'I'm sure' - Liam Cooper on Leeds United 'great satisfaction' and West Ham verdict

Leeds returned from the World Cup break with last Wednesday night’s 3-1 defeat at home to Manchester City but then signed off for 2022 by taking a point through a goalless draw at high-flying Newcastle United on New Year’s Eve. Whites captain Cooper played the full match at centre-back as Leeds dug deep in the face of heavy Magpies pressure for a point and clean sheet that particularly delighted United’s skipper.

"To a man, everyone battled for every ball and every header and we took great satisfaction in preventing them from scoring,” wrote Cooper in his captain’s column of the West Ham matchday programme. "You can’t play well in every game and sometimes you have to do the ugly side of the game well, which is what we did. I’m sure it will be an important point for us in the long run and hopefully we can build on that over the next few games.”

Turning attention to tonight’s visitors – a side sat fourth-bottom who have lost five league games in a row – Cooper reasoned: “As with every home game, we go into tonight’s match with West Ham targeting all three points. Once again, I’m sure there will be a great atmosphere under the lights and we’re all looking forward to the game.

"As I say nearly every week, every Premier League team has so much quality and West Ham have a number of international players and a lot of threats. We just have to focus on ourselves, though, and we know if we play to the levels we are capable of, we can get the victory.”