Cooper is in for a rough first game as Leicester welcome Tottenham to the King Power Stadium in their return to the Premier League.
The Leicester boss spoke on how the club deserved the return to the top flight.
“I can’t wait to get back. It’s always club first but the Premier League is a brilliant place to be. I missed it, there’s no doubt about that. It’s an exciting challenge, a good challenge and it’s been a good pre-season while transitioning into becoming a Premier League team, so we’re really looking forward to continuing that challenge with the next step of the season starting.”
“This is a hard-working and together group of players, which is natural and normal after a successful season. We very much want to keep a lot of that going, while balancing the challenge of the Premier League and what might need to change and adapt, because obviously it’s completely different.”
Without Vardy and Daka the club has no solid striker but Cooper is still confident in his side.
“It’s not the perfect situation in terms of no.9’s going into this game, but we have to find a solution and the right strategy for the game plan to make sure that we can be a threat against Spurs on Monday.”
“We’ve got to believe in our own way and the things that we’re doing and that they can have a massive impact on the game, including the top end of the pitch and creating and scoring goals.”
“That just isn’t the striker, they can be the focal point, but it’s how you get it there and other guys at the top end of the pitch. We’ve got enough players who are more than capable of making it happen. Let’s hope we can make the right plan to get the most out of them.”
“Obviously, Spurs are a really good team and play in a really defined way with some positions on the pitch that are really fixed and some which are really fluid. We’re fully aware of that and we’ve got to make sure we’ll be ready for that.”
Leicester has the home advantage today and Cooper thinks the fans and the hard work put into preparation will serve the team well.
“We’re at home, it’s the first game of the season, we’ve worked incredibly hard to get back into the league and continued that through pre-season, so we really want to be focused on what we can do to have the right impact on the game and that’s where our focus is.
“Of course, Spurs have got some brilliant players and a really good manager, but that’s going to be the case every single week in the Premier League. You have to understand what the opponent does but that can never outweigh what you want to do yourself. That’s exactly where our mindset is.”