It’s difficult to know what is more worrying as a Wolves fan right now.
Was it BBC 5 Live’s assertion before the game that we have a total of £6 million to spend during the window?
James McCarthy opens the scoring for Wigan
Or maybe the fact that another referee gave us nothing, apart from a body check on David Jones during Wigan’s first goal?
And then there is the one about our once golden booted number 9, who is a poor shadow of Jackie Gallagher at present, let alone his once marauding self.
What about Richard Stearman continuing as right back, and Kevin Foley masquerading as a right midfielder, who surely wouldn’t have made Stearman’s petulant penalty error if he was in his proper position to begin with?
But above all this, I worry most about our keeper being man-of-the-match against a side we beat with such ease at the DW Stadium back in August.
I worry that in 4 months of football, one team has made tangible, visual progress since then, while the other looks more confused than at any other stage this season.
Whatever the short comings of referee Howard Webb, Wigan were too quick, too powerful and too good for us.
They were quick to win the physical battle, and grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck accordingly.
Rodellega threatened with every touch, crashed a 20 yarder against the post, and caused Craddock and co far more headaches than they endured the first time the two teams met.
In truth, Wigan looked like a typical Mick McCarthy team, but with a bit more flair.
They hassled and harried us all over the pitch, and broke with more pace and vision than we were capable of.
But back to Sylvan. With all that said, the game was at 0-0 when he missed a chance that he would have buried last season, in keeping with his wretched run of form. A meek, miserable, apologetic toe poke wide which summed up his God awful 90 minutes.
Half time at 0-0 still wouldn’t have been disastrous, until Stearman had a brain wave and decided to pull back James McCarthy while the ball sailed out for a goal kick.
Even Hanemann’s heroics weren’t enough to turn the game, as Mick bizarrely took off our one outlet with pace in Jarvis at half time, and replaced him with Dave Jones.
Surely SEB for Jones would have been a more savvy option, as we battled away with 10 men?
So with Stephen Ward’s selfless cover act off the pitch, N’Zogbia ripped him to shreds at will, with every attack going down our left hand side. Again.
From one of these forays, James McCarthy stuck the boot into the club he once spurned, while Howard Webb stuck the shoulder into Jones’ face, thus stopping the only Wolves player who would have cleared the danger. Nice one slap head.
Another worry from this moment was Wigan having loads more time on the ball and loads more space with 10 men, as we failed to get into them in a game that we had to win.
So we lumped the ball to Iwelumo for the remainder of the game and looked more clueless than an Australian cricket umpire with a decision to make.
It came as no surprise when N’Zogbia, easily the best player on the pitch, did what no player in a gold shirt could physically manage – run a distance with the ball at feet, at pace, to score.
Another worry was the hapless, feeble defensive effort from Mancienne in the build-up, who looked as fragile and weak as ever.
And that was that.
To complete my state of bewilderment at full time, I contemplated the big impact Ronald Zubar was making in the team before Christmas.
I wondered why Mancienne was back at centre half when he’s not bloody strong enough.
I concluded that Stephen Ward was still our best left back, despite every team attacking the vast empty spaces he always creates.
And I considered what £6 million would really buy us, if we don’t stump up the cash to pay a bigger wage.
Anyone else worried?
God awful.
No one turned up. Hahnemann, as you say, was the only one who looked up for it.
If we fail to beat West Ham or Hull, serious questions are going to have to be asked.
Completely agree with everything in this write-up Ben. Spot on for me.
I think anyone suggesting how much we have or don’t have to spend in this window is merely speculating. You’ve just got to hope that whatever amount it is, we use it to bring in the two things we desperately, desperately need, which is a forward and a right sided midfielder.
You said most of what I was going to say anyway about yesterday’s match. Stearman was an idiot and deserved to be sent off. SEB simply isn’t cutting it and that effort with the goal at his mercy was laughable.
Mancienne started off OK, but just doesn’t seem strong enough to cope at centre-back. Not bringing Berra back in was a mistake for me and like you say, where the hell is Zubar? The guy needs a run in the team either at right-back, where I thought he’s done well or even in the middle.
N’Zogbia really made us look pitiful in the second half. He was like the fucking bionic man, the way he was effortlessly cantering through our defence. If it wasn’t so depressing it would have been funny.
Quite simple really. We fielded an entire side who were playing Championship football last season and don’t forget that this time last year we were on our run of 11 games without a win. Only one action required to give us a chance of staying up. Contact Doncaster now and get permission to speak to their manager.
of course. any Wolves fan should be worried. a pitiful performance. it seems the management are quite prepared to spend the whole season knocking around in the bottom six, and soldier on with a championship-quality team. its time to cough up some real money for premiership quality. it shoudnt take the whole season to realise that much of the team can’t hack it in the premier league.
mick needs removing so that our new manager can identify and purchase reinforcements before the end of the transfer window
otherwise we are relegation certainties, especially when you consider we’ve now played all our fellow relegation candidates at home, dropping fourteen points in the process
yesterday was another shambolic performance at home against fellow relegation candidates and I lay responsibility for that with mick and mick alone
we need a change of ideas and we need it now
Agree that yesterday was awful.
Agree that we’re short on quality.
Agree that we need to pay big money to get a couple of first team players.
Agree that our manager’s tactics have been wide of the mark on more than a few occasions this year.
Disagree strongly though that we should get rid of Mick. Best manager we’ve had in the last twenty years easily.
People always think the grass will be greener by getting shot of the manager, but rarely is this the case.
And besides, there is absolutely no way that he will get the sack or walk away at this moment in time.
Disappointing to drop yet more points at home to relegation rivals. SEB really does look poor atm, but then Iwelumo doesn’t look much better. We definately need to invest in a new striker in this transfer window.
Stupid thing to do by Stearman, but i didn’t hear many complaints for him playing right back before the game. Mancienne was poor defensively. The thing i like most from him is that he bombs forward, that’s probably not the best thing from your centre back. Beaten way too easily too often. Where was Berra? Get him back.
Confused as to the decision to take Jarvis off for Jones. With ten men why take off a winger who can bomb forward on the counter attack for a central midfielder we haven’t see this season. Can’t understand that one.
Don’t understand any criticism of Henry, i thought he had a good game. Tell you who i felt most sorry for though, Marcus Hahnemann. Tried his best to keep us in the game, but was let down by the rest. I beginning to really like this american.
I don’t go along with this ‘get rid of the manager’ bull. It’s just stupid to say that every time we lose a game
Big month ahead, with games away to West Ham and Hull. Cannot afford to lose those games
I thought in the first half there were two players who stuck out, Mancienne and Milijas (and then Hahnemann’s penalty save) Ok, Mancienne mad eone mistake in the whole game but I think it was over by then. Our plan B, lump it up to Iwelumo to head it to their keeper is not good enough.
We have to beat Hull and get a draw against Liverpool I say, then we will be back up there a bit.
I reckon this should be our team though with all fit.
Hahnemann (would say Hennessey but he’s playing really well)
Foley
Mancienne
Berra
Ward
Kightly
Henry
Milijas
Jarvis
Ebanks-Blake
Doyle.
That is a good enough team for the premier league IMO
Excellent analysis – I worry we are in for some serious maulings at home against the likes of Chelsea Man U Spurs , even Liverpool. That said we have cash, and all is far from, lost if we can just get some flair / goals and nick points against Hull Burnley West Ham etc – which is quite possible.Keep the faith!
I think Wolves most successful strategy to date is scoring in the first 5 minutes. We seem to do well when we incorporate that into our game plan.
Not sure why Mick doesn’t have the boys do it more often.
Its very admirable of Mick to give the guys who got us promotion a chance, but its now more obvious then ever that a large proportion of them are not up to scratch.
We could have played 3 hours extra time and we still wouldn’t have scored!
Too much tinkering with the team, look at Blues, McCleish fields a team with as few changes as possible. McCarthy thinks he is a clever Manager, he is not. He has wasted millions ( look at the bench) and I have no confidence whatsoever in anything he does. His ramblings of humour are there to cover up his ineptness, and Morgan, if he had any sense , would get rid now.However, Morgan’s statement at the weekend is a defeatist attitude, and , is one we don;t need at Molineux.Trying to stay up with favourites in teh team doesnt work.Blake, Henry, Ward, Jarvis, all out of their depth and should be sold. Or are we keeping a hold on them for next years tilt at the play offs?
Louie – I thought Mancienne was poor yesterday, and no way would i have him in the team ahead of Craddock. Him and Berra at CB for me.
And Dazza, Ward, Jarvis and Henry have been three of our best performers this season along with Doyle so don’t know what you’re on about there
Rich… Jarvis can;t cross the ball to save his life, and Henry is the most limited, negative , one dimensional midfielder in the EPL. Granted they both doa lot of running, but, with no end product. If they are indeed 2 of our best players this season you have gone a long way to explaining why we are such a shambles. Championship players at best, out of their depth, same as Blake… That’s what I’m on about there….
Pop.
Yep agree with the above-WE WERE DIRE!!..Problem is our width-.Jarvis has not or cannot beat anyone to cross,or when he does, its over hit,mis placed..SEB has been caught out in this divison and looks a sorry state…needs a goal badly..I thought we were slow to the ball every time and lacked the hunger of Wigan..
Morgan needs to stand up now and address the fans 29,000 again!! make a statment of intent by giving the extra funds to buy QUALITY-yes we have to push the boat out and get in players like Hunt or Johnson?Did Stoke not do this last year in January-Pullis got in blokes and they pulled it off-Were bigger than Stoke?
Waiting in vain….
We are being given the 2 fingers by the board, Morgan and Moxey… Mccarthy may not be a great prem manager, but if he’s given £3.50 to build a squad we are going to witness a lot more games like Saturdays….
Keep it up WWFC… The fans will only take it for so long… and judging by how many were streaming out on Sat… its not far away.
Morgan, show your intent now or leave.
Ad: I’m singing off your hymn sheet. Yes, Mick annoys and baffles me and continues to make decisions I don’t agree with. (who’d have thought in May that come January 2010, MM would be playing Foley right midfield FFS!!!)
But in many ways, £18 million spent this season amounts to nothing when every player you buy is on peanuts. The board could make it £48 million, but if they won’t pay the wages, then what will it buy you?
I think the board think we have short memories.
They think we’ll forget about them promising us Premier League experience, not doing a WBA and arrogantly saying that wages spent equate to your final league position (Hmm, no more questions M’Lud)
We’ll forget about Morgan’s tubthumping speech on the pitch after the Doncaster game, when he promised we wouldn’t be making up the numbers.
Then we’ll forget that Scott Dann was at Compton ready to sign on the dotted line, until we heard he’d cost us £3k more a week.
And finally, we’ll forget 2003 ever happened, as we make the same short sighted mistakes as then.
Hope we remember to renew the Early Bird though. That’ll be an interesting one.
Bad times indeed – if it had been one of the top 7 dominating us like that it wouldn’t have been so bad, but Wigan are in the relegation fight, yet looked a different class. For the little service he had, it would really be handy if Ebanks-Blake could put away the chances that do fall his way – if we’re going to stay up we have to be taking them, and I fear he isn’t the forward to lead the line given his confidence problems. I’m hardly going to bet on us bringing in a replacement though, we just don’t have the funds, although it’s goals that keep you up.
Just a word on SEB.. I it was obviously a bad miss and if it had gone in would have changed the game.. but lets not kid ourselves – ONE clearcut chance in 90 mins at home to Wigan!!!! They scored 2, Rodallega, missed a one-on-one, fired another chance straight at Hahnemann and also hit the woodwork.. thats what you call chances to score!
SEB has had about 8 chances in the whole season so far and all he has to show for it is a penalty – thats not good enough, but he was getting 8 chances per home game last season, I’m not convinced he is a completely different player. Doyle is by all accounts an excellent player but even he rarely has a sniff at goal? A chance he created for himself from absolutely nothing vs City springs to mind?
The point I am trying to make, albeit in rambling fashion, is that we have bought a 6m striker and are partnering him with a guy we’d probably all have valued at 6m in the summer.. so buying Beattie, Hulse, Beckford, Nugent or anyone else and expecting the goals to flow seems far too simplistic to me.
I’ve actually got major concerns about our general ‘pattern of play’. I’m not really sure how we are going to score goals in open play??? Especially when faced with a pressing game from our opponents.
Example: Stearman plays a longball to Doyle; Doyle chest controls it brilliantly and lays it wide to Foley; Foley lays it back to Stearman; Stearman plays a longball to Doyle……. and repeat.
ie.. if your wingers can’t beat a man and your holding midfielder cant play a through ball then we are basically screwed if Milijas doesnt turn up (he didnt Saturday) and Doyle/SEB don’t make something out of nothing (SEB’s chance was from a ricochet – pure luck).
Basically, as long as we go on expecting our strikers to feed off scraps and score most of their chances we’re going to be in trouble.
Apologies to anyone who bothered to read all this – I’m all over the place at the moment! Totally gutted.
Adam. Don’t apologise for that – spot on!!! You’ve basically written a better blog in fewer words.
You say you’re not sure how we’re going to score our goals…I don’t think Mick knows either.
To me, we’re caught between two stools. We either play a big man and play an unapolagetically horrible route one game, possibly with Halford’s throws on a narrow pitch. OR
We get back to what we did last season, with two out and out wingers, players in their proper positions, and get that simplicity back. Players knew their roles back then, and the system largely worked. BUT without Kightly fit, our paper thin squad has been exposed. 4-4-2 doesn’t work without him.
It feels like we’re doing neither now. What fan in May 2009 would have dreamt that we’d be playing Foley right midfield? Seriously!!! And Stearman right back?
It’s all about the money now. What we spend now will surely dictate where we’ll be.
If we’re not going to spend the money, I would get Castillo back in, strangle the shit out of teams with 5 in midfield and hope for the best. And I’d play it at home as well.
cheers ben
foley at right-wing was a short term fix cos he is a good player.. bit disappointing he is still playing there over a month later and halfway through the transfer window really.
i’d come at it the other way regarding the team selection though and say that whats got me down today is the fact that it was pretty close to what i (and like you say probably MM too) thought was our best team. i’d been telling myself for a while that:
- get foley and ward back at full-back and we’d look a good passing team
- mancienne bringing the ball out the back would be great
- milijas has to play cos he makes things happen
- jarvis is lightning, he’ll do the business soon.
- seb and doyle are a good mid-table prem striker force.
i think people are now wondering if any of the above is true.. are we in fact going to go down cos it just never quite happened for us.. because for me the REALLY exciting part of the promotion last season was precisely the fact we had no experience.. with kennedy, blake & newton we knew they were prem rejects.. with jarvis, seb and kites i was genuinely excited about the prospect of them taking the big league by storm. if we went down now there’d be something depressingly hollow about watching jarvis skin his full-back and seb scoring 20 goals.
Ben – do you not think we have to consider the opposition has got a lot better? I mean at times last season we looked terrific. Forest, Wednesday, Burnley etc but how many of the top teams did we beat at home? Not Blues, Reading, Sheff Utd etc.
So perhaps the problem was always there, but we were the best in a shit division.
It still baffles me how poor Blues looked last season, yet now look at them! They’ve adapted brilliantly
Adam, just to echo what Ben said, excellent points. Some very interesting stuff you touch upon there.
Regarding pattern of play, you’re absolutely right, we don’t have a plan. Last season wasn’t exactly rocket-science, get two full-backs who can feed two wide men and get the ball in the box at every opportunity. I still genuinely believe that’s the best thing we can do and I hope that eventually we get Foley playing at right-back and restore two flying wingers to the side, whether that be Jarvis and Kites or otherwise.
Like Ben, I think playing a 5 in midfield and Doyle up top on his own is another idea, but we’ve come this far with 4-4-2 and I don’t see Mick changing it anytime soon.
Hi Rich. For sure, this is a damn sight tougher league. Maybe nostalgia is getting the better of me on this, but I still think that the team that spanked Forest (and countless others) in 09 would beat the team I saw on Saturday. Maybe not. It just looked more cohesive, definitely more pacey, more organised and more consistent.
Re: Blues. McCleish has enjoyed the backing of a board (even when half the board had left) in permanently signing Bowyer on big wages, and then paying the wages for Dann, Johnson, Benitez and Hart. (not to mention the transfer fees).
Had they have opted for our wage structure, maybe they’d have a more convoluted, confused squad like we have. They certainly wouldn’t be 12 unbeaten.
Problems have been there that still haven’t been resolved IMO. We leaked countless goals last season, and now have arguably a weaker back 4 in the Premier League. But I go back to the last point on that…Mick identified the problem, asked for Dann and Johnson, and the board said no!
Get in – we are being linked with James Beattie from stoke.
SEB can warm the bench for a while if we can sign a target man who can score as well!
Im gutted. Keeping hope and supporting the team but as my report often said at school ‘Must do better’. You’ve all made a lot of good comments i’ll only add – How can we play a team like fulham, get at them score and go on to win. Or make liverpool look average, or get great draw with stoke, everton etc and not take this into every game.
There are glimpses of what we need but its never for 90minutes. Sometimes not in a game at all. Disappointing on every level from player to management but the only thing that needs changing is new players. mick may be erratic at times but he can be brilliant in others *spurs game and the subs anyone?*
We just need new players with new ideas and get to the summer in 17th please!
There’s no room for sentiment in the Premier League – SEB needs to be taken out of the team soon or this season will be over! It was obvious early in the season that he is way out of his depth at this level, regardless of the lack of service. His touch has deserted him and he’s too easily knocked off the ball at this level. We are 20 odd games into this season and I’m sorry but that’s ample time for anyone to ‘adjust’. At this level you’ve either got it or you’ve not SEB hasn’t. It was obvious to Sir Alex and it now should be blatantly obvious to us all. With him playing we’re effectively playing with 10 men.
Other things that concern me – Mancienne for Berra. Why when Berra and Craddock had a good understanding after starting the majority of our games.
Foley – a right back playing midfield!! No disrespect to Foley who is a great player, but when you have spent your career defending then chances are you will be more defensive minded, this is fine in a holding role in midfield but not on the wing where you need an attack minded player – Foley as a winger makes no sense at all, especially when we have real midfielders on the bench!
This was a very winnable game, unfortunately we didn’t, c’est la vie! Liverpool are next (after Palace in the cup) and normally we should expect to lose to Liverpool, however they are awful at the moment, so if we can sneak a win against them it will make up for the Wigan game (like Spurs did for the Brum game). Keep your chins up, Burnley Pompey and Hull and odds on for the drop!
Couldn’t agree more with the pattern of play worries. But, I do think this comes down to the personnel rather than the system. We don’t have a great deal of craft in the team. Doyle feels like he has to do it all, so seldom gets in the box. Milijas obviously has ability, but to expect him and Henry to dominate a midfield when they are outnumbered in a lot of games is too much. The one thing that always strikes me when I watch Wolves, is how difficult we make the game look. It’s got to the stage now, like Adam says, that I just don’t see how we are going to create chances. When was the last time we had a bonafide one on one with the goalkeeper, coming from a striker running onto a threaded pass? I honestly think it was the first game of the season.
It’s simple. Mick needs to give the board an ultimatum, and if he doesn’t get what he NEEDS then he’s gone. The board have shown they have all the faith in the world in Mick, but without the funds, we’re buggered.
SEB is rubbish at the moment, and has been all season. After seeing his p*ss poor performance first hand, I would support dropping him but the sad reality is there is no other striker at the club good enough to replace him (even if Hof and Keogh were fit).
Need a decent striker in the window, but who doesn’t? And how are we going to land one in the position we are in? Especially as the owner wont pay the wages needed to attract players to keep us in this league. But in his words (according to WM) ‘it wont be a disaster’ if we go down!
The team seems like a bit of a shambles at the moment. Players played out of poistion (Foley), players in and out of the team seemingly on a whim (jones, Zubar et al).
The prem is a poor league this year, but we dont seem to be making the most of a great opportunity to establish ourselves for at least two seasons. From the last two games I have attended (Blues and Wigan), plus watching the rest on TV, I think we are already in real trouble.
Like Jed suggests, with the home games lost against lesser teams we now have to pull a rabbit out of the hat and get points from games against teams that are stronger on paper. A win against Liverpool and we can crawl back up the league again, but the way things are at the moment, I feel survival will depend on there being three worse teams than Wolves rather than any heroics from MM and his squad.
Hope they can prove me wrong though!
Like most of the foregoing contributors, I’m feeling very pessimestic after last Saturday…. the optimism of Christmas week has well & truly gone…. It looked like we were making real progress, especially at home, against, erm, fellow “lower” tier sides,however, that balloon has been well & truly burst by, let’s face it, a very ordinary team, who gave us by all accounts, a good hiding… Many problems & not many solutions….. Were just not making enough chances at this level, I’m afraid comparing teams in the CCC & the Prem is like comparing a Lotus & a Skoda… Full backs don’t get the same opportunities to get forward & that’s why last years tactics will not work.. I,along with everyone else was hoping SEB would kick-start his season with a few goals, it looks like it’s not gonna happen for him… What’s the alternative… Iwolemo, Hoff, Vokes… I don’t see too much coming from those sources… A five man midfield may work in the short term, but as a final solution, naw.. One thing is we have to get Doyler into the box & get him to stay there.. He does all his good work for Ireland in and around the box… For us he ends up chasing the ball all over the park, probably cos he’s pissed off gettin no service, however, he wont score too many out on the wing !! We have to get some some creativity & experience into midfield, however, the names aren’t coming into mind, shit,we are in trouble…. better sign off before I go & jump off the roof !!!!!!!!!!!!
MMMMM interesting!!! can someone explain to me why the hell we paid nearly 2 million for the Hoff?? i’ve seen him a cpl of times and he is shite!!
Would it not have been more appropiate to add more to that and get a better quality striker—or does that old chestnut come in again about were not going to break our wage structure!!
Ok Beattie & Hunt-may do it–but can you see Wolves really busting a gut to get these players….Morgan has the money!! and as he keeps saying-ITS MY CLUB-
WELL A MESSAGE FROM ME-MORGAN GO AND GET MICK TO GET THE QUALITY IN BY PAYING WHAT THERE WORTH!!.
pissed off by shopping at aldi priced players…….
Leinster, definitely get where you’re coming from, particularly when you talk about SEB and the lack of a decent replacement. I still think we’d have joy attacking from the full-back areas if we had two proper full-backs playing in their natural position, with two proper wide men playing ahead of them.
B Masaun, agree about the Hoff. I think that was a bit of a gamble, which doesn’t look like paying off. But you never know, if he comes off the bench and gets one important goal that contributes to us staying up, you could argue it was worth the punt. I think we will see a few signings by the end of the month, decent ones hopefully, but like you say, Morgan needs to back up his big words with some big cash.
Hi Thomas mate.
Hope so with the hoff if for only our sake…If only we could get some players in like Ince & Rae & irwin-Quality with experience…..Has anyone got any other rumours about players were interested in….it will keep me from killing myself…
West Park Wolf
Daryl Murphy and Tommy Smith…
not exactly mouthwatering even if we were already back in the Championship!
Thanks Adam,
Yep sums us up again-So called big club with small balls…Why is it Hull & Stoke & Wigan managed to get big time players in like Bullard & Huth and so on and we bloody struggle to get my fucking granny…
Just putting rope around neck….someone give me inspiration!!!
‘if only we could get some players in like ince and rae and irwin’….yeah, because it worked so well last time