Liam Cooper says that Marcelo Bielsa told the Leeds United players to stop making the silly errors that cost them in the first half. Leeds provided a much-improved performance in the second half of Wednesday’s 2-1 defeat to Everton. After Gylfi Sigurdsson and Dominic Calvert-Lewin handed the Toffees a two-goal half-time lead, the Whites fired back in the second half. Raphinha halved the deficit with an excellent, placed finish into the bottom corner, but the hosts were unable to complete the comeback as Robin Olsen made a string of good saves. Despite failing to find an equaliser, the improvement in performance was noticeable and showed that Bielsa made a difference with his half-time team talk.
Marcelo Bielsa said: “Just stop making mistakes. “In the building up, we made way too many. We were regaining possession and then giving it straight back. And against a team like Everton with quality players, you’re going to come unstuck. They hit us on the counter-attack, scored a couple of goals and it was a bit of a mountain to climb, but we came out in the second half, got a hold of the game and dominated it. Maybe we were unlucky not to get something from the game.”
On the result in general, Cooper admitted that the players were disappointed not to come away with a draw.
Liam Cooper said: “Yeah, the boys are disappointed in there,” he added. “I thought we’d done enough in the second half definitely to draw the game. We just didn’t take our chances when they came and we gave the ball away sloppily in the first half against a team who are set up to counter. You make it hard for yourself if you do go behind. We did that, we’ve just got to dust ourselves down and we have to go again. I just said to the lads, if we’re gonna lose, that’s the way to do it, throwing everything at it and giving everything you’ve got. The boys definitely did that tonight.”
Leeds now turn their attention to a Monday night fixture against Crystal Palace, and Cooper says that the players are eager to put right their mistakes.
Liam Cooper added: “Yeah, the games come thick and fast now, and there’s always the next game to put that right,” he said when asked if the players are chomping at the bit after losing. We usually bounce back from defeats during the season, so hopefully, we can do that in the next game.”
