When Football Insider spoke to Danny Mills, he suggested that should Patrick Bamford be sidelined, then Leeds United could look towards other options: “You’ve got Helder Costa, he can play up there. Jack Clarke could come in and play in one of the wide areas.”
However, one man that he appeared to exclude in his thoughts was Jack Harrison, an individual who could take up the striking responsibility, should Bamford be injured or suspended.
Harrison, who is valued at £3.6 million (as per Transfermarkt), offers much more for the team going forward, with the Englishman already scoring two times and getting four assists, whereas Helder Costa has just one assist in 15 Championship matches and zero goals.
Unlike the Portuguese winger, the 22-year-old has played as a centre-forward this season, as he played alongside Bamford in a 3-0 win over Stoke City on 24th August 2019. The outing proved to be quite successful, with Harrison managing to achieve a WhoScored rating of 7.6/10. The Englishman was also very capable of creating dangerous opportunities, successfully completing six dribbles, which were twice as many as any other player in the match.
Mills also said: “They’ve got options and we’ve seen before how Bielsa mixes and matches what he does. Yes, of course, he’ll want Bamford fit but you’ve got the international break coming up, so it’ll probably only be one game, with Nketiah hopefully back after the break anyhow.
“It’s not a huge concern but if Bamford was to be unfit or unavailable for any reason, Leeds will work around it.”
This is something that isn’t necessarily hard to agree with. Whether Marcelo Bielsa went with Harrison, Costa or even Tyler Roberts, at least he has that choice. Obviously, if Eddie Nketiah was fit to play you would choose him over all the player’s that have been mentioned, with the 20-year-old not getting a single start, yet still managing to score three times so far this Championship season.
Maybe Costa being a more household name is why Mills went with him, however Harrison looks to be the far better alternative, should Bamford be unavailable to play for any reason.