MOT View: Interesting Bamford stat suggests changed role in Leeds five-game winning streak
Leeds United won their fifth match in a row on Saturday as they beat Yorkshire rivals Huddersfield 2-0 at Elland Road.
The three points lifted the Whites to the top of the Championship table and, as an added bonus in the victory, Patrick Bamford managed to finally get himself on the scoresheet.
Bamford, 26, has gone seven matches without scoring for Leeds before he tapped the ball into the Huddersfield goal on Saturday.
Even though it was a simple chance to take, an out-of-form striker could have easily messed that up so that will be a huge confidence boost for Bamford and we are delighted for him.
However there is an interesting statistics about the striker that suggests Leeds have changed their style of play slightly to adapt to Bamford’s poor run of form in front of goal.
Before the win over Huddersfield, Bamford had scored in just one of his last 12 Championship appearances, which isn’t that great for a striker who leads the line for a team in the automatic promotion spots.
Out of those 12 appearances, Marcelo Bielsa’s side had won just once before the current five-match winning run, where Bamford has had fewer shots at goal.
According to stats by WhoScored, Bamford has averaged 2.6 shots per match in his last five appearances while his season-average in the Championship is 3.4 per match.
Has Bielsa instructed Bamford to change his style of play? He has been told to play a bit deeper and bring the midfielders and wingers into play more? Or have his team-mates stopped offering him as many opportunities?
While his average shots at goal are down in Leeds’ last five matches, his average number of passes per game is up.
Bamford’s completed 13.5 passes per appearance in the Championship this term but in his last five appearances, he’s completed 18.2 per game.
It seems that Bamford is definitely becoming more involved in the build-up play rather than getting himself into the box and having shots at goal.
But still, he managed to end his drought on Saturday and that might have been Bielsa’s plan all along, to make him not stress as much about scoring as he had other work to do.
In other Leeds United news, fans slammed one player despite winning 2-0 against Huddersfield.