Wolves Vs Man Utd Preview

February 4, 2011 By

With the bitter taste of Wednesday’s last-gasp defeat at Bolton still lodged in the back of our throats, Wolves entertain a rampant Man United side in a classic top versus bottom scrap.

This will be the third time Wolves have faced Sir Alex Ferguson’s men this season following two narrow last-minute heartbreakers at Old Trafford.

At least Park won't be playing (hopefully)

The league defeat back in November was particularly galling when you consider Steven Fletcher squandered an unbelievable chance to put us ahead and then inexplicably gave the ball away in the 94th minute leading to Park’s dramatic late winner.

That game perfectly encapsulated exactly why we find ourselves propping up the table. Missed chances and silly mistakes. Inconsistency.

And you can be sure that if we don’t remain focused for the duration of tomorrow’s encounter, we’ll again end up with diddly squat (I’m looking at you Ronald Zubar).

It’s probably best to steer clear of assessing United’s form, given that they haven’t lost a single league game all season. And if anything, they’ve stepped up their performance levels in recent weeks, culminating in a convincing win over an improved Villa side on Wednesday.

However, they’ve won only 3 of their 11 away games and having seen the problems Blackpool caused them last week, they’re far from invincible on their travels. It will also be interesting to see how the likes of Nani, Rooney and Berbatov cope with our disintegrating pitch. Maybe that could count in our favour?

I wonder whether Mick will be thinking about going 4-4-2 and pressing United high up the pitch in much the same way we did against Chelsea? Probably not. I reckon we’ll go for strength in numbers again and pack out the midfield. My guess at the starting XI is:

Hennessy

Zubar
Berra
Stearman
Elokobi

Hammill
Henry
Milijas
O’Hara
Jarvis

Doyle

That’s the eleven I’d pick too.

I think 4-5-1 is the way forward, but we need to get the ball down and play a bit more, which means bringing in players who can pick out passes. Milijas should never have been dropped in the first place and O’Hara showed enough glimpses of promise against Bolton to warrant a longer run-out. I’d be disappointed if neither started tomorrow.

Prediction League

Well done to Kowloon Wolf for being the only armchair pundit who correctly predicted a 1-0 defeat. He picks up the maximum 3 points.

10 others said we’d lose but none said 1-0, so they all pick up a point each.

I’ve got to forecast defeat tomorrow. I think we’ll put in another good performance, but again I fancy we’ll come up short. 3-1 United.

However, all of United’s big names featured against Villa on Wednesday so I’d wager Sir Alex will rest some of them. The strength of the team he puts out will have a bearing on how the game pans out.

If we can play to our full potential (e.g. Chelsea at home) and get a bit of luck, we could turn the table on it’s head. Here’s hoping.

If you’re part of the sold-out crowd tomorrow evening, have a great time and roar the lads on.

Up The Wolves.

Man Utd 2 Wolves 1

November 7, 2010 By

‘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.

Man Utd Vs Wolves Preview

November 5, 2010 By

Following last weekend’s fantastic victory over Man City, Wolves make the short journey up the M6 to Old Trafford with renewed confidence and a genuine belief that another positive result can be achieved.

Wolves will need to be aware of Hernandez

The players know the ground well of course, this being our fourth visit to the Theatre of Dreams in the last year. Two narrow defeats in the League Cup sandwich that infamous game last December, where Mick McCarthy rested all ten outfield players from the win at Tottenham and ignited a media frenzy that annoyingly raged on for months.

The less said about that the better.

That was then, this is now.

I fully expect our manager to pick the same eleven that performed heroically last weekend, which would mean a team of:

Hahnemann

Foley
Berra
Stearman
Ward

Hunt
Henry
Milijas
Edwards
Jarvis

Doyle

By contrast, the United side will be missing a few familiar faces. Rooney, Giggs, Valencia and Nani are all sidelined, with Fletcher and Ferdinand also struggling to make it.

Still, we all know that whatever side Sir Alex picks will be more than capable of putting us to the sword, but with so many important players ruled out, you can’t help but wonder whether an upset could be on the cards.

United have won four and drawn one at home thus far, with Albion the only side to come away from Old Trafford with a point. Unfortunately, the likelihood of Van der Saar dropping a simple cross on his goal line against us is probably too much to hope for, so we’ll need another big team performance if we’re to emerge with anything.

Prediction League

Last weekend, three people correctly predicted that Wolves would beat Man City 2-1. So congratulations to Mark Davies, Jub and er, me, for picking up the maximum. These are the days and Rob also added a point to their totals by guessing the outcome but not the correct score.

I’ve opened up a pretty sizable lead at the top of the overall table,  but we’re still only a quarter of the way through the season, so everything to play for.

This weekend, because of the injury problems United are facing, our good form and just because I think we’re due a decent result at Old Trafford, I’m going for a draw. 1-1.

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

Up The Wolves.

* I was invited to call in and have a chat with the United fans at the RedCafe.net podcast last night and if you’d like to take a listen, here’s the link. My call is just after the 27 minute mark.

Man Utd 3 Wolves 2

October 27, 2010 By

I’ll keep this short and to the point.

A highly irritating defeat, given the overall balance of play and the chances we created but you simply can’t afford to be profligate in front of goal at Old Trafford and expect to get a result.

Big George scored his first goal for Wolves

With that said, rather than go into detail, here are just one or two thoughts on each player’s individual performance:

Hennessy – Handled and kicked well throughout. Wasn’t at fault for any of the goals, but will be disappointed to have shipped three in the second half.

Foley – A brilliant performance both defensively and going forward, capped with a neat finish for the second goal.

Berra – You know what you get from the Scotsman. Good in the air and largely reliable but his lack of pace sometimes gets him in trouble.

Mouyokolo – Good in the air, a nice turn of pace and some clever distribution. The first time I’ve seen this guy properly and he was impressive. Could he challenge Stearman for a place on Saturday?

Elokobi – I think big George can be pretty pleased with his effort. Bebe stumbled his way passed a few times, but on the whole, our giant full-back came out on top. Timed his run perfectly to power home his first goal for Wolves and must surely be pushing Ward hard for a game at left-back.

Hunt – In his first competitive start, Hunt was pretty slow to get going and had an appalling first half hour. Looked sharper in the second half though and came close to giving us the lead, but could only hit the top of the bar from a glorious chance. Could and probably should start against City on Saturday.

Mancienne – On the huge Old Trafford pitch and with only Jones for company in the middle, the Chelsea youngster struggled to anchor the midfield as well as he has in previous games, but probably did as well as he could have under the circumstances.

Jones – Hit and miss from David Jones for me. Picked out some clever passes and was often the player giving Jarvis the ammunition to cause havoc, but he does have the tendency to dawdle on the ball and lose possession in his own half. Certainly looks more comfortable in a five man midfield than a four.

Jarvis – Man of the Match and not just for Wolves either. Easily the most dangerous looking player on the pitch and caused United all kinds of headaches with his pace and trickery. Sir Alex even sent Gary Neville on with obvious instructions to stop our winger getting in behind, but Jarvo just dropped his shoulder and sped passed the veteran without breaking sweat.

Fletcher – Sorry to say it, but Fletch really irritated me throughout this game. Aside from the intelligent flick inside for Foley’s goal, he was largely anonymous and nothing he tried seem to come off. At such an early stage, you’ve got to be willing to put it down to a bad day at the office, but for a £7 million striker, he must do better.

SEB – In stark contrast to Fletcher, SEB really impressed me. Had his work cut out against Chris Smalling but held the ball up when he could, picked out his passes and came within a whisker of finding the back of the net, first with a fierce drive that was blocked on route to goal and then with a sweetly struck effort that flew agonisingly wide with the keeper rooted to the spot.

Mick McCarthy - I applaud Mick for putting out a strong side and giving United a real game, but the substitutions towards the end defied logic. Surely Jarvis and SEB could have managed five minutes more to see if they could win us the game inside the 90 minutes. Fair enough, take them off if we’re into extra-time, but I think I speak for the overwhelming majority of Wolves supporters when I say I’d have liked to have seen those two players given the chance to finish the job.

Man Utd Vs Wolves Preview

October 26, 2010 By

When it comes to the League Cup, I’ll hold my hand up and admit I’ve been a fair-weather fan.

I didn’t go to our extra-time wins against Southend and Notts County, nor did I even bother doing a match report for either.

Danny Wellbeck scored the only goal in last season's tie

But now Wolves are heading to Old Trafford competing for a place in the quarter-finals, things have got that little bit more interesting.

So yes, I’m crawling out of the woodwork.

In fact, we all should be, considering Wolves haven’t made it to the quarters since Coca-Cola sponsored the competition 15 years ago.

Come, join me.

Realistically though, what are our chances against the only side in England yet to have been defeated in any competition thus far?

Well, United will be fielding a second-string, so if Mick picks a decent eleven, there’s every chance we could, at the very least, give them a run for their money. He’s been quoted as saying:

“It’s a full strength team that’s going out. There are a few changes from Saturday but it’s a first-team that’s playing – nothing in any shape or manner of a reserve team by any stretch of the imagination.”

I won’t hold my breath, considering he said the same thing last season after he’d changed all 10 outfield players for the league game.

This is something like the team I’d expect to see:

Hennessy

Elokobi
Mouyokolo
Stearman
Foley

Mujangi-Bia
Mancienne
Edwards
Hunt

Fletcher
SEB

Mick is bound to give Hennessy, Elokobi, Mouyokolo and SEB a run-out. Mancienne will be fresh after his weekend off, so he’ll almost certainly play and the remainder are those who either need a game to regain fitness or simply have to play as there’s nobody else.

I wouldn’t expect to see the likes of young Danny Batth starting at Old Trafford, but he and other youngsters could be named amongst the substitutes.

Perhaps Mick will surprise me by picking a stronger eleven, but I imagine he’ll consider Saturday’s home game against City the priority and rest the likes of Doyle, Jarvis and Milijas.

As for a prediction, I feel we’ll probably come up short, as United always seem to find a way of winning these games. Last season, even with a man advantage for nearly the whole game, they still beat us comfortably, which was highly depressing.

I’ll go for 3-2 to United. (This doesn’t count towards the Prediction League by the way. That’s only for Premier League games.)

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

Up The Wolves.

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