Liam Cooper is set to have a watching brief from the substitutes bench on Sunday afternoon but he has told his Leeds United players what they must do to beat Southampton at Wembley.
Leeds booked their place in the play-off final with a brilliant 4-0 second-leg win over Norwich City, while Southampton beat West Brom at St. Mary’s to go through to Sunday’s play-off final on Sunday afternoon.
A game that is likely to be close, with the two sides separated by just three points in the season. Leeds finished ahead of Southampton in the Championship, but The Saints beat Leeds home and away.
Leeds captain Cooper came on for the final few minutes on Thursday night in what is likely to be his last-ever appearance for The Whites at Elland Road and could quite possibly be his last game for Leeds.
Indeed, Cooper said it had been “a pleasure” to captain Leeds in his programme notes ahead of the game suggesting his 10-year stint at Leeds is about to come to an end – with his contract set to expire in June.
Asked by BBC Radio Leeds about Sunday’s game, Cooper outlined what Leeds must do in order to beat Russell Martin’s Southampton at the home of English football on Sunday.
Cooper identifies what Leeds must do to win play-off final
It is is going to be a tough game for The Whites, with Southampton beating Leeds 2-1 on the final day at Elland Road. But a game in which Leeds knew that whatever they did, it would be the play-offs for them.
A 3-1 loss earlier in the season saw Daniel Farke make a mistake with his line-up, benching Archie Gray, Joe Rodon, Ilia Gruev and others. This is a different Leeds side to the one that lost on the south coast.
Cooper said Leeds must take their chances: “An amazing group, to accumulate 90 points is unbelievable and I know we didn’t get automatic promotion but we get a second bite at the cherry with the play-offs.
“I think the team that takes their chances and makes the least mistakes will be victorious and that’s what we’ve got to do all week. Have belief,” Cooper said, as Leeds look to banish the club’s play-off hoodoo.
Injury status of Leeds and Southampton squads ahead of Sunday
Leeds have Connor Roberts and Dan James fit again and while neither were able to start from the off against Norwich, they will have a week’s training in them and could be in contention to start on Sunday.
It is unclear if Sam Byram will be fit after sitting out the second leg with a muscle injury, while Patrick Bamford has said he is touch and go to recover from a knock to his knee, picked up at Middlesbrough.
Meanwhile, Southampton boss Martin says he is confident that The Saints will have Che Adams and Ross Stewart to choose from despite both strikers missing their semi-final second leg. Stewart, an unused sub.
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