Jermaine Beckford hammers Leeds United defending and reveals what was badly missed

Former Leeds United striker Jermaine Beckford says the lack of Liam Cooper’s leadership proved to be costly during Saturday’s 4-0 home defeat against Manchester City.

Defending from set-pieces has been a huge problem area for Leeds. It was an issue again against City and they have now conceded 18 goals from them this season. But Beckford says the absence of Cooper was a huge setback. Particularly for the first goal.

City took the lead on 13 minutes from a Phil Foden free-kick. Credit has to go to the young Englishman for the fantastic delivery. But the Leeds defence was all at sea and allowed Rodri to glance the ball home.

Speaking as a pundit for Optus Sports, Beckford was far from impressed with the defending. And he believes there could have been a different outcome with Cooper in the side.

The Leeds skipper picked up a knee injury in the warm-up. Boss Jesse Marsch confirmed after the game it was nothing serious. He should return next weekend, but was missed against City. Indeed Beckford was quick to highlight it in his post-match analysis.

“The marking you have to asks questions about it,” Beckford said. “Three players are holding the line but the rest are dropping deep. That is a huge lack of communication between everybody.

“I feel that if Liam Cooper was on the field he would have made sure everybody did the same thing. Whether that’s dropping deep or staying high.”

Beckford’s criticism of the defending did not stop there. While accepting the first goal was down to miscommunication, he believes there are too many individual errors also.

That was on show when Nathan Ake grabbed the second goal on 54 minutes. The defender was free to pounce after a Foden corner was nodded down by Ruben Dias.

“It doesn’t make good