Liam Cooper issues apology to Leeds United fans and reveals Whites training insight

Fifth-bottom Leeds face Jurgen Klopp’s eighth-placed Liverpool in an 8pm kick-off under the Elland Road lights this evening, eight days on from last weekend’s 5-1 hammering at home to Crystal Palace. Writing in his captain’s column in the match night programme, Cooper pulled no punches in his assessment of last Sunday’s display against the Eagles, offering a Whites apology to the club’s supporters but Leeds hope for this evening’s contest after a good week of training at Thorp Arch.

Cooper, who was an unused substitute against Palace, wrote: "We know that in that game here we let ourselves down and you, our supporters, down and we can only apologise for that. It was a strange game, we went from playing our best football of the season in the first half, to some of the worst in the second. We weren’t anywhere near good enough after the break, we gave away a poor goal and ended up on the end of a heavy defeat. We can't dwell on the last result, though. We have to move on and keep on fighting. We have eight cup finals left, everything is still in our own hands and we still have 24 points to play for.”

Cooper added: “We’ve had a good week of training at Thorp Arch with the sole focus on tonight’s game. Like ourselves, Liverpool are not where they would hope to be in the table right now, but they still remain a top team. They have a number of world-class and we know it will be a tough match. We had a great result against Liverpool earlier in the season and we hope to take confidence from that tonight.”