The numbers behind Patrick Bamford’s England call-up

Patrick Bamford’s form since his promotion to the Premier League with Leeds has earned him a first England call-up.

Bamford scored 17 goals last season as Marcelo Bielsa’s side took seamlessly to the top flight and got his 2021-22 campaign up and running with a fine assist for Mateusz Klich’s goal against Everton on Saturday.

Here, the PA news agency looks at how the 27-year-old compares to the league’s leading lights since the start of last season.

Goals

Some questions over Bamford’s finishing lingered as he stepped up to the Premier League, despite a 16-goal promotion campaign, but he quickly dispelled them by scoring in Leeds’ first three games and adding a hat-trick against Aston Villa to make it six in six.

His final tally of 17 left him tied for fourth place in the Golden Boot standings with Son Heung-min, behind Son’s Tottenham team-mate Harry Kane, Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah and Manchester United star Bruno Fernandes.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin was just behind with 16 for Everton and his two in two games this season, including a penalty against Bamford’s Leeds, nudged Bamford down to third place among English players.

Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins, currently absent for club and country due to injury, scored 14 last season and his new team-mate Danny Ings has the same tally – 12 last season for Southampton and two in his first two Villa games. Manchester United duo Marcus Rashford and Mason Greenwood have 11 and nine respectively since the start of last season.

Assists

It was not just Bamford’s goals that impressed last term, and his pass for Klich last weekend continued another encouraging trend.

Seven league assists last season and one this time around leave him in the league’s top 10, and joint fifth among English players.

Kane led the league in both categories last season, adding 14 assists to his 23 goals, with Fernandes, Kevin De Bruyne, Son and Jack Grealish also registering double figures and Brighton’s Pascal Gross joining them after two in the first two games of this season.

Jamie Vardy, Rashford and Bamford’s Leeds team-mate Raphinha each had nine assists last season to top Bamford’s total of eight since Leeds’ elevation.

Kane, Grealish, Rashford and Vardy are the only English players ahead of Bamford, who ranks alongside another club-mate in Jack Harrison and Liverpool full-back Trent Alexander-Arnold.

Watkins has five while Calvert-Lewin has not provided a single assist. Raheem Sterling has 11 goals and seven assists in that time.

Shots

To score the goals, a striker must have the opportunities and only Kane, Salah and Fernandes have taken more shots than Bamford in the Premier League since the start of last season.

They were the only four players to hit three figures last season, with Bamford’s 107 a little way adrift of the other trio’s 120-plus tallies.

Kane’s solitary effort this season keeps him in front with 138 shots since the start of last term, with Salah on 136 and Fernandes 127. Bamford’s four efforts across the defeat to Manchester United and the draw with Everton take him to 111, with Liverpool’s Sadio Mane the fifth man over 100 after adding nine to his 94 from last season.