Steve Cooper has defended his substitutions and insists Leicester City did not invite the late pressure that they succumbed to in their 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace.
Cooper introduced Conor Coady for the final 10 minutes at Selhurst Park, the England international joining Wout Faes and Caleb Okoli in the centre of a back five. But Coady went on to concede an added-time penalty for a trip on Ismaila Sarr, with Jean-Philippe Mateta converting to deny City their first victory of the Premier League season.
City accepted the pressure, rather than invited it, Cooper said, with Palace introducing a couple of attacking players and City responding. Although City were pinned back for much of the second half, the manager didn’t see a goal coming
Palace chucked everything at us, made a load of changes and put every attacking player on they could,” Cooper said. “They had six or seven on the back-line and we matched numbers.
As well as Mads (Hermansen) played, he didn’t have to make save after save after save. I felt we defended in our low block well. We didn’t want to be there as much as we did, but the game ended up going like that.
“I never really felt like the goal was coming. It could, because of the territory. We were trying to get counter-attacks with Abdul (Fatawu) on the pitch. Any chances they were having were from difficult areas and they were going wide and would have been difficult opportunities to score. To give the penalty away is frustrating.