Journalist
Having gone unbeaten in their opening two fixtures of the new Premier League season so far, the Whites will be hoping to carry on that good form this weekend.
However, according to Hay, Leeds will have to take on Chelsea at Elland Road on Sunday without two of their more senior figures.
Indeed, when speaking about the upcoming match on The Phil Hay Show, the journalist said when ‘reading between the lines’ recent comments do enough to suggest both players will still be out injured.
He explained: “So, the big question marks are over Liam Cooper and Patrick Bamford. Although I suspect reading between the lines that there aren’t actually question marks over either.
“[Jesse] Marsch did say it would be a decision taken on Saturday about Bamford. But I think between both his comments and also what Bamford said on the official Leeds United podcast – which was that he was kind of expecting to miss the Chelsea game – I think the likelihood is that we won’t be seeing him. And I don’t think we’ll be seeing Cooper either.”
Will either Patrick Bamford or Liam Cooper play this weekend?
Yes
No
TIF thoughts on Leeds…
Speaking at a press conference on Friday afternoon (via LeedsLive) manager Marsch explained that the club will have to make a last-minute call on both players.
He said: “Coops has been on the pitch, I think him and then Pat as well but you know they’re a little bit day-to-day so we’ll have to see how that factors in for Chelsea.”
And so it isn’t looking likely that either man will be able to play against the Blues this weekend. This will be a shame as Cooper has been unable to feature at all this season and they could use his experience, while Bamford’s goals will also be a big miss potentially.
But Marsch should now be used to not having Bamford to choose from given he has only played 212 minutes of football under the American, which surely puts an emphasis on adding in this summer’s transfer window.