Steve Cooper was left deeply frustrated and dismayed by the state of Premier League refereeing after Leicester City’s 2-1 defeat to Aston Villa, arguing that the match was not officiated in accordance with the guidance provided by referees before the season started.
Cooper’s frustration was evident as he criticised the inconsistency in officiating, which he believes is not keeping pace with the demands of the top-flight.
In the lead-up to the season, Premier League managers were informed during meetings with referees that the threshold for fouls would be raised, ostensibly to allow for a more physical and fluid style of play.
This directive was meant to preserve the unique intensity of English football, where robust tackles and duels are celebrated as part of the game’s heritage.
However, Leicester’s clash with Villa was anything but fluid, marred instead by constant interruptions that saw the game become a stop-start affair.
Referee David Coote awarded 34 free-kicks throughout the match, a figure that starkly contradicts the pre-season assurances of a higher threshold for fouls.
Additionally, nine yellow cards were shown, further disrupting the flow of the game and leaving players and fans alike exasperated.
The inconsistency in applying the supposed new standard was not lost on Cooper, who could hardly contain his frustration in the post-match press conference.
“I think everybody in the stadium would have been booked if the referee could have got around to it,” Cooper said, his tone laced with sarcasm and frustration.
“I’ve just accepted that the refereeing is where it is. I’ve said things before and ended up being fined. I’m not going to do that again.”
Cooper’s words reflect a growing disillusionment with the standard of officiating in the Premier League, something he feels is increasingly lagging behind the quality of the football on display.
“I do know that, because of where refereeing is, you just keep your fingers crossed every week that it doesn’t go against you on gameday. I realised that last season when I was away from the game, when I’m looking at them more neutrally and you see it clearly that it’s behind the curve in the Premier League.”
The City manager’s comments are a damning indictment of what he sees as the declining standard of refereeing in what is widely regarded as the best league in the world. He lamented that while the Premier League is unmatched in its quality of football, the same cannot be said for its officiating, which he described as “trying to catch up” for several years now.
“It’s the best league in the world, without any shadow of a doubt, but the refereeing, for a number of years, has been trying to catch up with that. You accept this is how it is, it’s out of your control but you keep your fingers crossed.”
Cooper refrained from dissecting individual decisions in the match, opting instead to focus on the broader issue of inconsistency.
“You can talk about isolated decisions, but I won’t. What I will talk about is the managers meeting that we had in pre-season. The club visits you have from referees and the refereeing association, the key message to us was that the threshold for tackles and duels, in this beautiful English game that we love, was going to be raised. I can remember it clearly.”
Despite Cooper’s frustration, the result was particularly disappointing for City fans, who felt hard done by several key decisions during the game.
In the second half, Jamie Vardy had a goal disallowed after Coote inadvertently got in the way of a pass in the build-up. While the decision was technically correct according to the rules, it only added to the sense of injustice felt by the Leicester faithful.
Additionally, there were two penalty shouts involving Vardy, both of which left City fans aggrieved.
The first incident involved a tackle by former Leicester man Youri Tielemans, who won the ball but also took the man, sparking claims for a spot-kick. The second came in the dying moments of the match, where a penalty was initially awarded, only to be overturned for offside.
The second half saw Leicester City put up a spirited fightback after trailing 2-0. Facundo Buonanotte scored his first goal for the club, giving the Foxes a glimmer of hope and setting up a tense finish. Despite their efforts, however, City couldn’t convert their pressure into meaningful chances, and Villa held on for the win.
Cooper’s disappointment was palpable as he reflected on the missed opportunities and the overall performance.
“We’re really frustrated that we haven’t at least drawn the game,” he admitted.
“We felt like there was a real opportunity to win the game, the way the game was being played out. That’s a real frustration.”
He went on to analyse the match, pointing out that it was evenly poised until Villa’s opening goal.
“It was an even game, up until the first goal. We felt that Villa were causing us a threat off our own turnovers when we were comfortable in possession. If anything, Villa looked like a counter-attacking team today, which is not what they are.”
Cooper’s tactical acumen was on display as he dissected where things went wrong for his side. He acknowledged that City were their own worst enemies at times, particularly in how they managed possession in the middle of the pitch.
The turning point, he felt, was the free-kick that led to Villa’s opener, a decision he strongly contested.
“We’ll own the free-kick, that’s on all of us. For me, it should never be a free-kick and that really changed the complexion of the game.”
As the final whistle blew, Cooper was left to rue a tough start to the season, with City having taken just one point from their opening three games.
“I won’t hide away from the fact that it’s been a tough start with results and points from the first three. I believe there’s been enough in the three games, with us transitioning back into the Premier League and introducing new players, if we keep going, we’ll be more than alright.”
Cooper’s message to the players and fans was one of resilience and determination. He urged his squad to learn from their mistakes and avoid a season of “could haves” and “should haves.”
“We’ll always own up to results, I’ll be first to that, but we could have got something better out of every game that we’ve played. We don’t want to have a season of ‘could haves’ and ‘should haves’, but we’re more than competing at the level and we’ve got to turn that into positive results.”
With the Premier League season still in its early stages, Cooper’s Leicester City have time to recover and push up the table. However, the manager will be hoping for a change in fortunes – both in terms of results on the pitch and the decisions that go against his side.