Sheffield Wednesday v Leeds United - ‘This is a strange season for us,’ says Marcelo Bielsa despite Whites being second

Bielsa has confirmed Patrick Bamford will again lead the line in today’s early kick-off at Sheffield Wednesday, despite Eddie Nketiah’s goalscoring performance from the bench at Preston North End in midweek.

The Argentinian tries to be consistent in his selections and while he feels that has been mirrored in performances, results have been harder to second-guess. Second-placed Leeds have not had back-to-back wins since August.

“This is a strange season for us, we are regular in the players we are putting on the pitch, not just the XI players but also in the level of the performance for the players who play,” commented Bielsa.

“Most of the matches we have played in similar performance without high levels but also without a low level, we are defending better this season but last season we needed between four and five chances to score one goal, in this we need more then seven.”

That has led to calls for Bielsa to drop Bamford after eight games without finding the net. Nketiah, on loan from Arsenal, is yet to start a Championship match but has scored in two League Cup starts, and his point-rescuing goal at Deepdale was his third from the bench.

“Nketiah has to play in Leeds,” said Bielsa. “We don’t have the players who win the match for themselves and big teams, Arsenal is one, they have a lot of players that can win one match for one player so it is natural that Nketiah has developed in this school and he has all the resources and skills to resolve the needs of scoring one goal, but we need to build the chances and we cannot if we don’t have an instructor to create all the chances.”