Sheffield United might have gone out of the FA Cup at the weekend to League One Mansfield but the news of Patrick Bamford’s contract extension should outweigh any disappointment.<\/b><\/p>\n
The 32-year-old striker has shown he still has plenty left in the tank and the stats back that up.<\/p>\n
He’s scored five goals in 10 league appearances (six starts) and he bagged another in the cup on Sunday. His goals scored per 90 minutes is 0.93 \u2013 nobody has a higher mark in the Championship currently.<\/p>\n
This has clearly impacted United’s overall scoring rate. The Blades are the top scorers in the second tier over the past eight games with 19 goals. <\/p>\n
No team has accrued more points than United in the past 10 games either and they’ve claimed a 70% share of total xG. This has enabled United to jump to fourth in the league for xG.<\/p>\n
Manager Chris Wilder made a point of highlighting the need for a number nine upon his arrival. With Bamford secured, the results are evident.<\/p>\n
There are still improvements to be made defensively. Only three teams have conceded more, with United having played a game fewer than most. Yet as an attacking force, the Blades are now a different animal.<\/p>\n
It’s another example of Wilder’s ability to create an environment for individuals to excel. David McGoldrick is the best of numerous previous examples. And Bamford is the latest. The boss has a keen eye for an opportunity then making the most of it.<\/p>\n
Having waited patiently for the right opportunity this season after a barren spell in front of goal to end his time at Leeds, the one-cap England international has now returned to the form that helped the Whites to promotion in the past.<\/p>\n
You could argue there might not be a more impactful Championship addition during this January transfer window.<\/p>\n
There’s still work to be done and further deals to be completed by the Blades. With Bamford leading the line though, there’s evidence United can continue to move up the table.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sheffield United might have gone out of the FA Cup at the weekend to League One Mansfield but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":694338,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8817],"tags":[748,393,4884,1620,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-694337","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sheffield","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-sheffield","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115890865040310925","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=694337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/694338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=694337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=694337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=694337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}