SMART BAMFORD TURNS LOGIC ON ITS HEAD IN TOP FLIGHT

WE’VE heard the old adage about strikers who can score in the Championship but not the Premier League. Well, Patrick Bamford is defying that logic. Here is a centre forward who struggled in the second tier but is proving deadly in the top flight. Much was made of Leeds needing to sign a goalscorer this summer. They would struggle, we were warned, if left to rely on a player who netted only 16 times in 45 appearances for the free-scoring Championship winners. Now he is snaffling just about every chance that comes his way, with three goals in as many games in the Premier League, the latest a cute header to win this intriguing Yorkshire derby at the death. He is a clever boy, Bamford. Every interview he has ever done includes mention of his A-Levels, languages and piano-playing skills. And he had to be smart to net his winner here. An unmarked header on the fringe of the six-yard area may sound like a gimme. It was anything but, especially with goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale having proved impassable for the previous 88 minutes. Jack Harrison’s delivery needed to be headed back from whence it came to beat Ramsdale and Bamford knew it. Perhaps one of those A-Levels includes physics, for the calculation he applied in heading into the ground and back into the near corner was genius. Here is another equation to consider — perhaps, at 27, Bamford is just hitting the peak of his powers. He was certainly bright enough to identify a weakness in the home side’s depleted backline, missing the suspended John Egan and Jack O’Connell, who is out for the season with a knee injury. ‘Before the game I said to Jack Harrison, “When you get the ball, I’m going between the centre backs, so put it there and I’ll score”,’ revealed the match-winner. ‘Fair play to him for putting it on the money.’ The victory leaves Marcelo Bielsa’s new boys on six points and Chris Wilder’s Sheffield — their old Championship adversaries who mugged them to promotion in 2019 — still on zero. Bamford added: ‘We didn’t expect the Premier League to be easy. But if you can match the other teams in effort and desire then there’s more than enough quality and it gives us half a chance.’ Bielsa said the win was deserved. Wilder disagreed, making the fair observation that Leeds goalkeeper Illan Meslier was man of the match. Bamford admitted the home players were asking, ‘Who is this guy?’ Well, he is a 20-year-old Frenchman who looks a little like Real Madrid’s Thibaut Courtois. The Blades should have scored their first goal of the season when John Lundstram strode unopposed on to a Ben Osborn cross. Lundstram’s connection was true but Meslier bettered that as he extended an arm to divert clear. The half ended with another stupendous stop from

the granite wrists of Meslier, this time to keep out George Baldock’s wicked drive. Bielsa said three games was too soon to be drawing any conclusions about his side adapting to the Premier League. But Leeds can be the Sheffield United of last season: newly promoted and mounting a challenge for European football.