All Square: Hull 2 Wolves 2
Posted by Thomas on 1st February , 2010I said in my preview that nothing less than a win would do at the KC and I stand by that. With some difficult fixtures coming up, we really needed three points to put some daylight between ourselves and the bottom three. However, a point does at least keep us on the right side of that dreaded dotted line in the short term.
There are some other positives to take from the game too. The fact that we stayed in the match and managed to claw our way back twice shows the character of the team. We could even have won it had somebody connected with Kevin Foley’s cross in the dying seconds or had Bia’s fierce drive gone a few inches either side of Boaz Myhill.
View from the Away End (click to expand)
I’m still trying to decide whether or not I’m a fan of this 4-5-1 system. It didn’t work in the first half and prompted angry chants of ’4-4-2, 4-4-2′ from the frustrated contingent of Wolves supporters. We persevered with it though and it made a lot more sense in the second half, as our wide men began to influence the game.
Jarvis in particular was immense. He twisted and turned Paul McShane all afternoon and got his reward in the second half with the deflected shot that drew us level for the second time. Foley wasn’t quite as effective down the right, but improved as the game went on and gave a typically committed performance.
In the middle of the park, Jones stood out as our best player and showed glimpses of real quality, whipping balls out to the wings and even rampaging through himself, only to be denied at the near post by Myhill. He deserves to keep his place in the team, whatever system we decide to play.
Henry and Mancienne were anonymous to start with, offering very little going forward and going missing whenever Hull attacked. Thankfully that changed in the second half, which coincided with an upturn in our fortunes. However, I’m still not sure you need them both playing in this system, as they seem to do the same job. A more forward thinking midfielder in there would add balance to the side in my opinion.
At the back, we struggled big time. Berra in particular was poor. He simply couldn’t live with the pace and power of Altidore and whenever he did put in a meaningful challenge, the referee quickly blew up for a foul. It was little surprise when the strong forward, out-muscled Berra and teed up Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink to slide home the opener.
Zubar had a mixed game. His general defensive play was good until he foolishly clattered into the back of Altidore to give away a penalty. It was a silly challenge to make and given how easily the Hull forward had gone to ground throughout the game, it was little surprise he went down like he’d been picked off by a sniper. Hunt duly smashed home the spot-kick and celebrated like a man who was happy to stay put. I might be wrong.
Fortunately, as bad as we were at the back, the home side were even worse. A nothing cross from Zubar was sliced into his own net by Anthony Gardener; a moment of comedy that is sure to feature on some cheap footballing gaffes DVD next Christmas. The same defender repeatedly gave the ball away in the build up to Wolves second equaliser too, so a bad day all round for the former Tottenham man. Not that we care of course.
Much of the time though, the Hull defence were forced into errors by the tireless harrying of our lone striker. The chants of ‘Doyle is Superman’ were more apt than ever, as the Republic of Ireland striker continued to show why we smashed our transfer record to secure his services. None of the clubs fighting it out at the bottom have a striker as good as Kevin Doyle and he could well be the difference between survival and relegation. I’m not the only Wolves fan praying he stays fit for the remainder of the season.
It’s Palace next up tomorrow in that 4th round replay and I expect a lot of changes to the team, maybe even eleven (dare I even suggest it).
I hope we’ll have celebrated the arrival of at least one more new signing by then, but who that might be is anyone’s guess.
Up The Wolves.
Maybe we can sign two more defenders before 5pm today – MM can then replace Jarvis and Doyle with them. Play an 8-2-0 system!
I’m no fan of 4-5-1 – especially when the 5 includes two more defenders against a team we really needed to beat given the games we have coming up. For all Doyle’s good work who was pushing on to support him? Henry? In all the games I have seen him in this season he hasnot even come close to scoring (or even shooting!) Foley – even when he does he’s a right back so it’s not his fault.
I can see the sense in playing this type of holding formation against the bigger clubs – just to obtain a point.
Fair play to Jarvis, he had a great week turning Carragher inside out and deserved his goal on Saturday. He has been the least disappointing of our stars from last year (SEB, Kites et al) and I think it shows the importance of pace in this league.
Personally I wont be happy unless we sign Hunt AND a striker today – I cant help but fear we wont sign anyone! Off work today though so I am going to watch skysports news on loop for the next six hours – I know how to show a girl a good time!!!!!!
Sky Sports News states that we’ve lodged a £5 million bid for Hunt! Fingers crossed hey!!!
its been turned down apparently and mick on the wolves site said he’s not expecting any more signings. It may just be a tactic for the final day but looks like we will have to really battle and improve with teh players we’ve got to the end of the season. fucking boo!
As much as I agree with you about we shouldn’t have played a 4-5-1 system on saturday, I’d like us to stick with it for the next 3 league games at least. Apart from the cup game tomorrow night where we should go back to 4-4-2, the next 3 league games are all difficult games and I think a 4-5-1 formation gives us the best chance of getting anything out of those games. I would agree with you all though and say Foley has to be restored to right back and a more attack minded player put in at right midfield to give us balance to the performances Jarvis is giving us on the left.
Also did anyone else noticed Mancienne jogging back in the build up to Hull’s 1st goal. A couple of you have highlighted Berra being out-muscled by altidore but if you watch the goal again vennegoor of hesselink actually comes past mancienne and out paces him to the ball while he just amble’s back and watches him go past him. Henry who started out much further up the field ended up being closer to getting back to him than Mancienne did. Yes Berra didn’t win the header but if your defensive midfieders aren’t doing their jobs and defending the second ball and looking to sweep up the knock downs then whats the point in them being there!!!
Stephen Hunt was just interviewed on Sky Sport News presumably with Hull City’s Ok to bring the matter to an end and confirm he was staying put.
See we have had a bid for a defender rejected by the Palace receiver.
It doesn’t look like we will sign anyone, I could be wrong.
I wanted 4-5-1 at the start but now I don’t want us to use it. The extra man in the middle hasn’t really helped much, we might as well add a forward. Jarvis and Doyle were great, hardly saw it but they were our main threats. Jones looks like he is playing well and Foley, for someone who is not a winger, is doing a decent job out there. I feel sorry for him.
I expect (and want) lots of changes against Palace. This result was not good enough, we now have to make up for it (again) with some surprise points.
Hunt had to score, didn’t he?
If it wasn’t for the penalty straight after the first equaliser, i reckon we’d have won. A bit harsh, but you can’t put your hands on someone’s shoulders in the box. Did well to come back again.
Could we not put Henry in front of the defence and go Milijas, Jones in the middle? A bit more attacking. Jones seems like a new signing, after disappearing off the face of the earth. Fair play to him.
Looks like we’ve signed nobody. How are we going to cope with the strikers we have?
Oh dear.
Agree with the sentiment about Mancienne and Henry.. don’t see how you need them both, Mancienne actually seems to be the one sitting which is forcing Henry, who was having a good season, to play further up the field where his limitations are being exposed. If they absolutely have to play together in this formation I’d prefer Henry to sit and Mancienne to drive on where his pace and ball-carrying ability might just hurt the opposition.
Rich – I don’t see where the goals are coming from either but, with the 4-5-1 here to stay, the truth is that we probably have too many strikers as it is. If Doyle stays fit we’ll have Iwelumo, Keogh, Maierhofer, SEB & Vokes being paid over £3m a year between them to sit on the bench or in the stands. That said, I wouldn’t be surprised if Keogh gets a run on the right-wing if, as looks likely, he wins race to fitness ahead of Kightly and Edwards.
Kightly’ sinjury is obviously far worse than anyone at the club is letting on.That said, the club need stuffing for not buying another winger. This is typical lack of ambition, the sam ethat has haunted us for 30 years or so