One more change to the Leicester City line-up that defeated Bournemouth and Steve Cooper may have an 11 that feels distinctly his.
With Harry Winks making way for the 1-0 win over the Cherries, just six of the regular City starting line-up from the Championship triumph remained. One more and the majority of last year’s team will have been changed.
Cooper did not have the chance to select Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, the midfielder sold to Chelsea before pre-season training had even begun, but it has been the manager’s decision to leave out Ricardo Pereira, Jannik Vestergaard, Abdul Fatawu, and now Winks.
Fatawu is a unique case. He did start the first three Premier League matches before being dropped for Stephy Mavididi, another regular from last season. In Cooper’s system, for now, it seems like there’s only space for one of the two.
Ricardo, one of the best technicians in the squad, has lost his place to Victor Kristiansen, the Dane capable of flying up and down the flank for 90 minutes. It’s the same for James Justin too, so Cooper can trust either to play that role, with the other tucking in to join the centre-backs.
Vestergaard, integral to the last season’s team with his passing through the lines, has been ousted by Caleb Okoli. It’s not that Vestergaard cannot defend. If he has to sit in a low block, he will marshal the penalty area very well. But he is vulnerable when chasing attackers one-on-one, which is something Okoli is much more comfortable with.
Oliver Skipp is the man who has come in for Winks. It’s just one game for now and Cooper did explain after Bournemouth that he has a host of midfield options and wants “certain things for certain games”. He didn’t rule out Winks coming back in.
But the manager did also say that City “hadn’t won for six games and so you’re looking for little solutions”. That City did succeed after the change was made means the midfield combination of Skipp and Wilfred Ndidi feels likely to continue against Southampton next weekend.
Last season, Winks was at the heart of the team, starting all but the one match he was suspended for. All of his best attributes are in possession. He’s great at finding space to receive the ball, turning out of danger, moving the ball to the right areas of the pitch, controlling the tempo.
Skipp is good, but not quite as great, at those aspects of the match. But it seems he has more energy. He seems to scurry around the pitch at a much greater rate than Winks does, and it feels like he has more forward thrust when it comes to carrying the ball too.
It looks like Cooper has swapped out players who are better on the ball for players who are better off it. When you consider that City’s average possession has dropped from 62 per cent to 42 per cent, that makes sense. When more time is spent out of possession, they need players who are better in those moments.
But there’s also the question of whether leaving those players out affects City’s ability to keep the ball. Has it become a self-fulfilling prophecy? While a step up to face better teams was very likely to see City’s share of the ball reduce, fellow promoted side Southampton are still managing 57 per cent of possession. Then again, it could be argued they are doing so to little effect at the moment, with just one point earned so far.
There is a balance to strike. Winks is far and away the best City player for progressing the ball into the attacking third. The club are struggling to create chances as it is, having had the fewest shots in the division so far, so they won’t want to harm their attacking threat further. In the first half against Bournemouth, they got that balance right, and look,ed capable of causing problems whether they were attacking patiently or at speed.
And they won the game. That’s ultimately how Cooper’s team will be judged. And, inch by inch, “Cooper’s team” is becoming a more and more apt description.
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