Former England striker Darren Bent has fired criticism at Leeds United boss Marco Bielsa over his use of on-loan Arsenal striker Eddie Nketiah as reported by Football Insider.
Bent believes that the use of Nketiah sparingly isn’t the right decision by Bielsa. The 20-year-old forward, who is on loan at Elland Road from Arsenal was brought on at half-time during the 1-0 win over Birmingham City on Saturday as they went in search of the winner.
Many supporters believe Nketiah deserves a chance from the start in particular considering his hatrick for the England Under 21’s in the recent round of internationals.
However, Bielsa continued with starting Bamford up front against Blues much to the annoyance of Bent who now thinks that the Gunners will seriously consider recalling the striker in January.
“He’s not doing Eddie any favours or Leeds any favour because I’m telling you if this continues in January, Arsenal will take him out of there and play him somewhere else.”
You can’t have a kid like that raring to go, we’ve just seen score a hat-trick for England’s Under 21s, playing at a really good level, getting 15 minutes there or getting 30 minutes there, it’s not going to work.”
“Arsenal will say it’s not good enough as we’ve sent him out to get minutes and he’s not getting minutes, so what is going to happen, Arsenal will take him out of Leeds and they will be left with one striker, then what do they do?”
The on-loan man has scored four goals and created one assist in ten appearances so far for the Whites but he is yet to start in the Championship this season despite Leeds having so far struggled to score goals in comparison to some of their promotion rivals.
Nketiah has recently vented his frustration over the lack of playing time he has had at Elland Road which will serve as a real concern to Bielsa and Leeds United.
