Leeds United

Leeds United

Championship

Patrick Bamford slams ‘naive’ Leeds, urging youngsters to ‘learn quickly’ as theory posed about struggles

Patrick Bamford, Brentford v Leeds September 2022

Patrick Bamford says the young Leeds United team can only get better after difficult matches such as Saturday’s 5-2 defeat to Brentford.

The Whites travelled to London looking to arrest a run of two Premier League games without a win. While wins over Wolves and Chelsea set up an exciting start to the season for Leeds, a defeat to Brighton was the polar opposite.

And Saturday’s clash with Brentford proved to be another mixed bag for Jesse Marsch’s side.

Leeds went 2-0 down thanks to an Ivan Toney brace – the striker would then bag his hat-trick in the second half. In between, Luis Sinisterra hit back and Leeds could have made it 3-2.

However, after Marsch saw red for his reaction to VAR not giving Leeds a penalty then referee Rob Jones handing Brentford a foul, Bryan Mbuemo and Yoane Wissa sealed the points for the Bees.

Indeed, Marc Roca’s goal to make it 4-2 eventually proved a consolation in what Bamford described a “learning curve”.

“It’s not where we wanted to be,” striker Bamford said of the performance. “You always say each game is a learning curve but we can’t do what we did – get back in the game and then throw it away within seconds. It was naive from us.

“We have got a young team but we have to learn quickly because you can’t get away with that.

“There’s always mistakes in games and most of the time they lead to goals, and that’s unfortunately what happened today. But yeah, as you can tell, it’s pretty frustrating.”

Bamford agrees with Leeds theory

Asked if the inexperience in the Leeds team is costing them mistakes, Bamford said: “I think so yeah, it’s about people becoming leaders on the pitch.

“You don’t become that until you learn. Their first two goals were set pieces and we arguably should’ve had a penalty ourselves which probably makes the game a little bit different.

“It’s all ifs and buts at the end of the day so at the minute, we’ll just have to keep working on what we did wrong and try and be better.”

But despite no wins in three, Bamford insisted that Leeds have enjoyed a “really good start” to the season.

As for his own involvement, Bamford played 45 minutes against Bamford but rued the “little aches and pains” he is getting after his recent spells out the side with injury.

Whites need win on the board

Leeds are not struggling for goals – they have only failed to score in the 1-0 defeat to Brighton this season.

However, it is matching up the dots across the pitch and producing a consistent, 90-minute performance, which is proving their bugbear.

Against Chelsea, Leeds were 2-0 up at half time. At Brentford, though, they were 2-1 down at the break.

Leeds just have to get things clicking and gelling all across the pitch for the good results to come again.

The inexperience of youngsters such as Brenden Aaronson and Sinisterra is proving a problem. However, they can only learn from these defeats and look to improve.