The Foxes fell to defeat against their local rivals Nottingham Forest at home. Despite this, Leicester City are fighting just above the relegation zone in the Premier League. Steve Cooper has got to mend any issues from that loss, as well as adapting the team to create more chances.
Three players Leicester City should start
Opportunities do not come around often for players to impress. Cooper has equally seldom altered his primary starting XI unless absolutely necessary or in the case against Bournemouth where the Welshman dropped Harry Winks from the cast. The King Power side ought to offer a couple chances to a trio of players who have been seen little.
Firstly, academy graduate Kasey McAteer has been absent despite performing well in the last campaign under Enzo Maresca in the EFL Championship. Obviously, the Premier League is a different can of fish, but the work put in by the player and the coaching team should have been to get McAteer into a position where he can come on for the Foxes at times.
Leicester's Irish international is an impassioned playmaker. The talent is a great passer, has plenty of pace and explosiveness, and offers City that vigour and energy to run around putting in challenges and helping others. That is what we were missing against Nottingham Forest: just someone to run around and support the team wherever.
Secondly, Boubakary Soumare. Played for but a brief moment against Forest, what I saw was a talented midfielder who could collect the ball in a defensive position and drive past opposition players carrying the ball to a more dangerous position. What 'Bouba' did was to allow others to play with more freedom in the final third. Should that have been present in the first half, perhaps the match could have ended differently.
Finally, defensively Leicester City have been inept. They need some experienced leaders who can step up and organise that back line collectively. Of course, Ricardo Pereira should be one element in that better defence, however, it is Conor Coady who Cooper should look to start.
With a mild injury to Jannik Vestergaard, and unfortunate gaffs from Wout Faes, Coady represents a composed defender who can offer that leadership and experience we are crying out for at the back. Though lacking pace, similar to our former Jonny Evans, Coady is positionally excellent and can help the King Power team to recover the ball and kickstart a counter-attack with a well-placed direct pass. With Jamie Vardy upfront, we need Conor Coady at the back.
Therefore, if we compare to Steve Cooper's selection against Forest, the Foxes ought to switch out the Belgian defender for Conor Coady, the Nigerian midfielder for Boubakary Soumare, and I would contend Facundo Bounanotte for Kasey McAteer. The Argentinian can always come on along with Bilal El Khannouss later in the game against a more tired defence.