on the VAR ruling at Crystal Palace and the discussions the team has since held with the Premier League on the procedure, Leicester City’s manager adopted an optimistic stance.
Steve Cooper doesn’t believe in debate. With bluster, he declared that Leicester City had shown the Premier League that the VAR’s ruling that Jean-Philippe Mateta was onside was wrong.
He says the club has been “wronged” and implies there has been some type of cover-up by the Premier League in withholding the actual film from the public. These are the facts to the City leader.
He maintained that neither PGMOL nor the Premier League had sent an apology to the team. From the perspective of the PGMOL, this is because there hasn’t been an error or a cover-up. The published image of the referee’s body, which shows the line drawn from James Justin’s extended toe, is accurate.
This specific issue is therefore at a standstill for the time being, and most likely permanently. City and Cooper are confident in their assessment. The PGMOL is confident in theirs. There is no way to reverse the decision. Everyone will move on quite fast.
Cooper stated he was already past the problem, even if it dominated this week’s news conference. So why take such a combative, belligerent stance? He stated it for the fans and the players.
“We have been wronged by a VAR decision and charged for around the referee in the last two games,” he stated. “As a club, we must demonstrate our strength of character by refusing to accept that. It’s critical that our supporters understand that we will always defend the team and that we won’t put up with behaviour like this without offering our thoughts.
“In actuality, the players and supporters are the target audience. If the referees wish to get better, it’s also for them. These kinds of errors are not what we want them to make. They find it embarrassing. Its failure to reach the media and the general public bothered me.
“We cannot see it occur and be silent. Essentially, it’s a statement to our fans that we will defend them. After the club prevailed in the appeal, I spoke, saying, “We really need to stand as a club, be strong, and fight whatever comes our way.”
Cooper’s mention of the club’s PSR appeal success is intriguing. The fact that one potential source of a points deduction has been eliminated is ultimately excellent news for the club’s survival aspirations, but it also meant that, at least temporarily, City was no longer facing the Premier League. There was nothing more substantial to fight for than the weekly ninety minutes on the pitch. Maybe, though, Cooper believes City needs one. They require an adversary.
Fantastic home form was the cornerstone of Cooper’s achievement in keeping Nottingham Forest in the Premier League. Inside the City Ground, the atmosphere was boisterous, with players from Forest feeling confident and the opposition appearing minor. For the first time in twenty years, the team was back in the Premier League, and fans loved the manager and team despite their inherent underdog status. There was excitement and anticipation. That would make for a fantastic environment.
It’s very different for City. This isn’t a long-awaited trip back to the land of hope. They would be gone in only a year. It will not be quite as exciting to play Everton on Saturday (3pm kickoff) as it was in 2014, when City played its first Premier League match in ten years. The excitement of taking against the top clubs in the nation has somewhat faded.
Furthermore, Cooper understands he still has a ways to go before winning the fans’ affection and it’s likely the case for a good number of the players as well. He was not the one to propel City into the Premier League. They got promoted, and they had some amazing, unforgettable experiences along the way, but they were also just following instructions.
So perhaps City supporters need something else to hold onto in order to create that home atmosphere. That might have been the PSR disagreement with the Premier League. Given a point deduction and relegated to the bottom of the standings, fans might have been inspired to create a resolute environment in support of their side, desperate to demonstrate the Premier League that they could climb out of the hole they had dug the club into.
There must be an other cause in its place. Maybe that’s why Cooper criticised the VAR ruling so harshly. Perhaps he wants to give the impression that the Premier League is trying to harm City. It is a battle for justice as much as three points when the side wins at King Power Stadium.
It might function. The general public already believes that the six richest clubs control the Premier League. It surely doesn’t take much for fans of a team like City to feel that their team has been treated unfairly.
Cooper will believe it was a successful tactic if the resentment spreads among the supporters and if the King Power Stadium atmosphere improves to the point where the team wins three more games this season.
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