Leicester City defeated Walsall on penalties on Tuesday evening to advance to the fourth round of the EFL Cup.
It certainly wasn’t a convincing performance by any stretch of the imagination and in fact, there were boos coming from the visiting supporters at full-time.
Steve Cooper was criticised by Leicester fans during the clash, too, as chants of ‘Cooper, sort it out’ could be heard around the hour mark.
Pressure is already beginning to mount on the former Nottingham Forest manager and it very much feels as though he’s entering must-win territory over the next two weeks to save his job.
Cooper has to change one glaring problem against Arsenal this weekend if he is to turn his Leicester career around.
Steve Cooper has to change the system
At the moment, Cooper is persisting with a formation that quite simply doesn’t accommodate his best players.
The 44-year-old only really plays with one winger as he likes one of his full-backs to push high up the pitch and act almost as a wing-back.
The other full-back drops into a back three, which is currently the role Viktor Kristiansen is playing with James Justin operating in the more advanced position.
That’s forced Abdul Fatawu and Ricardo Pereira to the bench, who were Leicester’s standout performers last term.
So, against Arsenal, Cooper really should change the system to a flat back four, bringing Ricardo back into the team and starting both Fatawu and Stephy Mavididi on the flanks.
Abdul Fatawu was Leicester’s biggest threat vs Walsall
Fatawu was the only player who really looked like making something happen against Walsall last night, so he simply has to start against Arsenal.
The Ghana international was involved in 20 goals last term and even on his rare off-days, he remained an outlet.
Without Fatawu in the side, Leicester have had no threat down the right-hand side of the pitch and are becoming over-reliant on Mavididi.
Cooper simply has to address these glaring issues and quickly.