Perry Groves told talkSPORT that Patrick Bamford’s ‘lack of pace’ and explosiveness for Leeds might just fall in his favour following his England snub.
The 14-goal Leeds man would have been hoping to be part of England’s set-up during this international break, but he wasn’t picked and Ollie Watkins was selected instead to the dismay of the Elland Road faithful.
The Aston Villa man is quicker off the ground than his Leeds counterpart, and with players at more risk of injury heading into these crucial final few months after a pretty gruesome campaign, it may just fall into Bamford’s hands, according to Groves.
The former Arsenal star is expecting more ‘muscle’ injuries from now until the end of the campaign, and given that Bamford isn’t an ‘explosive player’, Groves could see him being injury-free when the final ball is kicked, whilst a potential England squad member rival might, unfortunately, fall into the ‘muscle’ injury trap.
“He did mention, Gareth Southgate, I think in his press conference before and he mentioned the pace, didn’t he?” said Groves.
“He said Ollie Watkins has more pace than Patrick Bamford, so whatever he thinks out of possession when you are going to close people down, it’s that lack of pace that might go against Bamford.
“But with his goals, he has 14 Premier League goals this year. He has to make sure that he keeps scoring because we spoke off-air that there are going to be injuries. Muscle injuries.
“Not, with the way Bamford plays, he’s not an explosive player, is he? He’s not one who relies on his pace and his power. That might, in the end, on the injury side do him a favour.”
Perhaps Gareth Southgate should have selected both Bamford and Watkins and decided from there who he favours because there isn’t much between the two.
Both are having outstanding campaigns and if either was called up by their country, and in Watkins case he was, then it would have been deserved.
But with Watkins now a part of the England set-up, and scoring on his international debut, it does put him in the driving seat to go to this summer’s delayed Euros.
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