Have you got Carabao Cup fever?
Or at the very least have you got a mild headache over it? Well hopefully you should, because Leeds kick off their campaign tonight against National League side Salford City. Judging by how things went down when the balls came out of the hat, we could be in for one feisty night at the Peninsular Stadium.
In the past, and judging by Birmingham City’s lack of regulars last week against Portsmouth, it’s still the case, the League Cup is seen as an opportunity to rest players. However, you don’t want to find yourself with another result like Hitchin on your hands, so Marcelo Bielsa will have to tread a fine line with who he picks to play tonight, hinting in his press conference yesterday that there would be changes.
Judging by their reaction to Adam Pope’s tweet on the weekend, it seems very clear that Leeds fans think that new signing Eddie Nketiah should be part of the team tonight.
Whilst I have been critical about the signing of Nketiah in the past, partly because I didn’t see his goal record at youth level translating into decent haul across a full Championship season, I must say that I do agree with Leeds fans on this occasion.
This is exactly the kind of fixture that Nketiah was brought in for, to give leading forward Patrick Bamford a bit of rest during the season and keep him fresh for the business end of the season. Whilst I don’t think he is quite up to it at Championship level, against a recently promoted League Two side, I would expect him to be able to put in a performance. He’s shown he can play and score against lower league sides when he played in the EFL Cup and EFL Trophy, so hopefully he can carry that on against Salford.
Maybe I’m wrong about Eddie Nketiah, I’m wrong about a few things when it comes to Leeds United, but the sooner he gets some game time under his belt with Bielsa, the sooner we’ll be able to tell if he fits the system and if he’ll be some use to us this season.