Leeds Player Ratings - Leeds 0 - 3 Wolves

“Leeds United played against Middlesbrough tonight. They were crap, got beat 3-0, and wouldn’t have scored if the match had been 20 hours long.”

That was my intro for my ratings article for the last match. Swap Middlesbrough for Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Against the best team in the league it is vital that you do the basics correctly. Leeds conceded two goals from corners, played a formation that completely played into Wolves hands leaving Lasogga on his own against 3 centre-backs, and allowed Wolves wingers and wing-backs to double up on Leeds’ full-backs.

Time now to look at each player and how they performed. As always you can tell me how wrong I am @mightywhitespod or @ThruItAllLUFC on twitter.

STARTING LINE-UP

Bailey Peacock-Farrell - Paul Heckingbottom took the chance I didn’t think he would and it was the main bright spot from a Leeds perspective. His performance was not faultless, for Wolves 3rd goal he came off his line to just outside his box but hesitated, allowing Benik Afobe to lob him. He would have been better staying on his line or flying out to the ball.

However, in the first half he made good saves to deny Ivan Cavaliero and Diogo Jota, and a terrific save to deny Leo Bonatini in a one-on-one situation. His kicking was fine and he didn’t look to be suffering from the same lack of confidence that has been so visible in Felix Wiedwald’s game. Certainly did enough in my view to keep his place in the side. Ties for Man Of The Match today. 6.5/10

Gaetano Berardi - Leeds were far better defensively down the right than they were down the left. However, Berardi still struggled with the threat caused by Jota and Barry Douglas who between them caused a lot of problems. Had one good effort from distance that just missed the target. Also injured Liam Cooper, but from the far end of the ground I didn’t really see what happened. 5/10

Pontus Jansson - Not at his best. Was beat to the header which hit the crossbar in the lead up to Wolves second goal. He passed the ball accurately when he had it but they were very simple passes. Can’t really blame one individual defender for the set-piece issues though. That is a team problem that needs fixing. 5/10

Liam Cooper - Went of injured but wasn’t having much of a game before that. Seemed to give the ball away a lot and was lucky to get away with it a couple of times. Had a scary moment where he charged forward 10 yards out of the defensive line and missed his tackle, Wolves could easily have scored through the giant hole he had left in defence. 4/10

Vernon Anita - “Toast”, as he was once referred to on this website added a lot more evidence to the argument that he is not a full-back today. He got caught ahead of the ball over and over again and Cavaliero (who admittedly is a good player) had the beating of him constantly in the first half. Gave away the corner for the second goal when he could have easily cleared it for a throw-in but sliced it out. He was not helped by having Hadi Sacko playing in front of him who did nothing to help him defensively. Did improve in the second half when Sacko went off but still wasn’t great. 4/10

Adam Forshaw - Not as good as in previous appearances. Forshaw and Phillips both struggled to exert themselves on the match and although neither were making many glaring errors, they weren’t able to drive Leeds forward or deal with Wolves threat going the other way. As usual, when Forshaw got on the ball his passing was accurate and he did well to cover for a couple of errors from Cooper and Pennington respectively which could have been worse without his intervention. 5.5/10

Kalvin Phillips - Similar to Forshaw, neither offered much going forward today but Forshaw offered slightly more defensively. Picked up a bit in the second half where he made a few more tackles and got forward a bit more. 5/10

Stuart Dallas - As always, Dallas worked hard, was more of a help to Berardi than Sacko was to Anita on the left. Had a couple of decent runs forward and made his way into the box when he could, nearly profited at the back post from a Pablo Hernandez cross in the second half. Was the closest Leeds player to the ball for Wolves first goal and didn’t win it, part of that goes on him but he seemed to be left with 2 players to mark at the back post so not all on him. 5/10

Samu Saiz - You remember when someone doesn’t want you to hang around with someone because they are a bad influence on you and make you a worse person? That’s Saiz hanging around the Leeds team today. Got dragged into being scrappy today and didn’t have his usual level of creativity, this meant he gave the ball away less than usual but that’s because he was being too safe with his passing. Still ends up with the joint 3rd highest rating for Leeds but he wasn’t himself today. 5.5/10

Hadi Sacko - I was very surprised to see Sacko get a start today. I thought I could see the logic in it, pace for the counter attack. What we got instead was an anonymous performance where he was needed defensively an awful lot and almost always failed to track his man properly. He may have pace but it is no use of he doesn’t try to beat the opposition defenders with it and he now just turns whenever he gets the ball and passes it backwards. He may have been frustrating last season but at least he had the confidence to try at that point. Subbed at half-time and deservedly so. 3.5/10

Pierre-Michel Lasogga - Didn’t have much of an effect on the game but when you are left isolated up front on your own against 3 centre-backs it is always going to be a tough day. Was dominated in the air and this was an area where he really could have done more. Hopefully we can get him some service against Reading because today all he had were a couple of very speculative efforts. 4.5/10

SUBSTITUTES

Matthew Pennington (For Cooper, 35mins) - Made a couple of mistakes to lose the ball in dangerous areas but after that he was an improvement on Cooper today. Tidy with his passing throughout the second half. Defensively had some scary moments though which need elminating. 5/10

Pablo Hernandez (For Sacko, HT) - Leeds best outfield player today. Him getting on the ball was the one thing that made Leeds look like they could threaten Wolves. Was willing to turn and run at players and try passes in behind. A fair few of his passes conceded possession but he was the one player willing to try things. Put in some good crosses that could easily have lead to something on another day. Ties with BPF for Man Of The Match. 6.5/10

Caleb Ekuban (For Lasogga, 72mins) - As isolated as Lasogga but with a bit more energy and a bit less of a goal threat. 5/10