Leeds United striker Patrick Bamford admits that he told both Kalvin Phillips and Stewart Dallas to try and spoil the game against Manchester United last weekend.
Speaking on the official Leeds United podcast, Bamford gave some insight into what he had said to his teammates before kick off.
Leeds didn’t want Ole Gunnar Solskjaer Manchester United side to get any momentum in the contest.
And Bamford admits that he encouraged his Leeds teammates to make some sly fouls, to stop the rhythm of the match.
“In the huddle before the game I spoke to Kalvin and Stewie, and I said to them if they start getting a rhythm about them just break it up – destroy their rhythm,” Bamford said.
“So while some of the decisions were soft, there’s no two ways about it, it was also a thing that if they couldn’t get any momentum and they were frustrated like ‘who are these players kicking us, we’re Man United’ sometimes that works. We don’t do that sometimes, we don’t do it when we need to.”
Leeds’ tactic certainly seemed to work, as the Red Devils never got into a flow, with Bruno Fernandes among the players who struggled.
Leeds claimed a 0-0 draw, with very few chances created for either side in the contest.
Bielsa’s men have always been hailed as one of the fairest teams in the Premier League, and their disciplinary record is good, but their tactic showed a new street wiseness to their game.
Leeds were often hammered by the Premier League’s elite in the first half of the season, but they have now gone unbeaten against Manchester City, Liverpool and United in their last three games – which shows that good progress has been made.
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