter who weren't a bad side at all (look at their form at the end of the season). 

 

We played the same way for the other 40-whatever games and walked the league really, so as much as you might want to point to those games as defining games for Maresca, we've got countless others to point to as obvious counters. 

[Gamble92]

10 minutes ago, sbfox said:

I think we need to move past the Plymouth and Millwall games as anomalies. The former scrapping for their lives and grinding out a very lucky result (Daka should have had 3 alone) and the latter who weren't a bad side at all (look at their form at the end of the season). 

 

We played the same way for the other 40-whatever games and walked the league really, so as much as you might want to point to those games as defining games for Maresca, we've got countless others to point to as obvious counters. 

I didn't walk away from any games thinking wow what amazing tactics they were to win.

 

We were flat track bullies. Every game at home bar a couple were just the opposition not even trying to win and showing us way too much respect. 

 

Sorry, I just don't buy it. We won the league because we had by far the most in depth squad. 

 

Those games weren't anomalies. We were incredibly lucky that teams couldn't finish in the first 10-15 games. Then the last 15 were absolutely painful. 

[Big_Nige]

Enzo lives rent free in so many peoples head. Let’s move on. It seems every thread descends into critique of whether or not we got promoted because of him, or in spite of him. If we’d have got destroyed in the prem playing an inverted fullback, or if we’d have cut team open as we were afforded less respect

 

If he was still in charge I get it, but he’s not, he’s gone. Genuinely  sick of reading the same discussion done “ad nauseam” Millwall and Plymouth away were painful to watch, but it’s even more painful to keep reading about it months later

 

 

 

 

Edited 28 July by Big_Nige

[Lillehamring]

8 hours ago, davieG said:

Perhaps we should rename the thread Steve Coopers Antics Thread judging from the comments. Never mind no Plan be it seems plenty think he has no plans at all.

 

I'm not terribly optimistic but then I wasn't re Enzo in the PL but it's way too early to make any sort of definitive judgment.

For me - and this is based on two games, i feel that he has at least a couple of ideas what he wants to do - i don't think it's helped that we've played two very different games and that he's used players for the sakes of using players rather than in a way to get the best performance.

 

- Against shrewsbury, we faced a side that were keen to attack and found ourselves having to defend; he opted to play with a system that felt, to me, like a variation on enzo's system, but with the wingers coming inside into the #8 roles, and with wing backs pushing into the wide roles, and with a fixed double pivot rather than an inverting FB.  (from what i can gather from the first training game in evian, we played something along these lines, and showed that we'll probably see a lot more counter attacking (this is where the goals came from)

 

- Against palermo, we faced a side that were happy to play with a deep block and, actually, not much else; he opted to play a more expansive attack, moving the wingers out wide and pressing high with a roaming midfielder (Ndidi).

 

Both formations had a mix of positives and negatives.  We've not been great in the final third, especially when we had to break palermo down, though we did create numerous decent chances.  We've looked solid defensively, conceding two OGs and a goal from a, let's be kind, a pre-season level error.

 

I think we have to give him credit for having some idea of how to manage a football team, obviously more games and games with a more settled squad will show us what the reality is, but i've seen enough to believe that he is not just going to be a one trick pony.

[Lillehamring]

8 hours ago, dr.o.ball said:

Got to be extra careful with the youth team, like all players not playing, they can appear better than they are. One thing for sure is that they are more mentally/physically fragile than experienced pros. Steve Copper has had 5 years with the best under 16/17s in England, he knows enough to use them properly. 

 

I'm so looking forward to this Premiership season with Cooper in charge, he's got good experience, and a lot to prove. He's a hungry manager and his own man. Not an idealistic sycophant trying to copy greatness.

Yeah, i think he'll show ( as he has done so far) common sense with the young players - i can't see any academy players starting early on in the season, it's too much of an unknown quantity and too much pressure on players with practically no first team experience.  But I'm sure we'll see a few cameos late in games and in the cup. 

 

For some people though, they expect magic - like for Alves to come in and be our Jude Bellingham or Saka or something and make the team of the season... 

[Lillehamring]

5 hours ago, Jazzy_Jeff said:

Interesting that Coops said after the games on Friday that there were players having to play out of position.

 

Who we thinking? 
 

Ndidi for definite.

 

Fatawu pencilled in for left hand side with JJ the right back moving into a 3? If so, where does this leave Ricky? 

I'd say Ndidi won't play that advanced role.

I think JJ will be predominantly used on the right, competing with ricardo, dependant on the opposition - i hope so, because he's a different player on the right.

Thomas won't be playing at RCB, maybe not even LCB, probably competing with VK for the left wing back spot.

Fatawu on the left seems more likely to be another case of 'players having to play out of position' rather than where he's destined to be, thus why he was back on the right against palermo.

[Lillehamring]

5 hours ago, Edingleyfox said:

Cooper was clearly frustrated that the club hasn't signed anyone to even partly fill the void left by KDH leaving. Ndidi did his best playing out of position but I would have loved to see Alves or Golding given more time. Similarly I've seen so little of Cannon I don't know how good he is but I'm sure there will be a queue of  clubs wanting him on loan which would be a shame IMO

I didn't sense that at all - as seems to be the keyword with cooper, he seems to very pragmatic about it:

 

Quote

“We need to add players and that’s what we’re trying to do,” Cooper said. “Something needs to happen. We need players in as quickly as possible. We’re trusting each other to get the right ones in, and hopefully sooner rather than later.

“I think any part of the pitch where we can really make a difference in our game, we’re open to (signings). I think there are some areas that are more prevalent in that fact.

“That’s what we’re trying to do. But if we can’t do things we want, I’m not going to moan about it. We’ll get on with it.

“But at the same time it would be nice to improve because the step up to the Premier League is a huge one and we’ve got to step up as a team. It’s exciting that we’re trying to bring in players we want and if we can get them over the line, it will help in our process of being a competing Premier League team again.