It’s fair to say that Eddie Nketiah has endeared himself to Leeds United fans in his brief time here, both on the pitch and off it.
And it’s not just at club level that he’s impressing. He managed to follow up his blistering start for Leeds United by scoring twice for the England U21s against Turkey during the international break.
However, former Leeds defender Danny Mills thinks that the Arsenal loanee’s form for both club and country could cause a bit of a problem for head coach Marcelo Bielsa. Speaking to Football Insider, Mills said that:
“I think Marcelo Bielsa will have some questions to answer when everyone comes back from the international break but that’s what you want, competition for places. Everybody wants to play, everybody wants to be in the first-team and that’s what raises the levels of everybody else’s play. There’s not an awful lot between them. At the moment, Bamford’s got the jersey, if he continues to score and play well, he’ll keep it. When Nketiah gets his chance, he’s got to take it.”
And he’s exactly right, it is great to have competition for places. However, I don’t think that Nketiah and Patrick Bamford should be fighting it out for the same place. As has been pointed out before, Leeds are currently struggling to convert their chances in front of goal, and one of the ideas that I have suggested before is playing both Nketiah and Patrick Bamford up front together.
Bamford himself has even spoken about the idea of them playing upfront together so it’s not as if he’s worried about losing some of the spotlight if the two were to form a partnership. And even other pundits have said that Nketiah needs a lot more game time in order to prove himself. So why does it have to be a fight between the two of them to get the starting spot? Wouldn’t it be better if they worked together instead and formed a partnership?
What do you think? Do you think that Nketiah should be fighting it out for the starting position with Bamford? Or do you think that they should be working together?