Tammy Abraham guided Aston Villa to promotion last season and Eddie Nketiah is hoping to do the same with Leeds United.
Darren Bent has claimed that Eddie Nketiah could leave Leeds in January because of his lack of game time but also thinks that he can follow in the footsteps of Tammy Abraham, who thrived at Aston Villa last season.
Former England international Bent thinks that Nketiah has a ‘killer instinct’ quality that some Premier League strikers don’t have in their locker, but he stated that Aston Villa promotion hero, Abraham is proof that Nketiah needs to be playing on a regular basis in order for him to prove his worth.
Nketiah recently came out and stated that he is ‘unhappy’ at his current role at Elland Road, which has seen him yet to earn a start in the Championship, as quoted by Sky Sports.
Speaking to Drive on TalkSport (16/10/2019 at 4:15 pm), Bent thinks that Nketiah may well be heading for the exit door when the transfer window re-opens as he shared what he likes about the player.
“What I like about him is that he always picks up positions on the pitch where he is going to score,” Bent told TalkSport. “And people might say ‘but he’s only scoring tap-ins’ – he always seems to find that two or three-yard space. You can’t coach that.
“I spoke about before about strikers currently playing in the Premier League not having that killer instinct. Well, this kid certainly has that. He always puts himself in positions where you are thinking ‘where is he?’ – and then he sticks the ball into the back of the net.
“Take Tammy Abraham for example, he went to Bristol City and scored 20 goals. Went to Swansea and struggled a little bit at Swansea. Goes back to Aston Villa and scores another 20+ goals. Now, it looks like he’s ready for that step up to the Premier League. With Eddie Nketiah, I believe the same thing could happen to him.
“He needs to be playing games, you look at Saido Berahino and his England U21 record, as good as anyone and he couldn’t nail it down in the league. – Arsenal are probably looking at this situation [of Nketiah not starting], we really believe in this kid but he needs to be playing games – he’s not going get the chance to [play for Arsenal] if he’s not playing games, so he may need to look in January to play somewhere else.”
In all competitions this season, Nketiah has netted on four occasions for Leeds and it is quite clear that he is eager to start some games in the Championship.
Marcelo Bielsa is a stubborn coach and he does do everything his own way, but he will be hoping that it doesn’t come back to bite him and the club in January.
At the end of the day, the ball is in Arsenal’s court and if they feel their player is not being developed enough by earning that game time then they will pull him out.
But it does need to be remembered that it is still very early in the season and a lot can change in these coming months.
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