Liam Cooper called it on - The Square Ball 24/10/21
SUPER DUPER
Written by Rob Conlon
A Wolves player was already lying on the floor wasting time
as Raul Jimenez was waiting to receive a short corner. He was ready to waste
even more time to preserve a 1-0 lead. It was not long after the crowd at
Elland Road were turning up the volume with a chorus of ‘If you hate Leeds
United have a go.’
Liam Cooper wanted to make sure Jimenez got the message.
Marching over to the North-East corner, he was yelling at Wolves’ striker, who
responded with a, ‘Who, me?’ gesture before beckoning Cooper towards him. Dan
James was standing beside Cooper, like a kid watching the grown ups arguing in
a pub car park.
When play restarted, Jimenez tried to look cool, flicking
the ball over Cooper’s head, only for Leeds to intercept and counter. Now
Jimenez was worried, sprinting back towards his own goal, but another Leeds
attack came to a frustrating end.
Like a boxer wanting to stand and trade punches with their
foe, Leeds were desperate for Wolves to have a go and make the game a contest.
Instead the visitors hid behind the protection of Hwang Hee-chan’s flukey
opener, spending the rest of the afternoon pretending to be hurt rather than
trying to hurt Leeds.
Wolves’ cowardice aside, Cooper was one of the main reasons
they were unable to land more punches. They kept giving the ball to their most
destructive player, Adama Traore, to run at what was supposed to be a
frightened defence. He was met three times by Cooper, matching grit with grace,
power-sliding and winning the ball and starting another Leeds attack. On a
fourth occasion, Cooper chased Traore all the way back into Wolves’ half, where
it was safe to foul him.
Traore’s 75th minute withdrawal coincided with the crowd
raising the intensity of the atmosphere, and with it the performances of the
Leeds players. Cooper changed his target to Jimenez, who earlier got the better
of him in the build up to Wolves’ goal: a gentle nudge allowed the ball to run
to Nelson Semedo and past Jack Harrison. Cooper has spoken in the past about
how Leeds’ style of play under previous managers forced him to defend too much;
he prefers getting the ball at his feet and having fun. As Leeds went full
murderball in their pursuit of an equaliser, he had to do both, forming a two
man backline with Diego Llorente, winning the ball back whenever Wolves dared
to touch it and setting Leeds’ attacking players in motion.
From the Kop, it was impossible not to feel emboldened by
Leeds United’s captain’s refusal to give up. Cooper has plenty of detractors,
and they’re never far from dismissing him as not good enough, ignoring that
whenever Leeds have needed him to improve, he has pushed the outer limits of
his talents and proven himself a worthy leader in the end. It’s a task he
doesn’t get enough credit for. Wearing the armband at Leeds comes with huge
pressure, but he conducts himself as an ambassador for the club with pride and
humility. He’s not the perfect defender, but he’s not the clown currently
captaining Scum either.
Cooper is not the only leader at Leeds, but the rest are
mostly injured, and the others, Stuart Dallas and Mateusz Klich, were busy
shouting at each other after putting a Leeds throw-in straight back into touch.
In the absence of Kalvin Phillips, Luke Ayling and Patrick Bamford, Leeds’
underdogs stepped up to take responsibility. Not everything Rodrigo and Tyler
Roberts tried came off, but they kept trying when so often in the past they
have been accused of shrinking. Teenagers Joe Gelhardt and Crysencio
Summerville combined to maintain the fearlessness Leeds were meant to have lost
when Raphinha went off injured.
