Leicester City suffered a surprise relegation from the Premier League in the 2022/23 season as they had finished eighth in the top flight just a year before.
Steve Cooper is the man tasked with ensuring Leicester City do not suffer the same fate this season after Enzo Maresca secured a return to the Premier League at the first attempt last campaign.
Brendan Rodgers was the man who took the Foxes down despite the fact he had won the FA Cup two seasons before with largely the same group of players, making the relegation a particularly bitter pill to swallow.
That relegation campaign showed the impact that momentum can have on a team, with Leicester slowly but surely sliding before eventually ending the 2022/23 season in 18th place.
Cooper will be keen to find some positive momentum as soon as possible after two points from Leicester’s first four games, starting with Everton at the King Power on Saturday.
Gary Lineker believes 2022/23 Leicester City side should never have been relegated
Match of the Day presenter and former Leicester striker Gary Lineker is never one to hide away from his support of the club.
Lineker hosts The Rest is Football podcast where he is joined by Micah Richards and Alan Shearer and the trio took questions from listeners in the latest episode.
One of the questions asked was who did the three pundits feel is the best team to be relegated from the Premier League and Lineker did not hesitate before responding: “I’m going to come up with, for obvious reasons, Leicester from a couple of years ago.
“They had Maddison, Barnes, Tielemans, Ndidi, Dewsbury-Hall, Vardy, Iheanacho, Castagne and only managed 34 points.”
Current Leicester City side not as good as one relegated two years ago
The other sides that got a mention in the debate were the West Ham side from the 2002/03 season who were relegated with 42 points, as well as the Leeds United side of 2003/04.
Leicester fans would generally agree that their side was far too good to be relegated two seasons ago but the club had gone a little stale with a number of players having been there for a long time and Rodgers in his fourth year at the helm.
Worryingly for Foxes fans is that, on paper at least, that Leicester side was far better than the current crop; which does not give their hopes of avoiding relegation swathes of optimism.
However, Cooper will be hoping his Leicester squad is one that is far more hungry than the one Rodgers took down to the Championship and that this will be what keeps them in the top flight.
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