MOT View: Danny Mills way off the mark as he calls for Bielsa to drop Leeds 26y/o
Former Leeds United star Danny Mills has said that striker Patrick Bamford is on borrowed time and said Marcelo Bielsa should give up on him if he doesn’t start scoring.
We’ve got a lot of respect for Mills and most of the time he talks sense about Leeds.
However, he’s way wide of the mark this time.
Mills was talking to Football Insider and said, “Bamford plays an exceptional role for the team. His work rate and everything else is superb.
“But there has to be a point where a centre-forward’s job is putting the ball in the back of the net. He is missing more than anybody else.”
The header for the story was, “It’s time for Bielsa to give up on ‘Exceptional’ Leeds player” and Mills went on to say “There will come a point” when he has to be dropped.
He doesn’t say when that point will be but we’re 33 games through a 46-game season, and Bielsa has had nothing bad to say about 26-year-old Bamford so far.
After the last game against Bristol City, Bielsa said he hoped Bamford would get what he deserved in the future. He was talking about goals rather than the axe.
Jean-Kevin Augustin was once seen as the future star striker of world football but he can’t get a start for Leeds at the moment. And that’s on the back of Bamford scoring in just one game in his last nine.
If Leeds carry on winning, Bamford will carry on leading the line whether Augustin is fit or not.
Bamford doesn’t need to score to keep his place in this Leeds side – that’s been proved while Eddie Nketiah was here and it’s holding true with Augustin on the bench.
Bamford is a cog in the Bielsa system, no more, and he offers a lot to the side. Goals would be nice but the fact is, they’re not essential.
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