Leeds United fan favourite Kemar Roofe has ripped into the Elland Road faithful for their treatment of Patrick Bamford.
Roofe, who joined Belgian side RSC Anderlecht for a fee believed to have been between £6.5m and £7million last summer, played 122 times for the Whites during a three-year spell that returned 33 goals and 14 assists.
The Walsall-born forward was our leading goalscorer in the Championship last season, when his haul of 15 strikes, including in the Play-Offs eclipsed Pablo Hernandez’s 12, Mateusz Klich’s 10 and Bamford’s nine.
Bamford sat out much of the 2018/19 campaign having required four months of rehabilitation after damaging a knee ligament during an Under 23s clash in September, before reaggravating the issue in training and missing a further 12 games.
But the 6ft striker has only missed the one league fixture this season, and his constant availability has seen the 26-year-old fire 13 goals in 36 second-tier games to lead the squad by seven.
Yet Roofe feels Bamford still gets a hard time from the Elland Road faithful, even though the former Middlesbrough man has the backing of Marcelo Bielsa.
“Playing as a No.9 is the hardest position on the pitch,” Roofe told The Sun. “It’s hard to get a top, top striker who can score week in, week out and when you can get one it’s expensive.
“You have to deal with so much pressure. If you don’t take those chances people say you’re not good enough or if you don’t score for a while you start to think, ‘When am I going to get another chance to score?’ and when you get that chance it might be on your mind, ‘Will I score it?’ You have to be mentally strong.
“It’s a bit unfair for him because he gets a lot of stick and sometimes he doesn’t deserve it.
“Bielsa keeps faith in him because he has that system and players that he trusts play in. For Marcelo, the most disappointing thing is not for him to not be scoring, it will be not doing the work on the pitch or getting yourself into the position to score.
“So if for example he sees a player not making a run to get on the end of a cross he will be very disappointed. If you’re in that position and miss an open goal, he won’t be happy but not as disappointed as the first scenario.”
Who would you have preffered to lead the line this term?
Roofe
Bamford
As Roofe points to, Bamford has missed more than his fair share of chances this season, which is enough to feed the hordes of angry supporters who want to see a prolific striker at Elland Road.
Data collected by WhoScored this season shows that Bamford has taken the third-most shots of any Championship player but of his 123, only 47 have been on target with 61 missing the mark.
Figures provided by Sofa Score also show Bamford as missing a division-high 25 big chances to score, which is more than double the league’s top ‘scorer Aleksandar Mitrovic. The Fulham hitman has hit 23 goals and missed 12 opportunities where there was a reasonable expectation of finding the net.
Where Roofe’s criticism of the Elland Road faithful now leaves him in the views of the fanbase remains to be seen, after many took to social media in January to ponder what could have been had he stayed for Bielsa’s second season in charge at a time Eddie Nketiah was heading back to Arsenal.
In other Leeds United news, a prominent Whites pundit has reacted to a close source revealing offers for a young Whites ace.