Patrick Bamford: From The Championship To One Of Europe’s Elite Strikers?

Upon Leeds United’s return to the Premier League this season, Patrick Bamford has received many plaudits for both his goals and his overall role in ‘leading the line’ for Marcelo Bielsa’s side, exceeding many people’s expectations of how well he might be able to perform after promotion. While it is clear his finishing has become more clinical than last season, we wanted to gain a greater understanding of how big of an impact he has really made and whether he can realistically be considered to be among the elite strikers in European football at the moment.

While a slightly ambiguous term, for the purpose of this analysis, the category of an ‘elite’ striker in Europe is one that is consistently playing and performing well for a Champions League level side in one of big five European leagues (England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain) or someone who could realistically step up to that level, thanks to their individual performances.

While a suggestion like this could be deemed too premature, or simply an exaggeration of how good Bamford has been this season, it is important to give credit to players who have performed at an elite level over a prolonged period during a season. This is not to see whether Bamford is an elite striker already, it is simply to establish whether his performances this…