United defender Liam Cooper says the squad are happy to put the Christmas celebrations on hold as they focus on the Boxing Day fixture with Wigan at Elland Road.

In preparation for Wigan’s visit, Cooper and his team-mates will be training on Christmas morning before meeting again on the night as they hope to build on last weekend’s 1-1 draw at Nottingham Forest.

"We’ve just got to look on to the next one now," said the defender. "We had a good strong performance on Saturday so hopefully come Boxing Day we’ll have another strong performance.

"Especially over the Christmas period there are a lot of games. If you can come out of that and the confidence is high, it sets you up for the second half of the season.

"It’s an entertainment industry. We’ll be training Christmas Day and then we’ll get a bit of time with our families before we go and stay in the hotel on the night.

"It’s all about the result. We’ve just got to put strong performances in and get ourselves back on track."

Wigan arrive at Elland Road occupying second-bottom place in the Championship and having failed to win in any of their last eight, but Cooper insists United will be taking nothing for granted on Boxing Day.

"I think anybody would say in this league that there’s no easy game," he said. "We’ll certainly approach it in the right way.

"We’ll watch the video on them, on Christmas Day probably, and the manager and the assistant will discuss how we’re going to go.

"We want to climb that table. We know we’re underachieving and we want to be higher.

"The fans need that as well so hopefully we can push right up the league."

Cooper has now started United’s last seven games in the heart of defence after having to be patient for a regular place in the side upon his summer arrival.

"I’m just enjoying playing my football, he said. "When I’m on that pitch I’ll give my all week-in," week-out.

"I’ve always been told to leave nothing on the pitch and I’ll just keep working hard and keep trying to put performances in.

"I’ll keep working with the lads as well because we need each other. We can’t go out there as a one-man team and none of us will do that.

"We all look to each other. In games when it gets hard we need to look over our shoulder and see the lads there. Hopefully we will do that."