Leeds United: Journo shares what Patrick Bamford did to impact ‘frustrating’ Georginio Rutter
Beren Cross has acknowledged the important impact of Patrick Bamford’s introduction for Georginio Rutter as Leeds United beat Leicester City on Friday (23 February).
Rutter, 21, was relatively ineffective against the Foxes at Elland Road, registering just one shot throughout the game, but he came alive when Daniel Farke brought Bamford on in the 65th minute.
Replacing Joel Piroe while the Whites were chasing the game at 1-0 down, Cross detailed how the 30-year-old made the desired impact, stretching Leicester’s backline, which allowed Rutter more space to roam into.
Writing for Leeds Live on Sunday (25 February), Cross said: “The experience of Daniel James and Patrick Bamford was called on and their impact was transformative.
“James brought tenacity, ideas, pace and dribbling power. Bamford led the line, asked questions with his runs, held the ball up and linked play.
“Bamford’s impact on Georginio Rutter directly is hard to ignore either. After a wasteful, frustrating first half of bouncing the ball away, Rutter came alive after the changes and began to dictate play, bamboozling the Leicester backline to play a part in all three goals.”
Patrick Bamford makes desired impact for Leeds United vs Leicester City
It is fair to say that most of Leeds’ play in the first half was rather sloppy, recording zero shots on target and conceding to a Wout Faes goal after 15 minutes. [FotMob]
Although Farke will not be happy with the display shown in the opening stages, he will be absolutely ecstatic with his team’s reaction, especially in the last 20 minutes.
A smashing effort from Connor Roberts started the comeback against the league leaders before Rutter assisted Archie Gray in turning the match on its head.
It seemed as though James’ free-kick had put the cherry on the cake for Leeds, but Bamford would go down as the goalscorer with the ball flicking off his knee and fooling Mads Hermansen in between the sticks.
Either way, it was an incredible turn of events in the closing stages at Elland Road, with the Whites closing the gap on Enzo Maresca’s Foxes to just six points. The Championship title could go down to the wire, and Leeds are doing everything in their power to make sure that happens.
In other Leeds United news, Sky Sports tried to cut short the celebrations of two players following the late win over Leicester City.
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