Gary Lineker drools over 'great' Leeds player, compares him to Premier League legend
Gary Lineker picked out Patrick Bamford for praise on Match of the Day after the Leeds United striker scored his first Premier League hat-trick against Aston Villa.
Bamford scored three times in 19 minutes in the second half of the game to leave him on six goals for the season after six matches.
He's now just one goal behind the league's top scorers Heung-min Son and Dominic Calvert-Lewin.
Talking on Match of the Day (BBC1, Saturday, 10pm), Lineker compared his goal-scoring feat to Leeds legend Eric Cantona.
It's some start for a player who many had dismissed as not being Premier League-quality.
"Who shall we analyse?" Lineker said on Match of the Day. "Do you think Bamford maybe? Hat-trick for Patrick. He was great wasn’t he?"
Micah Richards agreed saying, "He really was great. You saw the joy pouring out of him in that interview.
"Leeds deserve it because they’re a great team. A lot of Leeds fans questioned him and asked whether he could do it at this level."
Lineker added, "That’s six goals in six games. There’s only one person who’s scored as many goals at this stage in the Premier League in Leeds' history. Eric Cantona."
Dream start for Leeds and Bamford
We're so happy for Bamford.
He's taken a huge amount of criticism from some Leeds fans after a hit-and-miss season in the Championship.
The one man who never doubted him was Marcelo Bielsa and his faith is being repaid in spades now.
MOT Leeds News columnist Paul Robinson said that in Bielsa, Bamford has found a manager who he clicks with.
He claims Bamford is a real confidence player and his confidence will be absolutely sky high at the moment.
The second and third goals on Friday night were something else. If they'd been scored by Messi or Ronaldo the clips would have gone viral and it's all people would have been talking about this weekend.
There are still a lot of people talking about Leeds.
After six games they're sitting in fifth and no one could say they don't deserve to be there.
They've also got there by playing high-quality, entertaining football.
It's been an absolutely dream-like start to life back in the Premier League.
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