OPINION
Marcelo Bielsa is making a big mistake by putting his faith in Liam Cooper at Leeds United for the upcoming season.
The centre-back may be club captain, an experienced performer at Championship level and, after three seasons at Elland Road, a relatively well established player.
But he is no-one’s idea of a reliable centre-back capable of consistently performing for a side challenging strongly for promotion.
The Yorkshire Evening Post report that newly-appointed manager Bielsa plans to use Cooper as one of the main centre-backs in the three-man defence he plans to unveil in pre-season ahead of its use in the upcoming Championship campaign.
It is said that Cooper, 26, will be partnered by Pontus Jansson and one other, as yet undecided, centre-back as Leeds continue to scour the market for new signings before the 9 August cut-off for permanent deals.
Bielsa made it clear at his recent unveiling that he had watched footage of every minute of Leeds’ flawed 2017-18 campaign, one in which Cooper made 32 appearances, including 30 league starts.
Give such research, it is something of a mystery why the new manager is keen to keep hold of the former Hull player.
He is a flawed defender. Sure, he can look the part for a few games on the spin but his propensity for making errors places him in the accident-waiting-to-happen category.
It is no coincidence that Leeds’ defence was considerably more permeable when 2016-17 loanee Kyle Bartley returned to Swansea City and Cooper replaced him.
Nor is he anybody’s idea of a ball-playing defender, either. Cooper frequently looks a bag of nerves when the ball is at his feet and he is pressed.
Bielsa should bin Cooper and recruit a better centre-back capable of doing what he wants.
The Leeds man is a proven flop and just not up to it.