Tuesday's Breakfast Quickfire Debate - Liam Cooper

[1964white]

Good morning folks

Today's early morning debate is short & sweet

Apparently Coopers agent on Saturday said that Liam is out of favour with Monk, and now Leeds have sign Jansson permanently he will be looking to move his player on as he needs regular football

Thoughts ?

[1964white]

Fine by me

Jansson & Bartley are different class. Cooper has to accept that fact & try up his game to their level

Standing around the box defending like a lemon twice v Forest is not good enough

[eastyorkshirewhite]

I would have thought any agent worth his salt would make the same remark any player not getting a game needs to think about his future thats what agents are for its not rocket science.

[lufc1304]

With Bamba gone, I'd be worried about a lack of cover if either of our first choice pairing got injured/suspended. Jansson, in particular, looks like his playing style will pick him up a few yellows over the course of a season. I actually don't mind Cooper as back-up, but he's certainly behind Jansson and Bartley in the pecking order now. And I'd agree with EY that his agent needs to be considering his options, as any decent agent would.

[weasel]

At some point he needs to be replaced with better but would appear to be our only experienced cover at the moment. Would be interesting to see how he played alongside Jannsen as I wasn't impressed with Bartley until he played alongside Jannsen as the Bartley/Bamba and Bartley/Cooper partnerships both looked shaky.

[1964white]

With Bamba gone, I'd be worried about a lack of cover if either of our first choice pairing got injured/suspended. Jansson, in particular, looks like his playing style will pick him up a few yellows over the course of a season. I actually don't mind Cooper as back-up, but he's certainly behind Jansson and Bartley in the pecking order now. And I'd agree with EY that his agent needs to be considering his options, as any decent agent would.

Cooper won't leave Leeds until the January Transfer Window if he does move on, I'm pretty sure Monk will have a replacement lined up if that is the case

[gessa]

I'm sure I posted this earlier.


I still think there's a decent player in Cooper but he's never played along side anyone who could help bring on his game. As it stands though he is behind our 2 at the moment.

[1964white]

I would have thought any agent worth his salt would make the same remark any player not getting a game needs to think about his future thats what agents are for its not rocket science.

No doubt Cooper will play games at sometime due to injuries/suspensions. Players have to realise they are part of a squad & if they lose their place due to lack of form or another player in their position is a better option for the manager to select than he should be looking to improve his game not his agent or Cooper himself spitting his dummy out because he's been dropped to the bench. Liam also has to realise he's been part of our defence that has been leaking goals in an abundance over the last couple of years

[Ratscoot]

Unlike most I do like Cooper but agree he isn't top quality, a very good League 1 player but an average Championship player, with Bartley and Jansson we have two top quality Championship players who Cooper could learn from and bring him on, remember he's only 25 so plenty of time to improve, but if he wants to move on I'd wish him all the best and hope we get someone else in quickly of better quality but then would they want to warm the bench?

[Oscar]

I would hope that we keep Liam Cooper for this season and maybe the season after (depending on how this season goes), he hasn't improved since he signed in my opinion and I highly doubt he will play ahead of Jansson or Bartley. Cooper did have a brilliant run of form around October to December last season, however, he needs to be much more consistent in my opinion. Having said that he isn't that bad an option to have as a 3rd choice centre back.

[1964white]

I'm sure I posted this earlier.


I still think there's a decent player in Cooper but he's never played along side anyone who could help bring on his game. As it stands though he is behind our 2 at the moment.

Cooper ball watches, gets caught out of position & is turned very easily by a pacy forward. Also doesn't attack the ball at set-pieces like Jansson does. Cooper has a lot to learn to convince me that he is good championship central defender

Fans use to tell me Jason Pearce was a decent centre-back what league has he been playing his football in over the last couple of years

[1964white]

Unlike most I do like Cooper but agree he isn't top quality, a very good League 1 player but an average Championship player, with Bartley and Jansson we have two top quality Championship players who Cooper could learn from and bring him on

Nail on the head

[lufc1304]

At some point he needs to be replaced with better but would appear to be our only experienced cover at the moment. Would be interesting to see how he played alongside Jannsen as I wasn't impressed with Bartley until he played alongside Jannsen as the Bartley/Bamba and Bartley/Cooper partnerships both looked shaky.

I actually meant to make the same point. As Ges has also said, I think Cooper can be a decent CH, but he does need a really solid partner.

Do we know if Liam has actually had a gripe, or is this his agent playing the standard 'agent' game?

[Oscar]

Cooper won't leave Leeds until the January Transfer Window if he does move on, I'm pretty sure Monk will have a replacement lined up if that is the case

The problem is Leon will Garry be able to sign a centre back who is willing to be the 3rd choice centre back at Leeds?
If we were to replace Cooper I would imagine that it will be with a promising centre back from league 1 etc (Cooper was a very promising defender from league 1 when we signed him), rather than a centre back from the premier league/championship who is definitely better than Cooper (a player from the premier league or championship surely wouldn't come to Leeds to be 3rd choice centre back.)

[1964white]

Monk is a shrewd cookie

I couldn't believe it when he retained Bamba captain & Cooper as vice-captain in the pre-season, maybe they impressed him on the training ground & around the place
He soon realised the errors of his way that both were not good enough on the actual pitch if Leeds were to progress after the last two abysmal seasons

[lufc1304]

But the point remains, Leon, where would Monk get an upgrade on Cooper from who would be happy to sit on the bench?

[1964white]

The problem is Leon will Garry be able to sign a centre back who is willing to be the 3rd choice centre back at Leeds?
If we were to replace Cooper I would imagine that it will be with a promising centre back from league 1 etc (Cooper was a very promising defender from league 1 when we signed him), rather than a centre back from the premier league/championship who is definitely better than Cooper (a player from the premier league or championship surely wouldn't come to Leeds to be 3rd choice centre back.)

As i said Monk is a shrewd cookie & i'm sure he'd have a CB in mind should Cooper decides to leave LUFC

Every club has 3rd/4th/5th choices Oscar, you only have to look at our keeper/full-back/midfield positions, all about having a strong squad

[Oscar]

Fans use to tell me Jason Pearce was a decent centre-back what league has he been playing his football in over the last couple of years

Pearce did ok overall at Leeds in my opinion I always thought he was a good leader. He didn't start well at Leeds, however, when he played under McDermott I thought he did really well unfortunately he had an average run of form for about a year before he was sold to Wigan.

I was speaking to a Wigan fan a few weeks ago who was a real fan of Jason Pearce. He said that last season Pearce was superb and I can't remember the exact figure he told me, however, it was something unbelievable like Wigan kept 20 clean sheets in the 30 games Pearce played or something like that. He couldn't believe Wigan decided to sell Pearce, Wigan have only kept 2 clean sheets all season so far in my opinion this may be partly down to Wigan selling Pearce.

I am not for one minute saying I would want Pearce at Leeds now, however, he wouldn't have done any worse than Bamba and Cooper did last season. Luckily we appear to have 2 far better centre backs now than any of the centre backs we have had over the last 6 seasons.

[1964white]

But the point remains, Leon, where would Monk get an upgrade on Cooper from who would be happy to sit on the bench?

Can't answer that Nick, that would be Garry's problem to resolve, I reckon he'd have an adequate replacement in mind if the situation arises

And the answer to your question, it's his agent who is getting touchy about Cooper being relegated to the bench

[Oscar]

Monk is a shrewd cookie

I couldn't believe it when he retained Bamba captain & Cooper as vice-captain in the pre-season, maybe they impressed him on the training ground & around the place
He soon realised the errors of his way that both were not good enough on the actual pitch if Leeds were to progress after the last two abysmal seasons

Which is what I like about Garry, he wasn't stubborn about the situtation (by keeping Bamba as captain for the whole season so that it wouldn't look like he made a mistake) and was willing to change things quickly and to an extent admitted he made an error early on by releasing Bamba. He did the exact same thing with Dave and Matt Grimes, rather than give both players another start in the league after the QPR game, he made changes. I would imagine Dave, Grimes and Cooper have all been told that there chance to impress is on the training pitch or cup games rather than starting in championship games, which is fair enough I have never been a fan of playing players in important games to give them a chance to prove themselves (we have done this too often over the last 10 years). By all means give them a chance to prove themselves, however, do this in training or in cup games, anyone who starts a game for Leeds now should be starting games because Garry feels they are definitely good enough to play for us rather than the players starting so that Garry can decide if they are good enough or not. Luckily this appears to be happening under Garry .