I was recently invited by a work colleague to watch the Arsenal v Celtic game at the Emirates Stadium. To be fair it is a majestic piece of stadium architecture (especially when compared to another ground I recently visited – East Fife’s Bayview Stadium which only has one stand and enjoys the glorious backdrop of the now disused Methil Power Station) with ample leg room and comfy seats. A bit like a high budget Eastlands but with even less atmosphere.
What I remember best from the evening, other than the hours I spent post-match sitting in the shower scrubbing my skin raw and muttering “unclean, unclean” to myself over and over again, was not Eduardo’s comedy dive but the second half appearance of a certain Mr Naylor. As Nayls patrolled Celtic’s left flank adorned in a horrific lime green and black shirt my mind wandered back to his time at the Wolves. His lapses of concentration apart (Bolton away anyone?) I thought he had rarely let us down given his limited ability and was sad (though nowhere near distraught) to see him move on. I admit I was probably in a tiny minority at the time. The question is would he get in the team now?
Clearly question marks remain over Elokobi and Ward. Elokobi demonstrated against both Man City and Hull that he is strong, deceptively quick and defensively sound. However, other than an excellent through ball to Keogh against Hull, George has offered little going forward and appears unwilling to overlap with Jarvis. When he does roam forward his delivery into the box is generally very wayward. Ward offers almost the exact opposite. His interlinking with Jarvis, willingness to overlap and his seemingly inexhaustible energy levels have made him much more of a threat down our left flank than he ever was as a striker. However, his positioning and overall defensive play has let him down at times (Coventry away, West Ham). This comparison is partly demonstrated by the chalkboards showing the passes made by Ward against West Ham and those made by Elokobi against Hull. The graphics show that Ward is willing get forward more and generally get involved in play more in comparison to his Cameroonian counterpart. Elokobi’s blunt attacking play is shown by his poor quality crosses into the box and lack of forays to the byline.
With Ward now out injured for some time this debate has to be put on hold. Elokobi has a chance to cement his place in the side and let’s hope that he can add some attacking guile to his defensive strength. Anyway, with both Ward and Elokobi relatively young and with Scott Malone still in the pipeline the Wolves left back position looks in good shape for the foreseeable future. As for Nayls? All I know for sure is that at his worst he was frailer at the back than Ward and less potent going forward than Elokobi.
Excellent Sam, long live the Tactics Van.
I suppose we also have to add Matt Hill into the mix given events over the weekend. He’s a much more defensive player who very rarely (even less than George) gets forward. I don’t expect him to be in the team often, but he might keep his place for the Fulham game. It will be interesting to see what Mick does on that one.
I think the graphs are slightly unfair on George as the West Ham game was far more open, with space available for the full-backs to power forward. Hull was a lot tighter and more of a Championship-style match.
With all of our players fit, I think I’d personally go for Elokobi, as I think we need the more defensive minded player backing Jarvis up down the left. But Ward has proved himself more than capable of playing in the Premiership, so I won’t be disappointed when he’s back and competing for a place.
To answer your question, I think Naylor would get into our starting XI based on the fact he has quite a lot of experience under his belt now and has even played in the Champions League. I always rated him and was sad to see him go. The back four of Irwin, Lescott, Butler and Naylor is still the best I’ve seen at the Wolves in my time as a fan.
I have said before , play Jarvis at left back, play Keogh wide left. The Hoff and Doyle up front.
Jarvis left back?????
Keogh wide left????
If the Churchill dog was a wolves fan he would be shaking his head saying, “oh no, oh no”.
I have to agree with Thomas, I would be comfortable seeing both Ward and Big George at the left back spot. I would play the Hoff up top with Doyle just off him in a attack minded 4-5-1.
Erm SEB anyone!!!!
Jarvis is never a left back, if you think Wardy gets found out defensively now and then imagine what Jarvis would be like. Lets keep players playing in their positions and doing what they do best. Jarv is a winger, Keogh is a forward (well sort of!!) end of. Last thing we need to start doing is playing inexperienced premiership players in their un-natural positions
Sam, great stuff mate. How do you work that van?! It makes for very interesting reading.
Re: Naylor. Nostalgia, along with some really good games for Celtic, make me miss him more, when I always thought he wasn’t quite up to it.
When you consider what we have replaced him with: Mulgrew, Elokobi, Ward, etc etc, then it’s clear we do miss him, as he is twice as good as any of them.
Just like when Lescott left, we have never replaced Naylor. And it’s not like we haven’t had chance to, or that the task of replacing him is a difficult one. Daniel Fox would have solved this problem, but we ignored him twice.
It’s a problem position, and we really shouldn’t be pining for Naylor, but when I look at our team, I do!
I don’t agree with Thomas that Ward has already proved himself more than capable of being a Premiership left back. Far from it, he’s only played 2/3 games!
Sam – Where did you get those chalk boards from exactly, I know it must be a gaurdian web thing but can’t find it, they look quality.
Ben – Great shout about Daniel Fox, he is turing in top performance after top performance for Celtic now and would have been a great addition to the Wolves
Edward – No point in talking about SEB in a starting XI until we know he is fit.
Pete, we could have had him when he was at Walsall, and apparently, he wanted to join us, but we never bothered. At the time, we were playing Neill Collins there!!!!!!!!!! I’m not suprised he’s doing well. He had Kightly in his back pocket in both games against Cov last season (admitedly Kights not fully fit at the Ricoh), so imagine my mood when I heard he went up to Celtic. The one that got away.
@Ben – Agree with you about Fox. If he was available and willing, we should have gone in for him. Would have been a wonderful signing.
I suppose I did get a bit carried away saying Ward has proved himself. What I meant really was that he’s done pretty well in the games he’s played.
Is Foley going to be anywhere near fit soon?
I long for a back four of:
Foley
Stearman
Mancienne
Elokobi
That was the back 4 I wanted right from the end of last season. Maybe Zubar for Stearman if he can prove himself ready and able.
Plain fact is, as hard as Hill tries, he isn;t a PL left back. Elokobo is still at 80% and that’s about it. We all new that left back was a problem in teh summer, yet nothing was done about it. I’m starting to get a tad worried about Zubar.Surely he must play some part in Sunday’s game , it bafffles me as to why we pay heaps of money and then not play the guy. We need 3 points on Sunday to kick start our confidence levels
Dazza, I’m still intrigued by your Jarvis at Left Back scheme – do you think he could do a job there? Or was that tongue in cheek?
Jarvis at left back = madness (in my opinion). He’s got the pace and guile but nowhere near the defensive capabilities to cope. Plus, he’s often been our most potent attacking threat, even when he’s underperformed in games this season. So I wouldn’t like to see him moved back.
To be honest, I don’t think Ward or Elokobi have put a foot wrong between them so far this season. So for me, if Elokobi’s fit (and on time) then he plays.
We’re desperately short of an attacking spark and for me that can only be provided by the return of Kightly. Did you all see he got an hour of football under his belt last night? Surely he can be named on the bench for Sunday.
We’re also overdue a performance from Milijas. I want to see that boy take a game by the scruff of the neck and do some damage. Fingers crossed it’s this Sunday.
dboy… yes I’m serious. People laughed whne we bought Frank Munro as a centre forward, and converted him into a centre half…and a bloody good one. I’ve seen ex Keeper Fred Davies play centre forward. Jarvis would be ideal has a quick left/wing back
I’ve decided that dazza is a mentalist.
Jarvis would be a the first choice of wing back if we were playing a 5-3-2, which could be a good shout, it would keep the middle of the park tight with three bodies in there but still allow you to have two up top.
Problem is 5-3-2 is not viable in the top flight (it’s not viable in Pro football full stop). You will get destoryed down your flanks by a good full back joining in with the wide man, so the Jarvis left back argument is a non starter for me.
Fair enough. Perhaps as a wing back in a 3-5-2 but I’d be surprised to see us employ any flying full backs a la Brasil for the time being in a back four.
Iwelumo and Maierhoff as centre backs? Now you’re talking!
Iwelumo as centre back?! I like it dboy!!! (Anywhere, as long as I see him again soon!)
hey, great post, I like the van, but surely we could upgrade to something a little more luxurious given our premiership standing?!!
Left back; I would go for Elokobi given he looked more assured than Ward against Man City. That is, if he turns up on time.
@ben: I take it from the ‘About’ section you’re a bit of an Iwelumo fan?! Can you see him playing much of a role this season given the arrival of Mairhoeffer (sp?)? With SEB, Doyle, Mairhoeffer, and possibly even Keogh ahead of him I wouldn’t be too suprised to see him moving on in January. Or is that underrating his role at the club?
Talking of a la Brazil…why didn’t we snap up Roberto Carlos?
Tom – loving the picture? Did you actually photograph my van? Emerald Pete – yeah they are available on the Guardian football website on the tabs near the top of the page.
Personally while i enjoy watching Elokobi I personally think Jarvis plays better when Ward plays as his willingness to overlap takes some of the pressure off of Jarvis and creates a bit more space. Unfortunately i went to Ewood Park on Saturday and I can honestly not remember Hill getting forward at all.
As for the Hoff I thought while he looked busy he was in fact terrible. He barely won a header (though I have heard that is not his strength) and although his footwork was tidy he gave the ball away a lot. However he did score and if he is one of those players who is just constantly in the right place at the right time that would make me very happy. Really though I am looking forward to the dream pairing of SEB and Doyle. For me Doyle was by far our best player on Saturday and if he gets a goal i really think he will kick on.
I had a dream that SEB and the Hoff where in the centre circle taking a kick off. Don’t ask me if they were starting together just that they were taking a re start together.
From what I have see of the Hoff on YouTube (the great and powerfull and never ever ever skweed view on football that it is) he does look absolutley awfull. There are more clips of him giving the ball away than anything else. I think Big Chris is a far better player and will have a big role to play this season.
Sam – I’m like you, I couldn’t care less if the big lump didn’t do anything for the whole game and knocked in a late winner for us. I think when every body is fit it will be Doyle and SEB with the two big lads as impact subs to cause a bit of ariel havoc late on in game.
Sam, when this blog finally becomes world famous, we will buy that very van and station ourselves outside of every single Wolves match. That’s the dream anyway.
Glad to hear the perspective of someone that went to the Blackburn game. I’m particularly happy to learn that Doyle put in a decent performance. He’s looked a real bright spark in the games I’ve seen him play, but there’s been a few murmurs of discontent pointed in his direction, on lesser forums and message boards of course.
I’m salivating over the prospect of a front four of Kightly, Doyle, SEB & Jarvis and the havoc they could cause the lesser teams, particularly away from home where they can counter attack at the speed of light.
p.s. the master of doing nothing and then getting on the scoresheet was Vio Ganea. He’d go completely missing from matches but then conjure up a top class finish from a half chance. What a legend.
andrewwfc. Wotcha mate. Sadly, I can’t see BCI figuring for us again, save for one or two cameos off the bench. Agree that he’ll probably be off in January. Hope I’m wrong. I just loved him from the moment I saw his first sub appearance v Blackburn. A real breath of fresh air. I’m sure Samba was glad he’s injured, as Chris flung him around Molineux like a rag doll in that pre season friendly.
I could go on, but this blog doesn’t need another post from me about why I love him!!