Marco Bielsa refuses to blame Patrick Bamford after Birmingham defeat

Leeds United manager Marco Bielsa has refused to place the blame on striker Patrick Bamford after the club succumbed to a surprise 1-0 defeat at Birmingham City. The promotion-chasing outfit were up against the Blues, who had suffered five losses on the bounce but they could not take advantage of the situation with Che Adams scoring the sole goal for the hosts in the 29th minute.

Speaking after the game, Bielsa spoke positively about Bamford despite the marksman failing to find the net in the past four league matches, he said: “Bamford has a big character and personality and he was better than in the previous game. We could have drawn the game, we could have lost by more goals and we could have won the game.”

“The moments of the game that we were in control we couldn’t take our chances. We had a lot of time on the ball but we didn’t take advantage of the chances that we created. They played a type of game that is hard for us to solve, although after they scored their goal our attacking threat increased. We created chances but we didn’t score.”

Leeds were the dominant team during the outing with more than three-quarters of the possession but they struggled to find creativity in the final third with just one attempt on target. Due to this, they have once more witnessed Sheffield United leapfrog them to the second automatic promotion spot but they still have time to turn things around with six matches to play.

Leeds return to Championship action in midweek where they are scheduled to face Preston North End on the road. Alex Neil’s team have particularly struggled at home with just two wins since the turn of the year and it remains to be seen whether Leeds can produce a strong performance to outclass them at Deepdale on Tuesday night.