#cooper koch headers

[bestwitchsam]

Cooper Koch <3

Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story

[embracethedits]

cooper koch and nicholas alexander chavez - headers

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[stillunusual]

Leeds United: Meslier, Ayling, Koch, Cooper, Aaronson (Klich 63), Roca (Greenwood 78), Summerville (Harrison 63), Adams, Rodrigo, Struijk, Gnonto (Gelhardt 90).

Subs not used: Robles, Firpo, Llorente, Gyabi, Kristensen. This was a curate's egg of a game - pretty awful overall with occasional moments that were worth watching. Adam Forshaw picked up another injury against the barcodes, so Marc Roca returned to the starting line up....

West Ham's squad cost several times more than ours, but they've somehow managed to lose their last five games and find themselves at the wrong end of the table. They were marginally the better team during a very scrappy first half in which there wasn't much attacking threat from Leeds and we struggled to keep hold of the ball. The only real moment of quality from either side came in the 27th minute, when Rodrigo flicked a header into the path of Willy Gnonto who took the ball forward, passed it to Crysencio Summerville and then continued his run into West Ham's penalty area. Summerville found him with a perfectly weighted defence-splitting pass, which he fired home into the bottom corner of the net. What a signing he has turned out to be…. West Ham didn't offer much in response, but in typical Leeds fashion we gave away a penalty just before half time, from which they equalised. And soon after the restart, a woeful backpass from Brenden Aaronson set up Gianluca Scamacca to score West Ham's second goal. So we went from being one up a minute before the break to being a goal down a minute after the break. The game continued to be dire until Jesse Marsch replaced Aaronson and Summerville with Mateusz Klich and Jack Harrison, and we started to claw our way back into it. A few minutes later another rare moment of quality led to our equaliser. Tyler Adams won the ball in the centre circle and found Harrison, who played in Rodrigo, who controlled the ball with his right foot and then fired an unstoppable shot past Łukasz Fabiański with his left foot from the edge of the box. The last 20 minutes were more entertaining with chances at both ends, and Rodrigo almost won it with literally seconds to go but was denied by a fantastic save from Fabiański. Two days before the game Leeds signed Max Wober (who can play as a left back or centre back or defensive midfielder) from Red Bull Salzburg. He's the third player we've acquired from Salzburg, who are the best team in Austria but play in a league that is less demanding than the Championship, so it's difficult to tell if he's an upgrade on the likes of Liam Cooper or Junior Firpo. But whenever we buy players it seems to be inevitable that we also have to sell, and after the final whistle it suddenly became clear that Mateusz Klich is about to leave the club. All the Leeds players donned t-shirts with his picture on the front and he was in tears while applauding the crowd, who began to sing his name as messages of good luck from his team mates appeared on the big screen, and they formed a guard of honour for him to leave the pitch. There have been rumours that he's on his way to the MLS but I was hoping that he'd stay until the end of the campaign…. Although a draw wasn't a disaster for us, there's still no sign of any progress under Jesse Marsch's management. We're back to being two points above the relegation zone and it's becoming increasingly difficult to believe that there are three worse teams in the league this season.

[embracethedits]

Cooper Koch - Headers

[stillunusual]

Leeds United: Casilla, Ayling, Cooper, Llorente (Berardi 46), Alioski, Phillips (Struijk 46), Dallas, Harrison, Rodrigo (Roberts 78), Raphinha, Bamford.

Subs not used: Meslier, Davis, Jenkins, Shackleton, Poveda, Hernandez. Marcelo Bielsa announced before the game that Robin Koch and Mateusz Klich would not feature again this season, having granted them an early holiday ahead of the Euros. More ominously, he also decided that Kiko Casilla would start both our remaining games, and brought back Liam Cooper for this one. We started with a back three of Cooper, Diego Llorente and Luke Ayling, with Gjanni Alioski and Stuart Dallas as wing backs. Another novelty about this game was that it was watched by 8000 Southampton supporters socially distanced around St Mary's stadium, and it was funny to see so many of them leaving early towards the end of the second half.... Southampton made a bright start and Che Adams was twice denied by Casilla in the first half. Leeds were disappointing before the break - we kept giving the ball away and didn't have a single shot on target. We started the second half with Pascal Struijk instead of Kalvin Phillips and Gaetano Berardi making his Premier League debut in place of Llorente - and much to my surprise we improved immensely.... James Ward-Prowse rattled the crossbar shortly after the restart, but then we bagan to dominate, with early chances for Dallas, Struijk and Patrick Bamford. We were also denied a penalty when Bamford was clipped by Southampton goalkeeper Alex McCarthy but managed to stay on his feet. He was basically punished for being honest - if he had fallen to the ground theatrically I'm pretty sure the penalty would have been given. Bamford did finally get on the scoresheet in the 73rd minute, when a Pabloesque chipped pass from Rodrigo picked out his run into the box, and he fired home through McCarthy's legs. Bamford was involved in the second goal too, which started with Southampton coming close to an equaliser when a header was well saved by Casilla. He quickly kicked the ball out to Raphinha on the right wing, who found Tyler Roberts in a central position. Roberts lost the ball just outside the Southampton box, but it fell kindly for Bamford, whose powerful shot was parried by McCarthy. The ball rebounded to Roberts who side-footed it home - his first Premier League goal. We are now guaranteed to finish in the top half of the table. I hope Bielsa gives some other fringe players a run out in our final fixture, and that we end the season on a high note in front of several thousand Leeds fans at Elland Road....

[stillunusual]

Leeds United: Meslier, Ayling, Koch, Cooper, Aaronson, Roca, Harrison, Rodrigo (Bamford 64), Struijk (Gelhardt 85), Sinisterra (Summerville 64), Greenwood (Klich 76).

Subs not used: Robles, Firpo, Llorente, Gyabi, Kristensen. This felt like a make or break game for Jesse Marsch, after Leeds had managed to get just two points from our previous seven games (last season we got four points from Marcelo Bielsa's final seven games) but Marsch apparently still has the backing of the club's owners, although it's increasingly difficult to see why. Fulham have made a decent start to the season, are well above us in the table and have something we're sadly lacking - an in form striker. Nevertheless they're a team that we should be able to beat at home. The pre-match mood was fairly grim and I was fearing the worst, but Leeds started well and the home supporters responded positively. We also scored first - a lovely ball from Brenden Aaronson found Jack Harrison, who controlled it with his right foot and fired in a shot with his left. It was blocked by a defender but Rodrigo anticipated the rebound and headed home his fifth goal of the season. A bit of belief swept through the stadium, but unfortunately it was short lived. Five minutes later Aleksandar Mitrovic equalised for Fulham - a free header from a poorly defended corner. They should have taken the lead a few minutes after that but were thwarted by a fantastic save from Illan Meslier.  Luis Sinisterra picked up what looked like an ankle injury and was replaced by Crysencio Summerville in the second half. At the same time Patrick Bamford replaced Rodrigo, and he managed to miss another sitter before Fulham scored their second goal - also a free header from a poorly defended corner - this time from Bobby De Cordova-Reid. The Leeds fans have been remarkably patient with Jesse Marsch up to now (although there was apparently some dissent at the Leicester game) but at this point, the south stand started singing "you're getting sacked in the morning". Mateusz Klich came on for Sam Greenwood, but wasn't able to make much of an impact, and when Fulham scored their third, a lot of Leeds fans started leaving - something that really hasn't happened since we've been promoted - even when we've been losing badly. Joe Gelhardt was given a few minutes to make something happen, and he did - setting up a goal for Summerville - his first for the senior team. But it was too little too late. We're down to 18th in the table and our next fixture is away at Anfield, after which we might be bottom of the league. Although it's not Marsch's fault that the Leeds board sold our two best players in the same window and didn't invest enough money in the team to compensate for their loss (in particular failing to sign a reliable goalscoring striker and a left back) but it also looks like they picked the wrong guy to succeed Marcelo Bielsa. We did nearly all our transfer activity very early in the summer and Marsch had a full pre-season to work with the players. Even though there's still plenty of time to turn things around, what exactly is he going to do that he hasn’t tried already? We're getting worse and worse every week and he really does look out of his depth....

[stillunusual]

Leeds United: Meslier, Ayling, Firpo, Forshaw, Koch, Raphinha, Roberts (Gelhardt 58), Llorente, Dallas, Harrison (James 62), Klich.

Subs not used: Klaesson, Bate, Hjelde, Summerville, Greenwood, Jenkins, Moore. Happy New Year! This felt like the most important match of the season so far - a pivotal six pointer that could end up deciding which of the two teams get to stay in the Premier League. Robin Koch, Diego Llorente, Junior Firpo and Jack Harrison were able to start for Leeds, and Dan James was the only senior player on the bench. Rodrigo, Pascal Struijk and Patrick Bamford should be available again before the end of January, but Kalvin Phillips, Liam Cooper, Jamie Shackleton and Charlie Cresswell won't be back until next month or even March. Burnley weren't as thuggish as they were at Turf Moor but were happy to shithouse and waste time from the outset. They had a couple of chances in each half, but we really could have had a hatful of goals if our finishing hadn't been so poor. Nevertheless it was great to see Leeds play so much better than of late. We know we can't compete with the top sides, especially with the huge injury list we've had to cope with, but even a weakened Leeds team should be good enough to beat Burnley - and we did. We took the lead towards the end of the first half thanks to a great solo effort by Harrison, who dispossessed James Tarkowski and raced into the Burnley box. His first shot (with his left foot) was parried by Wayne Hennessey, but the ball rebounded straight to Harrison who then found the target with his right foot. Burnley equalised from a dubious free kick in the 54th minute and several of their players insisted on giving it large right in front of our fans in a deliberate attempt to cause maximum offence. Unfortunately they provoked some idiot into throwing a plastic bottle right onto one of their heads, which in turn led to a lot of very predictable criticism of Leeds after the game....    We kept looking for the winner and after missing a few sitters we finally got the goal we deserved when Stuart Dallas scored with an unstoppable shot from the edge of the box in the 77th minute. It was his 250th game for Leeds and he celebrated in style. Marcelo Bielsa made two substitutions in the second half - Joe Gelhardt replaced the injured Tyler Roberts, and Dan James was brought on in place of Harrison. In stoppage time Gelhardt fired in a lovely cross and Hennessey was unable to keep out James’ header, which sealed the three points for Leeds. It was richly deserved - although we're still missing so many senior players, our back three of Luke Ayling, Llorente and Koch looked solid, Firpo had an excellent game and Illan Meslier didn't have much to do apart from a crucial save in the first half when the score was still 0-0. Mateusz Klich was back to his best and involved in the build up to both our second half goals, Adam Forshaw filled the gap left by Phillips really well and Gelhardt continues to look promising. He deserves to start the next game even if Roberts recovers from his injury....

[stillunusual]

Leeds United: Meslier, Ayling, Cooper, Struijk, Alioski (Huggins 53), Shackleton, Dallas, Klich (Roberts 45), Harrison (Costa 45), Raphinha, Bamford.

Subs not used: Casilla, Hernandez, Davis, Gelhardt, Cresswell, Jenkins. Our matchday squad for this game looked pretty threadbare compared to the array of stars that Arsenal had at their disposal. Marcelo Bielsa tried to compensate for the loss of Kalvin Phillips by moving Pascal Struijk into the defensive midfield slot and Luke Ayling from right back to centre back. Jamie Shackleton took Ayling's place at right back. Pablo Hernandez returned to the bench but there's still no sign of Rodrigo, Adam Forshaw, Ian Poveda, Robin Koch, Diego Llorente or Gaetano Berardi. The game was pretty even for the first few minutes and we had a decent early chance to score, when Patrick Bamford's header at the near post was well saved by Arsenal keeper Bernd Leno. But then it all went wrong.... Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored Arsenal's opening goal a minute later and after that they completely dominated the rest of the first half. We found ourselves closed down very effectively and really struggled to pass the ball out from the back. Arsenal had a strong shout for a penalty turned down after a VAR review on the half hour mark, but did eventually get one a few minutes before the break when Illan Meslier fouled Bukayo Saka, and Aubameyang made no mistake from the spot. Hector Bellerin added another goal in stoppage time after a great passing move from the home team. We started the second half with Helder Costa and Tyler Roberts in place of Jack Harrison and Mateusz Klich, but were soon 4-0 down when Costa lost the ball in a dangerous position and Emile Smith Rowe dribbled into the area and crossed for Aubameyang to complete his hat-trick with a header at the far post. With Arsenal running riot, Bielsa responded by taking off Gjanni Alioski and replacing him with young Niall Huggins, making his first team debut. We didn't throw in the towel and after Raphinha had a powerful effort tipped behind, Pascal Struijk scored with a bullet header from the resulting corner (which must have been particularly satisfying, given that he missed three similar chances in our last game). Roberts then linked up with fellow substitute Costa, who made up for his earlier mistake by finishing smartly from inside the box. A few minutes later we had a strong shout for a penalty turned down. Who knows what would have happened if we'd scored again at that stage, but as things turned out Arsenal managed to see out the rest of the game without too much trouble. As a result we're back down to 11th place, and it also means that since December 2017 we have played 15 games in London and come home with a total of two points, after 13 defeats and two draws. We'll have two more chances before the end of the season to finally get a win in the capital, when we play West Ham and Fulham, who unexpectedly managed to beat Everton this week and cut the gap between us and the bottom three to 14 points....

[stillunusual]

Leeds United: Meslier, Ayling, Koch, Cooper, Dallas, Struijk (Roberts 71), Klich, Alioski, Harrison, Costa (Raphinha 45), Bamford.  

Subs not used: Casilla, Poveda, Davis, Jenkins, Casey. Although Leeds United's first season in the Premier League for 16 years got off to a decent start, we're now beginning to struggle like a typical newly promoted team. Having so many players injured or otherwise MIA after only a few games doesn't exactly help. Record signing Rodrigo has tested positive for COVID-19, Jamie Shackleton has joined our growing injury list and Pablo Hernandez was apparently dropped for this game after expressing his frustration about being substituted during our recent defeat by Leicester City. That game was a footballing lesson - they soaked up all our pressure, hit us on the break with skill and pace, and while we missed our chances their finishing was clinical. Crystal Palace weren't as good as Leicester, and the final score flattered them a bit (especially as we were denied a perfectly good goal by possibly the worst VAR decision of all time) but we didn't really deserve to get anything out of the game. With literally nobody else available to play alongside Mateusz Klich, Stuart Dallas moved into an attacking central midfield role, Pascal Struijk returned to the Kalvin Phillips position in defensive midfield and Gjanni Alioski once again took Dallas' place at left back. On the plus side, Raphinha returned to an inexperienced bench. I've lost count of how many soft goals we've conceded from set pieces under Marcelo Bielsa, but Palace's first goal was yet another (a free header from a corner). Patrick Bamford thought he'd scored a superb equaliser five minutes later but it was disallowed for offside, because as he ran into Palace’s penalty area he was pointing to where he wanted the ball crossed to him and his outstretched arm was marginally behind the last defender, even though the rest of his body wasn't. Absolutely ridiculous.... To make things worse, Palace scored their second goal almost immediately, after which we really had a mountain to climb. Typically we didn't give in, and Bamford did finally manage to get on the scoresheet, but more bad luck was to follow when Helder Costa deflected a cross into his own net just before half time.... Bielsa replaced Costa with Raphinha after the break but he didn't really impress. The balance of play was fairly even in the second half and we did create a couple of decent chances but Palace wrapped up the points with their fourth goal in the 70th minute. We've now conceded 17 times in just eight games and have also slipped down to 15th place in the league....

[stillunusual]

Leeds United: Meslier, Ayling, Koch, Cooper, Bamford, Dallas (Alioski 81), Costa, Hernandez (Roberts 67), Harrison, Klich, Shackleton (Poveda 45).

Subs not used: Casilla, Struijk, Davis, Casey. Having coped superbly with the unavailability of key players for last week's fixture against Villa, Marcelo Bielsa was forced into making more changes prior to this game. Rodrigo is self-isolating after being in close contact with a person who subsequently tested positive for the Coranavirus, and Raphinha was ruled out after sustaining an ankle injury. On a more positive note, Pablo Hernandez and Liam Cooper returned to the starting line-up. Leicester were expected to approach their visit to Elland Road in a similar way to Wolves - ie sit deep and hit us on the break. And that's pretty much what happened.... It looked like Leeds had got off to a good start when Patrick Bamford's close range header was brilliantly saved by Kasper Schmeichel. But it turned into a disaster when Leicester took the ball straight down the other end of the pitch and scored the opening goal. They seemed to cope much better than us with the less than ideal conditions (the game was played in the pouring rain which had been falling all day). We were unable to get our passing game going and kept giving the ball away. Hernandez looked rusty and we really missed Rodrigo. They punished us again in the 20th minute when a misplaced pass fell to Marc Albrighton who set up Jamie Vardy. His header was well blocked by Meslier but the ball rebounded to Youri Tielemans who scored with a simple tap in. For a while we looked shellshocked but gradually regained our composure. Bamford missed another excellent chance a few minutes before half time. We came out fighting after the break and pulled a goal back from a corner almost straight away. We then dominated the next 20 minutes and there was a pivotal moment when a superb shot from a much improved Hernandez came back off the bar. But in the 76th minute Leicester hit us on the break again and scored their third goal. Although Leeds kept trying there was no way back and Leicester wrapped up the points with a stoppage time penalty. This was another reality check for us. Leicester are up to second in the table and look like genuine title contenders. We've slipped down to 12th, although there's still a seven point gap between us and the bottom three....

[stillunusual]

Leeds United: Meslier, Ayling, Koch, Cooper, Dallas, Phillips, Klich, Costa (Poveda 66), Harrison, Roberts (Rodrigo 45) (Alioski 90+1), Bamford.  

Subs not used: Caprile, Struijk, Davis, Shackleton. Our first two Premiership fixtures were literally - on paper at least - the most difficult (away against Liverpool) and the least difficult (at home against Fulham) games of the season. We did better than expected against Liverpool (but still lost) and not as well as expected against Fulham (but still won). This hard fought victory against Sheffield United was the most satisfying of our opening three matches and it was great to re-establish ourselves as the best club in Yorkshire once again. It was also Liam Cooper's 200th game for Leeds. Six years ago we used to call him "League One Liam" and now he's captaining Leeds United in the EPL - what a journey.... It looks like Pablo Hernandez won't be available for another couple of weeks at least and there's still no news about when Adam Forshaw will be back, so Tyler Roberts played alongside Mateusz Klich in the first half and Rodrigo took his place in the second. Patrick Bamford’s late header and a fine goalkeeping display from Illan Meslier secured all three points and our first clean sheet. Robin Koch also looked like the real deal for the first time. Prior to the game Leeds United signed Spanish international defender Diego Llorente, which means that we've now replaced both Ben White and Gaetano Berardi with players of higher quality. Hopefully there will be more signings before the transfer window closes....