The absence of Hadi Sacko since the Newport game was very odd. Injured or just left out to try to improve his mental side of things after some very awkward and poor performances. Last night he returned to the bench and made a huge impact off it. This sort of impact is what Sacko can do in a Leeds shirt.
In terms of raw pace and skill there isn’t many players with more than Hadi Sacko at Leeds United. That has never been in question but a few other things have been. His mentality can go from hot to cold within the 90 minutes of a match on a Saturday afternoon and his actual performance on the pitch can be dramatically low at times, the Bolton appearance on the opening day followed by the Newport game are testament to that. His activity on social media clearly got to him for the Newport game and criticism from fans via the likes of Twitter seemed to get in his head, confidence all but shot.
He disappeared after the Newport game and nobody really knew why, apart from that he wasn’t right after the game. He looked like he didn’t want to be on the park that night and that was the opposite when he came off the bench last night. A lightning run and solid finish was crucial in a tight game and his work rate and confidence looked to be back in abundance. The squad is very strong at the moment and every player is fighting for his place. Hadi Sacko is well down the pecking order but last night showed us all that if he can get his head right and be moulded by Thomas Christiansen there is a player more than capable of improving this squad with his ability.