After the humbling defeat to Arsenal, the last place Wolves probably want to go right now is Stamford Bridge. I think it’s safe to describe Chelsea’s home ground as ‘the mother’ of all fortresses. This season in particular they’ve been painfully ruthless, winning all 6 of their games, scoring 16 goals along the way and conceding just one (and that was way back on the opening day).
So, smell an upset?
Carlo Ancelotti - Perfect home record in the league so far
You’d certainly be a brave man to expect Wolves to leave London on Saturday evening with anything other than a good hiding. But stranger things have happened and with a good performance (particularly in defence), maybe, just maybe, we can ruffle a few feathers and dare I even suggest it, get a result.
Team news from their camp perhaps offers small crumbs of comfort. Frank Lampard is definitely out, which is good to hear, for the obvious reason that he’s a top player, but also because he has an annoying tendency of scoring against Wolves. Ashley Cole and Bosingwa are both sidelined, with Didier Drogba another potential absentee. Of course the players likely to come in will still be a class above the names on our teamsheet, so like I say, small crumbs.
What’s more important to me is the side that Mick McCarthy picks and the performance that team produces. Our manager learned some harsh lessons against Arsenal, which he himself has since admitted. We don’t want to just sit back and let the top sides dominate us, which is admirable, but we have to be solider defensively against the big boys. And for me, that means sacrificing a striker for a midfielder.
I think Mick will do this on Saturday and opt for 4-5-1. The one glaring omission from this predicted lineup is Kevin Doyle. It won’t please the fans (including me) to see him left out, but I do believe he’ll be rested, given that he’s played two games in a week for Ireland. So my guess for the starting XI reads:
Hennessy
Zubar
Craddock
Berra
Stearman
Kightly
Henry
Castillo
Edwards
Jarvis
SEB
Regardless of whether this turns out to be the starting lineup or not, what Wolves must not do on Saturday, is gift Chelsea goals. If we get undone by a moment (or two) of real quality, fair enough. But in games of this nature, you can’t afford to make any mistakes. We found that out the hard way against Arsenal.
Chelsea don’t have the same fluidity to their play as the Gunners, nobody does, but they do have an incredibly effective style and know exactly how to win games of football. In fact, I’d go as far to say that if Wolves find themselves behind at any point in this match, it’s an almost-certainty that we won’t find a way back.
A cleansheet seems incredibly unlikely, so we’ll probably need at least one goal to get anything from the game. That doesn’t seem too unrealistic and they’re long overdue to concede at home. Maybe 1-1 is the most likely positive result for Wolves.
Unfortunately, I don’t see the game panning out like that. They’re a strong side all over the pitch, particularly at Stamford Bridge and I think we’re in for a difficult afternoon. I’m going for 3-0 to Chelsea, but hoping for an unlikely upset.
If you’ve paid the excessive premium to go to the match (like me), have a great time and roar the lads on. The away support this season has been nothing short of phenomenal.
Up The Wolves.
I was discussing with my honours supervisor (Coventry Fan) the other day, and we agreed Chelsea are the most distasteful of the “big 4″. I would love to stick it up em, a scare will do them no good, but for them to drop points would be just lovely. Here’s to hoping.
Ok I have my big tin hat on and I’ll need it because I think if we are going to play 4-5-1 then SEB should not start. If Thomas is right and Doyle is to be rested then there can only be one other choice and that’s Andrew Keogh. He will run his socks off and cause problems for Chelsea’s back line, he won’t score (that’s a given) but he may just make space for Kightly Edwards or Jarvis to smash one home. SEB for me isn’t a lone striker, he needs to feed off someone, and he doesn’t chase the ball enough to have that berth all to himself. If SEB starts up front on his own then I think we will be doomed!
So my team matches Thomas exactly other than SEB to be replaced preferably with Doyle but if not, Keogh. We will probably lose but it would be great if we managed to sneak a point.
I’m off to the shelter the air raid siren is wailing!
Haha, not the worst shout ever Jed. Remember, we have not won a game this season without Keogh in the starting XI (tin hat attached, pot stirred).
I like keogh. Give the lad a chance. *beast now prodded*
It’s not a bad shout to bring Keogh back, in the respect that he’s probably the best player to deploy as a lone striker (assuming we do go 4-5-1).
On the other hand, our one golden chance might well fall to our striker, so you could argue that we need someone who’ll stick it in the onion bag.
Quite a dilemma.
I see Doyle played 120 minutes last night. I’m guessing he’ll have the day off tomorrow and maybe train on Friday. Still expect him to be rested on Saturday.
t’OM, that’s an excellent point that we haven’t won a game without Keogh in the side. To be fair though, we’ve only won 2.
Deary me, what would we all argue about if Andy Keogh wasn’t around?
I don’t think it’s personal. Fat Frank has an annoying habit of scoring against just about anybody. If Drogba, Cole, Lampard etc are out injured, let’s hope Anelka is knackered too after last night’s efforts.
I’m a bit worried about Mick’s apparent decision to start picking his team according to the opposition (Iwelumo at Stoke, no wingers v Arsenal). The most exciting thing for me about this coming season was the was the chance to see what our two wingers (perfect, surely, for the 4-5-1 system) could do in the Premier league. Clearly Kightly hasn’t been fit but I’m not really sure what Jarvis has done wrong and with no recognised left back fit to play I really think he has to play if only to help out in that area
Jed – I agree with you that we should play Doyle and maybe even Keogh over SEB. But if we only get one chance lets hope they can put it away
Can’t see anything other than a defeat but who knows, maybe they’ll miss a hatfull and we’ll scrape a point. Here’s hoping!
Ashley Cole reckons he will play and John Terry is in full training, maybe that means they will play and not really be fit. I can imagine Chelsea not playing them as it is us, but it sounds like a lot of their players and coming back.
Cole, Terry, Lampard, Drogba, Ballack, Zhirkov could all miss out yet they still have a very strong team, we need to really go for it. I hope both Kightly and Jarvis start, with Castillo, Henry and Edwards in the middle. Edwards will be important in this match, he will work his socks off and annoy their team.
I don’t know about Keogh ahead of SEB. He may work harder but he’s not a finisher and we need either Doyle/SEB to put away that vital chance we may get!
Chelsea’s defence have a great record this season, with Rooney, Berbatov, Torres, Defoe and Keane all failing to score. Seeing as how they seem to have no problem dealing with natural goalscorers, lets see what they make of Andy Keogh instead…
We only won with Keogh because he played against the shit teams. Those performances/results against the shit teams are why we’re in the bottom 3.
First post on this blog!
Would love Doyle to play, but i think we gotta rest him to prevent possible injury. This is as complete the squad has been for some time, and we dont really want to have a bad run of injuries again.
Im not sure if 4-5-1 is the go, im still thinking that we gotta have 4-4-2.
Hennessy
Zubar-Craddock-Berra-Stearman
Kightly-Henry-Castillo-Jarvis
Keogh-SEB
SEB is wiley. as Jed said, if keogh works his socks off and the midfield get some decent pressure happening, SEB will be guaranteed to be in the right place at the right time
.
If that doesnt work, bring Milijas on (again), and heres the card no one has been expecting…. Maierhofer! Big, big lad, needs to prove himself, and although hes not the most terrific ball controller, he knows how to smash one home if the ball comes his way. Even if it is a 4-5-1, he should be allowed to team up with milijas at some stage or another, we seem to be scoring goals from corners and other set pieces, so what harm could some height do?
Im putting money on a Wolves win / draw. A wolves win is paying 30AUD on betfair, im putting a bit on that too.
Jub, welcome to the party mate. Please feel free to make commenting a regular occurrence.
I like your lineup and there’s good logic there. I heard Zubar is struggling with a thigh injury but Foley is considered ‘fit’, so will be interesting to see what happens there.
The Hoff is always a good option as teams simply won’t know what to make of him. I think Mick has played if carefully with him so far though. I wonder if he might be given a start at some point. He might not even be on the bench once Iwelumo is back.
You’re a braver man than me to put money on a result for Wolves. I like the odds, but they’re that good for a reason.
It should be us that is resting players.Whatever 11 we care to choose will not be good enough to get anything at the Bridge.So lets take the opportunity to avoid injuries to key players , and keep them for the following weeks against so called lesser opposition.If Zubar is 50-50..dont play him, rest Doyle, rest Craddock and play Hahnemann.
no need to be so defeatist dazza
.
this is the best chance any team has gotten in the prem this whole season.
our best case scenario is bosingwa, ashley cole, terry, ballack, drogba, lampard all out, which there is a very good chance of. If these guys are out, their second string side, no matter how good and high profile names they might be, wont have the same fluidity. and even if a few of these guys do come back from injury, they wont be at their tip top shape.
why not capitalise on this and play our best team? wigan beat chelsea (i know it wasnt at stamford), so we can also beat chelsea. we have nothing to lose. even if we do lose, we would have gained valuable momentum going into next weeks clash.
However I agree that we shouldnt push our injured players, with zubar if he isnt considered 100%, especially cause we have foley back now. as with doyle if both mick and doyle himself dont agree he can do the best for wolves.
Come on wolves
PS thanks for the warm welcome thomas
McCarthy’s tactics were all wrong today. 3-5-2 was a terrible formation to play, and our players just didn’t have a clue how to play this system. Woeful defending again, and I’m sorry but as I said before, SEB up top alone just doesn’t work. Jarvis was the only shining light but not really until he went to the left wing, other than the early chance that is. I was embarrassed during the first half, truly embarrassed. Hopefully we can turn it on at home next week because if we don’t then we really are in serious trouble!
SEB is out of his depth at this level, and, as I said, we had no chance of getting anything from this game.A bit of effort wouldn’t have gone amiss though.
He nearly scored a great goal dazza.