Noel Whelan raves about Patrick Bamford’s display in Leeds win

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Noel Whelan has told BBC Radio Leeds (broadcast on 2/11; 17:07) that Patrick Bamford did enough during Leeds United’s win over Queens Park Rangers to keep his place ahead of Eddie Nketiah.

Nketiah looked set to start Saturday’s clash with Mark Warburton’s men. The Arsenal loanee was impressive at Sheffield Wednesday last week, and Bamford appeared to pick up a knock in the goalless draw.

However, Leeds announced on their official website shortly before the game kicked off that Nketiah had sustained an abdominal injury. And that handed Bamford another chance to start against QPR.

Leeds won 2-0. But Bamford’s run without a goal continues. The striker did have a header ruled out for offside, but he was not able to silence all of his critics in the victory.

Nevertheless, Whelan lauded the 26-year-old’s performance and believes that he did enough with his display to ensure that Nketiah will have to wait even longer for that first league start.

“Patrick Bamford has taken his opportunity today, knowing that he wasn’t going to be starting and that could have been Eddie Nketiah’s chance. I think Eddie’s going to have to sit back on the bench again after Patrick Bamford’s performance,” he told BBC Radio Leeds.

“Even despite not scoring a goal, you see what he brings. You see the energy, you see the aggression. You see how he brings people into play. It’s hard to drop him when he’s like that. I know he’s not scoring the goals. He’s had one disallowed for offside, a great goal-saving tackle in the first-half when he’s gone round the keeper, generally he’s done everything right.”

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Bamford’s two best displays this season have arguably come during this 10-game run without a goal. He was also outstanding when Leeds beat West Brom 1-0 at Elland Road in October.

The problem Marcelo Bielsa has however, is that the midfielders are not always going to contribute goals. And it does appear that Nketiah has been a lot more ruthless in front of goal.

Bamford definitely needs to end his drought in the near future to keep the fans on side. But as Whelan notes, it is proving so difficult to criticise any other aspect of his game at the moment.