Patrick Bamford has enjoyed an excellent week. His performance against Leicester was his best of the season, and probably one of the best matches of his career – as he scored a stunning first-time effort that flew into the top corner, despite going away from goal. Not only that, but Bamford also laid on two assists, and Ian Wright has heaped enormous praise on the striker, and applauded Leeds fans for sticking by him.
Bamford, 27, has now had a hand in 17 goals in his 21 Premier League appearances this season – scoring 11 times and creating six. Three of those six assists have come into the last two games, laying on goals for Stuart Dallas and Jack Harrison at Leicester, before controlling and laying off Raphinha who passed home a lovely effort in the 2-1 loss to Everton.
His name has been thrown into the reckoning for Euro 2021. Even Gabriel Agbonlahor has told TalkSPORT that he would take Bamford to the Euros, along with Harry Kane, Dom Calvert-Lewin and Ollie Watkins – which says everything about just how good Bamford is playing at the moment. He is proving just as creative as he is lethal in front of goal.
He failed to score against Everton but never really had the chance to find a way past Robin Olsen. Wright spoke about the striker and stated that having worked with Bamford at MK Dons, he is delighted to see him showing the form he is showing – and applauded the Leeds fans for sticking by the Chelsea academy product despite missing numerous chances while in the Championship.
“His goal was so good, I was thinking ‘just hit it’ and it kept moving away from Kasper Schmeichel. It was crisp. You will get some strikers who will want to finish that themselves [third goal]. But it was so good, it killed Leicester. What I loved what he done there was that he finished the game,” Wright told his podcast, Wrighty’s House, which is found on Spotify.
“You look at what Bamford has been through, six loan moves, his upbringing, private school stuff, Palace fans complaining about the way he runs – he has been through so much. People told him he would never be a Premier League striker. But Leeds fans deserve credit for sticking by him, even when you looked at some of those games and he did miss some easy chances. The manager stuck with him, and it will be difficult to find a manager with as much faith in Bielsa. Now look, five goals off his best tally and he will probably score more. Bamford gets flowers.”
Bamford is now one of England’s most in-form strikers, behind only Harry Kane and Dom Calvert-Lewin in terms of Premier League goals scored – though Calvert-Lewin only has one assist compared to Bamford’s six. Obviously, that has seen his name thrown into the mix for Euro 2021, especially after his performance at Leicester was in front of Southgate.
But for now, Bamford needs to focus on keeping his goalscoring rate high and continuing to defy pre-season critics – which included ex-Leeds boss David O’Leary – by finding the back of the net. Bamford himself stated that in a recent podcast, he felt that if he hit double figures, he would be happy. Now, he has got to be looking at reaching 20.
