All eyes will be on Leeds United’s Patrick Bamford early doors.
Tony Dorigo has suggested to The Yorkshire Evening Post that Leeds United must not depend on Patrick Bamford to score the goals early on this season.
There is added pressure on misfiring Bamford to get United off to a good start in the Championship, after it was announced last week that Kemar Roofe would miss the first month with an ankle injury.
The former Middlesbrough hitman, a £7 million signing last summer [The Daily Mail], has struggled for form and goals in pre-season and there is a significant burden on him until Roofe returns.
That being said, Dorigo has told The Yorkshire Evening Post that other attacking players need to chip in and help Bamford, particularly the wide men.
He said: “That was one of my big concerns. At one point [last season] we were creating a ridiculous amount of chances but we were in the bottom three for converting them and that doesn’t make too much sense to me.
“The wide men need to weigh in with their share of goals as well, obviously our centre-halves at set-pieces need to score, it’s a whole team thing. I’d love Bamford to get a couple early on and off he goes, but it needs to come from all round the place.”
Dorigo is spot-on here. The wide players need to pull their weight this season, particularly Jack Harrison and particularly while Roofe is absent.
The Manchester City-owned winger scored four goals in over 40 appearances across all competitions last term, which wouldn’t be a terrible return if he was setting them up for fun, but he only bagged three assists.
Bamford is too erratic to be relied on to score goals every week, meaning that his supporting cast need to give him a dig-out early doors.
Marcelo Bielsa’s side kick off their campaign with a trip to Bristol City on Sunday and Bamford, barring injury, is almost certain to lead the line.
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