Leeds United situation now ‘very, very difficult’ for Patrick Bamford
We’re delighted to welcome former England goalkeeper Paul Robinson as our exclusive columnist as each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at Leeds United …
Patrick Bamford knows the only way he is going to get more opportunities at Leeds United is through injuries or suspensions to other players, according to Paul Robinson.
The striker has made 11 appearances off the bench this season and has yet to find the net, and the BBC Sport pundit believes the striker is in a “very, very difficult” position because of the extra pressure he feels to impress in reduced opportunities.
With Georginio Rutter and Joel Piroe the regular attacking starters for Daniel Farke now it has relegated Bamford to a back-up option, and Robinson says the English forward will feel that when he gets chances he “has to take them”.
Speaking exclusively to MOT Leeds News the former England keeper “It’s very difficult for a player whose not been in the side for a length of time, who’s not guaranteed a starting position any more.
“He was number nine but there was always a question of what do Leeds do when Patrick’s not fit? How do they play and who replaces him?
“So often in the Championship before they went up, and in the Premier League to an extent, they didn’t have an answer. There was no resolution to how they played.
“They tried false nines, they tried Jack Harrison there, they tried Dan James there, and others, but it didn’t work.
“Now Patrick’s not such a huge cog in the machinery at the moment because of Piroe and Rutter and they way that they’re playing and the goals are coming.
“Unfortunately for him he gets an opportunity in fits and starts, and as a striker when you get given these opportunities you feel like you have to take them.
“You have to score goals and things have to go your way and you have to play well.
“The way that the side’s playing and the team is amassing points and wins at the moment it’s very, very difficult for him ot break back into the starting XI.
“That in itself brings pressure. You bring pressure on yourself as a footballer, because he knows he’s not going to start every week and when he does get an opportunity he wants to show the manager what he can do.
“There’s only goals and, not willing or wishing misfortune on anyone else, suspension or injury that will give him his opportunity.”
It is a fact of life in top level football that you only have so long before you are replaced as the main man, and that has happened to Bamford this season.
Leeds United arguably took too long to do so when the 30-year-old was struggling with injury issues regularly over the past two seasons.
He clearly wants so badly to make an impact in the reduced minutes he is getting but is potentially trying too hard to catch the eye in his late cameos off the bench and it may be negatively effecting his play.
In other Leeds United news, Phil Hay has named the one player he expects to disrupt Farke’s regular starting XI.