Journalist Adam Pope has launched a strong defence of Leeds United captain Liam Cooper despite a poor showing last weekend.
Cooper has had a tough start to the season, starting just two league games thus far with a pre-season injury holding him back, but his return hasn’t exactly gone to plan for the defender and Jesse Marsch.
The 31-year-old certainly had a game to forget against Crystal Palace at the weekend having given away the free kick which led to the Eagles’ opening goal, while he dived in on Eberechi Eze seconds before he nestled one into the top corner.
Pope, however, saw things differently as he defended the skipper on the latest episode of the Don’t Go To Bed Just Yet podcast.
He said: “The globalisation of Liam Cooper’s mistakes as if he’s done it all his career is really unfair, and he’s still got something to offer.
“He’s coming back from time out, he’s going to have a bit of rustiness. The first goal – yes, definitely [at fault]; the second one, there was quite a lot happening before Eze even got towards him, so I think that’s harsh.”
Should Cooper start for Leeds this weekend?
Yes!
No!
TIF Thoughts on Cooper…
Some of the criticism may well have gone a bit too far, given that Cooper has proved to be a solid and dependable player for Leeds over the years in the Championship and Premier League. But considering he’s now on the wrong side of 30, it may be time to move on and look towards the future.
While Pope has defended the club captain for the errors he supposedly made in his own defensive third, he failed to mention his passing accuracy on Sunday, which, according to fellow journalist Beren Cross, was ‘terrible‘.
In the long term, Cooper likely isn’t the man for Marsch at the heart of Leeds’ defence considering they have Robin Koch and Pascal Struijk as options there, but for now, given the rut Leeds find themselves in when it comes to injuries and results, we feel Cooper is a fine player to have in their backline – provided his performances don’t continue to draw criticism.