Cooper believes refereeing standards 'behind the curve' in Premier League
- Published
Leicester boss Steve Cooper criticised the standard of refereeing and believes it is "behind the curve" in the Premier League.
The Foxes manager was unhappy with several decisions by official David Coote in their 2-1 defeat to Aston Villa on Saturday.
Goals from Amadou Onana and Jhon Duran gave Villa victory, with Facundo Buonanotte pulling one back for the hosts.
Cooper was booked for protesting when Leicester were not awarded a penalty after Jamie Vardy went down under a challenge by Youri Tielemans.
There were several other decisions the Foxes were unhappy with, including the decision to penalise Oliver Skipp for bringing down Ollie Watkins for the free-kick which led to Villa's opener.
"Everybody in the stadium would have got booked if the ref had got round to it. I鈥檝e accepted refereeing is where it is," Cooper said.
"You see it clearly that it鈥檚 behind the curve, the Premier League is the best league in the world in terms of domestic football but the refereeing, for a number of years, has been trying to catch up with that.
"You accept this is how it is and this is part of our modern game. You just keep fingers crossed because of where refereeing is. You keep your fingers crossed every week it doesn鈥檛 go against you.
"You can talk about isolated decisions but what I will talk about is the managers' meeting we had in pre-season, the club visits you have from referees, the FA, LMA and Premier League.
"The clear message was the threshold of tackles and duels, although we never want the game to be dangerous, was going to be raised.
"Then we get that. Then it鈥檚 just another reminder of we are where we are with refereeing."