Patrick Bamford reflects on move into Leeds United's midfield and delivers honest verdict of Liverpool clash

Marcelo Bielsa' s Whites were looking to record their first league victory of the new season but fell to a 3-0 reverse at Elland Road as Mo Salah, Fabinho and Sadio Mane all bagged a goal apiece.

Leeds had to play the final 30 minutes of the contest with ten men after Pascal Struijk was eventually shown a straight red card for a challenge on Harvey Elliott.

Struijk won the ball but accidentally caught Elliott on the follow through and the Reds teenager was left nursing a serious ankle injury.

As part of a tactical reshuffle, Bamford has revealed that Bielsa then pulled both himself and Tyler Roberts into a three-man midfield.

"It was tough to be honest," said Bamford, assessing the Reds clash on Match Of The Day 2.

"It was one of them where as soon as we got the red card I actually dropped into the midfield three so me and Tyler were playing like two eights really.

"And then it was like stick with Fabinho and try and get forward when we get the chance and get the ball back but don't jump too much on to the centre backs because obviously it leaves the midfield free.

"That can be frustrating because you are just following a guy around and they have still got the ball comfortably.

"It was tough. It was hard because I don't think we gave a really good account of ourselves.

"In the first half when we had 11 men we were a little bit sloppy.

"We gave the ball away under less pressure than we should have which was frustrating but it made things a little bit difficult."

Assessing the incident which led to Elliott being stretchered off, Bamford reasoned: "It was one of those unfortunate things, just the follow through of the tackle.

"It was an innocuous challenge really and I think his ankle has just got caught under the weight of Pascal and I know Pascal is really sorry about it.

"We send our thoughts to Harvey.

"Pascal was just confused because obviously he thought he had won the ball and he didn't realise what has happened until afterwards.

"There's obviously a big kerfuffle on the pitch and everybody is thinking what is going on.

"Then we found out what happened so obviously our thoughts go out to him."

https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/sport/football/leeds-united/yorkshire-evening-post-launch-leeds-united-only-digital-subscription-ahead-premier-league-campaign-2967964

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Thank you Laura Collins