Jake Cooper is a defender who has played the majority of his playing career at today's visitors Millwall. A stint currently lasting 5 years over the course of a loan spell and a subsequent permanent spell, Cooper has made 229 appearances for The Lions and, for the interest of this opening salvo, scored 20 goals over the course of that spell. Out of those 20 goals, I'll leave this up to you to decide dear reader, have a guess how many of those goals have come against our beloved Blades? I'll give you a minute, whilst you think I'm just going to do a quick Google hold on. Ok, I think I've got an answer after a furious Google. So, what do we think? The answer is... 6! Congratulations if you got that right and if you got it wrong take solace in the fact that I myself probably got the stats wrong but still. Over 25% of Cooper's goals have come against us, he's up there in the pantheon of Blades bogey players with Daniel Johnson and Luke Freeman. What is all this for exactly? Well, all eyes (well, from a United and Millwall perspective) were on Bramall Lane today as United opened our home campaign with the visit of Cooper's Millwall. Would Cooper get his third goal in three games against United? Let's find out.
Changes were afoot for United after the opening day loss to Watford. Anel Ahmedhodzic made his debut for United after the farce of the situation that meant he couldn't play against The Hornets. Rhian Brewster was the second change for United coming in for Daniel Jebbison. Millwall started, of course, with Cooper at the heart of the defence alongside Charlie Cresswell who just happens to be the son of former United striker Richard Cresswell. George Saville, Benik Afobe and Bennett were the other notable starters for the visitors with the only other player worth mentioning for the visitors was Blades academy graduate George Long taking a seat on the Millwall bench. Slightly scary thing I've just found out from another Google, our former wonderkid Long turns 30 next year. Let that sink in a bit. Yeah. We're all old. Anyway, onto the match and what a start United made! Oli Norwood first tried to lob Bialkowski from just inside the right hand half of the centre circle which caught everyone off guard and then a few minutes later United had their first goal of the league season with a bit of a throwback goal. A thumping goal kick from Wes bounced over the head of Cooper which allowed Iliman Ndiaye to dance in behind and muscle past the last Millwall defender to slot home between Bialkowski's legs to open his account for the year and give United an early lead. United were well up for it after the flat performance against Watford with Anel being particularly influential from RCB with some bursting runs and some lovely passes. The probing and pressing of United led to a second goal just shy of the twenty minute mark. A loose pass from Cresswell was met with Cooper scrambling to get in front of John Fleck. Alas, for our well known nemesis, he couldn't clear the ball and Fleck played a crisp slide rule pass into Sander Berge who darted forward, rounded the keeper and just about turned the ball home to double our lead. It was dreamland for United and down in the dumps-ville for our visitors. United continued to look for more goals and had a chance handed on a silver platter when a ducking and diving Rhian Brewster was brought down inside the box by, yes you guessed it, Jake Cooper to allow United a penalty just before half time. Oli Norwood stepped up to take the penalty looking to banish the demons of the play off semi back in May. Unfortunately, Norwood didn't learn from the situation at The Forest Ground and allowed Bialkowski to do all sorts of things with the ball before it was put on the spot. Norwood stepped up and... Put it in the place where he always puts penalties which Bialkowski guessed and the penalty was saved. Not to worry though, United had by and large blew Millwall away a bit and could have had a couple of goals sans penalty. Would the good work continue after the break? Kind of? We weren't as bombastic as we were in the first period with Millwall waking up a bit and pressing us a bit more but the inevitable goal, Cooper or otherwise, never came despite a slew of corners and set pieces from The Lions with the closest they got to a goal being a couple of hooked efforts over the bar and a break near the end when a flashed ball across our six yard box was almost met by that man again Cooper. United grew into the half as the game progressed with Berge providing a couple of jinking runs through the Millwall backline. The closest United went in the second period was a fizzing effort from Norwood that Bialkowski spilled but reclaimed before Ndiaye or Brewster could tap home and a bullet header from Osborn (yes, really) that flew wide and Daniel Jebbison dancing towards goal and having a shot when a pass might have been the better option. But that was about it for the match itself, United broke the Millwall/Cooper hoodoo (until we play them next at least) and responded to the opening day defeat with our first win and three points of the season! A really, really good first half that saw us play some wonderful stuff and saw us create a fair few chances to get more goals than the two we did. Ndiaye, Sander and Anel were running the show with each of them darting towards the Millwall backline and forcing them to back track. Illi was Illi and was a constant nuisance buzzing around the field either helping to break up a Millwall attack, starting a United attack with a mesmerising dribble or two or holding the ball up and laying it off to willing runners. Berge was at his Rolls Royce best with some just fantastic movement with Millwall just unable to do anything about him because of his pure size. He's a wrecking ball of a player when he gets going and I hope to all that's holy that we keep hold of him for one more year at least. Anel was a very, very nice surprise with his speed and defensive acumen showing us all why he's one of the most talked about prospects in European football at the minute. That pass to George in the first half was just *chef's kiss*. The second half saw a more subdued performance from United seeing us absorb pressure and try and hit our visitors on the counter but it was still by and large a decent performance. All in all though, a very nice day all around and a good way to bounce back after the Watford disappointment. I'm a very positive boy tonight and I'm looking forward to the next game. Until that game, I'll leave you. I'll see you all soon thanks very much for reading, as always. UTB.
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AuthorHi my name is John and i will be giving my thoughts on the blades matches and all blades related news in this section Archives
November 2022
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