Patrick Bamford or Eddie Nketiah is not the only issue as Leeds United lack a cutting edge

Patrick Bamford or Eddie Nketiah? It is the debate that just will not go away, but Leeds United's goalscoring problems do not begin and end with the No9.
Stuart Dallas has only scored once for Leeds United this seasonStuart Dallas has only scored once for Leeds United this season
Stuart Dallas has only scored once for Leeds United this season

For as long as Bamford struggles to find the net - he has gone eight games now without a goal - it will be an issue, particularly with Nketiah coming off the bench again to grab a crucial point at Preston North End on Tuesday.

Their manager, Marcelo Bielsa, likes to look at the bigger picture, and points to the contribution Bamford makes to Leeds's build-up play as the reason he is holding his place at centre-forward, at least for now. He ran the channels, particularly the inside-right channel, well at Deepdale and held the ball up well to bring the midfield into play. Those qualities would be easier to appreciate if someone else was providing the finishing touches which are eluding him at the moment.

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Like most managers, Bielsa believes in the collective and as a team Leeds are not punching their weight in front of goal. Of the Championship's top ten, only Nottingham Forest have scored fewer goals this season and unless Hull City can keep a clean sheet at the City Ground tonight, they will catch up with their game in hand.

Take away the two centre-forwards and the rest of Leeds's squad have eight league goals between them, none more than two.

Promotion rivals West Bromwich Albion have two midfielders - Grady Diangana and Matt Phillips - with four goals each, Eberechi Eze has six for Queens Park Rangers and Preston's Daniel Johnson seven.

It is not as if Leeds are not creating the chances. They had 22 shots on Tuesday and eight largely disappointing corners. Mateusz Klich had an effort blocked, Stuart Dallas had one saved and another - after good hold-up play by Bamford - deflected, Helder Costa volleyed over at a corner and Jack Harrison steered a cross into the side netting on the full. Ezgjan Alioski had a shot wide and another blocked.

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As Alioski himself put it: "I think we have now played 11 games of beautiful football but it's not only the football that we need to play. (The aim) is to score and we keep working on this and I hope the goals will come in the next games."

His assertion that "all we need is a little bit of luck" but when so many players are so unlucky so often, you cannot help but wonder if there is more to it than that.

The No9 shirt might appeal to the ego more than any other, but Bamford would not be the first lone centre-forward to be better at the unheralded part of his job than the glory of goal-getting. That is all well and good if others are shouldering that burden, but at the moment they are not.

There is only so much enjoyment you can take from the beauty of Leeds's football while it lacks the sting to cap it off.