OPINION
No Leeds United fan needs reminding of the significance of Saturday’s Championship showdown against Middlesbrough.
Last weekend’s home humbling against Norwich City has served only to magnify another top-of-the-table tussle between two of the division’s automatic promotion candidates.
One major talking point going into the Riverside clash among Whites is the make-up of an attack that has often been blunted during a run of four defeats from six matches.
Marcelo Bielsa’s team has virtually picked itself due to lack of proven and able alternatives, but the manager could now have a big decision to make about the attack spearhead.
Kemar Roofe is the 14-goal top scorer and has been one of the outstanding front men in the Championship this season, but he has scored once during the recent wretched run and looked far less convincing than he was before Christmas.
Patrick Bamford made his latest comeback against Norwich and his instant impact – a second substitute goal in his last two games – suggests his fitness worries may be behind him.
Could the £7million signing be ready, after another week of training under his belt, to spearhead the attack against his former club this weekend?
A hint has been dropped that Leeds could be thinking along those lines, as BBC Radio Leeds correspondent Adam Pope reported Bamford will join Bielsa at the club’s pre-match press conference at 1pm today (Thursday),
Marcelo Bielsa & Patrick Bamford are holding the pre Boro press conference today at 1pm. Will bring you the latest from Thorp Arch. #lufc
— Adam Pope (@apopey) February 7, 2019
Given that Bielsa has taken to naming his starting XI 48 hours before kick-off, without prompting from the media, there is surely a good chance Bamford hasn’t been instructed to join the manager unless he has a big role to play at the Riverside.
That could well mean a first league start of what has been an injury-ravaged season for the centre-forward.
It might not necessarily mean the axe for Roofe, who could be pushed out wide or into the number 10 role occupied by Tyler Roberts against Norwich last weekend.
The prospect of Bamford starting, and of him being used in harness with the former Oxford United man, is a mouthwatering one for many Leeds fans.