YEP Jury: No hiding place for Leeds United striker Patrick Bamford as the Whites suffer another defeat in the capital

David Watkins

Ahead of this game we all knew a win was vital; to ensure the gap to third didn’t shrink anymore; to end a poor run of results and find some upward momentum; and to get that ‘games in London’ monkey off our backs.

We failed partly due to an appalling decision to allow the QPR goal when it was plain to see it struck both arms of Nahki Wells and partly because we again missed golden opportunities to score to counter any bad luck we might have accrued along the way.

Under the new rules the mere act of the ball hitting Wells’ arms means the goal should have been ruled out and how it was not seen by the officials beggars belief.

As for the first half attempt that Patrick Bamford knocked over the bar and his second half penalty miss, well, I’m speechless! It’s not the first time this season, or indeed the second or third that Bamford has missed when clean through and it’s his second penalty miss of the season too. It’s not good enough.

Man of the Match: Luke Ayling

Matthew Evans

Another pretty miserable trip to the capital.

Leaving Leeds at 6:30am because Sky Sports had decided it was worthy of a 12-30pm kick off, arriving at Loftus Road to find the ‘gold’ £35 tickets had a ‘restricted sight line’ and watching as QPR scored from a soft free-kick that required the control of two hands meant that half-time wasn’t particularly pleasant.

After the break we saw several missed chances including a poor penalty from Patrick Bamford and we lost our best player – Kalvin Phillips – for at least three matches thanks to a pretty dumb tackle in the dying moments.

QPR were poor, Leeds were poor, the referee was abysmal and then we broke down on the motorway on the way back.

We’ve now lost three in a row without scoring, we seem to be a shadow of our former selves and the fanbase is in total uproar. Andrea Radrizzani, Angus Kinnear and Victor Orta have 10 days now to sort things out off the pitch while Marcelo Bielsa restores some discipline on it. One to forget.

Man of the Match: Ben White

Andy Rhodes

It was never going to be an easy task winning in London but this almost felt different, you could see it coming.

Things never really got going for the Whites and the right chances didn’t fall to the right people. It was almost typical of their recent performances.

United has a lot of the ball but few quality chances. The majority of them came in the closing stages when Leeds were chasing the game, a position they were put in by referee Peter Banks.

His decision on Nahki Wells’ goal was shocking and took the match away from Leeds.

The one thing they don’t need at the moment is to chase games.

Once they did go behind it became evident that there were few attacking options available on Marcelo Bielsa’s bench.

Helder Costa was nowhere near his best, nor was Pablo Hernandez. A problem is that Leeds go behind too often and fail to dig themselves out of the hole.

Changing that will be key to the promotion race this season. They have over a week to work out how.

Man of the match: Jack Harrison

Mike Gill

A toxic combination of bad luck, terrible refereeing and wastefulness once again prevented United from taking the points in London.

In the heady reaches of the Premier League VAR is rightly criticised for the inconsistency of decisions that are taken as a result of this technology. In the Championship most teams would welcome it warts and all.

Nahki Wells played pat-a-cake, touching the ball twice in the Leeds penalty area before dispatching it into the net.

However if you take United’s overall performance, once again they played well but what is pretty play if you can’t put the ball in the net?

In the second half, United put QPR under the cosh but could not convert their chances – not even a penalty.

Patrick Bamford showed his louche, languid side when he struck the ball weakly to Liam Kelly’s left giving the keeper every opportunity to save it.

The next six games will be crucial especially as Kalvin Phillips will be missing from three of them. Let’s see what the January transfer window brings.

Man of the match Ben White

Keith Ingham

United’s wretched post Christmas form continued with another poor performance, like most games they created the chances to win but, they continue to miss them.

The biggest culprit being Patrick Bamford who missed a chance most strikers would gobble up and had a feeble penalty kick saved.

I’ve supported Bamford long enough and his time as Leeds main striker has to come to an end, if United have a chance to stay in the top two.

I can hear the outcry already, but it’s simply not enough to run around and graft for 90-plus minutes but have no end product when it is needed and just now it’s needed! Even Marcel Bielsa questioned why he misses chances so often in his post-match interview.

This begs the very important question I am asking the owner directly. Are you prepared to whistle while this season goes down the ‘pan’ or are you going to do some business that will save this season from being a repeat of the last one?

The choice is yours and the entire fanbase of the club will judge you on your success or failure in this window. A season that promised so much is in danger of collapsing because the strength and size of the squad is far too small. Marcelo Bielsa may like it that way, but to see a substitutes bench full of youngsters apart from Gjanni Alioski is not what you’d expect from a team pushing for promotion.

Man of the match: None chosen

Jacob Starr

Where to start? Leeds once again ‘did a Leeds’ and have seen an 11-point gap to third evaporate to just four in the matter of weeks.

Nakhi Wells handled the ball twice before putting the ball into an empty net, after Eberechi Eze’s free kick rebounded into his path.

It was blatant but apparently not seen by referee Peter Banks or his assistants. That put us 1-0 down unfairly, as well as us having a strong penalty shout turned down earlier on in the match.

Patrick Bamford wasted a glorious one-on-one opportunity, and then had the chance from the penalty spot in the second half but the less said about his effort the better.

A bad day got even worse a couple of minutes from the end when Kalvin Phillips received a straight red card for a reckless, needless tackle on Geoff Cameron.

We are cursed in London, so it’s a relief that we only have one more trip to the capital this season…

Man of the match: Helder Costa