On Saturday away at Middlesborough six(6) of the starting eleven were signed by the manager which is more than 50 % of the team!
Of those 6 only Butland and just about Murphy could come out of the game with any credit, of the other 4 Hunt will not score for us if he played until he is 70, Kebe and Stewart were panic buys by a regime who was rapidly losing face, adding absolutely nothing to the team, Stewart been out of his depth and the supposedly 'hard working' Kebe looks as though he couldn't care less. Wootton looked vastly off the pace and picked up an early booking which is probably likely given the fact that he's only played eleven times this season. It makes his selection questionable, especially when Marius Zaliukas was sat on the bench, who Sheffield Wednesday apart has performed well in a Leeds shirt, he might also add some calmness to a defence which was all to happy to pump the ball long.
If we are going to pump the ball long, then surely Matt Smith, a grossly underrated footballer, who could well be the perfect foil for McCormack he is more than capable of holding the ball up and feeding the options coming forward to support him as well as using his height advantage to feed off real crosses into the box instead of aimless long balls. Smith should start instead of Hunt who looks like he could play for Leeds until he was seventy without scoring. McDermott also made the change too late and whilst it is depressing to thin k that we were most effective with Smith on the pitch, it's points not prettiness which matter in this league.
Lastly we come to Rudy Austin an ever present apart from injury or suspension and Mr Consistency - consistently poor yet he is never left out or substituted you can't fault his work rate but his passing was once again atrocious.
We can but hope that the takeover is soon completed and Cellino will stick to his original thoughts and let Brian move on to some quiet backwater and take his stellar signings with him.
Reporter- Philip Hall