The one-time England international striker has had his good moment for the Whites, including winning promotion to the Premier League and then scoring 17 times in his first top flight season for the club, but there has been precious little to cheer about since.
Bamford’s 2021-22 season was very much injury-hit, first suffering an ankle injury and then almost as soon as he returned to action, a hip problem picked up whilst celebrating a goal against Brentford and put him on the shelf for another three months.
His season was ended prematurely with a foot issue, which meant he played just the 10 times in all competitions, and whilst he kept himself fit for much of 2022-23, just four league goals in 28 matches was not good enough, and Leeds ended up being relegated back to the Championship after three years in the top flight.
Bamford’s start to the current campaign was delayed by another hamstring injury, but he has appeared in Leeds’ last five matches, coming off the bench in all of those.
Whilst Georginio Rutter appears to be the first-choice of Daniel Farke right now, with Joel Piroe playing off him, Bamford is the sub option – but he’s already been involved in controversy as well as a game-changing moment, too.
Against QPR, his actions led to the dismissal of Asmir Begovic late in the game, even though Bamford was not touched as the Bosnian stopper tried to win the ball.
That led to his red card being rescinded, and in his most recent outing against Stoke City, Bamford had the chance to change the game for Leeds by putting them ahead from the penalty spot on 75 minutes.
He blazed the effort over the crossbar though, and with the match poised at 0-0 at the time, Stoke went on to win 1-0 late in the day, which obviously led to furore from the United fanbase who aren’t exactly the biggest of fans of Bamford from recent times.
And his involvement since coming back from injury means two talented youngsters are not getting a sniff of action.
Who is Patrick Bamford blocking the pathway of at Leeds United?
Leeds have some talented young attacking players in their system, with the two most ready for Championship football being Joe Gelhardt and Mateo Joseph – a pair that are struggling to even make a nine-man bench at the moment.
Gelhardt already played sporadically for Leeds since his 2020 arrival from Wigan Athletic, and in the 2021-22 Premier League season he appeared 20 times with some notable contributions off the bench.
With game-time limited last season though under Jesse Marsch, Gelhardt was sent on loan to Sunderland to get some regular minutes, scoring three times and assisting a further three goals in 20 league outings, and he was the club’s only striker option for most of his stint.
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