Leeds United journalist Conor McGilligan has given his thoughts about the club’s upcoming games following news surrounding Patrick Bamford.
Leeds were hit with a major injury blow recently as it was announced by the club that a number of first-team players will be out of their next few games with a variety of injuries – with one of them being Bamford, who according to The Telegraph, “faces at least two weeks out”.
Speaking on the One Leeds Fan Channel YouTube page, McGilligan claimed that whilst the news regarding Bamford was bad given Leeds’ schedule over the coming weeks, it might not be a total disaster in the long run.
He said: “We’re also hearing about Patrick Bamford, which is heartbreak, really, because I was so happy for him. But, the positive about Bamford is that if that is three weeks, this period of games, as I’ve said multiple times could arguably be a write-off.
“So him being fully fit for the important games is on my radar, so I’m cool with that. So him being back in three weeks is not ideal, but him being back going into games against Villa and Burnley is preferential, for me.”
TIF Thoughts on Conor McGilligan’s comments about Patrick Bamford and Leeds United…
Have Leeds become over-reliant on Bamford?
Yes
No
On paper at least, Leeds’ fixtures do look pretty daunting, as they have to face four teams inside the top seven of the league – Manchester City, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool – with three of those away from home.
So you can see where McGilligan is coming from when he describes the games as write-offs, given how badly Leeds have done to start the season, winning just three of their 15 games.
Given how far ahead Bamford is of his teammates in terms of goals, as the only one last season and the season before to reach double digits, he is their best source of goals, and you can argue that in those games against lesser opponents like Aston Villa and Burnley, he could be the difference between drawing and picking up a positive result, especially given the fact that they haven’t lost a game this season in which he has either scored or assisted a goal.
Leeds just have to hope that he’ll be back in time, because if they don’t win the games against the big teams, then it makes the pressure to get points against the others all the more important, otherwise the Whites could find themselves sliding into a relegation battle before they know it.
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