MOT View: Leeds star could struggle in final nine games without ‘added incentive’
It will be a strange experience for the Leeds United squad in the final nine games trying to secure promotion with no backing from fans.
The EFL have confirmed the fixture list and the Championship returns on Saturday with Leeds currently top of the pile.
All games will be completed behind-closed-doors, with only around 300 people expected in each stadium between the two clubs [The Mirror].
Leeds striker Patrick Bamford will no doubt lead the line for the Whites with Jean-Kevin Augustin out injured, and he has commented on what he will miss with no fans there.
“In terms of on a matchday, the crowd does help you get up for it and it just gives you that added incentive,” he told the BBC, via the Yorkshire Evening Post.
“But the way we train and the way that our manager’s got us geared towards is – ‘if you don’t train like you play, then you’re not going to play anyway’.”
Leeds travel to Cardiff on Sunday afternoon, but still have five games left to play at Elland Road this season.
Bamford has a strange relationship with the Leeds fans, who before Christmas were calling for him to be dropped on a weekly basis.
Now, the 26-year-old is ticking all of the right boxes and could be the man to fire Leeds to the Premier League.
In a recent Q&A on the official Leeds website, Bamford admitted that his game has been helped this season by firing up opposing fans to get on his back so he can prove them wrong.
That is what we expect is his added incentive, something which will be completely missing from the remaining nine fixtures.
We aren’t expecting many problems as a whole from that, but Bamford could be one of those who struggle.
In other Leeds United news, this Championship player has recalled his biggest mistake after flopping at Elland Road