Leroy Rosenior: Liam Cooper was terrible v Southampton
Leroy Rosenior was not impressed with Leeds United defender Liam Cooper during their 1-0 defeat against Southampton on October 16.
Nathan Redmond and Armando Broja created a 2 v 1 situation with Cooper the only Whites defender part of the action, and the Scotland international failed to stop the ball from finding the back of the net.
Rosenior believes that he should have let Redmond take a shot on his left foot, rather than create an angle for him to pass it to Broja.
Discussing this on Wednesday’s Premier League Fanzone, Rosenior, a Sky Sports pundit, said, “Terrible defending. Instead of letting him take a shot on his left, he allows him to find the pass which is really poor and Meslier is in no position to make that save.
“It’s time Bielsa makes a decision on Cooper because that’s just not good enough.”
Should he be dropped?
Cooper’s performances of late have been underwhelming, to say the least, and had he not been the captain, there’s a good chance he would’ve been dropped.
Marcelo Bielsa has shown a lot of faith in the centre-back and it’s about time that Cooper starts delivering.
Of late, he’s made a number of errors that have led to opponents getting goal-scoring chances and much like the Southampton game, he also played a big role in Tuesday’s EFL Cup tie against Arsenal.
The defender seemed to be heading the ball back to Illan Meslier, but the Frenchman wasn’t expecting it and even if he did, it probably would not have reached him anyway.
This saw Eddie Nketiah capitalise and score a goal against the side he was once on loan at.
Bielsa has a big job on his hands to get Cooper focused again because he’s been a mess this season.
In other Leeds United news, Bielsa could wield his axe on ‘Fantastic’ Whites player after a recent Twitter post