Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
JUMP LEEDS
Cooper: We showed with that win at Leicester that we’ve stepped up and can upset the big teams.. the lads are buzzing
LIAM COOPER believes Leeds have finally proved themselves against one of the Premier League’s elite.
Leeds have had to take the rough with the smooth in their first season back in the top flight but a superb 3-1 win at Leicester on Sunday has fans looking at a European slot.
Their 1-0 win at Everton in December was another of their eye-catching results and they host the Mersey men tonight looking for a third win in quick succession. Centre-back Cooper said: “We’ve beaten a lot of the sides around us this year but we wanted to go and get the scalp of one of the top teams.
“We hadn’t managed to do that until Sunday. We’d come up short every time, so to go to the King Power and get three points and perform how we did...we will take a lot of positives from it. “The lads are buzzing. Going one behind it would have been easy to lose confidence but we stuck at it and scored some amazing goals. It was a massive result and one we have to push on from now.
“We’ve had ups and downs so far but all in all I think we can be proud of where we are and how far we’ve come.”
Cooper also revealed how loyal manager Marcelo Bielsa has been to the players who took Leeds back to the top flight after winning promotion from the Championship last year.
“I saw a statistic that said 11 players from last year’s Championship team finished the game against Leicester so we are clearly growing as a group every day,” he said.
“Each game is a different challenge for us. The manager knows, we all know, that we need to be at 100 per cent to stay in games in this league and, more times than not, we have managed to do that this season.
“That is what we have to fight for each day – and we will continue to do that.”
Leeds are tonight set to be without Spanish forward Rodrigo, who picked up a muscle injury against Leicester.