One of the biggest criticisms of Mick McCarthy and his team in recent weeks has been ‘not having a go’ at the opposition.

Well today, whatever else you might accuse them of, Wolves most certainly had a go.

The team selection was bold; sticking with two forwards and effectively going blow for blow with the reigning champions.

Not close enough

Looking back on it now of course, that approach seems foolish given that we were completely blown away inside the first half an hour.

The gaping holes that appeared between midfield and defence during that time were suicidal, giving Wayne Rooney freedom to roam throughout.

The England striker eventually made us pay too with a rasping drive to double the lead, after Nani’s carbon-copy opener.

I felt the central midfield duo were highly culpable for this first half struggle. Henry was caught in possession a number of times and looked off the pace. O’Hara just seemed to go missing in the defensive third.

In the coverage I was watching, Gary Breen and Matt Holland both offered some excellent insights. One of the points they repeated numerous times was that O’Hara isn’t mobile enough to play as part of a two man central midfield. You’re hard pressed to disagree, particularly away from home against one of the top sides.

Both Nani and Rooney were able to get their shots away far too easily, shown inside and allowed to pull the trigger. Great finishes but still very disappointing.

The second half was better and Wolves deserve credit for getting back into it, even if it only lasted for 10 minutes.

It was nice build up play too with a handful of neat passes leading up to a wonderful Jarvis cross and a trademark Fletcher header.

That good work was wiped out with Nani and Rooney grabbing another goal apiece to leave us wondering how many more it would be.

Thankfully, Wolves managed to get a foot on the ball for the last half an hour and enjoy more of the possession. United still should have had a couple more goals, but Wolves were unquestionably worth at least another one themselves; something Sir Alex himself pointed out in his post-match interview.

The biggest positive today was without doubt the performance of Matt Jarvis. He twisted, turned and terrorised Chris Smalling all afternoon, putting over a handful of excellent crosses to match his incisive running.

Mick McCarthy said prior to this match that he’d accepted Jarvis needs to play down the left and I think that’s crucial because he’s considerably more effective when he’s in that comfort zone, facing the play with the ball on his right foot.

Ward and Zubar were both pluses for me too. Yes, they struggled against the pace and trickery of Nani, Valencia and co, but they stuck to their tasks and got forward effectively when they could, particularly Ward whose interchange with Jarvis down the left is our most potent attacking weapon.

There wasn’t much to separate the performances of the two forwards, but the crucial difference is that Fletcher is the only one who looks a threat in front of goal. Doyle again didn’t get on the end of anything in the box, which is disappointing even against such lofty opposition.

Milijas was neat and tidy but again a lack of mobility in a 442 is a huge issue with the Serb. It seems increasingly likely that Mick will be in the market for an energetic midfielder come January. Edwards can of course occupy this role but quality in the ball remains a problem for him.

Overall, we can only accept that we were overwhelmed by a better side with better players. There were mistakes but 3 of the 4 goals were excellent finishes, however the chances came about.

Stoke will represent an altogether different obstacle next week, which should be one this Wolves side are more capable of overcoming.

If they have a go like they did today, they shouldn’t go too far wrong.

With Man Utd crashing out of the Champions League on Wednesday night, I’d say it’s about the worst time to be heading to Old Trafford.

Good players and good teams respond and Sir Alex will demand nothing less than comprehensive victory.

Park's late winner denied us a point last season

With that in mind, I wouldn’t bank on him fielding a weakened team, as he did in this very fixture last season.

We should have got something out of that game, squandering a glorious chance to take the lead at 1-1, before conceding a soft injury time goal.

If we come anywhere near that close to getting something out of this match, we’ll have played very well.

United were of course thumped 6-1 on their ground by City not so long ago, but to put that defeat into context, it was their only loss in 14 Premiership fixtures.  They’ve won 10 of the other 13.

The Team

I feel a bit for Mick McCarthy this weekend. Whatever team he puts out, we’re highly likely to lose and his tactics torn to pieces as a consequence.

If we play 442 and get tonked, he’ll be accused of being too open. If we go 451 and lose narrowly, people will say he rolled over.

Tricky.

The two big decisions are the shape of the side and whether or not to put Karl Henry straight back in?

This is the eleven I think we’ll see:

Hennessey, Zubar, Berra, Johnson, Ward, Henry, O'Hara, Edwards, Jarvis, Doyle, Fletcher

So that’s Hunt dropping out, Edwards moving over to the right and Henry back in alongside O’Hara.

I’d be very surprised if Henry was left out, so I think it will most likely be 442 as above or 451, with Doyle dropping out.

Prediction League

Well done to the 24 pundits who correctly guessed we’d beat Sunderland.

10 of those 24 also got the 2-1 scoreline so it’s 3 points all round for those clever chaps.

So congratulations to Morph, Hamstall Ridware Wolf, Stourbridge Wolf, johnok, Michigan Wolf, Ade in China, Exeter Wolf, Vladimir, Clemens and of course, me.

Special mentions for Stourbridge who aside from getting the score right also said Fletch would get both our goals and for Exeter Wolf, who moves up to top spot in the overall league.

This weekend, I must predict defeat. 4-1 United.

I’m hoping we’ll put on a decent performance and offer some resistance. A capitulation like we saw at Stamford Bridge would not be welcome.

If you’re heading to Old Trafford, have a great time and get right behind the lads.

Up The Wolves.

* Apologies for the lack of posts this week. Busy, busy. More to come next week to make up for it. Can I also repeat my encouragement for people to visit http://en.gravatar.com/ to get a personalised picture to sit alongside their comments. Thanks!

‘Oh, you silly, silly buggers’ is all I could despondently muster on both United’s goals yesterday.

Like a disappointed parent to a clumsy child, or a dogwalker to their mut caught up in its own lead, Wolves had reduced me to lamely cursing into my copy of United Preview. It was beyond expletives in both instances: the first for hapless defending, and the second for, well, it just being so typical and predictable.

Park was once again Wolves tormentor

Not necessarily a game to write home about, we nonetheless played well against a weaker United team, who started the game with the busy Hernandez surprisingly pretty much alone up front, and with Owen Hargreaves making his first appearance in a United shirt since Slade were last top of the charts.

You couldn’t not to feel for the guy as he limped off within ten minutes of the game starting with what looked like a niggly hamstring injury – it served as a harsh reminder of the potentially tricky path that our own Michael Kightly still faces.

Starting with the same line-up for the City game, we were being gifted things on a plate by United to us to a certain extent in the first half. Misplaced crosses and an overall lack of involvement from the likes of O’Shea and Fletcher allowed us to continually find our man of the moment, Matt Jarvis who, along with an increasingly confident Stephen Hunt, enjoyed the best of the exchanges on the wings. Hunt’s lunge for a Matt Jarvis cross should have seen us take the lead, but it was a gaping hole left for Park to run in to that benefitted United instead at the end of the first half.

In spite of their lead, United were out of sorts: Bebe and Obertan were often chief culprits for the Old Trafford crowd, and we continued to pick up the ball as United attacks broke down. In the centre, I’d say we were ‘steady’ – Milijas found some great balls and made one or two great tackles as well, but Karl Henry was the busier – bar his role in the first United goal, he had a great game. At the back, I thought Berra and Stearman worked well together to nullify most of what United threw at us.

Credit to Mick – he sniffed an opportunity in the second half and took it, bringing our Number 9 on with Fletcher to go three up front with Doyle. It paid of quickly: a well built, patient attack eventually saw the ball fired at the feet of SEB, and took a true striker’s goal; strongly holding off Vidic and then swivelling to shoot between Van Der Saar’s legs: a proper SEB bit of business.

With it paying off so soon though, it meant another twenty minutes of the game to go. When Scholes came on we were still creating chances, but United were also finding some rhythm in spite of an impatient home crowd.

I’ll leave our friend in Houston to lament on Park’s goal, as unfortunately Ward was found wanting as the Korean made use of the space afforded to him, jinking in to the box and beating Hahnemann.

With two United supporters and an Aussie for company at the game, it made for a difficult post-match assessment. No matter how much I could have talked about a ‘good’ performance and slight sense of injustice, they more than anybody know that to be ‘great’ takes something different.