Wolves 18 months on

October 2013 i attended a game between Wolves and Sheff United in League One. The home side were struggling for form, couldnt win at home and new manager Jackett was under the cosh. On the bench were seasoned pros like Kevin Doyle and Ebanks-Blake. On the pitch a bunch of unknowns getting the run around by the away side who at the time were near the foot of the league under David Weir. The atmosphere was awful. The crowd moaning at every wrong pass and players were playing with no confidence whatsoever. It was dire!!

Today it was interesting to see the difference. A rocking home crowd cheering on players with athleticism, pace and skill. A well-loved manager and a team that looked exactly that - a team! Without two ridiculous pieces of utter madness Wolves would have a got a deserved 4-1 victory. Men against boys at times. Kenny Jackett has had to lose all the big earners that came down from the Premiership to CC to League One and replaced them with nobodies, yet got them promoted once and possibly twice. When you see the difference you wonder how Leeds have made progression so difficult to make.

So on to the Leeds performance today. Rubbish. Simply rubbish. For 60 minutes they struggled to string two passes together and mustered only 2 shots all game.

Silvestri - 4 - Beaten at the near post, flapped at a high ball. One great take when he had to leap forwards but you cannot make a basic mistake as a goalkeeper at this level.

Wootton - 4 - Struggled against Sako all day and was not helped by his early yellow card. Distribution shocking again. Simply not a full-back. Offers nothing going forwards.

Barardi - 1 - Shocking. Backed off at every chance until in his own box and then unable to make a tackle. At fault twice for the first goal, and was terrible in the first half. Improved after the break and make one good tackle tracking back but at fault for the winning goal and so his score of 2 was halved at the death.

Bamba - 2 - Played them onside for both 2nd and 3rd goals. Made lots of errors with clearances, poor control and made the easiest of defensive duties often look hard.

Cooper - 2 - Clumsy throughout. Some shocking clearances, air kicks and every header he does win goes straight to the opposition.

Murphy - 5 - Made a decent number of tackles but his passing was slow and decision making often poor. The ridicukous shot at the end summed up his day.

Mowatt - 6 - A great goal gets him the best Leeds player award but he wasnt great overall lets face it.

Phillips - 4 - Lacked conviction. Knocked off the ball. Seemed too happy to play the easy ball than try anything different lost the ball in posession a lot. Not the greatest Leeds debut.

Taylor - 4 - In the right place for the goal but a gift. Simply not a wide attacking player and feel sorry for him in this role. Does not have the skill nor pace to beat a player. Wasted in this position.

Byram - 5 - Again feel sorry for him. He is not a wide attacking player - he is a full-back. Retained the ball better than most.

Antenucci - 4 - Poor first touch at times and some of his balls were not quite to feet slowing down attacks. Never did anything different than just passing the ball on and for the lone striker you need a little more than this.

If ever there was a game to show why pacy wide attacking players win you games then this is it. We see time and time again sides creating chance after chance against us whilst we struggle to break sides down at the other end. Still amazing that we have not owned a single winger bar Ryan Hall in the past three seasons now??