Steve Cooper keen to keep making the most of Leicester’s ‘main man’

After saving a point in Leicester’s Premier League opener against Tottenham at home, Steve Cooper has backed Jamie Vardy to stay the team’s leader.

Vardy missed a significant portion of the preseason due to a muscle issue, therefore it was assumed that he would miss the match on Monday night.

Nevertheless, the Leicester forward announced himself fit over the weekend, and he rewarded new manager Cooper by canceling out Pedro Porro’s first-half opening in a 1-1 draw with a poacher’s finish at the back post from Abdul Fatawu’s cross in the 57th minute.

It was Vardy’s 137th Premier League goal and his ninth against Tottenham, the team he later insulted as he was replaced by pointing to the Premier League emblem and making a signal similar to the Foxes’ unexpected 2016 title win.

Cooper, who took over for Enzo Maresca in the summer, stated: “He definitely wouldn’t have played if it had been yesterday or Saturday.”

“He is the leader of this team, and we want him to stay that way, but it didn’t set well with him that we wouldn’t have a senior striker available for this game due to Patson Daka’s surgery.

“He came to me, feeling good about his rehabilitation, and said, ‘Go play boy, no problem.'”

He is definitely not typical in terms of what he can still accomplish given his age and level of athleticism.

“We’re simply going to work extremely hard, me in especially, to make sure he has the correct regimen, respects his body, and does what he feels is best for his training.

And I think we can get more moments like that out of him if we do that. Without a doubt, he is the key player here, and I want it to stay that way.

Ange Postecoglou was not happy with his Tottenham team’s first-half performance as they missed several opportunities.

Before Porro headed in a fantastic delivery by James Maddison, who made an impression on his first visit back to King Power Stadium, Brennan Johnson and Dominic Solanke came dangerously near.

At the beginning of the second half, Rodrigo Bentancur, who would later leave the field on a stretcher due to a sickening head injury, curled an effort straight at the Leicester goalkeeper, but Solanke again tested Mads Hermansen.

When Fatawu cut inside and selected the unmarked Vardy to head in at the back post, it proved costly and set off joyous celebrations.

After Bentancur’s head injury caused a seven-minute delay, Vardy nearly scored again but Guglielmo Vicario’s excellent low stop denied him, and the match ended 1-1.

“A disappointing result,” thought Postecoglou.

“Very wasteful in front of goal, but a really dominant first half.” The second half began similarly for us. Very domineering and wasteful first 15 to 20 minutes, but at 1-0 you always know there’s a chance for the other team to get back into the game.

That’s what occurred, and for fifteen or twenty minutes we were lost. We lost our cool and the audience began to support them, but once more, we came in strong.

“We just weren’t able to get the credit our football deserved because we made some bad decisions, lacked composure, and lacked a little cutting edge in the front third.”

Postecoglou gave £65 million acquisition Solanke his debut. Although he had many good moments outside the penalty area, Solanke missed three excellent opportunities to score.

He went on, “Dom was good.” He gave the team his all at work. He will be unhappy that he didn’t perform better with the few opportunities he got.

“Everyone did a decent job overall, but if we don’t translate that performance into results, it means nothing.

“It’s a part of the game we need to work on if we want to advance as a team and close the gap with the best teams. We had similar problems last year.”