Half-Term Report

The Champions' League heroes of 20 months ago are impoverished on and off the pitch. The financial buck stops with Peter Ridsdale, but Terry Venables must answer for one point from six home games. By moving Harry Kewell from the left to a free role, which exposed Ian Harte's weak defending, he unbalanced the side from the start. Marginalising David Batty and Olivier Dacourt, while fielding a weak central duo of Stephen McPhail and Eirik Bakke, was another aberration. Pluses, like Kewell's cool finishing and Alan Smith's endeavour (if only they could be combined in one player), have been outweighed by endless injuries, Mark Viduka's indolence, Lee Bowyer's languor and the lost unity and intensity of David O'Leary's first two years. Man for man, Leeds are far too good to go down, but as a team they lack the cohesion of, say, West Bromwich.