Patrick Bamford

[Nic]

Fans have always moaned at players when they are not doing well. What I am pleased about is most fans at ER sing PB's name, such as when makes an attempt or when he was subbed. Agreed we need to get behind our players, I remember when we had McCormack and he went through a ropey spell and the crowd was getting on at him - you could tell by his face that it was affecting him.

We do need to support our players, but that does not mean we can't suggest changes because we all want results to reflect performance. Yes there are other players on the field but you expect most of your goal to come from your main striker, just like when you concede you look at the GK or defender involved. Some fans are saying sell him or drop him, which I agree is too much, but when the current system isn't working for him then it needs changing, whether it be two upfront or coming on as an impact sub after 60 minutes to keep the ball in the opposition area. We need to see what works best for him, just like Alioski has changed and is a far better left back than when he was on the wing.

[phil62]

I grow very tired of how fickle Leeds fans are, Stop scape goating and get to the real issues of why the team are dropping points. Patrick Bamford is being hounded by so many and for what exactly? he missed a few sitters? so blooming what, there are nine other outfield players in that team who could also be blamed for not scoring goals or being so accurate.

My point about PB not even being on the field of play when Derby equalized or when Swansea pinched their win. Come on guys I though the name of this club was Leeds United. It gets tiresome to see how fickle some are Were top of the league even with losing so many home points were still there..... Do you think that by thrashing PB will help him when he plays? No but we Leeds fans are terrible for thrashing our own players especially in the past few seasons. I am beginning to wonder what is special anymore about our fans when this garbage is happening.

If your not prepared to get behind every player of the team then don't support the club.

Am annoyed and fuming at the negativity of one of our own players. Get behind him not ridicule him.

Its the team itself who are failing as a whole and not one individual who should be scapegoated because people are upset at losing a point to Derby and other teams.

Top post. Totally agree.

[blackbox2342]

Apologies if this has been shared previously but some cold hard facts about Bamford. https://www.leeds-live.co.uk/sport/leed ... s-16972967

[Polkadot]

Apologies if this has been shared previously but some cold hard facts about Bamford. https://www.leeds-live.co.uk/sport/leed ... s-16972967

I find this part very interesting:

Additionally, his goal conversion rate of 15.24% last season ranked 23rd in the division in terms of Championship centre-forward’s who played over 1500 league minutes.

15,2% conversion rate sounds pretty bad, doesn’t it?
Well, in the 2017-18 season Cristiano Ronaldo has a conversion rate of 14,6% and Leo Messi had 17,3%. I think that puts things in a bit of perspective. I’m sure they are also “missing sitters” even if they are two of the best footballers in the history. And that’s the problem for most football fans (not specific Leeds fans). Many seems to think that a professional footballer should be almost flawless, and that every big chance should be converted. That’s not how it works. Not even with the best players in the world and specially not for a Championship club like us.

The problem is not that a lot of the fans are “moaners”, the problem is that a lot of fans don’t really have a clue about how football really works and therefore have absurd expectations.

It’s kind of the same when people are complaining about Bielsas tactics and say stuff like “he should play two up front”. They lack the perspective of the game that divides the professionals from us beer drinking chaps in the pub. If we put another guy up front we need to take that guy from somewhere else on the pitch. Maybe from the central midfield, which means a more traditional 4-4-2 formation. They don’t see any problem with that, does they? It’s just bonuses doing that change, get an extra man in the box!! Yeah true, but with one less player in midfield there is no way we can play the way we do and dominate the games the way we do without being completely overrun every time we lose the ball. Bielsa and his team knows football, a lot of the fans don’t. It reminds me of the most stupid thing in football the last 15 years, people complaining Pep Guardiola should have a big striker in his teams to bring on as plan B.

Fans of our club and other clubs have great passion about the club and about football, but very few regular football fans have the right knowledge to tell managers (specially great football philosophers like Bielsa or Guardiola) what they should do and the case with Bamford is clearly one of these situations where a lot of fans don’t really understands what a player brings to the table. They have this kind of view where a striker should only be measured on how many goals they score and nothing else. Therefore is a striker like Firminho clearly underrated because there are other strikers that scores a lot more goal.

And btw, I don’t think Bamford is a great footballer. But we are a Championship club and Patrick Bamford is a very good footballer at Championship level.

[Selby White]

Although statistics are interesting and tell part of the story I don't think all chances can be considered the same.

Think when you play against teams whose main objective is to get players behind the ball you get plenty of opportunities but they aren't often as clear cut as the few chances teams get when playing on the break. This is down to the fact that penalty areas are crowded, hence less space and time.
I actually like Bamford, good footballer at this level that holds the ball up and makes runs that allows others to play around him. A big part of why we can dominate possession.

On another thought if he hadn't been substituted against Derby or Swansea his ability to help the team keep the ball may have helped stop them getting the chance for their late goals.

Think with the modern game defending and attacking is all about 11 players (attack as a unit, defend as a unit).

And finally "We are top" would have taken that at the start of the campaign.

[PhoenixUnited]

The Derby game has certainly exercised many, myself included, Bourne out of frustration that we let a couple of points slip away when we should have been out of sight in the first half. I am not with those who are putting the blame on Patrick Bamford's shoulders. Jeez! Some are shouting that he should be seen in a Leeds shirt again.

We were a Championship club and have a decent quality striker in Bamford. There really is no point in demanding a 30 goal striker or even wishing for such. If we had such a player he'd be sold in the first available Transfer Window.

I am going to venture that he will do OK for us will Bamford. A bit of luck, a slight upturn in decision making in front of goal and he will prosper. If he can relax a bit and not be so anxious and not try so hard to please maybe his natural instinct will kick in a bit more.

[zigzag]

Bamford isnt the sole root of our scoring woes, lots of the chances we create are half chances, few are really clear cut.

However, I would like him to vary what he does, he never takes a shot first time , always preferring to take a touch, maybe thats because of our conversion rate that he wants to try to make sure, but it actually makes it worse.

30 seconds into yesterdays game a prime example, he could have shot first time, it either goes in or the keeper might parry it back out into the 6 yard box, but PB takes a touch, and then isnt in a position to shoot.

Varying what you do keeps the goalie on his toes, hes not sure what will happen and cant always adequately cover the angles, but if a keeper knows the striker will take a touch he can wait without committing to the first time shot.

[SCOTTISH LEEDS]

Interesting listening to Patrick talk to Noel Whelan on Radio leeds after the game when I was driving back home last night

Noel asked if he was frustrated not to have scored more goals this season and he said yes he is given how many chances the team creates.

He also reckoned he should be on 10 goal after 10 games as he should score every game, which is what any good striker would say.

The chip against Derby he said was the most dissappointing chance he has made a mess off as it was the wrong decision.

[dlw10]

Got to say that was a very honest interview with Bamford.

[Polkadot]

Maybe not the right thing to do to bring up this old thread, but the intense Bamford discussion has been coming back lately. In my opinion he is a decent/good striker at Championship level and he’s a really important player for us, making it possible to play the way we play. Of course he’s not a complete player or really great, but that kind of players is really hard to find at this level.

One of the things I see a lot of people (both in here, Twitter and Facebook) say is “He’s a striker, his job is to score goals!” (And therefore it’s wrong to say he’s great based on the other stuff he brings to the table”
In my view, that is a opinion that indicate a view of football might be a bit old fashion. The best team in the world at the moment is probably Liverpool, and their striker is amazing even if he doesn’t score a lot of goals. This season Firmino have only score 7 in 21 games in Premier League. This is his 5th season in England and he’s not scored more than 15 league goals in a season. A striker in modern football should be judged on a lot more than just how many goals he scores.