It was today revealed that Robert Snodgrass has won the Football League Fans Player of the Month Award for February. No surprise really, as he was the only Leeds United player nominated and the size of our fanbase doesn’t leave players from other clubs with much of a chance.

I do have to wonder how the Football League come up with these shortlists though? They certainly don’t ask the fans for input, because anyone who has seen Leeds United in action throughout the month will tell you that Snodgrass has been pretty hit and miss, and wouldn’t rank in the top three of our best performing players.

For any other month in the season, you could probably stick Robert Snodgrass’ name in and no one would batter a eyelid, but this has been a month where Leeds United were destroyed by Swansea, dropped four points at home to Norwich and Barnsley and drew away to Hull. We did record back-to-back wins against Coventry and Bristol, but there have been very few consistent performers throughout this month of turbulence, and Robert Snodgrass would be the first to admit he wasn’t one of them.

For me, the only player worthy of any kind of honour this month is Max Gradel. The winger has scored three in the last six games and been influential in almost every Leeds United attack this month. Even in the 3-0 demolition we suffered to Swansea, Max was the only player to finish the match with any credit as he chased down everything and was the only midfielder who offered any support to the defence.

The runners-up spot this month goes to Bradley Johnson, whose input was sorely missed as we folded to a rampant Swansea City side. I can even forgive the red card Johnson picked up against Barnsley, partly because it was soft, but mainly because he got it for throwing his weight around in midfield – however dirty that may be, it’s something we’ve desperately needed with “luxury” players like Kilkenny doing little to halt opposition attacks.

Davide Somma also deserves a mention for his equalising goals against Norwich and Hull, and winning goal against Coventry City – without those three goals, the month of February could have been much worse than it actually was – five points worse to be precise.

Player of the Month February

  1. Max Gradel
  2. Bradley Johnson
  3. Davide Somma