Michael Dalo and James Fuoco of the Mostly Soccer podcast recently joined the panel on All Leeds TV to conduct a review of the Premier League season so far.
During the show, when discussing Leeds United’s campaign so far, the subject of Marcelo Bielsa’s centre-forward Patrick Bamford came up. The 27-year-old signed for the Yorkshire-based club in July 2018 from Middlesbrough for a fee of £7.11m (as per Transfermarkt).
The Whites currently sit in 15th place in the division after back-to-back defeats versus Leicester City and Crystal Palace but despite that, Dalo described the individual performances of the striker as “phenomenal”.
Here is what he had to say in full regarding Patrick Bamford’s start to life back in the Premier League:
“Patrick Bamford – he has been phenomenal, but he has a bit of [Alexandre] Lacazette in him.
“I think he has the capacity to score a ton of goals like he already has – but he has a bit of Lacazette in him [because] he doesn’t take all of his chances.
“I feel like some of the easy [chances], he wasn’t scoring.”
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TIF Thoughts on Michael Dalo’s comments regarding Patrick Bamford…
In eight appearances in the top flight this season, Bamford has already netted seven times and provided his teammates with two assists (as per Transfermarkt).
According to WhoScored, his displays have earned him an average performance rating of 7.28/10 – which suggests he has performed to an impressive standard.
However, despite the praise sent his way by the podcaster, it’s clear he still feels he could score more.
Contrary to what Dalo has had to say, though, Patrick Bamford’s expected goals rating this season is 5.37, so, to have scored seven goals, in our view, suggests the player has been more prolific in front of goal than perhaps he gets the credit for.