Liam Cooper opened up on the mental pressure Leeds United players were under last season and the honeymoon period under Jesse Marsch that was influential in their Premier League survival bid. The Whites skipper has stressed he doesn't want to be in a position like that for the rest of his career.
Speaking to The Official Leeds Utd Podcast, Cooper said: "Of course it's difficult. The thing for me was obviously we were as gutted as the lads playing. I always try and put myself in Stu's situation [Stuart Dallas] and people - think how bad they must have felt.
"Being a footballer the worst thing that can happen to you is an injury and you're not able to play for a sustained amount of time. It was hard to understand the situation we were in and that got worse and worse throughout the season.
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"We never got going - to our previous season - at one stage during the season. When Jesse came in we went on that little run and in the end I think that saved us.
"I think we had ten points from his first six or seven games. When it comes down to it and when you look back on it, that sort of saved us. We knew there was a run of games coming up, where we played the top three or four and they're always difficult.
"Obviously anything can happen but we didn't really give ourselves a chance in those games with the red cards. I remember [Luke Ayling] getting sent off at Arsenal, I followed him straight down the tunnel and said 'What happened and what were you doing?'
"He looked at me and said 'Coops, I don't know what I was doing. I've never tackled like that in my life, in my career.' all you can put it down to is the stress. The stress of the situation and the situation we were in, it does crazy things to you and it makes you make crazy decisions.
"But that was the way it was. We accepted it. The worst thing you can do in that situation is start finger pointing and blaming people. We knew we were in it and we were in it together.
"I think the whole world had wrote us off and had us going down in the last game of the season. Yeah, we had to have a bit of a siege mentality and go out there and prove people wrong.
"We did it in an unbelievable way, but I said straight after the game I don't ever want to be in that situation ever again in my life. My poor Mrs and kids, they got it in the last three games of the season. God bless them. I feel sorry for them I had to give them a big kiss and a cuddle and say everything's alright now."
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