Patrick Bamford has thanked Marcelo Bielsa for the faith he has shown in him and vowed to repay the Leeds United head coach with more goals.
Bamford has made a flying start to the Premier League season, scoring six goals in as many matches, including a superb hat-trick in the recent 3-0 win at Aston Villa.
Only Everton’s Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Son Heung-min of Tottenham Hotspur have managed more.
Bamford had faced questions over whether he could cut it in the top flight after helping Leeds win promotion last season.
However, the former Chelsea and Nottingham Forest striker has answered his critics in emphatic style, so far, at least.
The 27-year-old paid tribute to the influence of Bielsa, telling talkSPORT: “Since he’s come in he’s put his faith in me from the beginning.
“There was tough times last season when he stuck by me because as long as I was working for the team, even if I wasn’t scoring, he still had this belief in me.
“There’s a big thing there where I feel like I need to repay him and I’ve a good start with six goals and that goes some way to repaying him.
“But you’re only as good as your last game and we have to start fresh again on Monday (against Leicester City).”
Bamford also lifted the lid on Bielsa's much-vaunted management style.
“He’s always demanding more of every one of us and pushing us to be better,” Bamford added.
"He’s not a very one-to-one hands-on coach. We have individual meetings the night before a game where we go through the previous game and he tells you what you did well, what you did badly and what he expects with the game coming tomorrow.
“That’s really the only one-to-one interaction we have, but throughout the week he is so demanding he makes sure you keep your levels high because he knows if you drop off it’s not going to be good for you or the team.”
