Leicester City manager Steve Cooper has criticised the standard of refereeing in the Premier League after his side fell to a controversial 2-1 home defeat to Chelsea.
Cooper was upset when Leicester were not given a penalty in the second half when former Leicester defender Wesley Fofana collide with substitute Stephy Mavididi inside the box.
Referee Andrew Madley waved Leicester’s appeals away and VAR checked the challenge but ruled there was no foul without offering Madley the chance to review the incident on the pitchside monitor.
The incident was shown on the big screen inside King Power Stadium and sparked an angry reaction from Cooper, who was later booked for criticising the substitute linesman for a number of decisions and for initially ruling substitute Bobby DeCordova-Reid offside before he was tripped by Benoit Badiashile inside the area.
This time VAR intervened and correctly ruled DeCordova-Reid was onside.
“You need moments to go for you when you’re playing against teams like Chelsea, when you’re a team like us,” Cooper said.
“It’s about capitalising on our moments and hoping that moments like referees’ decisions (go your way) and that games are refereed in the right way.
“Even the penalty that is given is given off when he’s like half a yard on. We’ve had a tough season with this referee this year.
“I saw it on the screen (in the stadium). It was the first thing I have been asked about (after the game), poor decisions.
“We can’t do anything about it now, apart from maybe officially speak to whoever we need to speak to and, and just hope that in general things can get to the level that we all want them to be to help the game.”
Cooper speculated that his booking may have been a reaction to how the officials were performing.
“I think that was probably a bit of self protection for the officials of how they were doing at that time rather than actual for what I might have said because I didn’t know,” he said.
Cooper also expressed his bemusement at why Madley was not asked to review the Fofana challenge.
“I think that’s probably going to be as much of a talking point as actually the poor decision, is how inconsistent that seems to be as well as the on the pitch stuff, and the whole VAR debate goes on,” he said.
“They don’t half cause problems for themselves and everyone wants to help them as well, help them get better. But when you’re on the wrong end of it, it’s so frustrating.”
Cooper said he had sympathy with Howard Webb, the technical director of the professional game match officials Board, after the controversy surrounding referee David Coutts and the publishing of a video in which he spoke derogatory manner about former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp.
“I don’t just want to talk about the decisions. I’ll give you a fair analysis of the game, but at the same time this was the last thing the PGMOL needed this weekend, not just a game with a performance like that, but being the first game as well.
“So I feel sorry for Howard this weekend, you know, with everything, they just needed a really clean week. I hope today is not the start of the rest of the weekend. I’m sure it won’t be as bad as that.
“I don’t want to go into one particular thing. It (Coote) has definitely been topical, and referees this season. Everyone wants it to be at the level it should be at.
“I think international breaks give you a chance to talk about other things and referees have been that. Unfortunately it will be the case when they talk about this game as well.”
Leicester, 16th in the table after Saturday’s defeat, return to action away at Brentford next Saturday.
GO DEEPER
The Briefing: Leicester 1 Chelsea 2 – Fernandez makes his mark and a marvellous Madueke-Palmer mix-up
(Plumb Images/Leicester City FC via Getty Images)
