Another good performance, but another defeat and another game without a goal.
Yet Mick McCarthy stubbornly persists with the notion that ‘if we play as well as that in every game, we’ll be fine’.
I’m inclined to disagree.
Scholes stayed cool to slot home the winner
We can definitely perform admirably for ninety minutes in every match, create the better chances, fail to take any of them, concede silly goals at the other end and still go down.
In fact, I’d say it’s an all too familiar tale of woe for many teams that have previously sampled the bitter taste of relegation.
Don’t get me wrong, I was impressed with almost everything about this gutsy display from Wolves. Every single player showed a firm commitment to literally turn the table on it’s head and send the visitors back up north with their tales planted firmly between their legs.
Yet at the crucial moments, our plucky team once again failed at the most crucial component of any football match. Scoring a goal.
On at least three occasions, I was just waiting to see the net bulge from what looked more like foregone conclusions than good chances.
Sam Vokes in particular should be having nightmares about that guilt-edged miss in the dying seconds, with Edwin van der Sar’s goal so completely at his mercy. Any shot on target would surely have resulted in a priceless equaliser, so it quite literally felt like a dagger to the heart seeing the ball disappear into the night sky.
It was a shame because our endeavours merited a point at the very least.
Kevin Doyle was one player who once again didn’t deserve to be on the losing side. In the first half particularly, he ran United ragged and looked as good as anything they had to offer, which is saying something given the multi-million pounds worth of talent in red shirts. It was just a shame he couldn’t cap a fine performance with a goal, dragging his best chance wide after cleverly working the space for himself.
Our midfield three were quite simply superb.
Henry harried and hassled throughout and was much more proactive with his approach in possession, using the ball far better.
David Jones was much the same and excellent in getting forward to support Doyle.
But the star of the show for me was Guedioura. I was disappointed with his offering at Bolton, but this was a timely return to form. He powered into tackles, emerging with the ball almost everytime, passed intelligently and surged forward when the opportunity presented himself. I just wonder how far he might have gone, had Vidic not chopped him down following one particularly impressive display of dribbling.
At the back, Berra was much improved, but Ward continued to struggle at times against the impressive Valencia. In saying that, he was always going to have his work cut out, so it wasn’t surpising that the tricky winger jinked his way passed our make-do left-back on a handful of occasions.
Craddock performed almost flawlessly but his one error in judgment cost us dearly; Paul Scholes showing ruthless composure to sidestep the desperate tackles and slide home the winner. How we long for someone to show such ice-cool predatory instincts.
Zubar was easily our best defender on the night. Cancelling out Nani completely, rising highest to head numerous balls away from danger and even getting forward when he could, most notably in the build-up to that horror miss from Vokes. He looked gutted at full-time and it’s hardly surprising after such a swashbuckling display went unrewarded.
Like so many others, he deserved better.
But it’s now onwards and upwards to Turf Moor for easily the biggest game of the season to date, where we quite simply have to take the chances we create.
Winning would be season-defining.
Losing is unthinkable.
Thanks for another insightful write-up Tom, not being able to get to the game it certainly gives a good idea of what happened (sounds like the Chelsea game to be honest!)
I’d be interested to know what the main problem is regarding our lack of goals. In previous matches I’ve thought (along with others) that our overly defensive tactics to compensate for a lack of ability in defence was to blame. However, it sounds like we actually created some decent opportunities here. Was Ward’s first-half header as gilt-edged as they made it sound on the radio? Can’t really blame the tactics for this loss then, unfortunately the players have to start stepping up to the mark. Lets hope they start at Burnley
Andrew, it was almost a carbon copy of the Chelsea match, albeit with a different final score.
In fact, we probably played even better in this one, which makes it all the more painful to take.
Like you say, there’s no way you can criticise the shape of the team or the tactics at the moment. Whatever Mick does, you simply can’t account for squandering the numerous glorious chances that are coming our way.
Ward’s header was certainly a good chance, but I just felt it came across fast and he couldn’t adjust quickly enough to get above the ball. Still, he could have scored so I suppose it depends how critical you want to be.
I thought we played ok for most of the game. Glad these matches against the top two are out of the way.
Need to win away at Burnley now – a more realistic target. Lose that and we are right in the do-do!
Let’s not forget Thomas we won’t be playing Man Utd every week, so if we do play like that and put the ball in the net we will be ok. It’s the games against Burnley, West Ham, Stoke where we have to reproduce these performances.
Gutted for Vokes. Mick should have given him more than 5 minutes, as he looked lively with his hold up play and had 2 chances. What did SEB do?
SEB looked quite sharp and played well with Doyle towards the end. They seemed to know where each other would be. Vokes apart from THAT chance and the other half chance didn’t do too much.
Henry was fantastic, he was spraying it all over the place, Adlene was great and Jones looked up for it. How many times did Manure break and Henry was there covering.
I disagree Thomas, I think if we play like that every week (which we haven’t) we will be ok. If we play as we did at Turf Moor we should win.
I think you both misunderstood me somewhat guys.
My point is, if we play exactly like that every week i.e. squandering all our chances, we will go down.
Sorry if it didn’t come across clearly. Perhaps that was poor writing on my part.
Rich, I’m gutted for Vokes because he always gives his all but that miss last night was criminal. Much like his miss at home to Hull earlier in the season.
I agree with you that he looks a more obvious threat than SEB, so perhaps he should be first in line to come on when things aren’t going our way.
Maybe it’s because Vokes is younger, but if that had been SEB who missed it I think people would be going on about it (how it proves he’s not good enough, that sort of stuff)
I liked how they did the freekick where Foley pretends to shoot and Jones does but they completely messed it up.
and yeah, I misunderstood what you meant. Thought you meant the style.
Your right, if we do keep missing these sort of opportunities we won’t be ok. We are really good until we get to the penalty area, then we look lost!
Yeah Tom, you’re right. If we can add goals to the performances, then we should be ok.
Sure Vokes missed Louie, but at least he was in the right place, and that’s two more chances than SEB had.
I’m not having a go at Vokes, far from it. i’m just saying that if it was SEb who has missed ti, people would have a go at him. I’m interested to see what Dazza/Clive has to say
Missed the game, no TV coverage where I am this weekend, so cannot comment, but Ward must have had a bad game coz he cant do anything else, and I read that he missed a sitter as well.
My question is what was he doing in the Utd box in the first place, was he lost?
FOWB
He was unlucky – the ball was a yard behind him. It was a shame. But there were positives from this.
Same old, same old story – play well against the big teams, dont take chances, switch off and concede.
But its not about the Chelseas, Uniteds and Arsenals of this world, its about the 6 pointers and the games against our relegation battling rivals. We are simply not clinical enough in our defence or our attack to stay in this league.
The lack of quality and cover in key positions which was not addressed in the summer is coming back to haunt us.
my sentiments exactly matt. mick gets every last ounce from the players,who you cant fault for effort. but there isnt that ‘devilment’ (to use a mick-ism). in other words, there isnt that premier league experience which we were promised. would phillips have replicated vokes? would any other manager flip their player of the season from right back to right midfield to left back to cover 2 hopelessly exposed areas of the pitch in 1game? and would scott dann have shinned a clearance straight to scholes? i trust in those 11 lads on the pitch and will trust them to sweat blood for each and every remaining game. trust for morgan and moxey will take a little longer after this mess of a season
To inherit the killer-instinct and the timing and precision to score on a moments notice is one of the absolute hardest things in football.
That is why the players that masters this week in week out are paid ridiculous sums for their performances.
The Wolves team does not have any of these players in the team. The closest we come is Doyle. And SEB had that ability last season in the Championship. Vokes has showed the ten ways of not doing it at Wolves and perticulary at Leeds (see an article on my blog).
But I also believe that if we keep on playing this good we can not keep missing these chances for ever. And once a player succeeds in putting one ball into the net, it will give him the confidence to get more in and even give his mates confidence to do the same.
Just look at Sunderland at the beginning of the season scoring for fun. But they have gone the other way now. But it’s the same players being world beaters three months ago that are rubbish today.
Confidence gives timing and precision. We just need a spark of it and the whole team will be on fire. A couple of goals and a win against Burnley could give us that spark.
Vokes scored some good goals last season and hasn’t had many chances this. Yes he should’ve scored but let’s not throw him on the scrap heap over one miss
My point was that he had at least ten chances like the one Saturday when he was loaned out to Leeds, Rich. But, no, I’ve not given up hope for him yet.
He’ll come good. We probably got promoted a year too early for him
To say if we play like that each week we will be ok, is quite frankly, rubbish. Each week we say the same, and the team that we are playing just do enough to beat us, saving vital energy against big clubs and harder games. We are totally rubbish, and Ward, Craddock, Berra, Blake,Henry, Vokes, Jarvis need to be shown the door ASAP. Spineless rubbish, and we WILL lose at Burnley, we never win ‘a must win game’
Dazza – Spineless??? Give me a break.
Of course this result comes amid a general theme of missing them at one end and mistakes at the other, Thomas is quite right to point that out. But if you want to give a fair analysis of each individual game, its only right to point out that this was a damn good effort. Far from spineless, it was a gutsy attempt against one of the top sides in the world. Players played to their limits and we were a horror miss away from a valuable point – lets try and keep some perspective!
A damn good effort which ended up in the same old way. We have no forceful centre half, no snotter of a ball winning central midfielder, and no-one up front to put teh chances away.
In my view that means the team is SPINELESS
I think they show great spine on occasions. And they genuinely seem to care about and love the club.
Hehe get rid of Jarvis! Or Berra, Henry and the others all crazy Dazza.
Jarvis’s cross for ward was brilliant, that was one of Henry’s best performance of the season and Berra was one of the best defenders.
Think Vokes will go on to be a very good footballer, I don’t think he is quite ready yet but he has all the makings of a star. He got us out of jail a few times last season, and he is an international at 20 (or younger)
Think we really need to score some goals against Bunley (worst defence?) to show we can score.