Leeds United 1-1 Sheffield Wednesday: The Wolf Who Cried Offside
Mirco Antenucci seemed to think the offside rule was just something that had been made up on a wind up, and didn’t apply to him.
If there’s one thing missing at Elland Road at the moment - apart from Adryan, Montegro, Del Fabro and Benedidic - it’s trust.
That was the main takeaway from last week’s discussions about who is really picking the team. Darko Milanic says it’s him, but does anyone really believe him? Darko Milanic said Neil Redfearn would be in his dugout, and that wasn’t true; plus, well it’s Massimo Cellino. You can deny it all you want…
The selection issue was compounded by the team that was named to face Sheffield Wednesday. Milanic had said Warnock was dropped in midweek partly so that Liam Cooper could provide more solidity against Reading’s widemen, but partly so that he would have fresh players for Saturday lunchtime. And he certainly did: making a rare appearance between suspensions, they don’t come much fresher at left-back than right-back Gaetano Berardi.
Berardi is another hard one to trust. The red card on his debut against Accrington was spectacular, but had been only a matter of time given the way he’d played until then; his second red card, against Huddersfield, could also be seen coming. When he started against Sheffield by steaming into late challenges in the opening ten minutes the countdown to a sending off started ticking.
To his credit Berardi left the pitch at the same time as everybody else, and with only a booking, but the sharp breaths whenever he got himself involved - or chose to fall across an attacker, arms flailing, just failing to bring him down - made audible just how little trust there was in him to do his job.
There’s a sense of that whenever Leeds United actually do play well, as they did against Sheffield Wednesday. It’s a surprise, because nobody trusts United to give them their ticket money’s worth these days. It’s with good reason: Wednesday night's game against Reading, a late flurry apart, was as dreary a 0–0 as you could ever wish you’d avoided.
Surprises are pleasant, though, and this one was. The lackadaisical diamond still denied us width, but the latest incarnation, with Austin replacing Cook, was more fluid, precise and dynamic than it had been against Reading. Until the ball reached Casper Sloth, at least, but that might be something the head coach can hope to crack and then claim as a victory: how to get all four central midfielders to play well at once.
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