Leicester City 1 Bournemouth 0: Finally, that winning feeling for Cooper
Leicester's record against Bournemouth, coupled with recent form, didn't leave many feeling confident pre match. The odds of a stalemate were high, so be honest, who had a tight 1-0 and a clean sheet on this week's bingo card?
After the free hit at Arsenal, this week there could be no excuses and no mistakes. After dropping points at home to Everton, the number of potentially winnable home games was dwindling. Despite Bournemouth looking to be putting together an interesting team, they had to be viewed as one for the taking.
Steve Cooper had been cagey midweek about some knocks in the squad, and it was tense given Mads Hermansen’s injury treatment at Arsenal. This seemed to be another case of mind games from our manager though because he made just one change to the starting eleven who took the field at The Emirates.
Harry Winks was out, freeing up a spot for Jordan Ayew to start. Oliver Skipp took his place alongside Wilfred Ndidi. It looked a little harsh on the surface, Winks has done nothing wrong. But it looked more of a tactical choice. Skipp has been excellent when he's played and it helped with some of the other choices Cooper wanted to make. Ayew playing more centrally with Buonanotte out wide.
There was an early chance for the visitors that Senesi headed wide. A get out of jail free card for Cooper's men. The Foxes took the advantage early on for the first time at the King Power this season. Buonanotte was the deserving goalscorer in the 16th minute, celebrating emphatically.
Leicester enjoyed the better chances and portion of the ball in the rest of the first half but couldn't add to the tally. There was a questionable handball decision but mostly, we just couldn't quite connect that final pass.
What followed in the second half was more in line with the display at Crystal Palace. Bournemouth started with more momentum, and a lot of attacking minded substitutes, but couldn't get the equaliser. Offsides and poor finishing, coupled with some heroic efforts from our centre backs saw them off, just about.
At last, Cooper and his team tasted their first victory in the Premier League. The challenge is now in how to repeat it against tougher, more accurate shooting opposition. But the three points are all that matter at the end of the day. Even if it may have taken a while for Leicester fans' heart rates to subside after the way we held on to secure the win.
If you've been playing along at home for expected points, being 15th with 6 points on the board is still ahead of where The Fosse Way towers had us at this point.
Photo: Becky Taylor
A solid pairing
For all the winning goal’s brilliance, man of the match should go to Wout Faes. This was one of the best displays we've seen from the Belgian. Commanding, calm when needed and brash and in opposition’s faces as appropriate too. This was the type of performance he needed to put in when he was looking for those big transfer moves to pop up and give him luxury issues.
Foxes fans and Faes have a strange relationship. Almost in equal parts, you'll hear his name chanted in a deep noise that is so often mistaken for a boo by away fans. Then you'll hear cries of his name when he's decided to Cruyff turn somebody for no reason in our penalty box and give the ball away. He's an enigma.
For how unpredictable he can be, he's fitted the general narrative this season. But when he is good, then it all makes sense. Particularly in the second half when Bournemouth were pushing and started more brightly. Faes had to be alert and step in for various blocks and tackles. He didn't put a foot wrong.
He looked to be relishing it too, having run the ball out of play to deny the Cherries player, gloating in his face about it. It's nice to see him giving his opponents some grief. Passion is an overused word in football but all fans love to see their players showing it. This performance had some leadership about it, taking charge and holding people to account.
Caleb Okoli was equally great and his partnership with Faes has a natural easiness about it that could fool you into thinking they've been playing together for longer than just a couple of months. For everything you'd be tempted to describe Faes as, he does seem to pair well with our newest centre back. Okoli looks calm and composed at all times, and the two seem to know when to cover each other or step in.
Where Hermansen was integral to keeping it respectable last weekend, he got a bit of a break here. He still deserves the clean sheet but he was kept quiet because so often our defensive efforts were keeping the ball away from him or reducing Bournemouth to long range optimistic shots.
Kudos also to the crossbar for helping us out. Three points were top of the list, but a clean sheet won't hurt either.
Buonanotte brilliance
The winning goal was an excellent way to clinch the victory. Buonanotte enjoyed his spell playing wider against Bournemouth. His goal came from some one-two football with James Justin near the touchline before the Argentine moved into some space and then went solo. A brilliant goal for a very gifted player whose ceiling seems much higher than the King Power, sadly.
He'd been a bright spark in the opening spells and the way he wrong footed the final line of the Bournemouth defence before unleashing his rocket of a shot sent the crowd wild. We've been good so far for about a goal a game at home but this was one of the best we've seen this season alongside Justin's. A goal worthy of a first win.
This goal did continue a bit of a trend of our best moments being more solo acts rather than entire team fluency coming together. But when it can help deliver a win, those moments can be crafted and built. It lifts some of the immediate pressure around just getting a result.
It's excellent to see a young player taking a Premier League game by the horns and having the confidence to pull off a goal like this. It's a shame that he is just a loanee though, one we'll likely have no chance of signing. Meanwhile, today unfortunately saw a streak that had been running since 2018 broken.
Cooper has been much maligned for not giving younger, academy players a go. While that criticism seems fairer for the Carabao Cup games, today was the first time since December 2018 where we didn't have a single academy graduate in the starting lineup or on the bench.
For a manager who is usually tipped with being good for younger players, it is disappointing. More so when you look at the likes of Soumare making the bench instead of players we should be actively trying to keep and develop.
Just look at the reactions to Buonanotte and that goal, fans crave these exciting, young talents. It's about time we start seeing some of the next drop of our own.
Take the risk
It's still unclear if Cooper's shyness to use Abdul Fatawu is linked to age tactics or inexperience at this level. But the wait goes on for a game when we'll see Stephy Mavididi and Fatawu on the pitch together again. For Mavididi’s part, he does seem to have stepped up. Having the often talked about extra space, less fullbacks willing to put tackles in, seems to help him.
With Leicester 1-0 up and Bournemouth looking dangerous at every set piece, or maybe that's just our paranoia of them, the question was again about substitutes. What Cooper did, or how long he waited to do it, would be what people would judge him by were the score to alter.
The other problem of course is that the bench doesn't actually have particularly enticing options, or ones our manager seems to trust. Cooper has tried the defensive changes and they haven't worked. Vardy struggled for a meaningful touch and when replaced by Edouard, it didn't get better.
Leicester struggled for control in the second half. For as good as Skipp and Ndidi both were, perhaps we missed the link that Winks provides. With less predictability in the way the game was playing, and a possession game seemingly not an option, it felt like a swing was needed.
What a lot of fans were crying out for was to take the risk and get Fatawu on. As the home team, and seeing Bournemouth pulling off more defensive players to push for an equaliser, it's a shame it took until the 80th minute to unleash Abdul. It came at the expense of Mavididi but he'd been less influential in the second half.
He showed with one run that took three players to stop him, one of them picking up a yellow card for their efforts, to show that it's a risk we need to take more.
Hopefully the power and confidence that this first league win can inspire is enough to help us finally put together a fully comprehensive 90 minutes. For Cooper, it's a lifeline amongst some of the fan base and you could see what it meant to him.
The players too looked relieved if not a little unsure how to celebrate. Some may have looked slightly bemused, the stadium PA did go a little heavy handed blasting out all the key hits, but it's important for the players to feel that love from the fans.
The mood is lifted and some hope is restored as we head into a two week international break. After that it's Southampton away, another huge game in the grand scheme of our survival chances.
