All eyes will be on Leeds United’s Patrick Bamford on Saturday.
Patrick Bamford is a man under pressure at Leeds United.
The 25-year-old hasn’t scored for the Whites since August but, despite his barren spell, his all-round displays have been enough for Marcelo Bielsa to keep him in the first XI every week.
And Bamford, a £10 million signing by Leeds in the summer of 2018 [BBC Sport], has been playing well, in his defence.
But that probably won’t be enough to keep his place on a regular basis after Eddie Nketiah sent two big messages to United boss Bielsa this week.
First, Nketiah, who’s been playing second fiddle to Bamford in the Championship, scored a hat-trick on international duty for England Under-21s on Tuesday.
Afterwards, the 20-year-old hitman, on a season-long loan from Arsenal, revealed that he was unhappy over constantly being named on the bench [Sky Sports News].
This is a difficult balancing act for Bielsa. The Leeds boss can’t afford to frustrate Nketiah, not when there’s already been speculation about Bristol City going back in for him recently.
With that in mind, Saturday’s visit of Birmingham City is arguably Bamford’s biggest game of the season.
At this point it doesn’t matter one iota how he plays. It doesn’t matter how physical he is, or how many chances he sets up for his team-mates. The only thing that matters is that he finds the net.
If he fails to score, and goes seven games without a goal, then Bielsa simply has to drop him for Nketiah the following week.
The Leeds boss isn’t a man to be backed into a corner, but he needs a striker who scores goals and if Bamford can’t prove that he’s that man, Nketiah deserves his shot.
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