Leicester City are still searching for their first Premier League win of the 2024/25 season.
Steve Cooper will have been left frustrated after watching his side fail to win over the weekend.
Leicester City drew 1-1 with Tottenham Hotspur to kick off their first season back in the Premier League.
After drawing with one of the teams expected to be competing for Champions League football, the Foxes were likely feeling much more confident about their survival chances.
However, Leicester lost 2-1 versus Fulham in their following league outing and did not fare much better against Aston Villa.
The Midlands outfit went 2-0 down at the King Power Stadium, with a 73rd-minute strike from Facundo Buonanotte not enough to rescue any points for the home outfit.
In turn, Leicester go into the September international break sat down in 15th place in the Premier League table.
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Matt Piper explains Steve Cooper decision for Leicester City vs Aston Villa
One of the main areas Leicester looked weak in against Unai Emery’s side was midfield.
Cooper expected Aston Villa to dominate them and tried to counter this by starting three defensive midfielders and dropping Buonanotte to the bench.
However, Wilfred Ndid struggled vs Aston Villa and the selection choice from Cooper proved frustrating to fans.
Now though, former Foxes player Matt Piper, speaking on When You’re Smiling: A Leicester City Podcast, has explained why the manager chose the midfield three he did on Saturday.
He said: “I think that was a tip of the hat to the opposition. The selection that he made was because he thought he was going to get overrun in midfield.
“He wanted plenty of energy which is obviously what Skipp, Winks and Ndidi give you – more defence-minded.
“But I think I’m pretty much the same as the fans. You’re at home, the second half that we played against Tottenham shows that if we’re on the front foot even against some of the top teams we can cause them problems, so I thought he would have gone with Buonanotte and probably gone with Ndidi and Winks but Skip had a really good game, I thought.
“I can understand why the fans were frustrated. You’re at home, they want to be on the front foot, you wanted to take it to Villa but I think that was a selection that the manager made more as a tip of the hat to who and what he was up against in Villa.”
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Steve Cooper must start Facundo Buonanotte when Leicester City face Crystal Palace
It was easy to see why fans were left so frustrated by Cooper’s midfield selection on Saturday as his decision was proven wrong in the 90 minutes.
After going 2-0 down against Villa, Cooper opted to finally bring on Buananotee, who has been superb since his loan move from Brighton and Hove Albion.
The Argentine scored within six minutes of coming and fans will be left wondering if things could have been different had the midfielder started the game in place of Ndidi.
Regardless, it is now clear that Buonanotte must start when Leicester return to action on September 14th with a meeting against Crystal Palace.
The experiment to play three defensive-minded midfielders failed and Cooper must revert back to his more successful, attacking midfield options.