Graham Smyth, chief football writer at the Yorkshire Evening Post, has said that Arsenal loanee Eddie Nketiah is “hammering” on Marcelo Bielsa’s door as he eyes his first start in the Championship.
Patrick Bamford has been preferred in the six Championship games so far, but Nketiah has impressed with three goals in five games, one the match-winner in the league game against Brentford.
Talking on the latest episode of the Inside Elland Road podcast, Smyth said, “Eddie Nketiah is hammering on Marcelo Bielsa’s door and demanding to play because every time he does play he looks very capable of scoring.”
Fellow YEP journalist Joe Urquhart agreed saying, “Partick Bamford must be sweating, especially considering the misses against Swansea. I don’t think he played too bad but it was one of those days in the end for him.
“Pretty much everything you want from a player who comes in on loan, to show they’re ready for first-team football, he’s ticking every box at the moment. It’s great for Leeds this scenario because Bamford has to start scoring or he’ll get dropped.”
Smyth added, “Eddie Nketiah is very confident, full of self-belief but he stays on the right side of that. I liked his quote right back in his first press conference when he was asked if he could learn from Patrick Bamford and he said once they’d been working together a bit more there were things he could learn from Bamford and things Bamford could learn from him. He clearly believes in his own ability.”
TiF Tactics – Bamford v Nketiah
One the face of it, this is a good problem for Bielsa to have.
Three goals in five for Nketiah and four in seven from Bamford shows he’s got two strikers who are scoring at the moment.
Bielsa doesn’t like changing his starting XI, which makes Bamford the favourite to hold onto his starting spot for the game against Barnsley on Sunday, but Leeds blanked against Swansea last time out in their only defeat in the Championship so far. Is it Nketiah’s turn?
One of the big issues for Leeds under Bielsa has been converting chances.
Bamford has taken just over three shots on goal per 90 minutes this season, but only 31.6% of these hit the target. [WyScout]
His xG of 0.75 (actual goals of 0.66) per 90 minutes shows he’s not scoring enough of the chances that are being created for him.
Compare these stats to those of joint-top-scorer in the Championship, Aleksandar Mitrovic, who takes the same amount of shots but hits the target with 50% of them.
For Leeds this season, Nketiah has taken 3.61 shots every 90 minutes and hit the target with 40% of them. He boasts 1.08 goals per 90 minutes and has an xG of 0.83.
We think that Bielsa should be listening to the hammering on the door.