Sky Sports pundit Jermaine Beckford has heaped praise on both Patrick Bamford and Eddie Nketiah ahead of Leeds’ clash against Derby on Saturday.
The two strikers have both scored four goals this season but Bamford is the one who has been starting for Leeds.
Nektiah has been used as an impact sub in the Championship and Beckford thinks that will carry on for the game against Derby on Saturday.
Beckford said both players provide something different and that it’s a good problem for Leeds manager Marcelo Bielsa to have.
“I’ll tell you what,” Beckford said on Football Centre (Sky Sports, Friday, 11.30am), “if I was a manager and I had these two players as my front two I’d be a very, very happy man.”
“The two are different,” he added. “In Bamford, you’ve got the best workrate of anyone in the division and he’s tiring defenders out.
“Nketiah, his sharpness, positioning and finishing, it’s up there with the best in the league.
“I don’t see how the manager can change it. You’ve got a gameplan that’s working with Bamford upfront. He’s wearing the defenders out and then you bring Nketiah in and he puts defenders on the back foot.
“His positioning and his ruthlessness, he’s exciting to watch. He’ll be chomping at the bit but maybe there are one or two things he might need to work on in his game a little bit.
“I’m pretty sure in the next few weeks to a month we may see a shift in the starting line-up.”
Whoever starts up front, Beckford thinks that Leeds will take all three points at Elland Road.
TiF Tactics – Nketiah v Bamford
If you just look at goals – and often with strikers this is solely how they’re judged – Nketiah is winning hands down. He’s taking more shots, getting more of them on target and he’s converting more than he should with 1.89 goals per 90 minutes and an xG of 1.62.
Bamford has scored four goals in the Championship and his xG suggests he should have more. Only 34.8% of his shots are on target, which he needs to address, but he loses the ball less than Nketiah.
Terrace talk
Leeds fans are completely split on the subject of which striker should start against Derby.
One fan agreed with the Beckford assessment and said that Bamford should “run them ragged” before unleashing Nketiah.
However, another said he’d start Nketiah, although he admitted Bielsa would start Bamford.
Some want the best of both worlds, with both strikers starting, but we can’t see Bielsa changing his system and we can’t see Nketiah or Bamford starting out wide with Jack Harrison and Helder Costa both fit.
https://twitter.com/StizLUFC/status/1174658041142272000
https://twitter.com/Daithionaroll/status/1174991962577035264
Bielsa might play Bamford and Nketiah at the same time #LUFC
— Simon Bullough (@SimonBullough) September 20, 2019
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