Journalist Conor McGilligan has admitted he wants to see Liam Cooper return for Leeds United this weekend.
Leeds will be hoping to get back to winning ways on Sunday when they welcome Aston Villa to Elland Road as Jesse Marsch’s side haven’t won a league game since August 21st and are currently winless in their last three league matches.
What is potentially even worse is the fact they haven’t played since September 3rd, which was also a damning 5-2 defeat at the hands of Brentford, so changes may well be in order, and McGilligan wants one of them to be captain Liam Cooper returning.
Cooper hasn’t kicked a ball in the league this season but McGilligan has admitted on his YouTube channel that he wishes to see the skipper start on Sunday.
(36:50) “This game in particular I just remember Villa against us in pre-season and you spoke about the diamond [that Villa play] but they were still making the pitch as wide as possible and it was one-vs-one if you remember Leif Davis played that day as well in pre-season.
Should Cooper start on Sunday?
Yes!
No!
“So I would stick with Struijk there [left back] and for this game I would bring Cooper in to partner Koch and leave Rasmus at right back, that’s what I would do for this game.”
TIF Thoughts on Cooper returning…
There’s two ways of looking at bringing Cooper back into the starting lineup, one is that he’s very experienced, a leader and the club captain so will be able to organise and command the backline which has seen Leeds keep just one clean sheet in the league all season.
On the other hand, he is yet to play a single minute of first team football this season so could well be rusty and may be best to give him some minutes off of the bench and allow his body to get back up to speed in time.
It will be a big call from Jesse Marsch no matter what he does and it wouldn’t be surprising to see Cooper brought into the starting lineup given that Leeds are indeed struggling to be solid in their own defensive third.