Matt Le Tissier vented his frustration over seeing Leeds United players arguing about who was going to take the penalty kick during the match with Bolton on Saturday.
The Sky Sports pundit shared that he always found it frustrating when players argue about who takes a spot-kick as it adds more pressure on the penalty taker.
Tissier pointed out that when Leeds were awarded a penalty in the 13th minute of the match against Bolton, Patrick Bamford, Tyler Roberts and Pablo Hernandez were engaged in an argument as they all wanted to take it.
“So when the penalty gets given, when I saw the reply it wasn’t just Tyler Roberts who wanted to take the penalty, there was also I think Hernandez there wanting to take it, so the two of them were arguing with him (Bamford) so there was a three-way argument about who was going to take this penalty,” said Le Tissier on Soccer Saturday (February 23rd, 17:42).
“Bamford picked up the ball first and just having none of it, he was taking it and Luke Ayling came in and got the lads out the way.
“I don’t know why it happens, it frustrates me every single time, surely before the game the manager names who the penalty taker is, there’s no way you should be having arguments about who takes the penalty once it gets given.
“It just puts unnecessary pressure on the penalty taker.”
OPINION
It’s easy to see why Le Tissier was frustrated by the incident, as how bad would Bamford have felt if he had missed? The Leeds forward could have seen his confidence shattered after battling hard to take the spot-kick only not to convert it. However Bamford did in fact score the penalty in order to help Leeds’ secure a 2-1 win over Bolton, and hopefully all is well between the trio who were arguing. The only positive you could take from the players clashing, was the fact that all three were passionate and confident enough to put their neck on the line to step up to score a potential match-changing penalty. This does show that the trio all believe in their own abilities and are ready to thrive under high pressure situations. Given that there is more pressure set to come in the coming weeks as Leeds attempt to win automatic promotion, Marcelo Bielsa’s side need players who can cope with the intensity of fixtures.