Neil Warnock "not convinced" with Ayling and Cooper

https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2022/11/03/i ... s-players/

Thought it worth a comment. Hard to argue against. But a little harder to hear from Colin w**ker.

He said he wasn't convinced by them defensively back when he was at Leeds. That's a harder call because Bielsa saw Cooper as a key player before he even set foot in Leeds. And Ayling was a revelation during promotion and first season back.

It's obvious now though that they're both beyond the point of driving the club forward. Rasmus has pushed Ayling to being a squad player, so hardly merits discussion from Warnock. Our inability to move on from Cooper is much more problematic. Llorente was the caliber of player that should have replaced him, but hasn't. Strujik is a candidate but is filling in for our inability to sign a left back instead. Cooper splits opinions. On one hand he's not up to premier league standard. On the other hand his combative effort and leadership skills are at the highest level. Regardless of ability we have a better clean sheet record when Cooper plays than when Cooper doesn't play.

Ayling really has been replaced now. But our inability to move on from other championship players is really holding us back. We can't find a better CB than Cooper. Can't find a better LB than Dallas.

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