With plenty of Leeds United fans clamouring for on loan Arsenal starlet Eddie Nketiah to be given more starts in place of Patrick Bamford, manager Marcelo Bielsa addressed that particular debate as he met with the media for his pre-Sheffield Wednesday press conference.
26-year-old Bamford has received the lions share of game time so far in the 2019/20 Championship campaign, with 20-year-old Nketiah featuring more often from the bench. Following the midweek draw with Preston North End, our loanee has now scored five goals compared to Bamford’s four, but Bielsa told Leeds Live that Bamford would again be starting at the weekend.
However, when asked about Bamford’s importance to the side, Bielsa was at pains to try and not really talk about either player when it came to making a comparison, although he naturally knew the debate led to comparisons – but that simply they offered different strengths to his game plans.
“We cannot talk about Bamford when it’s necessary to talk in comparison with Nketiah. I know that it’s not your intention. But what I say about Bamford is going to be compared with what I say about Nketiah. So to talk about Patrick is more useful to describe Nketiah.”
Bielsa went on to say that without comparing the two, Nketiah’s experience comes from Arsenal and he’s used to being the focal point of the attack, whereas at Leeds, Bielsa is looking for something else at points.
“You can see clearly the performance in one team or the other team. We don’t have the players who win the match themselves. Big teams, like Arsenal, they have a lot of players that can win one match with one play. This is natural Nketiah has developed in this school. And he has all the resources, skills, to resolve the needs of scoring one goal. But we need to build the chance at goal. And we cannot build the chances if we don’t have a structure within all the players to create the chances.”
Our Argentine gaffer went on to mention a couple of recent performances and he pointed out that the Preston match suited Eddie’s strengths, but against Birmingham for example, most of his involvement came outside of the box (and with little being created for him to feed off) and he put in a poor performance.
“Bamford is missing chances and Nketiah is scoring. But there is a fact before you score a goal, you build the situation that allow the chance to score. Bamford or Nketiah – which player do you think ran more?”
The room responds Bamford to the question posed.
“No, Nketiah. You know why? Bamford ran for the needs of the team. Nketiah ran just to try and score. The metres that Bamford ran is true to the team. And to finish, Nketiah puts these metres in to finish the action. It’s natural. What I’m looking for, to achieve that Eddie feels the needs of the team and that he understands if he doesn’t put the metres in both things, he is going to have less chances to score. After saying that, I am not 100% sure what I’m saying. Football is football. We are forced to analyse. We are forced to take conclusions. But if the conclusion we take analyses where we are, football would not be the first sport in the word.”
I just love the way he loops around to admitted he’s not sure what he’s saying. In short, Bamford is a more rounded option and he’s come in for praise for his work rate and team ethic this year, Nketiah is still developing that side of his game, so his strengths do more lend himself to being the impact substitute.
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