Leeds Season (so far) Ratings: Liam Cooper

One of the intangibles that comes with Liam Cooper is that he appears to be a very good, and well liked, captain of Leeds United. This probably helps the club a lot.

Cooper has had a few injury issues this season but has been consistently good in the centre of the Leeds defence. In the league he has missed seven games through injury, and has come off the bench twice having dropped out of the side through those injuries.

Cooper has been passing the ball well once again this season. When he is at his best his crossfield passes, particularly to Helder Costa, have been very good and created good opportunities for Leeds.

Defensively he has tackled well and has been more dominant in the air than his regular defensive partner Ben White. One of the biggest strengths for Leeds this season has been having an excellent centre-back partnership, which has been backed up well by Gaetano Berardi.

Cooper’s one disappointment this season is probably that he has only scored one goal, in the 1-1 draw at Brentford, when he has had enough chances from set-pieces to have a few more than that. When that is the biggest critique of centre-back, they must be having a solid season.

BEST PERFORMANCE

Brentford (A) - The problem with picking a best game for Liam Cooper is that he has had lots of 7-8/10 games this season, without a real stand out one. He had a very solid game against Brentford but in this game he topped it off with a goal, which edges it above the other good games this season.

WORST PERFORMANCE

Nottingham Forest (A) - Leeds were abject in this game and there were a lot of poor performances, his was one of them, Lewis Grabban made him and Ben White look poor.

SEASON (so far) RATING

Good season for Liam Cooper so far, although I don’t think he has been as good as Ben White alongside him.

Season (so far) Rating: 7.5/10