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Ben Parker has explained that Leeds United prospect Sam Greenwood has looked the part recently in a new midfield position, as well as explaining that he’s caught the eye in training with the first-team squad.

The 18-year-old is a highly-rated striker that has settled extremely quickly since his summer arrival from Arsenal and he’s been a regular for the Under-23s side.

He’s netted six times in eight appearances for them so far, where he’s mainly been thriving as a centre-forward.

But the English teenager has been deployed in a central midfield position for the two recent Premier League 2 fixtures against West Brom and Aston Villa.

Parker has explained he’s been told Greenwood has impressed when featuring alongside he senior group on the training ground and is intrigued to see if he develops into a new-look position.

“Basically he (Greenwood) came to the club as a number nine. A few weeks ago he played in the number eight position and he did well,” Parker told LS11.

“From what I’ve heard at the training ground, every time they do murderball they use some of the Under-23s players to go against the starting XI for a game day and he’s been playing as the number eight. So Bielsa liked him for the Under-23s in that first game as a number eight.

“Apparently been doing well a a number eight in ‘murderball’ and again he played well on Sunday as a number eight. Second game he’s played as a number eight he’s done excellently so let’s see how he develops.”

TBR’s View:

Greenwood is yet to be called up to the first-team for a match day squad, but surely he’s one of the promising stars banging on the door based off his individual performances so far this season.

He will certainly have a better chance if he shows his versatility, as first-team manager Marcelo Bielsa loves players that can fit into more than one position and it’s why Pascal Struijk has been used this season.

It’s great to hear Bielsa allows the youth team to play against the main group in the club’s famous training ground game ‘murderball’ and there is certainly a genuine path from the academy to the first-team.