Something truly incredible happened on Sunday.
Hell must have frozen over or the stars perfectly aligned, but no matter what external forces may or may not have been at play, Eddie Nketiah finally got his first league start for Leeds United after arriving last summer.
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This was his chance, the striker has been itching to begin a game all season, and on one cold afternoon at St Andrew’s he was handed his opportunity to prove himself to be just as good or even better than Patrick Bamford.
However, it didn’t exactly go to plan for the 20-year-old. Despite the game having nine goals, he failed to score or assist. In fact, he failed to even have a shot on target.
That isn’t to say that he didn’t show glimpses of brilliance though.
In the build-up to Leeds’ second strike the Arsenal loanee worked incredibly hard to retain possession, winning the ball from Wes Harding before finding Alioski who, in turn, set up Helder Costa for his goal.
Nketiah deservedly received plaudits for his efforts in the lead up to that goal as Phil Hay described his piece of play as “Bamford-esque”.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t the only time the youngster channelled his inner Bamford.
Indeed, the striker went on to have a rather quiet game, and he was eventually booked for diving – something Bamford has been guilty of as he was retrospectively banned for getting Anwar El Ghazi sent off against Aston Villa last term. He was also booked in the playoff semi-final against Derby for a similar incident.
Bamford is Leeds’ starting striker for a reason, and Nketiah could learn a thing or two by watching him, but diving is one aspect of his game that the Arsenal loanee shouldn’t be looking to emulate.
In other news, Phil Hay has named three positions that Leeds are looking to strengthen in January.
