Patrick Bamford: On loan at Crystal Palace but can he make it at Chelsea?

Patrick Bamford

"My dream has always been to be part of this club for the long term” said Patrick Bamford, so it was easy to imagine his delight when he signed a new three-year contract extension with Chelsea. Bamford has been a Chelsea player since 2012 when he was signed from Nottingham Forest and is aiming to become one of the few players to successfully make the jump from the reserve side to the seniors at Stamford Bridge.

The striker is yet to make a first-team appearance for Chelsea and must now wait at least a year longer to do so as, immediately after putting pen to paper on his new deal, he joined Crystal Palace on a season-long loan. After previous loan spells in the Football League with MK Dons, Derby County and Middlesbrough, Palace will present the 21-year-old with the chance to prove himself at the highest level to Jose Mourinho, the Chelsea manager he is desperate to convince.

With Mourinho settling on Diego Costa, Loic Remy and Radamel Falcao as his strikers for the forthcoming season, whilst announcing there is place for Victor Moses and Bertrand Traore in his squad, it once again leaves no room for Bamford who will spend a third consecutive season away from Chelsea.

Harbouring an ambition to eventually lead the line for Chelsea, one senses that, having been finally given the chance to play top-flight football, this is a hugely pivotal year in Bamford’s progression.

Background

Raised in Nottingham, Bamford joined Nottingham Forest’s academy as an 8-year old but, guided by his life-long Forest supporting father, education was always the priority during his teenage years. Bamford would do his GCSEs and A-Levels a year early which resulted in a scholarship offer from Harvard University but the youngster duly rejected it in order to continue on his football career.

Forest offered a 16-year-old Bamford a scholarship and his father intervened to persuade the club to allow him to continue his school studies alongside of his football development. His Forest debut came as a late substitute against Cardiff on the final day of 2011 and despite following that up with another substitute appearance at Ipswich 3 days later, it was in the FA Youth Cup where his name would be forged.

Two goals were scored against Sunderland, five against Wigan in a resounding 9-1 win in which he added three assists, while another four came in a 5-1 victory over Southampton. That prolific form sparked Chelsea’s interest and five days after that Southampton win, despite playing just 12 minutes of first-team football for Forest, he was moving to Chelsea for £1.5 million.

Bamford spent last season on loan at Middlesborough and won the Championship Player of the Year award

Though his game time was restricted to the reserves, Bamford was immediately allowed to train with the seniors and 11 months later he was permitted to head out on loan to MK Dons, then of League One, to cut his teeth in a first-team environment. He quickly made an impression, creating 3 goals on his Dons debut against Colchester, convincing Dons’ boss Karl Robinson to extend his stay to the end of the season, then to secure him for another 6 months in the following campaign.

That period saw him notch 17 goals, 14 from 23 games in the league, leading Chelsea to send the striker to a club at a higher level. Going against his Nottingham upbringing, that club turned out to be Derby where Bamford netted 8 goals from 23 games, finishing the season with a total of 25 goal but tinged by the disappointment of defeat in the Championship play-off final to QPR.

He had then hoped to go back to Chelsea as a third-choice striker but the Portuguese boss brought back Didier Drogba, leaving Bamford again on the periphery. Though Middlesbrough, and Mourinho’s former mentor at Real Madrid Aitor Karanka, were entrusted to take the striker on loan for a season and although it again ended with the sour experience of a play-off final defeat, this time to Norwich, he finished as Boro’s top scorer with 19 goals in total.

At the Football League Awards, he won the Player of the Year accolade for the Championship.

Style and Strengths: What type of player are Crystal Palace getting?

Bamford’s goal record throughout the league pyramid is suggestive of a predatory instinct that he should find easy to translate into the Premier League. The striker has always possessed a confidence and single-mindedness in front of goal that enabled him to find the net at a rate of once every other game at Middlesbrough. His goal against Manchester City in the 2-0 FA Cup win in January was indicative of his burning desire, pouncing on a ball that seemed lost to force it over the line.

Contrast that with the goals Bamford scored in the respective thrashings of Ipswich and Millwall, then it portrays the striker as being able to score a wide range of goals, sprinting away from the defender to fire home in the former while being on hand to finish off a wonderful team move in the latter.

Both instances show a deadly confidence in front of goal that enable him to finish emphatically and though he saw on average 1 of his 2.6 shots per game miss the target for ‘Boro last season, his ability to pop up in areas that present chances should see him thrive on the service from Palace’s exciting and vibrant front-line that contains Yannick Bolasie, Wilfried Zaha and Jason Puncheon.

His instinct ensures that he is better off fielded as a central striker though Karanka did field him on the left of the attacking midfield and in the centre as support of a target man. His stats of 19.5 passes per game and a 71% pass completion rate, though he did create a respectable 28 chances, suggest he is far better at sniffing out chances himself rather than linking play and providing them for others.

Technically gifted and capable of beating his man with skill and pace (only 5 Middlesbrough players attempted more dribbles than his 44 last term), Bamford is much more comfortable playing on the shoulder of the defender than he is providing a target man option, despite his gangly frame standing in excess of 6 feet.

His nimble feet and speed across the ground make him a valuable counter-attacking asset which will fit into Pardew’s usual style that prioritises sitting back to soak pressure before hitting on the break with flair.

Patrick Bamford joined Crystal Palace on loan for the 2015/16 season (Image courtesy Crystal Palace)

Can he make it at Chelsea?

At Palace, Bamford will compete with Dwight Gayle, Glenn Murray, Marouane Chamakh and Frazier Campbell – all boasting good arguments for inclusion – for a place in the attack and it is perhaps that level of competition that Mourinho has identified will be good for Bamford in preparation for when he’s back at Stamford Bridge. Furthermore, his time at Palace will help the striker to properly acclimatise to life in London having only been based in the capital sporadically before now.

Now an England under-21 international who was included in Gareth Southgate’s initial 30-man squad for this summer’s European Championship before he suffered an injury, there is no doubt that his talent is appreciated widely in the English domestic game. By Mourinho too, who reportedly values the striker’s large ambition but has repeatedly shown before that reputation counts for nothing when it comes to competing for a place in his side amidst the world-class talent he has available.

There is no doubting that Bamford has the attitude and application to make it, but you get the sense his first year in the top-flight at Palace will hold huge sway in whether he can get Mourinho to value him on the pitch and to make the forward’s sizeable aim come to fruition.