Leeds United narrowly defeated Reading at Elland Road on Saturday to take another step towards automatic promotion. Mark Bowen’s side proved stubborn opponents and Marcelo Bielsa’s Whites were certainly made to work for the three points with Kiko Casilla pulling off an excellent save to deny Liam Moore late on.
Despite the positive result, some Leeds United supporters have taken to social media to criticise their striker Patrick Bamford.
Bamford was once again absent from the scoresheet as he goalless streak stretched to a fifth league game, with his brace against Millwall last month marking his only goalscoring activity since mid-December.
Should Patrick Bamford be dropped?
Yes
I’ve been a Bamford supporter but………
We need ask questions today ????#lufc— Barney V2 (@barney___21) February 22, 2020
Same questions we could ask all season mate. What’s the point? He’s getting picked and he isn’t good enough. Wasn’t in August and he isn’t now but he’s all we’ve got.
— Mark Harrison (@MarkBHarrison1) February 22, 2020
Watkins smashes a half chance in the top corner,bamford looks incapable of scoring from 5 yards…..if we had watkins or mitrovic wed be 15 points clear
— Adam Barlow (@AdamPaulBarlow) February 22, 2020
bamford really is just shocking isnt he
— (@ellandread) February 22, 2020
He’s really low on confidence. And he’s not making the runs he used to. Good chance for him to get forward and look for that ball in, during the second half, and he was nowhere to be found. Slow getting up with play. He’s suffering.
— Diddlysquat (@markrikko) February 22, 2020
Mate I’ve been asking em for weeks. Never in this world is he a number 9
— topman65 (@baldyman1965) February 22, 2020
Strikers are all about confidence, his looks low. He needs a rest.
— Craig Lightowler (@CraigLights) February 23, 2020
What do we think?
In our opinion, criticism of Patrick Bamford feels somewhat harsh. He certainly isn’t as prolific in front of goal as he could be and that’s evidenced by the fact he’s scored 12 goals in 33 Championship appearances despite averaging 3.5 shots per game (via WhoScored.com).
However, based on the fact he is selected week-in week-out, we must assume he is showing Marcelo Bielsa exactly what he wants to see in training. If the club are to be promoted to the Premier League, we believe his position would be considered and the club would need to make a difficult decision regarding whether or not he would be able to cut it in the top flight.