James Trafford makes Leeds United penalty shootout admission with training insight and early declaration
Record signing James Trafford made his Leeds United debut in Wednesday night’s friendly against Manchester United in Dublin.
James Trafford has made a Leeds United penalty shootout admission with a beaming early verdict of his first impressions of the Whites.
Trafford joined Leeds from Manchester City on Thursday in a club record £40m deal and the England-capped goalkeeper was handed a Whites debut just six days later by starting Wednesday night’s friendly against Manchester United in Dublin.
The 23-year-old immediately impressed, Trafford making some smart saves to prevent his new club from falling further behind after Joshua Zirkzee had fired the Red Devils ahead, only for Brenden Aaronson to then equalise.
Trafford was then brought off at the interval as Whites boss Daniel Farke made ten changes to his team, Alex Cairns taking Trafford’s place in goal in a contest that ended in a 1-1 draw and was ultimately decided on penalties.
Misses from Harry Wilson and James Justin then led to the Red Devils winning 5-4 on spot kicks, Bruno Fernandes the only Red Devils player to miss when rolling his penalty wide of the post.
The shootout looked made for Trafford and the new record signing admitted post-match that he wanted to play as many minutes as possible, albeit recognising that he only started training with his new team on Tuesday.
Speaking to Premier Sports, Trafford was asked if he was disappointed to miss out on the shootout or quite relieved.
"No, I wanted to play as much as I can,” smiled the new Whites no 1.
"I realise I have only just been back in, my first day was yesterday (Tuesday).
"I just really enjoyed playing what I played because I really enjoy playing football so I was just happy."
Trafford also delivered a beaming verdict on what he had seen from his first few days with the Whites.
"Yeah it's been brilliant,” said Trafford.
"We are obviously an amazing team, we play with a lot of energy and from my first day yesterday I can see everything that we are trying to do and trying to achieve this season. I'm loving it."