Kenny - Nothing to do, great pass for the goal. - 7 Byram - A couple of shaky moments but very impressive overall. - 7 Peltier - Solid, cleaned up well whenever Byram was exposed. - 7 Pearce - Same as Peltier, couple more last ditch tackles. - 7.5 White - Unremarkable, solid, lost his head a bit in the middle of the 2nd half, used his pace to ease pressure at the end. - 6.5 Green - Didn't get much time, looked lively, did better than I thought he would. - 6.5 Norris - Looked to get forward, was a nuisance whenever Wolves had the ball, didn't do much with the ball. - 6.5 Austin - Beeeeeeaaaaaaasssstttttttttttt - 8.5 MOTM Varney - Won 50/50s, not much quality on the ball, worked hard. - 7 McCormack - Our best creative outlet again, unlucky to be taken off, great cross for the goal. - 7.5 Becchio - Did what he does best, looking more like the Becchio we knew season before last. - 7.5 Subs: Diouf - Neat and tidy, kept his head down, didn't threaten goal but didn't lose possession easily, pace gone so looks to draw fouls instead. - 7 Lees - Solid, didn't do anything wrong. - 7 Team: Solid, organized, looked to break with pace, more than the sum of it's parts, still needs a couple of creative game-changers. - 8
LiD - it was not booing. Sounds like it, but it is "Diooooouf" in a really low voice. Sounds **** too. Whole place was 100% behind him, he got a round of applause when he first started warming up, and by the end of the first 10 minutes in the 2nd half he had shown he has composure and class way above anyone else. He also showed what a nice guy he was, nothing untoward at anyone, and threw his top to someone in the Kop at the end of the game. We need to sign this guy up, but not sure Bates will sanction it.
elland - just a word of warning. be very careful with this. It is no different from the guy who ran a website offering information on links accessing illegal streams See the attached from the BBC only earlier this week http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19253359
I've been on a mission for the last 3 months. Unfortunately, the mission was unsuccessful and had to be aborted. We ran out of Cucumber before the mission could be completed, and that's why bates is still in charge.
Overall, I was very very impressed. Each player may have had the occassiaonl spip-up, but that is what being a team is about, you cover each other when that happens. They did that superbly. We looked solid in defence, we looked solid in midfield, and every time we had the ball going forward, we looked like we would threaten. Especially first half. We lost a bit of the solidity when Green went off - I thought he was superb, which surprised me as I really thought he would be our weak link. But Diouf came on and showed some real quality, head and shoulders ahead of everyone else. But we lost a bit of team-solidity. We did look very tired after 75 minutes though, and that's when Wolves started coming into it. Varney had been great until then, but he made a couple of sloppy passes. Just tiredness - as the games come, we will see improvements all over. I know it is only the first game but, in my opinion, we took on a fancied team and beat them fair and square, which is much much better than the way we started last season. And given there were so many new faces, this was an awesome display. Give me a team like that ahead of a bunch of individuals who, on paper are much better, but in practice are disjointed.
We can't expect to be able to play like that every week though. We got behind them on the break but I think with the team we currently have we'd struggle to actually break down a defence.
Just to add to a rather good start to the season Norwich with a midfield of Howson, Snodgrass and Johnson are getting hammered 3 nil by Fulham.
Still worried about our lack of midfield bite and the having no play maker. But Wolves will be one of the better sides to come to ER and we certainly gave as good as we got. Hate to say it but Diouf showed a bit of much needed nous when others were just flapping and giving the ball away towards the end. BTW Paddy Kenny getting the fat bloke so incensed he got thrown out was quality.
I agree, was surprised by how good he was, despite the fact he's still clearly not a right winger, would have got a higher score from me if he'd stayed on for longer and kept that up.
Austin is the holding midfielder we have been missing. He reminds me of Batty or Vieira. He had their big guy in his pocket whole game, and was actually targeting him at times (even off the ball). Austin could be a massive hero for LUFC, or we could fail to match his ability and he will be poached by Arsenal or another top 6 Prem club.
Just missing a couple more flair players up front and we'll tear the league apart. bates needs to sign the paper so we can get those players in. Then gain, there's talks of Wright-Phillips on loan from QPR, reckon he'd do more than a job for us on the wing, always rated him
