Leeds United captain Liam Cooper has claimed that the club’s summer signings have “hit the ground running”.
Cooper delivered his assessment during the international break following a wretched week in which United had sunk to consecutive away defeats at Cardiff City and Sheffield Wednesday.
Leeds made 16 new signings as part of a massive overhaul during the summer window, led by headline arrivals Samuel Saiz, Pierre-Michel Lasogga, Vurnon Anita and Felix Wiedwald.
Thomas Christiansen’s side were the early pacesetters in the Championship but dropped to fifth in the wake of their 3-0 loss at Hillsborough on Sunday.
“We’ve had a couple of bad results over the past couple of weeks but the Championship is a tough league and we’ll be doing all we can to put it right in the next game,” Cooper said, as quoted by the Scotsman.
“There have been a lot of new players coming in and often it takes time for them to get themselves used to the Championship. But the lads have come in and hit the ground running. It’s been great to be part of. Long may it continue.”
OPINION
Certainly, some of Leeds’ summer signings have settled in well. Saiz is a brilliant signing and the likes of Lasogga and Anita are solid acquisitions. But the jury is still out on a number of others, including regulars Felix Wiedwald and Ezgjan Alioski, not to mention fringe men like Pawel Cibicki, Mateusz Klich, Jay-Roy Grot, Cameron Borthwick-Jackson and Matthew Pennington. It is too early to conclude that the summer window will be remembered for a string of surefire hits by recruitment chief Victor Orta, because that is clearly not the case.