Patrick Bamford has rediscovered his swagger – that is usually when the goals flow — The Athletic 9/1/24

By Phil Hay

The spontaneous reactions at London Road were what told the story.

On the pitch, the faces of numerous players were pictures of disbelief, incredulous at the goal they had just witnessed. In the seats in front of the press box, a few Peterborough United supporters succumbed to involuntary applause, for exactly the same reason.

Even Patrick Bamford, smiling and wagging a celebratory finger, looked slightly in shock.

The finish of his life, in the best week he has had for a long time; what occurred on Sunday vindicated those close to Bamford who had been reassuring him that he still had it.

Whether he would prove it in a Leeds United shirt was a matter of debate, and some of those same people wondered if a lack of starts and a lack of goals in the first half of this season would make a winter-window loan elsewhere tempting, but that possibility is suddenly less logical. Historically, this is when coaches can cash in on Bamford competitively: when the goals come in bigger bunches.

In the remainder of his career, Bamford will not match or exceed the second-half volley he scored in the FA Cup win away against Peterborough United — or not unless lightning truly strikes twice.

The technique was impeccable and the strike so clean that it made a mockery of his then employers Crystal Palace’s delay in realising many years ago that Bamford was left-footed.

There is a training video of him slogging in a brilliant volley on Marcelo Bielsa’s watch at Leeds, of the normally impervious Bielsa running to embrace a player who was returning from injury, but that one looks like a tap-in by comparison to what we saw on Sunday. Leeds manager Daniel Farke rated it as “world class”, and no one was disputing the description.

So, what next for a forward who through so many matches was a supporting cast member at Elland Road, and sometimes less than that?

Between his header against Birmingham City on New Year’s Day and his stroke of genius at Peterborough, Bamford has started to show some of the swagger which spills from him when form finds him. There are occasions, like Stoke City away in October, when his projection of self-confidence looks more like bravado but there have also been periods in the past when that self-confidence was a justified product of his performances. A look at his history shows that Bamford tends to be streaky; that without being consistently prolific, one goal leads to several in quick succession.

Which leaves Farke to decide if Bamford, in the space of seven days, has made himself impossible to drop away at Cardiff City on Saturday.

Despite the expensive signing of Joel Piroe from Swansea City in the summer, Bamford continues to look as close to an out-and-out centre-forward as anything Leeds have on their books.

Farke has preferred Georginio Rutter to Piroe at No 9, on the basis that Rutter’s superior pace and movement help to ask more questions of opposition back lines, keeping defenders moving. It was only when Bamford came into the team against Birmingham last week that Farke was happy to switch Rutter to No 10, Piroe’s regular position, and it was telling that with Bamford and Piroe on the pitch together in Peterborough, Bamford was the one used up front.

In the Birmingham game, his time on the ball (see the touch map below) gave Leeds a good presence in the box while also forcing the opposition to track him into deeper zones. As a whole, his industry made a difference.

In Bielsa’s eyes, Bamford’s style and strengths as a No 9 always mattered more than the reliability of his finishing, and criticism of his finishing only encouraged his head coach to dig his heels in and redouble his commitment to starting him.

Bamford, statistically, has never been good at scoring as many as he should for Leeds but his track record reveals a tendency to get on intermittent runs: a burst of four in four in his first season, when injury limited his starts, six in eight in the season when Leeds were promoted from the Championship, seven in eight during the 2020-21 Premier League term, on his way to 17 across the entire league campaign.

There is scope to tap into Bamford when he is running relatively hot, and Farke has already earned more from these first two starts under him than he did from any of his attempts to use the 30-year-old as an impact substitute over the previous four months.

Farke was the one person who avoided going over the top about Bamford’s swivel and volley at London Road, as all around him waxed lyrical. “He’s on the right path, that’s for sure,” Farke said. “The whole world, after this goal, will praise him. It’s a world-class goal, I have no other words for it.

“But I’m happy for him and it’s more important that he’s back to his fitness level and back to being in a good rhythm, finding his confidence. It’s important that he’s good with his pressing, that he keeps the ball, holds the ball, links the play.

“I would have taken (him scoring) a rebound from two yards today, because goals are priceless for the confidence of a striker. But to score in such a world-class way, it’s even better. The most important thing is that he’s healthy, that his body works and he’s coming back to his perfect shape.”

Maintaining Bamford’s fitness has been Leeds’ biggest challenge with him.

His two seasons at Elland Road which were not disrupted by injury, 2019-20 and 2020-21, were those in which he scored 16 and 17 league goals respectively, taking him to the high point of his sole England cap in September 2021.

Bamford gave the shirt from that friendly to Bielsa as a mark of gratitude. A short message written on it said “thanks for everything”, but from then on, the downward slope was steep and deflating, giving Bamford little to thank anyone for and Leeds little to thank him for either.

Farke sees a confidence player in him, though there are few moments recently when Bamford’s will have surged as strongly.