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Lee Hendrie names Leeds star who is letting side down, delivers promotion verdict after poor run
Former Aston Villa star Lee Hendrie has singled out Patrick Bamford for criticism and claimed that if Leeds United had a striker like Tammy Abraham they’d have gone up last season.
Abraham scored the goals that propelled Villa up the table in the second half of the season and they went on to win the play-offs.
Leeds, who had spent most of last season in the top two, ended up dropping into the play-offs where they lost to Derby.
This season has seen a similar pattern, with Leeds dominating the top two with West Brom, but struggling in front of goal.
Patrick Bamford is the club’s top scorer but has only got 12 goals, compared to Ollie Watkins and Aleksandar Mitrovic who both have 19.
Talking on The Debate on Sky Sports (Friday, 7am), Hendrie said scoring was the big issue for Leeds but felt they would still have enough to go up this season.
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“I look at it, the way Leeds play and the way Man City play,” Hendrie said. “The amount of possession stats you see Leeds having and the lack of goals.
“I go back to saying the longer teams stay in the game, the more they feel they have a chance against Leeds.
“I’ve always had a big question mark about Patrick Bamford. I feel if they had a proper goalscorer they’d have gone up last season, would go up this season.
“If they’d had a Tammy Abraham like Villa did when they went up, they’d have gone up. However, I do think they will still go up this season.”
Bamford is a brilliant player but he’s never been a prolific striker – that’s just not his game.
However, as a cog in the Bielsa system he’s brilliant and when the team clicks he looks fantastic.
When the team doesn’t click then Bamford can look awful and that’s when Leeds need an impact player off the bench.
Jean-Kevin Augustin is still an unknown quantity and it will be fascinating to see whether he can usurp Bamford and play a similar game while adding those all-important goals.
In other Leeds United news, Phil Hay makes amazing revelation about Bielsa after epic Leeds press conference