Former Leeds United striker Jermaine Beckford is banking on Marcelo Bielsa knowing something about Jean-Kevin Augustin that he does not.

Augustin made the switch to England from Germany in January, after a loan deal was agreed between RB Leipzig and Leeds for the 22-year-old until the end of the season, with an obligation to buy set at in excess of £15m.  

 



The former Paris Saint-Germain striker though struggled to get up to match fit speed in Bielsa's system and then picked up an injury; he has been working to regain fitness over the recent period of individual training.

Beckford admits that when he saw Augustin in action he found him to be a surprising addition, not least because he did not match the body shape that Bielsa likes from his players. And Beckford is hoping that Bielsa knows something he does not, as he looks for Augustin to come good next season.
 


Beckford told the Yorkshire Evening Post: “I’ll be honest, when he first came in, in my opinion, he looked quite heavy set.



“He was quite a surprising acquisition because he doesn’t really fit in with the Leeds United body shape under Marcelo Bielsa. I was quite surprised by that.

“But maybe he is one for next season and Bielsa knows something that we all don’t know.
 

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“Maybe he has seen something in the 1089 billion minutes that he has seen him train and play in and what not.

“He does a lot of research into every player and every team that he plays against so it’s not just a signing that is on a whim so I would like to see when Augustin is fit, really fighting fit, and see what he offers.

“You can tell he puts his body about but he has not really had many minutes or much game time so it’s quite difficult to judge him right now.”

Augustin could be up to Bielsa's preferred fitness level by the time the Championship season restarts, but the jury is out on whether the Argentine will pick him ahead of Patrick Bamford.