It’s going to be interesting to see how this all works out, isn’t it?
A lot of Leeds fans have been left incredibly excited by the arrival of Jean-Kevin Augustin in the past few days, but it might be a while before they get the chance to see him hitting the back of the net, especially if Patrick Bamford can keep up his form from Tuesday night.
At least that’s what noted journalist Phil Hay seems to think will be the situation. Speaking during a Q&A for The Athletic following the victory over Millwall, he was asked whether there was the possibility of playing Bamford at number ten with Augustin as the centre-forward, but he didn’t seem to so confident on that front:
“I doubt it. He did experiment with Bamford and Roofe in the same side for a very brief period last season but he doesn’t tend to go that way. Augustin can play in a more creative role though. I’m interested to see.”
It will be interesting to see though if Augustin does take up that creative role, especially because he’s not exactly natural for him to be there, having only played as an attacking midfielder once in his career.
And if Bielsa does decide to play him behind Bamford, then that means he’s going to have to drop one of the central midfielders like Pablo Hernandez or Mateusz Klich to make it happen, and given that they’ve both been prominently featured so far this season, it’s hard to envision one of them being dropped to make way.
So it looks as if we’re set for a battle up top between the two men, similar to how Bamford and Eddie Nketiah played out the early part of the season, and if Bamford goes on yet another hot streak as a result of his efforts last night, then it might be hard for Augustin to force his way into the squad.
Will Augustin be a success at Elland Road?
Yes
No
I said when Augustin was in the process of finishing his move that this could be the case, now we just have to wait and see if he can force his way into the squad, and hopefully provide more when he comes off the bench than Nketiah did.