Leeds United fans have taken to Twitter to slam Patrick Bamford after his display in the 1-0 defeat to Swansea City.
A late, late Wayne Routledge goal snatched a win for the visitors despite the hosts having 21 efforts to City’s seven.
And despite going into the match on a hot streak of form, 25-year-old Bamford started the game slowly and missed a couple of decent chances partway through the first half, including a pair of gilt-edged headed opportunities, that would eventually prove decisive.
Even though Bamford has been eye-catching so far this term, notching four times in five Championship appearances before the Swansea match, there had been some questions over when on-loan Arsenal striker Eddie Nketiah would get his chance in a Championship starting lineup after another goalscoring turn in midweek against Stoke City.
But Marcelo Bielsa kept the faith with Bamford, and many fans will have been wishing he hadn’t.
Here are some of the best tweets from United fans:
Does Bamford have any goal awareness whatsoever? He looks petrified
— Joe Wood (@Joe17Wood) August 31, 2019
That was a sitter Bamford #lufc
— Jonathan Routledge (@jonnyroutledge5) August 31, 2019
https://twitter.com/ThommHol/status/1167804106980954115?s=20
To be fair to Bamford, this is pretty much the first time that he has fluffed his lines for Bielsa’s side.
Four goals in five league matches is impressive enough, but the fact that he has done so at a rate of 3.6 shots per game shows just how lethal he has already been this season, as per Whoscored.
Everybody has bad days at the office, and it’s important that supporters don’t get on the striker’s back too quickly.
Very poor header by Bamford that. Goal there to be taken. Cmon head up!
— KaiserChief82 (@KaiserChief82) August 31, 2019
Bamford is god awful at finishing. Jesus
— kris (@edge_lufc) August 31, 2019
The other thing to remember is that this Championship season is a long old slog, and there will naturally be times when Bamford drops in and out of form.
That is where Nketiah will come to the fore.
He may have only played 29 minutes in the Championship so far, but the youngster is already averaging one shot on goal, 0.5 successful dribbles, and 0.5 key passes per game, as per Whoscored.
Given a chance, you would expect him to massively increase those numbers, and when he does, it will really take the pressure off of Bamford.
https://twitter.com/JoshAHobbs/status/1167807877035282432?s=20
https://twitter.com/M4rtyFunkhouser/status/1167806668450738176?s=20
Bamford’s actually incapable of scoring at home isn’t he
— Jake Mahon (@JakeMahon_) August 31, 2019
Harrison works so hard but his end product is no where near consistent enough. Bamford is just a passenger in a well oiled engine for me
— GS (@bigbadg123) August 31, 2019