Leeds confirm Bamford deal - What the striker brings to Elland Road

Patrick Bamford to Leeds United has been a deal in the works since Wednesday, and now his £7 million move has been completed. This figure could rise to £10 million should the Whites win promotion this season. The former Chelsea hit-man joins on a four-year deal from Middlesbrough as Leeds look to have finally replaced Chris Wood as the team’s prolific 20-30 goal striker.

Bamford brings plenty of Premier League and Championship experience to Leeds. The 24 year old brings real power and aggression to the attack, and is capable of playing in-behind the striker or on either wing. Despite not being the quickest, he has still been a great threat to the opposition.

According to Transfermarkt.com, Bamford has played 72 matches on the wing, contributing 28 goals and three assists. As a striker he is recorded to have scored 43 goals in 117 appearances, plus 18 assists to round off his goals contribution as a striker to 61 goals. This works out at Bamford getting a goal or assist roughly every two appearances. Not to mention that Bamford wasn’t starting a lot last season. Both Garry Monk and Tony Pulis favoured Rudy Gestede and Britt Assombalonga over Bamford but when both were un-available, he went ona run of six goals in ten matches. Leeds fans have seen for themselves his quality and danger, having seen him score a hat-trick at the Riverside.

In terms of how he would fit into the Leeds side, he is another very creative forward, he has great spacial and positional awareness which is of course incredibly important when making the right decisions. When playing in-behind Assombalonga, he showed fantastic ball-playing ability and vision, creating plenty of chances for the striker in-front of him. Bamford has a huge leap and is best at coming into the back-post for a deep cross.

A good example is against Villa when Boro visited Birmingham, In the first half he hit the crossbar with one of these chances, while scoring the other in the second half. These crosses from the deeper wing area is where the wing-backs Douglas and Ayling can deal most damage to the opposition’s defence, playing to the strengths of Bamford and maximise his ability in the air, and we all know that both wing-backs are capable of these dangerous deliveries. This is one of the best ways that The wing-backs can cause havoc in a match, this is just one of the ways to play to Bamford’s strengths and get the very best out of him.

Photo by Stephen Pond/Getty Images

Bamford has excellent ability on the ball, a few goals last season prove that. His goal against Ipswich Town when playing as an inverted winger. He comes inside from the right and takes on the defender on the edge of the penalty area, he did a few step-overs before shifting the ball inside with his left and driving his shot low into the far corner, hitting the post on the way in.

His goals at the Stadium of Light against Sunderland were also ones to admire, showing skill, strength and wonderful finishing in a tight spot. The ball is nodded down into his feet, he holds off a defender with his back to goal before rolling the ball away from him. Another Sunderland defender tries to swoop in and take the ball but Bamford had a plan here. As the defender comes in, he roulette spins so that he is now facing the goal with two defenders in-front of him before firing a low strike into the far right corner from roughly twelve yards. His other goal in that game was also very creative and clever, receiving a through ball on his weaker right foot. With it he lifts the ball onto his left foot with John O’Shea tracking behind him, he follows the ball a few yards before rifling his left-footed volley into the net.

Bamford has a lot to offer Leeds as it was revealed earlier today that it was in fact Bielsa that wanted to make this move happen, and why not? He’s versatile, creative, powerful and seriously dangerous. Hopefully he can provide the Whites with prolific goal-scoring form this season and for the time he is at the club, and hopefully fire Leeds United to the Premier League.