It is difficult to look at the matter of how good or indifferent a player is. Football is after all a team game. Liam Cooper is a prime example of the difference the rest of the team makes.phil62 wrote:Have to say I'm a Cooper fan. All CB will make some mistakes (or be outwitted by the best forwards in the division) but Cooper has been consistently good all season, more so than Pontus I would say - he's saved his bacon on many ocassions. I think Phillips should have been in there too and if Alioski had played a team left-back all year he could well have been in too.
Last season under Christiansen and Heckingbottom we were essentially wide open and played a style that presented the opposition with opportunity to attack the back line seemingly at will and with the goalkeeping situation such as it was the defence looked pretty ropey. Fast forward to this season and the goalkeeping situation improved and we have played a style that has dominated possession in just about every game, there is a midfield anchor and whoever has played in midfield and attack has run their socks off defending far up the field. The defence has been protected, had less work to do and indeed has has the time and space to show their footballing skills albeit that occasionally we get unstuck.
The selection of Jansson and Cooper (and Hernandez) actually speaks volumes about where LUFC are in the Championship scheme of things and kudos too to Marcelo Bielsa