Swansea City’s Oliver Cooper was ‘bullied’ by Leeds United’s midfield throughout the 90 minutes last night, according to the Welsh media.
Cooper started at right wing for the Swans up against Sam Byram and was part of a Swansea front four that was largely toothless for much of the match, despite enjoying an equal share of possession.
The 23-year-old was also the player who Byram crunched in a 50/50 challenge just seconds before Leeds’ third goal, which Wales Online believe was a decent summary of his night.
Former Leeds loanee Matt Grimes fed the ball into his feet on the halfway line, and as Cooper took his first touch and looked to turn, up stepped Byram to win a crunching tackle.
The ball then fell kindly for Georginio Rutter in the middle of the park, who fed a through ball into the path of Dan James, to round off the scoring against his former side.
Cooper display a fair summary of Swansea
Cooper was handed a rating of 4/10 for his performance at Elland Road by Wales Online, wasting too many good positions due to Leeds’ ability to bully him.
They wrote: “Got himself into some decent positions, but was just bullied by the Leeds midfield for much of the evening.”
Cooper’s performance is actually a fair reflection of Swansea as a whole, particularly in the first half. Michael Duff’s side looked neat and tidy in possession, but had very little in the final third.
Directly up against Byram, the Leeds man showed exactly why he is currently Daniel Farke’s first choice left back on his return to the starting XI after injury.
Farke hailed him as one of Leeds’ best ever free transfers after the game, while former Leeds midfielder Bradley Johnson was also left very impressed by his performance.
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