What pundits are saying about James Trafford's first 45 minutes in a Leeds shirt vs Man United

James Trafford made his Leeds United debut on Wednesday night in his new side's pre-season match against Manchester United.

Daniel Farke named the 23-year-old in his starting line-up for the exhibition game at Croke Park in Dublin, Ireland, replacing Alex Cairns in goals.

Leeds signed Trafford from Manchester City for a club-record £40million deal last week.

And based on his performance against Man United so far, the signs have been positive.

Trafford made three saves in the first half, as per Sofascore, while conceding one against Joshua Zirkzee

He saved especially well against Bryan Mbeumo at one point, leading to big praise at half time.

Ex-Manchester United star hails James Trafford's first-half display

It's no surprise to see Leeds fans on social media praising Trafford's opening 45 minutes for the Yorkshire club.

However, it was a bit of a shock to see ex-Manchester United defender John O'Shea speaking highly of the new Leeds No 1.

Former Leeds midfielder Michael Brown was especially impressed by Trafford, before O'Shea added to the praise.

Speaking at half-time on ITV Sport, Brown said: "If you watch Trafford, he's quick and he's alive in situations. You can see there, the balance on him, as he gets down to that left-hand side."

"He'll be really pleased to get some minutes with some good saves on the way."

O'Shea said: "I think, to be fair to Trafford, he's kept Leeds in the game.

"Man United could have had a couple more goals."

What did Daniel Farke learn from Trafford's display?

As is always the case with pre-season games, you cannot read too much into them because their primary cause is to get players up to match fitness.

However, for sumer signings like Trafford, it allows him to bed into playing with his new teammates and that's always important for goalkeepers and defenders.

When the Premier League season kicks off next week, you'd expect Tarik Muharemovic and Jaka Bijol to be starting in front of Trafford, so that opening 45 minutes was good practice.

Farke will have seen how Trafford has the ability to bail out his defenders when opposing attackers do get past them.

However, he also showed he's not unbeatable when Zirzkee scored after a quickfire counter-attack, that could have been prevented if Bikol and Sebastiaan Bournaw hadn't been caught out so high up the pitch.