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Patrick Bamford admits he 'had a go' at Leeds United youngster Darko Gyabi
Leeds striker Patrick Bamford has admitted he needed to “have a go” at youngster Darko Gyabi during his recent trip to the Under-21’s.
Bamford stepped down a level to help boost his bid for minutes as he recovers from injury, scoring a hat-trick in the 6-2 win on Friday night against Southampton’s under-21’s team.
But after the Whites conceded two late consolation goals, Bamford revealed that in trying to help the team he had words with summer signing Gyabi about putting a tackle in and says he took it well.
“I try to help them as much as I can, even if it means I had a go at Darko on the pitch,” Bamford told LUTV.
“I get on really well with him in the changing room, so he took it well, but I told him: ‘Sometimes you’ve got to put your foot through it and put a tackle in.’
“As I said, it’s part of the learning curve for all of them. These games, we come down to help them, but hopefully, we can show them what they need to do in some ways.”
Tough love
Bamford showed what we all knew, that he’s way above a youth team level as he should be as a full international and 29-year-old Premier League player.
But going down to that level to get minutes showed the young players exactly the type of mentality and quality they need to be able to make it at the highest level, and getting advice from him can only be seen as a positive.
It may have come across as having a go because of the in-match nature of it, but it’s simply advice to help the player become better and to ensure that the team don’t get complacent in the future.
Gyabi will take it and learn from it, and ensure that next time he is in a game situation he will get stuck in and be focused for the full 90 minutes regardless of the result because of Bamford’s words.
It’s a positive that regardless of armband or level, Bamford wants to win and focuses on the team rather than himself and the young players will only benefit from having someone like that around.
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