Leeds United: Dan James returns, but still no Patrick Bamford
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 the way. Looking at down James. Now he came back into the squad against Norwich after a couple of games missing because of injury. Someone who didn't come back in was Patrick Bamford. So what's the situation there? Lee, of course, James able to come on as a so as well in that game. Probably obviously we'll see him again in the second leg and hopefully playoff final should leads get there. But obviously Bamford he's likely to be missing once again later on in the week too.
00:26 Yeah, it sounds like it. I mean, Daniel Farker basically said, you know, pretty much straight away. It is pretty much press conference before the first leg that Bamford would miss both legs. So that just it just sounded pretty, you know, sort of like inclusive, not like a chance or anything. And, you know, everybody's back for the playoff final. If there is a playoff final remains to be seen, but don't be tempting fate. So let's just take one step at a time and deal with this. This second leg.
00:46 The fact is, though, for the second leg that Dan James is back and available and that's a huge boost and quite a nice quotes from Daniel Farker post-match after the first leg. He said that, you know, Dan James had only had one training session. So obviously it was touch and go, whether he'd make it, as he said beforehand. But so I said that he wanted in there more than anything else to start with just as a lucky charm, which was the way he put it.
01:05 And I sort of wonder what he meant by that. And what he meant by that was that basically, if you're looking on the bench and you start seeing someone of his calibre sat there, then obviously it sort of like gives you, you know, sort of good feel, good factor and stuff, which it doesn't. You know, obviously came on as a late sub, 87 minutes on the clock. And you've got to say like, it's quite, you know, it's decent and quite impressive and surprising really how quickly he's come back because when he got that injury, I think me and you spoke on here and, you know, we didn't know for definite, but it was obviously going to be touch and go, whether he'd be back for any part of the season and to come back three weeks later.
01:34 It's obviously, you know, a fantastic boost and goes about saying that, you know, he's back, but he's not going to be like sort of cherry ripe, fully match fit and stuff. Hence why he only came on in the 87th minute. I mean, Jadon Antony came on beforehand.
01:47 He's obviously the other wing option that we've got at the moment, assuming that Somerville and Nantes are starting. I suspect that even by Thursday, if it comes to a bench option, that James might well have jumped back ahead of Jadon Antony, you know, purely because he'll have a few more days training under his belt, which is nothing against Jadon Antony, who's also got a lot to offer.
02:05 But you've just got to look at the stats. And as we've said along, you know, Dan James has always never been any doubt about, you know, his work rate, how much he gets stuck in and also his, you know, lightning fast pace. The thing with him has always been his end products.
02:18 But 13 goals and seven assists, you know, answers that question conclusively this season. And he could be absolutely huge in the second leg.
02:27 I don't think he'll start. I mean, even if like he was fully fit, you probably say that it's got to be Somerville and Nantes. Nantes pretty bright again in the first leg, as we saw, probably should have had a penalty or, you know, certainly claims for a penalty or free kick on the edge of the box.
02:40 And he looks like making stuff happen. So I suspect it'll be the bench for Dan James, but I also suspect if needed, they'll come on a lot sooner than he did in the first leg.
02:48 And yeah, it's a huge boost to have him back. Bamford obviously is just going to be a massive miss. There's no doubt about that.
02:55 I mean, you know, I for one would be going into the second leg, looking at this game and feeling an awful lot more confident if he was there.
03:01 And I think that's just I think that probably most people would say that across the board, because then there's no doubt about what you do.
03:07 You know, you stick him up front and then it's just a question of who you have behind him as number 10, probably Roudesayre. Without him, you know, you just don't really know what's going to happen.
03:16 I mean, firstly, will it be the three-man midfield? But I mean, even if it's not like it's not definite who's going to start on the number nine roll up front, will it be Roudesayre?
03:24 Will it be, will it go back to Peru with Roudesayre behind him? I mean, the obvious shout is go for Matteo Joseph.
03:30 But I mean, and I for one, that's what I think myself, you know, give him a shot.
03:34 You know, I think he's good enough, but it's obviously a massive game now to bring him into in the second leg of a playoff semifinal.
03:38 But the fact that, you know, he didn't even come off the bench in the first leg doesn't suggest that that's particularly close.
03:43 So basically, Leeds are going to have to get to Wembley without Bamford and do it at a time when there's big question marks about them going forward because they're not scoring goals,
03:51 you know, like they were in their pump this season.
03:54 But Dan Jones will definitely help for that.
03:56 And I mean, let's hope it's not the case that, you know, come the sort of 60th, 70th minute or something, Leeds are chasing the game or it's nil-nil or something.
04:05 Let's hope it's done and dusted before that. Although I suspect it won't be, but we'll come on to that in a minute.
04:08 But if that is the case and they need another option, then he's, you know, first-quarter call on the bench.
04:13 And obviously, as we've said a few times on here, against tired legs and tired defences, you know, his lightning-fast pace should be able to make a difference, really.
04:20 So, yeah, I mean, it was looking like he might not, his season might be over and it's a huge, huge boost that he's back.
04:26 It definitely can't be underestimated how important that is.
04:29 Very much so, yes.
04:30 And of course, as you mentioned earlier, we are, you know, we're nowhere near knowing as to who will go through it.
04:36 There's a whole 90 minutes of football still to come, perhaps 120 plus a bit more after that.
04:41 Yeah, don't say that.
04:43 Depending on how things go. Well, that was how my weekend went.
04:46 So it could very much happen.