One win doesn’t make a season and Steve Cooper knows he still has work to do to get people believing in him and to make Leicester City a force.
City claimed their first victory of the new Premier League season at the seventh attempt on Saturday, beating Bournemouth 1-0. Facundo Buonanotte scored the winner early on, with City just about hanging on in the second period, when the Cherries hit the woodwork twice and had a goal ruled out for offside.
The result brings relief for Cooper and City, who had been under pressure after their opening six performances and results. But while fans were left cheering at the end, Cooper knows that one victory is not enough to get them wholly on his side.
Asked his post-match celebration was more low-key than those seen at Nottingham Forest, Cooper said: “I’ve got to build trust here. It’s clear I’ve got work to do in terms of people really believing in me. I’m absolutely fine with that. I know that’s part of the job.
“That’s my real big motivation because it allows me to show how much I want to get this job right with this set of players who are so committed. Feeling the atmosphere here, it’s been really good to be honest. I know it’s only today that we’ve won, but I felt the supporters really get behind the team here.
“We really needed them in the second half. There were times where Bournemouth crossed out for a goal kick and the crowd went up as if to say: ‘Come on, we can do this!’ That really spurred us on.
“It’s great to win, but I know we and I have got a lot of work to do here to really be the team we want, really be connected, and to become a force. I want to show humility and quietness to get to that stage, but it’s going to take a lot of work.”
A lot of City’s performances this season have seen them underwhelm in the first period but then make a fist of a comeback in the second. It was the opposite on Saturday.
Cooper said: “To win a Premier League game, you have to leave everything out on the pitch. You have to do every part of the game well at certain moments. First half, we had some really good attacking moves, got players in position from the model of play we’re trying to develop and feel can hurt opponents.
“When we got that right in the first half, I felt that’s what we did. We opened them up and got into good positions. We scored a good goal and had a chance to score one or two more. I felt like we were right on the edge of being an attacking team today. That’s what we want to be.
“Second half, the plan was to go to get the second. We showed them images at half-time and said that when they get this positioning right, they really can hurt Bournemouth. There were times in the first half where we didn’t quite get it right and turned the ball over in areas where we shouldn’t. But then when we did get it right…
“That was the plan for the second half. But naturally, because we are trying to get the first win, Bournemouth were putting more numbers up the pitch and were going longer, quicker. You have to match the numbers. It’s a natural thing to do. You don’t want balls going over your head and you’re running back. So we ended up lower than we would have liked.
“But then we did the defending side of the game really well. We showed the heart, soul, and desire to defend but also the intricacies of our tactical defensive ideas. We covered each other well and read the game well.
“We tried to get control of the game second half. Our attacking moments came on the counter, which wasn’t the plan, but it became that. But defending, I felt on the whole we dealt with that well and were good for the clean sheet.”
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