Leeds United were handed a late blow as Jamie Vardy equalized for Leicester City after a first-half header by Luis Sinisterra.
Leeds are no closer to avoiding relegation this season, as their losing streak reached four games Friday night.
A home game against another struggling team Leicester provided an opportunity for Leeds to reclaim their winning ways and close the gap on the bottom three.
They appeared to be on course to do so when Jack Harrison’s wonderful cross was met by the head of Luis Sinisterra, but Jamie Vardy pounced on a loose ball to curl beyond Illan Meslier in the second half.
The root of the problem for Leeds was caused by Javi Gracia’s managerial actions.
Leeds had a lead against Leicester, and one thing this team is not capable of doing is holding on to a slim lead for 70 minutes.
We invited pressure for the rest of the game, and it’s just fortunate that the Foxes looked devoid of ideas for so long when trying to break down the most feeble of parked buses.
When it appeared that we needed to make changes, Rodrigo was the man to come on, but Brenden Aaronson was not the correct replacement because he was not only devoid of talent in possession, but also did nothing to help the side push aggressively when Leicester had the ball.
After the leveller, they looked like winning and would have if Jamie Vardy had timed his run better when Patson Daka inexplicably squared the ball instead of shooting, and we had to deal with the same obsolete setup that was just waiting for Leicester to score.
It’s gone well past the point where we can keep forgiving Bamford’s horrific finishing just because he often holds the ball up well.
He can get us up the pitch far better than Rodrigo, which is admirable, but his failure to get into scoring positions and then convert those chances will cost us dearly.
No shots on target against a Leicester defense that appeared terrified of the ball is just not good enough, and our reliance on Bamford as our most crucial number nine is a major cause for this.
A set-piece in the 90th minute saw him peel to the back post with acres of open to produce a great winner for his team, only to smash the ball agonisingly wide from a yard away – awful.
We may look back on that miss as critical in our quest to stay afloat.
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