Well, that was certainly a bitter pill to swallow wasn’t it?
After four pretty decent performances in their opening Premiership matches, Wolves looked far more out of their depth against a Blackburn side that could and should have ran out more convincing winners.
Berra - Struggled in his first Premiership outing
We can perhaps feel a little hard done by in that their third goal from David Dunn was offside and we were also denied what looked to be a pretty good shout for handball and a penalty. We squandered the odd chance as well, with Christophe Berra missing a golden opportunity to open the scoring early doors and Keogh hitting an air shot when it looked easier to score.
But none of that does anything to disguise what was an uninspired attacking performance and a shambolic defensive showing, which makes me fearful of how we’ll cope moving forward.
Of course we weren’t helped by a significant reshuffle of our back four. With Craddock already out injured, both Elokobi and Zubar were late for a team meeting prior to kick-off and subsequently left out as punishment. That meant Matt Hill was handed a shock promotion straight into the starting XI.
Now, I’m not for one second blaming Hill for the team’s inability to defend. In fact, by all accounts it sounded like he was our best player yesterday, but you simply can’t afford to make such wholesale changes to a defensive line and not expect repercussions. Berra and Mancienne had never played together before, so to also throw Hill in at the deep end, was naive on McCarthy’s part in my opinion. I mean, when you looked at that back four yesterday, we basically had a make-shift right-back, two inexperienced centre-halves and a left-back getting his first taste of Premiership football. Hardly ideal.
And it showed as well with defensive mishaps leading to at least two of Blackburn’s three goals.
The midfield didn’t look much better either. Henry was partly to blame for the opening goal and well under par throughout, Milijas and Halford seemed to offer very little and Jarvis simply wasn’t given a sniff. The same could be said for Doyle and Keogh, who were given no service and struggled to create anything on the rare occasions they got near the ball.
In fact, most of yesterday’s positives came from the bench, with Dave Edwards making a strong claim for a starting role with a typically committed performance and ‘The Hoff’ opening his account and generally making a nuisance of himself during his second-half cameo.
The chilling reality is that the team that took to the field yesterday was never going to be good enough to cope and McCarthy must therefore take a big portion of the blame for his selection. Of course we had players missing, but for me Halford should have been moved to right-back, with Stearman moving inside to partner Mancienne. Bringing both Berra and Hill in from the cold was a step too far and cost us badly.
I just hope by next week, we’ve regrouped and gained a couple of players back from the clutches of the injury table, because yesterday we looked like a team that desperately needed reinforcements.
I’ve calmed down a bit now, but watching the game late last night I was particularly upset about how we played and in particular the defensive lapses. I agree with your post completely Thomas – our back line was never going to cut it and while I agree with discipline for late players, I don’t agree that you should make a point by weakening the team. Hill for me just doesn’t cut it, I thought he was poor last season so I knew he would be no better. I’m not however blaming him for this defeat, the whole team looked second best to everything. The Keogh debate will continue but after yesterdays performance I can’t see how he can keep his place especially as the Hoff came on caused them lots of trouble and actually got the ball into the onion bag – if he doesn’t start against Fulham in place of Keogh then there really is something wrong! Hopefully this was a blip and one of those poor performances that lots of teams suffer after international breaks. Against Fulham we need to be at our best, any less than that and it will be a big number loss!
Jed, I agree with you that Elokobi shouldn’t have been left out. I’ve got to believe that a back four of:
Halford
Stearman
Mancienne
Elokobi
…would have given us a far better chance.
But if it’s a rule that’s been outlined, I suppose it’s difficult for Mick to go back on it, particularly knowing how stubborn he is about issues such as this.
I’m also inclined to agree about Hill, but saying that he looked quite good at the tail end of last season and I know Ben and a few others are big fans of his. But for me personally, he isn’t the answer moving forward and had Ward and Elokobi been available, he wouldn’t have got anywhere near the bench, let alone the starting eleven.
But talking purely about yesterday, you’d have to say he was one of the better players, albeit out of an incredibly bad bunch.
As I’ve said time and time again, Matt Hill is one of my favourite players. He’s more mobile and agile than Elokobi and can pass the ball a hundred times better. Ok so he’s not as strong but it’s unfair to compare any player’s strength to Elokobi’s. I was all ready to completely slate Ward this season but he has done a good job this season, fair play to him.
I think a left back is a position we should have signed a proven Premiership defender.
Hennessey yesterday was inconsistent in my opinion. A few fantastic saves and then once again we concede from a corner. I think it’s time we turned to Hahnemann as he has no fear and a lot more commanding than Wayne.
So far this season I feel McCarthy has tried to reward those who played last season with game time. But that isn’t how we are going to survive, he needs to use the new signings and that should bring an extra dimension to our game. Mick’s love child Keogh has GOT to be dropped soon; with SEB, Doyle and Das Hoff all fighting fit there is little reason for him to play. Perhaps on the wing but only if Halford or Kightly (when is he coming back, seriously taking the mick now) should be unavailable.
Also Thomas, where have the player ratings gone? Someone had the idea of pooling all the scores together to give a Wolves Blog player of the season which I thought was very good.
I’ll defend Hennessey for a long time if he continues like this.
He did good yesterday and of you think he was to blame for any of the goals I’ll advise you to have a look at them again.
Nearly saved two one-on-ones and the second goal was deflected at the very last millisecond.
When I saw Hill play in Perth, I thought he was one of the best players on show, and, I think he is a better left back that Big George. On the other hand, Berra looks devoid of confidence, and I hate to say , looks nothing like a PL player. When we play away, I think we should play a sweeper system, as we are caught too square , too often by every team we play, (they all have pace, we don’t!)
Up front, Doyle has to start taking some responsibility, and The Hoff must start the game against Fulham. We have to win this one, and I think we will, 7 points from 6 games is then pretty good. I can also see us being “up” for the game at Sunderland. So chin up, we lost, move on.
I got it completely wrong with my prediction. I really thought we could get somthing out of that game Sat.
I agree, we have to drop Keogh and start the Hoff, he really did look like a problem and a real threat to any oposition defence. We have to get three points on Saturday agaist Fulham. A West brom fan said somthing to me on Saturday that made sence, made me think and scared me all at the same time.
“If Wolves are in the bottom three after the first ten games, you (Wolves) will be relegated, as the first ten games were your (our) best chance of 15 – 20pts this season”
I had to agree with him, with Fulham, Sunderland and Pompey next up for us, I think we need to win two out of those three to give us the fighting chance and the imputus to kick on and stay up.
Trouble is, I can just see damn Greening and Gera scoring against us can’t you? but yes, Fulham is now a must win game.Like it or not, once you are in the bottom three, history usually dictates that you drop, we don;t want to drop into that mire.There are no easy games in this League, and we have to start to punch above our weight.We can do this, and it will start on Sunday. I’m going for a 3-2 win. Nurse….pass the medication
Pretty much sums up my feelings Thomas.
The biggest indictment of my analysis is that we desperately missed Craddock. We have no experience at the back, and it shows.
When Craddock isn’t in there, it just highlights how vulnerable we are. And I’ve never been his biggest fan.
I have been a big fan of Hill’s, and he has always looked steady when he’s been called upon. (His clean sheet ratio last season will surprise you!) But I don’t for one minute think he’s the answer, and don’t think it fair to judge him after being thrown straight into the first team at 1pm on Saturday afternoon.
And as for Keogh…He had an air shot in a great position against West Ham, he missed a glorious 1 on 1 against Hull, he had another air shot on Saturday when it looked easier to score. Yet Mick slags off Vokes for one miss against Hull. Strange?!
But just like one goal against Birmingham in the FA Cup in January (compared to Iwelumo’s 15), a goal at Wigan guarantees you a starting place forever, irrespective of his performances.
Kightly will be a huge, huge player to have back, and I’m still confident that when he returns, along with SEB, we’ll start to get some more wins on the board.
My main concern is that we’ve taken 4 pts from 5 games and, Man City apart, we haven’t had a month of the big boys yet.
Sunday becomes must win!
Its a bit early for the panic that is coming from a lot of people, saturday was very disappointing but its too soon to start talking like we’re on the verge of relegation.
Sunday is important and we do need to cut out a lot of the mistakes that occurred on saturday, we can compete at this level and i think that we’ll show that on sunday.
I want to reiterate the point about Hennessey, how uncomfortable he looks. Thoughts?
Also, Keogh. Andrew, Andrew Keogh. Why? Seriously, why? I fail to get my head round why he’s picked time after time yet Vokes is not given a shout. The only reason is the fact he’s McCarthy’s Irish lovechild. Those rumours about him being wanted by Leicester keep coming to the front of my mind and if we’d have sold him, whether Mick would have signed a replacement striker. One that could hit a barn door most likely.
Enough ifs and buts. Time for excuses is over, we can’t get any more players so we must use what we’ve got.
@Ben – Agree with you about the return of Kightly and SEB. I’m surpised not more has been said on here about how gutting it is not to have those two out on the pitch.
Kightly for me is that bit of class we’re desperately short of in the final third. He can just conjure something up and change the course of a game. For me, SEB and Kites playing regularly will get us at least 10pts more than we’d otherwise muster. We need them back and firing ASAP.
I also think you’d see the best of players like Doyle and Milijas when they can work with our more creative attacking options and that could be very exciting indeed.
@Hallam – I think Hennessy’s done alright mate. I’ll admit he still doesn’t come for crosses that he perhaps should, but generally he’s done well in my opinion. I think we’ve got far bigger problems in other areas of the pitch at the moment.
Player ratings have bitten the dust for a couple of reasons. Mainly though, I don’t get to all the away games and can’t really give an accurate score for each player based on the highlights.
If anybody wants to do player ratings and send them to me for each match, please feel free to.
@EmeraldPete – I think your Albion supporting friend has a point as we do have an easier start, a difficult middle and a decent end in terms of fixtures. However, every game is going to be a scrap so I don’t necessarily subscribe to the theory we’ll be down if in the bottom three at such an early stage.
Agree with you about the Hoff coming in for Keogh. I think we need someone up there who is going to do damage in the final third at home and the big man will at the very least put himself about and we know he can score as he’s already our joint golden boot for the season!
@David – Agree with you about negativity. Far too early to be getting downcast.
They normally have the whole match on BT Vision until Monday night. So I might just about be able to catch it. I’ll go put it on now and try and do some regarding Saturday.
Player ratings that is.