Proving the doubters wrong, Patrick Bamford at Leeds

It’s been quite the reintroduction to the Premier League for Leeds United.

A club that are unapologetically themselves, Leeds United are one of football’s more unique newly promoted sides in recent history. Playing a brand of football that is so individual, coached by a fascinatingly eccentric genius of the game, people speak of, and indeed criticise, Leeds as if they have been an established Premier League team for years. Praise for Bielsa is often regarded as unjustified. Perhaps surprising, given his ability to carry a newly promoted side into the top ten, his side still consisting of the bulk of those he inherited, a side that finished 13^th in the Championship in 2018.

Some of Bielsa’s coaching miracles have garnered national attention. Kalvin Phillips and Mateusz Klich have learnt entirely new midfield roles that have boosted their careers immensely. The swift growth of newer additions such as Raphinha and Illan Meslier has been phenomenal, whilst the steady bettering of more established players such as Stuart Dallas and Luke Ayling has perhaps been under the radar, at least until their displays on one of football’s biggest stages.

The development of Patrick Bamford, particularly in the Premier League, but under Bielsa as a whole, is perhaps not something that has been acknowledged, or at least certainly not as respected as much as it should have been. The Chelsea youth graduate came to West Yorkshire as one of Argentine’s first signings, signing from Middlesbrough for £7 million ahead of the 2018/19 season.

Leeds United sign striker Patrick Bamford from Middlesbrough on a four-year deal. Undisclosed fee. #lufc pic.twitter.com/w4NgYHptkT

— Joe Urquhart (@JoeUrquhart_) July 31, 2018

Bamford arrived at Elland Road after a relatively poor season, by his previous standards, at the Riverside. Recording 11 goals and one assist in 39 games hardly compared to his first stint in North Yorkshire, a loan for the 2014/15 season that saw Bamford win Championship Player of the Year with 17 goals and five assists in 38 games, leading his side to the play-offs. Regardless of the comparison, there was excitement around his arrival amongst Leeds fans.

The Whites had finally filled the Chris Wood shaped hole that had been made upon his departure. Pierre-Michel Lasogga tried and failed to fit it the season before Bamford’s arrival. Fans were more hopeful that the former Boro attacker was a closer fit to the mould, given his already journeyed and storied career, despite his young age. They hoped he would be the man to finally guide them to promotion. As well, he would be under the tutelage of Marcelo Bielsa. A significant factor, even though fans may not have realised the extent of such at the time.

Bamford’s time in the Championship, more often than not, was frustrating to fans. The striker was unlucky in his first season, facing the misfortune of injury and spending several months on the sideline. First, Bamford suffered a ligament injury in an under 23’s game. Up until that point, Bamford had recorded one assist in five appearances coming off the bench, his fitness not matching the strict standards of his manager. Bamford would return in mid-December, scoring the winner as a substitute in a 1-0 victory over Bolton. Injury would strike once more soon after however, with Bamford missing the following seven games through knee issues.

Patrick Bamford: Leeds United striker ruled out for four months with knee injury https://t.co/tbhDpOUlhw

— BBC Yorkshire (@BBCLookNorth) September 11, 2018

Bamford may have signed in the July of 2018, but would not make his first start for the club until the February of 2019. Having recovered from his injuries, Bamford would go on to make 16 uninterrupted appearances, totalling at 22 appearances in the season, scoring nine goals and assisting two, a solid return for a generally unlucky season.

It was the 2019-20 season where fans got a true experience for Bamford’s game. The forward would go on to appear in 45 games of Leeds’ Championship winning season and it was here that criticism, however unjust, began to truly mount, amongst fans and neutrals alike. The issue with Bamford was consistent finishing, a problem that tarnished his overall game and detracted the value from his hold up play, stamina and general fit in Bielsa’s system. Averaging 3.5 shots per game as the focal point of an overwhelmingly offensive game plan, Bamford would score only 16 goals in the season.

Whilst seeming an ostensibly harsh thing to say about a title-winning striker, all you had to do was watch Bamford play. It felt like he could have scored at least twenty more goals than he did, limited solely by a lack of clinical finishing that he was lucky didn’t come back to impact his side.

It didn’t take long for rumours amongst fans and neutrals to begin about Bamford’s position and future in the Leeds side. Could a seemingly inconsistent and, at times, lacklustre finisher truly pose any threat in the Premier League? Course, this was just one of a plethora of reasons as to why Leeds would, supposedly, be in a relegation fight. A small squad, a potential burnout, Bielsa’s ‘tendency’ to fizzle out in the second half of the season. Long was the list and annoying were its contents. Of course, Patrick Bamford didn’t exactly miss out on any criticism.

And so it starts ??? https://t.co/ABM22xLfa5

— Patrick Bamford (@Patrick_Bamford) July 20, 2020

The signing of Rodrigo, initially, seemed to spell the beginning of the end for Bamford. A Spanish international, versatile forward who had been playing as a striker for Valencia and his country for several years had just signed, for a club-record fee no less, to play in a one striker formation. Fans were understandably surprised when it became apparent that Rodrigo would play in the midfield, a happy medium between midfielder and striker, alongside Patrick Bamford.

It is probably safe to say that Patrick Bamford had many doubters going into the season. It’s probably safer to say that he has proven every single one wrong. As of the Leeds 2-0 Crystal Palace game (played on February 8^th), Bamford has 12 goals and five assists in 22 games, a magnificent return that has seen him in genuine conversation for an England call up.

Watching Bamford in the Premier League compared to him in the Championship feels like watching two separate players. Premier League Patrick Bamford has a higher intensity, you can tell he wants to better himself and it is evident that he does so with each game. His finishing seems more consistent and more clinical, perhaps best seen in his goal against Leicester in a 3-1 victory for his side at the King Power, a goal that can scarcely be described without superlatives.

Bamford’s shot average over the last year is 3.65 per game, a number that puts him in the top 7% in football. Bamford’s game has developed immensely. Overall, his fitness, awareness and positioning have grown at an incredulous pace, a pace only fathomable with great tutelage.

Not only through shots per game do stats support Bamford’s rise to the Premier League challenge. He ranks amongst the top ten in his side for dribbles and key passes per game, whilst too numbering in the top five for aerial attempts per game and averaging one of the lowest dispossession per game stats in his side.

Patrick Bamford has the highest goals per game ratio of any @LUFC player in Premier League history (0.55).

He has also been directly involved in 17 goals in 22 appearances in 2020/21 (12G, 5A). #LUFC pic.twitter.com/xdBjBZ7LxK

— LUFCDATA (@LUFCDATA) February 8, 2021

The overall growth of Bamford has felt long-winded, emphasised by the hoards of abuse he received on a bad stretch of games. Now, finally, in England’s top league, he is proving his doubters wrong. Bielsa has long understood his value to his side and his overall potential. With consistent impressive performances against the best sides in English football, maybe now spectators will come to understand that too.

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