How do you solve a problem like Eddie Nketiah?
There have been a few players who have earned the name of ‘super-sub’ throughout their careers, such as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and David Fairclough (kids, ask your parents), and it looks as if Leeds United have started to develop their own in Eddie Nketiah.
Now there have been a number of fans, and I am amongst them that think that Nketiah should be given a little bit more game time, and possibly even starting games instead of Patrick Bamford.
Now my argument was that it was imperative that Nketiah be given more minutes because it would take a load off Bamford’s shoulders and mean that the burden of scoring goals isn’t just falling on him. Similar to how he had Kemar Roofe last year to share the responsibility with, we could use Nketiah in the same fashion.
However, a thought came to me in the aftermath of the Barnsley game, that got me thinking again about how we use the Arsenal loanee going forward. To use a cricket analogy, because after the summer we’ve just had it seems appropriate, Patrick Bamford is a little bit like our opening batsman. He takes the sting out of the attack and then Eddie gets the chance to blast his way through a tired opposition.
Does this mean that it should be the method going forward? Not necessarily. I did write yesterday that I think the way in which Leeds are playing is taking us down a potentially dangerous path that could end up costing us promotion, and that we can’t always rely on Nketiah coming off the bench to save the day. That’s not to say though that this ‘super-sub’ method can’t be effective in certain games throughout the season, just that we shouldn’t be having it as our ‘Plan A’.
What do you think? Do you think that Nketiah could spend the whole season as a substitute? Or do you think that he needs to be given a lot more opportunities to start?