Sam Allardyce has pinpointed Patrick Bamford as someone who could play a critical role for Leeds United over the remaining four games of the Premier League season. The former England boss has work to do at Elland Road if he is to keep the Whites in the top flight and he knows he’ll need all hands on deck over the coming weeks.
However, having watched Leeds underachieve from afar this campaign, he knows he must attempt to bring the best out of key players across the park. One of those players is Bamford, who despite scoring two in his last four outings, has struggled to perform on a consistent basis all season.
The striker has only scored four Premier League goals all season, with form and fitness seeing him move in and out of the side with regularity. Allardyce, though, will be looking to Bamford to step things up and make more of an impact over the final month after singling him out in his opening press conference as head coach of the Whites.
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The 68-year-old also wants to see more from his midfield, who he believes have left the backline high and dry at times over the last month of action.
“Well, I want Patrick Bamford to be on top form,” Allardyce said when asked whether there were any players in the squad that he’d admired. “I think he’s a key player in terms of holding the ball up and us being able to get up the pitch and him scoring goals and getting him the opportunity to score goals. Hopefully he stays fit and he becomes a key player.
“Collectively, the goalie and the back four are the first priority and then the midfield players in front of them, protecting the back four as much as they can, you can’t just ask the back four to keep defending on their own which is what’s happened in the last few games and why they’ve conceded so many.”
Unfortunately, Allardyce won’t be working with a fully fit squad this week and he has spoken about a couple of issues which have cropped up.
“My first key area coming in was obviously look at previous games, but look at the injury list and hope that it’s not too big,” he added. “We have some niggles and some players missed training today and we won’t know until later on in the week. Some will make it, one or two might not.
“If you can keep the squad fully fit for this period then it gives us a better chance of survival.”
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