Steve Cooper, the new manager for Leicester City, is trying to bring a”big club mentality” to the Premier League champions of 2016. No, avoid relegation this season will be no walk in the park. However, Steve Cooper’s tactics are bold and may prove vital.
This is why today I am looking at Steve Cooper’s football philosophy and analyzing Leicester City’s tactics for the 2024/2025 season.
After reading the article, feel free to take this knowledge to our daily fantasy football contests which include real prizes and real stats of Leicester City players.
Steve Cooper’s Career So Far
Steve Cooper was born in Wales in 1979. He has been involved with football for a long time, although he has only made a name for himself as a manager in recent years.
His playing career was relatively uneventful. He was part of Wrexham’s youth system. Here, manager Brian Flynn advised him to take the caching route rather than attempt a professional playing career.
After stints with several Welsh clubs, Steve Cooper took Flynn’s advice and began coaching. He was a coach in Liverpool’s youth academy and, later, became the England manager for the under-16 team.
In 2019, Cooper was hired as manager of Championship side Swansea and managed to get the team to the league playoffs in his two seasons there.
Then, in 2021, he was appointed manager of Nottingham Forest and quickly turned the team’s fortunes around. Forest went from barely avoiding relegation to League One to promoting to the EPL. Cooper ended his stint here in December 2023.
Leicester City was relegated at the end of the 2023 season in spite of a victory on the last day against West Ham. Although the prognosis for the team was grim, The Foxes bounced back from the Championship only a year later.
Cooper was deemed the man to help Leicester make the leap back to being one of the stronger teams in the Premier League. He replaced Enzo Maresca, who had taken a job with Chelsea. Cooper was appointed manager in June 2024.
Football Philosophy
Essentially, although 44 years old, Cooper has been a manager for nearly 20 years. He began studying for the UEFA Pro coaching licence by the age of 26. He has coached youth teams, ambitious Championship teams and Nottingham Forest in the EPL.
Steve Cooper has learned to be a pragmatist when needed and an idealistic when possible.
For example, when coaching England U-16, he was known to give players a lot of personal responsibility. When he managed Swansea and he tried to encourage players to be brave on the ball and inventive.
However, when he was embroiled in a relegation battle with Forest, Cooper looked to use the resources available to turn his team into one that was difficult to break down.
In other words, Cooper relies first on his man-management skills and on instilling personal belief in his players. Secondly, his teams will play fast-paced attacking football when the opportunity suits them. If that’s not possible, Cooper tends to shift to a defensive 4-3-2-1 and grind out results when needed.
Marseca played high-octane attacking football. But did so in the Championship. Vincent did the same with Burnley, but these tactics did not work in the Premier League.
Cooper has started out his Leicester campaign by being bold. He will have to scale back his attempts and become realistic about the team’s chances with the squad of players that is available.
Formations
Steve Cooper has used several formations across his career. He chooses them based on the players he has available. At the moment, Leicester City mainly employs a traditional 4-2-3-1 defensive formation.
However, if possible, Cooper would like to play in a 3-4-3 attacking formation. This relies on the speed and width of the wide midfielders and on the ability of the forwards to press effectively.
Leicester used this formation on the Second Day of the season. The team lost 2-1 to Fulham in one of the more important matches of the campaign.
We may see Cooper revert back to a three-man defence shape in the future. However, playing like this against the opposition of a higher calibre seems like too much of a risk at the moment.
Leicester City’s Transfer
Steve Cooper’s fortunes as manager of Leicester are invariably tied to the team’s potential to spend. While the transfer window has not been a complete success, it has helped bring some players of great potential.
The marquee signings this Summer were Oliver Skipp, brought in for €23.50m, and Issahaku Fatawu transferred for €17.00m. Both are young players who have shown great potential while at Tottenham and Sporting. Both are also risky propositions. It remains to be seen if they have the mental strength to carry this kind of campaign.
Atalanta defender Caleb Okoli and Genk’s attacking midfielder Bilal El Khannouss, were also brought in to strengthen a squad that had managed to hold on to some of their best players despite the 2023 relegation.
Finally, experienced centre-forward Jordan Ayew was transferred from Crystal Palace. While Ayew’s qualities are undeniable, many have wondered whether Leicester wouldn’t have been better off also bringing in a younger, proven goalscorer.
Leicester spent big on transfers this Summer. The club used up €86.80m of their transfer budget, in a story that resembles Nottingham Forest’s investments upon rejoining the Premier League.
Leicester City in Attack
Wasn’t Leicester City under Enzo Maresca highly entertaining last year? Most often, yes. But the Premier League level is entirely different from the Championship. As the season progresses, fans shouldn’t blame Cooper for opting to be a pragmatist.
Ideally, Steve Cooper will want Leicester to play fluid, quick, counter-attacking football. In their opening game against Tottenham, the Foxes played with a lot of width and attempted many direct passes. But, also, because of the intensity of the game, many passes didn’t reach their destination.
Cooper has implemented a similar approach in previous jobs. His teams tend to favour long passes, as did Nottingham Forest in their 2021/22 season in the Championship. Also, the team usually the team shared about 50% possession with the opposition team.
Let’s also look at the players on whom Cooper can rely. As I mentioned, Leicester invested heavily in the transfer market this Summer. Many feel, however, that the club did not go in for a young but proven striker.
On the one hand, such players aren’t easy to come by. On the other hand, Cooper has chosen to rely on experience. Jordan Ayew, now 32-years-old, arrived for €5.90m. He is. He is a player with more than 200 Premier League games under his belt.
Leading the attacking line is, once more, Laicester’s talisman, Jamie Vardy. The striker considered retirement last season but was persuaded to return. Last season, he scored 18 goals in the Championship and begun this new EPL campaign with a goal.
Vardy is rated as a 3* card in FootballCoin. This means that he is one of the more affordable strikers to get. It also means that the card can be used for the role of Assistant Manager once Vardy does decide to finally retire.
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As mentioned, Leicester tries to prioritize width when attacking. Typically, this means that one full-back will advance down the flank, leaving the winger to tuck in and act as a playmaker. That wing-back has usually been James Justin. However, this role sometimes comes to Victor Kristiansen who has enjoyed a good start to the season.
Leicester’s Formation Changes When Attacking
When building up, Leicester move to a 3-2-5 formation. This is not wholly innovative. Still, unlike other teams, and even Maresca’s setup, Cooper wants fewer defenders moving into midfield roles to assist the buildup.
For all of this to work, Leicester City’s long-range passing has to be efficient. This means that they need at least one defender or midfielder with brilliant vision and accuracy. In the Championship, that player was former Wolves defender Conor Coady. However, he has been out injured since the start of the campaign.
This has meant that defender Wout Faes and midfielder and new-arrival Harry Winks have needed to be the ones pinging passes toward the attack. Both of them registered a nearly 90% success rate.
Finally, Cooper believes in working his best players into the line-up. This has meant that Ayew has been moved to the left flank, while Fatawu plays on the right. Potential wonderkid Facundo Buonanotte plays just behind the main striker, Jamie Vardy.
While Leicester has only averaged one goal per game, the aforementioned attacking players have been some of the best in their squad.
If anything, Cooper needs to adjust to the defensive rigours of the Premier League.
Leicester City in Defense
Steve Cooper must have studied the examples of the few newly promoted EPL sides who thrived in the recent season. He can also learn from his not-so-successful campaign managing Forest in 2022/23 EPL season.
With plenty of pressure on the team, Cooper then opted for a highly defensive setup that averaged less than 30% of possession toward the final weeks of the season and ditched almost entirely short passing and patient build-ups.
Cooper has settled for something in the middle for the 2024/25 season. He has less to worry about because Leicester’s game without the ball last season has been very good. The team is usually able to defend in a compact mid-block, and press the opposition.
In defence, the team tends to switch to a 4-4-2 formation. The full-backs fall back into position. Wingers tend to slide in to create less width for the opposition to exploit.
It should also help that Leicester can depend on players that have EPL experience. Jannik Vestergaard, a once-transfer record for Leicester, and Wout Faest have been the central defence partnership. Conor Coady will also play an important role.
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But defensive problems, so far, have had more to do with individual mistakes and concentration. They’ve conceded important goals toward the latter-stages of the game. Leicester has found it hard to defending against set pieces, or to set the offside trap efficiently.
Furthermore, more technical players operating on the wings have often been able to penetrate the defence and score or force the defenders into a foul in a dangerous area.
What’s Next for Steve Cooper and Leicester City?
Steve Cooper is a manager that teams looking to promote to the EPL or avoid relegation from it have called upon. He has accumulated experience in recent years that will prove valuable for the 2024/25 season.
But, even though Leicester’s board has invested in transfers, it’s predictable that they’ll face an uphill battle in avoiding the drop.
Many of Cooper’s tactics work well. Concentration and confidence can go a long way, however. If Cooper manages to use his well-regarded man-management skills efficiently, Leicester could, yet again, become one of the established Premier League clubs.
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