'No good' - Patrick Bamford calls for swift Leeds United change and issues big operation hope - YEP 14/1/23

Patrick Bamford felt Leeds United deserved more from Friday night's defeat at Aston Villa but called for a quick Whites change in the face of a common theme.

Lee Sobot

Whites no 9 Bamford bagged his first minutes since October when coming on as a 67th-minute substitute in Friday night’s Premier League clash at Villa Park, at which point Jesse Marsch's side were already 2-0 down. The Whites trailed despite creating a host of chances but Bamford finally got Leeds on the scoresheet when netting his 100th career league goal in the 83rd minute following fine work from Willy Gnonto.

Despite Bamford's strike and a superb all-round display from Gnonto, Leeds fell to their ninth defeat of the season and Bamford admitted merely feeling that his side deserved more ultimately counted for nothing. That, said the 29-year-old, needed to quickly change for a side who have won just two of their last 17 games and who are only two points clear of the drop zone.

Speaking post match on LUTV, Bamford was asked if he felt like Leeds deserved something from the game and reasoned: "Yeah but we lost the game so it's one of them. We have said it a lot of times where we probably felt we deserved something out of the game.

"I don't know whether it's naivety or what but we need to turn the good performances and the spells that we have against teams into three points because it's no good coming here each time and saying maybe we deserved a bit more. That's got to change quickly."

Bamford had not appeared in a Whites matchday squad since October’s 2-1 win at Liverpool in which he came on in the 52nd minute and set up the winning goal for Crysencio Summerville. The Whites striker then missed United’s final two games before the season’s World Cup break, during which the striker went to Munich for groin surgery.

Leeds were hoping to have the Whites no 9 back for the Christmas return against Manchester City but the striker’s recovery was delayed due to illness. But Whites boss Marsch revealed at Thursday’s pre-match press conference that Bamford was back in training and the 29-year-old returned to the bench at Villa Park before being brought on midway through the second half.

Marsch said before the match that Bamford had been looking good in training and the Whites no 9 is optimistic that his recent operation has ironed out his previous issues.

"It's nice to be back and actually feel in one piece!" smiled Bamford. "Obviously everyone knows I had the operation in the break that we had for the World Cup which I think got to the root of all the problems that kind of stemmed from that and I have felt a lot better. Now it's just getting up to match speed and hopefully I can do that in the coming weeks."