Jon Newsome has weighed in on the debate over the two Leeds United strikers.
Jon Newsome appears to have backed Marcelo Bielsa’s decision to persevere with Patrick Bamford as Leeds United’s starting striker.
Bamford has been widely criticised by many of the Leeds faithful, having failed to score in any of his last eight Championship outings, while his understudy, the on-loan Arsenal youngster Eddie Nketiah, has impressed in numerous cameos.
But at a press conference earlier on Thursday lunchtime the Whites manager, Bielsa, launched an impassioned and detailed defence of the £7 million recruit, explaining – in short – that he does more for the team than Nketiah.
And speaking on Sheffield Live TV later that day, Newsome – a First Division title winner with Leeds in 1992 – said: “Nketiah’s done well, he scored a hat-trick in the (England) Under-21s, he came on at Preston and got the equaliser.
“But I was at the Birmingham game where he (Bielsa) swapped it at half-time and I felt that once Bamford had come off they just lacked that physicality.
“Nketiah’s not the biggest – he’ll run the channel, he’s quick. But sometimes you need a little bit more than that when you’re just playing with a lone striker, as Sheffield Wednesday have found out themselves when (Steven) Fletcher has been missing.”
Newsome grew up a Sheffield Wednesday supporter and played for his boyhood heroes either side of spells at Leeds and Norwich.
But despite those strong ties to Leeds’ Yorkshire rivals – who host them at Hillsborough on Saturday lunchtime – the 49-year-old has never hidden his affection for the Whites.
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