With the Whites still lacking players in several key positions and expected to strengthen further before the transfer window closes, expectations were tempered by a feeling the squad is unfinished and not fully prepared as Leeds started their 2014/15 campaign at Millwall.

The team was essentially a mix of new recruits who’ve had little time to find their feet and no experience in Championship football alongside the remnants of last season’s squad, many of whom you feel are serving as placeholders ’til Massimo brings in their replacements and sadly, the performance and result reflected that. It won’t be acceptable to most Leeds United fans that we’re not better prepared at this stage, but it’ll be interesting to see how quickly our starting XI changes and how many of the players lining up for Millwall are still featuring in our starting line-up in May.

That’s the predicament Leeds United are currently in. Massimo Cellino’s ownership may bring a bit of stability to a club who’ve long since forgotten what that looks like, but there’s going to be a necessary transitional period first and that won’t aid our quest for a decent finish to the campaign.

In the meantime there’s plenty to work on, not least of which is the all round level of performance. This looked more like a Leeds United side heading towards the end of the season with nothing left to play for than one who are starting afresh and want to impress the hierarchy in hope that they won’t be replaced before the transfer window closes.

Naturally, our defence remains useless and a major point of concern making the collapse of Frederik Sorensen’s proposed loan deal even more disappointing, but it’s not just the defence where Leeds were found wanting. The midfield still longs for creativity, the lack of natural wide players severely limits our game and we have no one up front who I can see hitting the 20 goal mark, never mind replace the 30 goals Ross McCormack scored – not that we created enough chances for anyone to demonstrate otherwise.

It’s difficult to attribute blame and put the poor performance on any one factor. Some will argue that David Hockaday is the problem, others will blame Cellino for failing to plug the right holes with round pegs quickly enough, and of course, the players too can be held accountable. But until things settle down, the new players find their feet in this division and we finish our recruitment drive, we’re still a work in progress and that means we’re basically starting the season with a handicap.

All of this means that in the short-term, a few poor performances and bad results are to be expected and Hockaday can be afforded a bit of breathing space before we start an onslaught of criticism. But such patience comes with its own cost. However willing we may be to accept the consequences of this transitional process, we’re still going to expect improvements with each passing game.

If there was one positive here it’d be Silvestri who looks to be a very athletic goalkeeper (which is a more noticeable trait after watching Paddy Kenny for so long), he seemed eager to get involved and made a couple of good saves. While he did concede twice and this won’t have been the début of his dreams, the first goal conceded was a result of careless defending which left him with no chance and the second came from a penalty.

Ajose and Duokara – the new forwards – didn’t get the chances to make an impact on the scoreline owing to the total lack of service and Millwall’s dominance of the game. We did see youngster Lewis Cook though he too had little chance to make a positive impact and will want to forget this one quickly having conceded the penalty that led to Millwall’s second.

Overall, a disappointing but not unexpected result. Huge amounts of work still to be done and a vast improvement needed quickly if Leeds are to stand any chance this season.

On and on…