This article is part of Football FanCast’s Opinion series, which provides analysis, insight and opinion on any issue within the beautiful game, from Paul Pogba’s haircuts to League Two relegation battles…
He just can’t seem to get out of his own way.
It’s the debate that will seemingly go on longer than the Brexit negotiations. Patrick Bamford v Eddie Nketiah, and who should lead the line.
Speaking in his press conference yesterday, Leeds head coach Marcelo Bielsa broke down exactly why he prefers to start games with Bamford rather than Nketiah, and his words didn’t paint a flattering picture on the young Arsenal loanee:
“What I’m looking to achieve is that Eddie feels the needs of the team. If he doesn’t put the metres in for both things he’s going to have less chances to score.”
This may be the cynical view of looking at the situation, but that comes across as Bielsa saying Nketiah is rather lazy and selfish. Someone who is only interested in scoring goals rather than helping out the rest of the team.
But surely, scoring goals does help out the rest of the side.
This is something that is becoming more and more prominent in the modern game too.
At Manchester City, Sergio Aguero previously didn’t do enough defensively but he has since embraced that side of his game. In other words, he wasn’t doing things aside from putting the ball in the back of the net, and that’s the situation that Nketiah finds himself in now at Elland Road.
If the 20-year-old is beating the ‘keeper and scoring, does it really matter if he doesn’t track back every once in a while?
Why being the away goalkeeper at Leeds is the toughest job in football in the video below…
Plus it’s not as if it’s all down to Bamford that Leeds have got the best defence in the division. He is averaging just 0.5 tackles per game (via WhoScored) so is he really doing as much defensive work as Bielsa claims he is? Arguably not.
As previously discussed on FFC, Bielsa has a stubborn inability to adapt his style, insisting that his methods will prevail despite the fact that Leeds are 12 points off where they should be in the league table (via Experimental361).
This is why these comments about Nketiah and his perceived lack of effort carry not just a hint of irony, but a rather large dose of it.
Whilst Bielsa talks about putting the team first in Nketiah’s style of play, perhaps it’s time that he took a leaf out of his own book and start putting the club first rather than insisting on a system which is clearly holding Leeds back.
