Bamford & Costa both blame Elland Road issue for incredible misses Bielsa calls ‘strange’
Patrick Bamford and Helder Costa both missed glorious chances to wrap the game up for Leeds United at Elland Road last night.
Both were crosses into the box and both players failed to make any meaningful contact with the ball.
Bamford seemed to collapse in front of the ball; Costa, unmarked in the middle of the box, skewed his header towards the corner flag – and the reaction from Tyler Roberts behind him showed how easy the chance was.
Bamford seemed to blame the floodlights at the time and, according to The Athletic journalist Phil Hay, both players were moaning about the problem when they were walking off the field.
Talking on a fan’s Q&A after the game Hay said, “They seemed to be saying something about them [the floodlights] when they were coming off. I’ll need to check if any changes have been made. Leeds are due to install new floodlights behind the West Stand this summer but they’re not there yet.”
The issue came up in Marcelo Bielsa’s post-match press conference, too.
Hay said, “With the misses by Bamford and Costa, both players seemed to be blaming the floodlights. Bielsa isn’t clear what the problem was but said both misses were strange.”
Bielsa was quoted in The Times talking about the problem and said: “Honestly, I don’t know, but maybe. It was strange that they couldn’t connect with those crosses. Everybody knows in football you are more likely to score those chances than miss them.”
Here’s the Bamford miss:
Does Bamford get a pass?
Leeds fans know that Bamford is certainly capable of missing chances like that whether the floodlights are on or off.
However, both players missing the ball in a similar way, from a similar position and both blaming the same problem?
That’s something worth investigating and it might be that fans have to back away from their criticism of Bamford after the terrible miss.
The bad news is that either one of these misses would likely have given Leeds the three points and led to a six-point gap at the top of the table.
The good news is that whatever West Brom do tonight Leeds will stay top but if the Baggies do win the chasing pack will be bunching up behind the Whites.
We never seem to do things the easy way.
In other Leeds United news, Bielsa confirms Leeds star player likely to miss game v Blackburn through injury