Patrick Bamford for England? Leeds United boss Marcelo Bielsa gives this advice for comparing strikers

The Argentine’s time with Leeds United has given Southgate a very good option for the defensive midfield role, in Kalvin Phillips.

Before Bielsa, Phillips was a promising player but not the defensive destroyer who dominated the Championship last season en route to Premier League and international involvement.

Phillips has been moulded into something Bielsa needed at Leeds and something Southgate may well need come the Euros.

And when the Three Lions manager is sitting in front of a whiteboard and putting together his squad for this summer’s tournament, he’ll have Bielsa to thank for another potential option, in attack.

You can argue from now until June about the legitimacy of Patrick Bamford’s claim to an England shirt but you cannot deny that he has become a legitimate option for Southgate’s consideration.

His 11 Premier League goals say it all about the way in which he has adapted to the top flight since Leeds’ promotion.

For a player whose wastefulness was a genuine cause for concern for many Whites as they nervously eyed the Championship table, the 2020/21 season has been nothing short of phenomenal.

The expectation from some was that when Leeds signed Spain’s number nine, Bamford would find himself replaced up front. Instead, Rodrigo is playing the number 10 role and Bamford’s place in the team has never looked safer.

It’s not just the number of goals he has scored for the newly promoted side that should be taken into account, but the quality and difficulty of a good number of his strikes.

Bielsa must be sick to his back teeth of being asked about Bamford’s suitability for England - it’s a question he refuses to answer as a former national team coach who did not appreciate club managers making suggestions for his squads. His stock response must be something else for which Southgate is grateful, because Bielsa has not added any extra difficulty or noise to what is already a difficult task.

There are a lot of players vying to provide England with competition for Harry Kane. Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Marcus Rashford, Danny Ings, Callum Wilson, Mason Greenwood, Tammy Abraham and maybe even Jamie Vardy, if he could be persuaded, will all be in Southgate’s thinking.

Bielsa would not be drawn into a comparison of Bamford and any other Premier League striker, after his number nine’s goal and two assists against Leicester City on Sunday, but he urged anyone analysing goalscorers to study the manner in which they find the net.

“I’m not in a position to make comparisons,” he said.

“The one I know well is Patrick.

“My job is to know how good he is. There will be other people who are more capable to make [comparisons] - the press, the manager of the national team - but what I can say is that it is important to look at the type of goals the strikers are scoring.

“All goals are important and valuable but not all the goals are the same. Don’t define those who score them in the same way.

“There are strikers who score or shoot in attacks that are finalized where the construction of the attack was a lot more difficult, those players who score from rebounds and pick up loose balls, situations which don’t require a lot of action.

“But there are other types of action where a goalscorer needs more about them or a goal won’t be produced.

“Bamford has scored many goals which are difficult to score.”

Bamford’s goals suggest he has plenty about him - the strike from outside the box at Aston Villa, that top-corner rocket from an acute angle at Leicester, the poacher’s finish at Liverpool and the header against Sheffield United when he ghosted between two defenders were all impressive efforts.

He is, of course, more than that to Leeds.

His work-rate isn’t just admirable, it’s necessary to ensure the success of Bielsa’s high press and the quick, flowing build-up of attacks.

“There are many players who just link themselves with the game when there is an opportunity to score,” said Bielsa.

“That’s to say that their sole involvement is trying to finalize the attack, so they put their sole focus and energy on receiving the final pass, what they add to the attack is to only finalise it.

“Patrick is a player who works a lot. He participates when a shot on goal can be produced, he’s a very hardworking striker as well to win the ball back and press high.

“I’m simply making a description, any player who scores many goals is very good.

“The way Bamford scores his goals is more difficult to do.”

Everything he has to do, he is capable of doing well. Natural attributes and a desire to work hard play a part, but so too does the influence of his head coach.

In this form, in this team, he could quite easily score 20 goals this season. He could do that and still not break into the England set-up. But with every shot that hits the net, Bamford, like Phillips a product of Bielsa’s coaching, is giving Southgate more and more to think about.

And if he needs a right-back, Bielsa’s made one of those too.