Leeds’ Eddie Nketiah under pressure to take Carabao Cup chance

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Eddie Nketiah has made a brilliant start to his Leeds United loan spell, and will presumably start again this week.

After Eddie Nketiah came off the bench and bagged the decisive goal in Leeds’ midweek win over Brentford, many of the Elland Road faithful were wondering whether Marcelo Bielsa may be tempted to include the Arsenal loanee from the start at Stoke City on Saturday.

Patrick Bamford did well against the Bees and Bielsa clearly prefers to remain loyal to the players who have the shirt in his side. Nevertheless, there were clearly some hoping that Nketiah would start, whether that be in place of Bamford – which would have been harsh – or alongside the striker at the bet365 Stadium.

Ultimately, Nketiah had to settle for another league appearance off the bench as Leeds produced another fine win to retain their spot at the top of the Championship. And Bamford certainly put the pressure on the summer signing heading into this week’s Carabao Cup tie with the same opposition.

Bamford scored one and set another up with a brilliant piece of vision. He is tied at the top for the Championship’s leading goalscorers, and it certainly looks as though it is now even more important that Nketiah produces the goods should he start against the Potters.

It would take something incredible from the 20-year-old to force his way above Bamford in the pecking order ahead of Leeds’ clash with Swansea City, but he still needs to look to prove another point by impressing in the same way that he did against Salford and Brentford.

Nketiah’s time as first-choice will surely come at some stage during the season regardless of how he performs against Stoke – Leeds fans know all too well how injuries can lead to drastic changes in the pecking order – but his performance leading the line this week could have an impact on how many minutes he gets in the immediate future.

If he does score against Nathan Jones’ side and Bamford endures a quiet time against Swansea, Bielsa may be inclined to throw the youngster into the game much sooner. And from there, he has an even better chance to make a statement.

No great conclusions are likely to be drawn off the back of how Leeds get on against Stoke on Tuesday, but it is still a big opportunity for Nketiah. And with Bamford silencing a lot of his critics, it is one that he could really do with taking full advantage of.