“Can’t do that…” – MOTD pundit slams Leeds United star for costly error v Bournemouth
Leeds United fell to a 2-0 defeat yesterday to Bournemouth during their trip to the Vitality Stadium.
With Noah Okafor out injured, Daniel Farke had to rely on Dan James to start out on the left wing. However, the Welshman struggled to make an impact as he was handed a rare Premier League start.
Although it was our continued struggles in the final third which definitely played a part in us returning to West Yorkshire empty-handed, James Trafford’s mistake deserves the bulk of the blame.
Now, a BBC pundit has slammed our shot-stopper for his costly error whilst on Match of the Day.
Stephen Warnock critical of James Trafford mistake
With how long and often Trafford spends with the ball at his feet in games, it was always inevitable that the 24-year-old would end up making a mistake as a result.
I think we all knew this when we signed him in the summer. Especially with Trafford being such a prominent ball-playing goalkeeper.
However, his mistake against Bournemouth was abysmal.
When attempting to play out from the back to Ao Tanaka’s feet, his pass was too short and was pounced upon by Justin Kluivert. The Dutchman intercepted the pass before squaring the ball to Evanilson, who rolled it into an empty net just after the half-hour mark.
Former Leeds defender Stephen Warnock analysed the incident on Match of the Day. It’s fair to say Warnock was less than impressed with our ‘keeper.
“James Trafford won’t want to watch this again,” Warnock began.
“He’s looking for Tanaka in midfield, but Kluivert’s on it. He’s ready for that pass, he’s almost looked up, and the pace of the pass tells you I’ve made the wrong decision. I’ve underhit it. I should’ve gone long.
“You can’t do that away from home because that changes the mentality of the game. Leeds had started really well and created multiple opportunities, then they fell behind.”
So just a week or so after, Trafford was our best player against Sunderland; he effectively cost us the game against Bournemouth.
James Trafford is not the finished article just yet
Expectations were rightly through the roof when we signed Trafford for £40million this summer.
But we still need to remember he’s not the finished article just yet. He is still just 24. Prior to joining United, he had just one Premier League campaign in which he was the first-choice goalkeeper for the vast majority.
So after Trafford made his first mistake of the season which led to a goal (Sofascore), we need to remember he is still a young player who, although he is amazing for the most part now, is still finding his feet in the Premier League and has room to develop even further.
The longer Trafford is at Leeds, the less we will see of these mistakes. Whilst we’re all frustrated with him now, Trafford will win us more points than he costs us this season. We need to bear this in mind going forward.
But it goes without saying that mistakes of this magnitude cannot be repeated often.
