It will be difficult for Steve Cooper not to consider Leicester City’s draw with Crystal Palace as two points dropped after going 2-0 up at Selhurst Park.
Steve Cooper made one change to the Leicester City side that lost 2-1 to Aston Villa in the last game before the international break against Crystal Palace as Stephy Mavididi came in for Abdul Fatawu.
It proved an inspired decision as Mavididi added to Jamie Vardy’s opener to put Leicester 2-0 up in his first league start of the season.
However, Leicester conceded just a minute after Mavididi’s 46th-minute strike as Jean-Philippe Mateta halved the deficit.
What ensued was Leicester dropping deeper and deeper before eventually paying the price as Conor Coady gave away a penalty that Mateta scored in second-half stoppage time to cruelly deny the Foxes a first league win of the campaign.
Steve Cooper makes negative substitutions as Leicester City concede late vs Crystal Palace
Cooper made three substitutions against Palace and you could argue that all three changes were defensive ones as the Welsh manager looked to protect the narrow lead.
Fatawu came on for Mavididi, with the Ghanaian a wide player who perhaps works harder to help his full-back defensively, whilst Hamza Choudhury replaced Wilfred Ndidi.
The final change saw centre-back Coady come on for a winger in Jordan Ayew as Leicester went to a back three for the final stages.
This invited pressure, with Leicester unable to get out and Palace’s relentless push for a goal culminated in Coady bringing down Ismaila Sarr in the box late on and the points subsequently shared as Mateta converted the penalty.
Cooper explains defensive Leicester City changes
Cooper was asked about the thinking behind his substitutions post-match, where he explained: “Palace chucked everything at us, made a load of changes and put every attacking player on they could.
“They had six or seven on the back-line and we matched numbers.”
He added: “I never really felt like the goal was coming. It could, because of the territory. We were trying to get counter-attacks with Abdul (Fatawu) on the pitch.
“Any chances they were having were from difficult areas and they were going wide and would have been difficult opportunities to score. To give the penalty away is frustrating.
“I wouldn’t say we invited (pressure), but we accepted it.”
Perhaps it is too easy to say that this approach was the wrong one in hindsight as had Cooper made positive substitutions and Palace scored he would have been criticised for his naivety.
However, it is frustrating that Leicester came so close to a crucial first three points of the season only to be undone by pressure they invited on themselves.
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