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Leicester supporters have been restless for a couple of years and have expressed their frustration as new manager’s overhaul slowly evolves
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There is a camera angle in the video of Jordan Ayew’s late winner at Southampton that Steve Cooper feels perfectly captures the spirit of the Leicester City he is striving to build.
It is not just Ayew’s 98th-minute goal itself, but the sight of 3,000 travelling fans going wild while substitutes, including Conor Coady, celebrate on the far touchline.
Cooper wants his players to use that sense of togetherness from last month as motivation and it is those moments he is trying to create a culture around. A victory over Chelsea, and a certain Enzo Maresca, this weekend would represent a positive step forward in their season so far.
Former manager Maresca returns to King Power Stadium on Saturday for the first time since leaving last summer, and it is tempting to wonder how he might have coped had he never been offered the Chelsea job.
After a rocky period of results towards the end of last season, and a tumultuous few months off the pitch, Maresca did not hesitate to leave. It is his successor, Cooper, who has inherited a club in a state of flux.
Leicester are adapting to the Premier League as a newly promoted side, and fans’ expectations are understandably still high after the glorious 2016 title win and FA Cup final triumph five years later.
In his third season at this level, Cooper must wrangle a squad that played Maresca’s very particular style of football in their Championship-winning season but that required adjustment for the top division. Cooper’s appointment also came at a time when Leicester were fighting a Premier League charge that looked like landing them with a points deduction until they unexpectedly won an appeal against the terms of their profitability and sustainability rules breach.
They did so on a technicality that many other clubs regard as a lucky escape. Nevertheless, the uncertainty meant that summer trading was difficult. It left Cooper trying to bring together the best parts of Maresca’s title winners with a range of new signings, some of whom were recruited late in the transfer window.
The result of this has been impatience from fans struggling to adjust to the new reality. Leicester are no longer contenders for the top six, as they were for a period under Brendan Rodgers. Now, they are likely to be in a fight for survival, though some fans feel the club should be aiming higher and providing better entertainment.
On the pitch Cooper is still trying to implement an identity to his play, while battling for points.
His ideal game plan would be similar to the approach of Unai Emery at Aston Villa: two No 10s behind a centre-forward, with two No 8s in midfield and the right-back and left-back higher up the pitch.
Maresca had such a clear idea on how he wanted to play that it was ingrained in many of his squad. He was also playing in a division lower, at a club able to retain most of their better players.
In the Premier League, Cooper has needed to evolve slowly. While Leicester’s start may have been underwhelming for some fans, the points return so far is actually above some of the pre-season projections. After 11 league games, Cooper has also secured two more points at this stage than Rodgers in that doomed final season which ended in relegation.
Rodgers’s team had also conceded 24 goals, courtesy of heavy defeats at Arsenal, Brighton and Tottenham. This was a team featuring James Maddison, Youri Tielemans, Harvey Barnes and Jonny Evans.
The other promoted clubs, Southampton and Ipswich, are below Leicester in the table yet Cooper’s relationship with supporters has not been smooth. He has done his best to connect with them in person through fans’ forums organised by the club. It is a different engagement in person, when debate is reasoned and rational, compared with the typical online bile.
Could there still be a hangover from the relegation season? Among the fans there remains lingering anger over that campaign, and a perceived lack of accountability from senior officials. Fans have voiced their frustration at Cooper in matches: in the Carabao Cup game at Walsall, and most recently at Old Trafford earlier this month, he was implored to “sort it out” by sections of the travelling support. Substitutions and team selections are a weekly debate.
Ricardo Pereira, a key player under Maresca, is expected to miss up to four months with a hamstring injury. There has also been frustration over a lack of opportunities for winger Abdul Fatawu. The Ghanaian, who was injured last week on international duty, is rated highly by Cooper and his coaching staff but will miss the rest of the season with an ACL injury.
“We now have to support him in every way in making his rehab and return as smooth and productive as possible, with the hope – although it’s a long-term injury – that he comes back a stronger and better player and person,” Cooper said on Thursday. “Difficult news, really.”
In recent years the relationship between Leicester fans and the club’s managers have seldom been easy.
Since promotion to the top division in 2014, Nigel Pearson, Claudio Ranieri and Claude Puel all endured times of difficulty before they were dismissed. Rodgers was in charge for the FA Cup win and secured two seasons of European football, but there was never a sense of a strong connection with fans.
Even in his final full season, securing an eighth-placed league finish and a spot in the inaugural Europa Conference League semi-final was regarded as a disappointment. Many fans had feared relegation in 2023 a long time before it happened, pointing to poor recruitment, financial problems and Rodgers outstaying his welcome.
While Maresca guided Leicester to the Championship title, that was never an easy relationship either, amid accusations that he was too wedded to his style of play. The early-season dominance fell away in mid-February and a 12-point lead was reduced to one by the time the title was sealed. Towards the end of the season, a poll was even set up on one fans’ forum arguing whether he should stay or go.
It is unclear what the reaction will be to Maresca’s return this weekend.
Leicester were angered by his defection to Chelsea in July – they insisted he had “jumped ship” at the first opportunity and departed just a few weeks after pledging his commitment to the club in talks with the board. There was also widespread bemusement that Maresca instructed the club to cancel a tour of the United States as he claimed it would disrupt preparation, only to then spend a fortnight there with Chelsea.
Which brings us back to Cooper. He arrived at a time of uncertainty. But plans are now advanced for January, with a recruitment meeting held last week. Leicester are prioritising “starters” who can make an immediate impact, with a forward and left-sided defender to be targeted. Another goalkeeper to provide more competition for the highly regarded Mads Hermansen is a possibility.
Cooper is working closely with his squad in the pursuit of improvement. Team and individual meetings are frequent, where players are encouraged to give their opinions.
After this weekend’s date with Chelsea, Leicester have an intense run of games against Brentford, West Ham and Brighton.
Recent matches have shown signs of improvement in certain areas, and data backs that up.
Leicester will hope to add to their two league victories so far when they face Maresca, and Cooper will undoubtedly hope for more positive video material to show his players.
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