BBC pundit Jon Newsome has voiced his frustration over Leeds United’s persistent tendency to pass ‘sidewards and backwards’ during their recent match against West Brom.
The team experienced back-to-back defeats, with the latest being a 2-1 loss at Preston North End on Boxing Day, marking the first instance of consecutive defeats under manager Daniel Farke.
Leeds’ 2-1 defeat at Preston North End marked their sixth away loss this season, characterized by a recurring challenge of breaking down defensively oriented opponents due to a perceived lack of urgency in the final third. In response to a lackluster display, manager Daniel Farke made a triple substitution around the hour mark, including the introduction of Patrick Bamford.
Jon Newsome, commenting on the BBC Radio Leeds post-match show, expressed that Patrick Bamford stood out as the only player attempting something different by making runs in behind the opposition. However, Newsome noted a pattern where Bamford’s efforts were consistently overlooked or ignored by his teammates during the match.
“Bamford must’ve made 25 runs in that second half that no one even looked at. A number of times he was curving, running across the line and wanting to dive in, then when he was caught offside he was saying quicker.”
Patrick Bamford faced being caught offside a couple of times when his runs were eventually picked out by Gruev, but there’s a suggestion that part of the blame lies in the delay it took to locate him. In away matches, Joel Piroe has shown recent inefficiency, with his last goal on the road dating back to September against Millwall. Perhaps Farke would be better suited to giving Bamford more game time.