I’m not sure if this is setting him a target to try and hit, or just putting too much pressure on him and the team.
Whichever one it is, it will be interesting to see if he and Leeds can hit the target come the end of the season, and whether or not they’ll have reaped the rewards as a result of it.
Speaking to Football Insider, former Leeds United player Danny Mills says that he can see Patrick Bamford breaking the 20 goal barrier this season, and that doing so will set them up well to carry on their promotion push:
“Without a doubt. I said at the start of the season, he’ll be around the 15-16 mark, can he just go that little bit further? He’s had really barren spells this season but he’s still got 10 goals this season, so no reason why he can’t get to 20 by the end of the season. And if you can get another striker in who can get around the 12-15 goals or even the 8-9 mark like Che Adams, then suddenly you have a great chance of getting promoted automatically.”
The thing with what Mills is saying here, is that it puts a lot of pressure on not just him, but the rest of the team.
Say the end of the January window comes, and the club hasn’t brought in someone who can those 8-9 goals that Mills is talking about, or they do bring someone in, but once again they fall short when it comes to contributions, like Eddie Nketiah?
Then you’ve essentially put a ton of pressure on the likes of not only Bamford, but Jack Harrison, Pablo Hernandez, Helder Costa and the rest of the forwards to come up with the goods, or Leeds will be left struggling, and could end up with a repeat of last year.
Can Bamford fire Leeds to promotion on his own?
Yes
No
Let’s just hope that Bamford, this supposed new forward and the rest of the squad are up to the challenge.