This article is part of Football FanCast’s Opinion series, which provides analysis, insight and opinion on any issue within the beautiful game, from Paul Pogba’s haircuts to League Two relegation battles…
At least he’s working on the problem.
Which is more than you can say for Marcelo Bielsa, but that’s for another time.
Despite getting off to a blistering start this season with four goals in the first five league games, things haven’t quite gone quite right for Patrick Bamford recently.
The 26-year-old recently spoke to Yorkshire Evening Post, and judging by his comments, it looks as if he is aware of just how much he’s struggling this term and knows he can do better.
“I know in myself there has been a couple of games this year where I have not been up to par but in the majority, I have been reasonably happy with how I played and I still come away and think yeah you did all right but you have not scored.
“I think if you look at it I am probably more critical than even the fans, so I look at it and I have got four but easily I should probably have 10 goals. I am sure I will get the goals we need. It’s one of them where I will keep working on it after training and stuff and it will come.”
As we have touched on before at FootballFanCast, whilst Bamford hasn’t necessarily been among the goals in recent weeks, it doesn’t mean he isn’t contributing to play, and Leeds’ struggles aren’t just down to him.
What Bamford’s promise and words do show though, is that he desperately needs some help from his teammates.
Whilst he may be critical of himself for not finding the back of the net, it’s also worth pointing out that he only has one assist so far this year, and part of that will come down to the rest of the team not finishing the chances that he creates (one out of five so far this season).
As Experimental361’s graphic shows, Leeds should be cruising through this season but just haven’t managed to find the back of the net as much as they should have.
Wins solve all problems, and if Leeds can just find a way to keep winning, the attention won’t be on Bamford as much and he won’t feel the need to defend himself like this.