Both Neil Redfearn and Dominic Matteo have lauded Liam Cooper on Twitter after the Leeds United captain made his 250th appearance for the club in Sunday’s agonising loss to Arsenal.
Obviously, the weekend proved to be a sickener for Jesse Marsch’s side. Leeds were superb against the Premier League leaders.
They responded superbly to going a goal down. Leeds missed a penalty, had a goal ruled out, and had another penalty decision overturned in the final moments. Aaron Ramsdale also had to be in excellent form to keep the Whites at bay.
Liam Cooper lauded on Twitter after landmark Leeds appearance
Ultimately, Leeds were unable to find an equaliser. And thus, the result felt like a real kick in the teeth. But the game was significant for another reason.
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Cooper made his 250th appearance for Leeds in the game. Of course, the centre-back has seen plenty during his time at Elland Road.
The skipper took to Twitter to comment on the result and the achievement. And Redfearn and Matteo were amongst those to reply…
It is remarkable to think back to where Leeds were when Cooper joined the club. He arrived during the infamous Dave Hockaday era.
Initially, Cooper took up an important role. However, there seemed to be doubts over his future when he struggled for minutes in Garry Monk’s one year in charge as Pontus Jansson and Kyle Bartley formed an impressive partnership.
Since then, Cooper has been a stalwart of the side. He silenced a lot of doubters with his improvement under Marcelo Bielsa. And it was the Scotland international who got to lift the Championship trophy.
Cooper’s quality has still been called into question at times. He will probably be relieved that his 250th game did not come against Crystal Palace the previous week.
But he was arguably Leeds’ best centre-back when fit last season. And he showed that he still has a role to play with his display against Arsenal on Sunday.
It is little consolation following the result, but it is hard to imagine Cooper expected to be facing the Premier League leaders in his 250th game for Leeds when he made his debut for a club in disarray eight years ago.