Phil Hay confirms 30-year-old will start against Middlesbrough
Leeds United travel to the Riverside Stadium to face Middlesbrough on Monday and Patrick Bamford is expected to start up top for Daniel Farke’s side. The Yorkshire club go into the game having had a nice nine-day break since the disappointment of losing their unbeaten home record to Blackburn Rovers. Promotion rivals Leicester and Southampton will […]
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Leeds United travel to the Riverside Stadium to face Middlesbrough on Monday and Patrick Bamford is expected to start up top for Daniel Farke’s side.
The Yorkshire club go into the game having had a nice nine-day break since the disappointment of losing their unbeaten home record to Blackburn Rovers. Promotion rivals Leicester and Southampton will have played before the Whites kick-off but they know that they have to win their remaining fixtures to return to the Premier League.
For the Blackburn match, Joel Piroe was one of the three changes Farke made as he came in to start up front in place of Patrick Bamford, who has seen his form dip recently.
The striker role has been an area of debate this season at Leeds, with calls growing for Mateo Joseph to be handed his first league start for the Championship side but Farke has continued to resist the temptation to do so.
Speaking on the Square Ball Podcast, The Athletic journalist Phil Hay believes that 30-year-old Bamford will get the nod on Monday to face his former side Middlesbrough.
“It is sometimes the sort of environment he really likes. I cannot see Farke going with the system he did against Blackburn with Piroe up front, it just didn’t really work and it didn’t bring much out of Piroe,” Hay said.
“On the basis of what we’ve seen from Farke you would assume Bamford comes in and plays that role. I would be tempted to try Joseph but I do get it is a gamble and it is very easy to make suggestions of changes which then don’t get tested.
“For as long as Joseph isn’t starting, it’s easy to say to play him and he will score goals. If you play him and he doesn’t score goals, there are consequences of that. You have to get that decision right.”
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