‘Took charge’: Nation’s media praise Leeds man’s international display on Tuesday, despite costly mistake

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Leeds United defender Liam Cooper has been praised for his performance in Scotland’s 4-1 defeat at France.

In player ratings by the Daily Record, Cooper was handed only a 5/10 but was applauded for his bravery on the ball, leadership and impressive tackle on PSG’s Ousmane Dembele.

He did, however, go onto concede a penalty on striker Olivier Giroud just five minutes before the break with the game still somewhat in the balance at 2-1.

Cooper was making his first start of the international break having been an unused substitute in Scotland’s 2-0 defeat at Spain a few days earlier.

Despite two relatively comprehensive losses, Scotland will class this as a successful international break with their qualification for next summer’s EUROs having been confirmed.

Cooper praised for Scotland display

With a relatively second string side around him, Cooper was praised for taking charge of the defence and his desire to consistently keep playing out from the back.

They wrote: “Liam Cooper – 5. Brilliant early challenge on Dembele, always looking to play out and took charge of defence but real tough shift against Giroud and pulled down striker for penalty.”

It is good for Cooper to get another 90 minutes under his belt against such tough opponents ahead of his return to Leeds in the next few hours.

Cooper is now very much third choice at centre-back under Daniel Farke, with Pascal Struijk and Joe Rodon the preferred pairing at the moment.

So another 90 minutes will ensure that his match sharpness has been kept ticking over, which will be important if he is called upon in any of the next few matches.