Sacked Steve Cooper Was Always On Borrowed Time At Leicester ...

LEICESTER, ENGLAND - AUGUST 19: Steve Cooper, Manager of Leicester City, reacts as he interacts with ... [+] Jamie Vardy of Leicester City after the Premier League match between Leicester City FC and Tottenham Hotspur FC at The King Power Stadium on August 19, 2024 in Leicester, England. (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)

There aren’t many head coaches who have the support of the fans when their team is bottom of the league and losing 4-0 to one of their main rivals.

Nottingham Forest fans though were chanting Steve Cooper’s name at the King Power Stadium in October 2022, despite Forest trailing 4-0 to Leicester City in what would be their fifth straight defeat.

In the next home game, amid talk that Cooper was about to get sacked. Fans held up a huge red banner with Cooper’s face on it, letting Forest’s owners clearly know their opinion on the matter.

This season, Leicester City are clear of the relegation zone, and the Foxes’ actual results aren’t that bad. And yet, just twelve games into his tenure, Steve Cooper has become the second Premier League head coach this season to lose his job.

Cooper has picked up nearly twice as many points in his first 12 Premier League games with Leicester as he did in his first twelve with Forest. But he didn’t have any credit in the bank.

If there was ever a sign to sum up Cooper’s time at Leicester, it would read “Enzo I miss U.”

This is the sign spotted at a party in Copenhagen attended by Leicester players including Harry Winks and Conor Coady just hours after this weekend’s defeat to Chelsea.

Once you lose the dressing room, it’s game over. And that’s what appears to have happened at Leicester.

But as well as the players, Cooper never had the fans onside. At Forest, he was a hero, having led the Reds back to the Premier League after more than twenty years in the wilderness. Forest fans were willing to forgive some rather turgid soccer and dreadful results as long as there was a chance Cooper could keep them up.

A few miles down the M1, he didn’t have the same luxury. Having coached Leicester’s East Midlands rivals the season before and replaced the fantastic Enzo Maresca, whose stylish soccer took the Foxes back to the top flight at the first time of asking, Cooper was under pressure from day one.

Playing nice soccer isn’t enough to keep you in the Premier League. Just look at Southampton under Russell Martin, or Burnley last year under Vincent Kompany. Cooper arguably is getting Leicester to punch above their weight, given how Leicester’s defense is almost guaranteed a major mistake in every game, usually coming from Wout Faes, and Leicester’s attack still relies on a 37-year-old Jamie Vardy for most of their goals.

The underlying statistics are not as good as Leicester’s league position suggests though. In fact, based on expected goals, the club is narrowly bottom of the league, only Ipswich Town has created fewer shot-creating actions than Leicester and only Brentford has given away more shot creating actions per 90.

Perhaps Cooper’s bosses thought it is only a matter of time before results started reflecting the level of performance.

Leicester fans seem happy to see Cooper go. Whoever replaces him won’t have the baggage of having recently coached a local rival, but they will inherit the same unbalanced and defensively frail squad.

Some clubs leave it too late to replace a head coach. But for Leicester, the incoming coach can at least thank Steve Cooper for getting some points on the board to ease the immediate pressure, even if the soccer wasn’t great.