Wolves Vs Swansea Preview

October 20, 2011 By

Over the last two and a bit Premier League seasons Wolves have definitely gone into games in worse positions, yet somehow I don’t think Mick McCarthy has ever needed a win more than he does on Saturday.

SEB scored twice in a 2-1 win in our last meeting

With the fans frustrated, the ability of every single player called into question and his own head firmly on the chopping block, nothing but three points will diminish the mounting pressure.

Should five defeats in a row become six ahead of a trip to Man City, both his and the team’s prospects would be decidedly bleak.

But if past experience is anything to go by we know that McCarthy and Wolves are often at their most dangerous when they’re firmly up against it.

And on paper at least, you couldn’t ask for better opponents than Swansea.

From four away fixtures thus far, they’ve registered four defeats. However, it should be noted they have already visited the Emirates, the Etihad Stadium and Stamford Bridge, losing out most recently at Carrow Road last weekend.

We know they’re a pacy, we know they like to get it down and pass so there shouldn’t be any surprises in that respect. The challenge for Wolves is to effectively combat this style and enforce our game onto them.

The Team

With Swansea almost certain to lineup 451, I’ll be amazed if Mick doesn’t match them like for like, particularly with Steven Fletcher ruled out.

The back four, the front one and two of the midfielders are almost certain to remain the same. Filling in the rest of the gaps isn’t quite so easy. This is the team I reckon we might see:

Hennessey, Stearman, Berra, Johnson, Ward, Henry, O'Hara, Milijas, Hunt, Jarvis, Doyle

So that’s one change with Hunt in for Hammill. I just feel Mick might go with the experience and tenacity of Hunt for this one. If the Irishman has one of his big games it just lifts the whole team and we desperately need a vintage Hunt performance in this one.

Guedioura and Edwards are probably both in with a shout too and the former is definitely overdue a start in the Premier League. SEB is also available if Mick decides 442 is the way to go, which I hope he doesn’t.

Prediction League

Six people said we’d lose to Albion last time out. Two got the score spot on.

So well done to Kowloon Wolf and martin for picking up the maximum three points on offer.

The rest get a single point.

robin changed his prediction from a 2-0 loss to a 2-0 win ten minutes before kick-off after hearing Milijas and Hammill were playing. Sorry matey, have to take your final answer.

This weekend, I’m going for a home win.

There’s no logic, I just can’t bear to face the prospect of another home defeat so I’m burying my head in the sand.

It’s imperative they’re out of the blocks quickly and on the front foot. We need to be the team building momentum and asking questions.

3-1 Wolves.

If you’re at Molineux for this one have a great time and lets all roar the lads on from the first kick.

Up The Wolves.

Rallying call

October 19, 2011 By

From day one, there has been a section of Wolves fans that have never taken to Mick McCarthy.

I’ve always thought that to be insane, as you will have seen with my comments over the last couple of seasons on this very blog.

Maybe it was because Mick was given the nod over fan’s choice Paul Ince that some refused to give him a chance.

Still number one for many

You would have thought his first season would have eradicated that feeling completely, when our team managed to make the play off places against all the odds (we were favourites to be relegated after the mess H*ddle left us in).

Of course there was one match where we showed that kind of form.

Southampton at home.

Matt Murray had one of his worst games ever, Michael Kightly missed a penalty and we lost six nil. The fans sang ‘Super Mick McCarthy’.

Even at ten years old I understood that this would be a rare sight, but I was proud to say my club’s fans stuck by our team whether we won, drew or lost.

Can we say that right now though?

Yes, our form has deteriorated. Yes, we have just lost to our arch rivals. Yes, our key players are letting us down right now. But it’s times like these when we need our support to be louder than ever. All of us.

The fans and club are getting further apart, but you can do your bit to stop that.

When the Molineux faithful want to be, they are a rowdy lot and the Golden Palace can be an intimidating place. We are the type of team who feeds off that atmosphere and our more competent performances stem from it.

In my opinion, it’s one of the factors of why we play better against the big teams. Like the players, the fans are more up for it than against the Wigans, the Norwichs and dare I say it the Swanseas.

So when you are watching our beloved team on Saturday, whatever you think of the manager, whatever you think of his selection and whatever you think of this or that player, give them your support.

Cheer them on, make some noise and you will get a positive reaction. Because the players are soft like that.

The ‘Three M’ Myth

October 17, 2011 By

When a football manager uses more vitriol to criticise a T-shirt designed by a child than the unsightly picture painted by his team, then you know times are desperate.

For Mick McCarthy however, Paul Sharner’s vest should be the very last sight to cause such discomfort, judging by recent boardroom history at Wolves.

The vision of a training ground ‘public no-zone’ until the end of the week will occupy Mick’s mind more than an innocent portrait of a throstle. And so it should.

Safe as houses mate

So too a ‘Fat Controller’ whose ‘previous’ with failing managers would appear to know no bounds.

Forget the comfy ‘Three M’s’ mantra that is banded around liberally like a party manifesto pledge.

It stands for pretty much everything else that a Moxey statement stands for…

…Spin.

As soon as the natives turn restless, so too will Jez Moxey. Don’t take my word for it either.

The annals of time have virtually muted that phone conversation with Radio WM, where Jez openly lied on air in a ploy to push Colin Lee firmly into the lunatic asylum.

Thinking he was hallucinating, Lee became the first manager in modern history to phone a radio presenter to call his boss a liar (over the sale of Ade Akinbiye), to the astonishment of a region.

No sooner had Paul Franks replaced the receiver than Jez Moxey was writing the P45.

Then there was Dave Jones, whose relationship with our chief executive would make Mick McCarthy’s appear positively mother-in-law like.

Didn’t they go trawling round Portugal together for Euro 2004 in a camper van, in a bro-mance boasting everything bar a pair of check shirts?

Brokeback Mountain never looked so far away in November of that year though, when Jones was sacked and promptly gagged from ever talking about it.

And then there was Glenn Hoddle, whose dismal, pathetic reign as Wolves manager shouldn’t airbrush a pretty cheap public humiliation, this time in Jez’s programme notes before a typically dour draw.

Without Hoddle’s prior knowledge or consent, and just as the natives were piping up for a chorus of ‘we want Hoddle out’, Jez wrote the following: “It has to be said that most of us feel that this season has been a complete disaster because of where we are likely to finish in the league table.

With the blue touchpaper lit, Moxey stood back and rubbed his hands, before remembering to downplay the matter as a simple ‘attempt to boost sales.’

Within five minutes he was on the phone to the Express & Star demanding a fans-vote on the subject of who they want as next manager, despite Hoddle still being in a job!

Times change in football, but one thing at Molineux never will: Jez Moxey’s ability to rewrite his own soundbites when the going gets tough.

If we lose against Swansea City on Saturday, I will put Paul Scharner’s T-shirt on it.

West Brom 2 Wolves 0

October 16, 2011 By

After taking 7 points from the first 3 games, Mick McCarthy brushed off the achievement and defiantly proclaimed we still had 35 matches to worry about.

He was right to be concerned.

5 defeats on the bounce have since followed, all demoralising but perhaps none highlighted the shortcomings of this Wolves side more than today’s.

This is how you finish

Sloppy at the back, clumsy going forward and lacking any real pace at both ends of the pitch.

Albion’s early opener was a neat, incisive move, capped by the type of thunderous finish Wolves frankly seemed incapable of, particularly in the absence of Steven Fletcher.

Nenad Milijas is one player who does have the capacity and the Serbian’s low drive was about as close as we came to an equaliser.

I was ecstatic to see him back in the side and despite a few misplaced passes, he looked by far and away the most likely route to goal. He should not have been taken off.

Despite enjoying plenty of possession, Wolves struggled to create throughout. By contrast, one hoof up the field was enough to unlock our cumbersome back four.

Shane Long was too hot to handle for both our center backs. His pace was always going to be a problem, but the number of aerial balls he was allowed to flick on or bring down was horrifying.

Johnson in particular had an awful game, exposed frequently by Long’s dancing feet. He also fluffed Wolves’ best chance, heading wide when it seemed easier to score just before Albion registered the decisive second.

And how long will it be before Berra costs us dear with his antics inside his own penalty area? It’s not the first time we’ve seen the Scot wrestling opposition players to the ground from a corner and it needs to stop. It’s cheating and it’s embarrassing. If you’re not good enough to defend, you shouldn’t be in the side.

Thank goodness for Stephen Ward.

We’re 8 matches into this season and he’s the only player to consistently meet the standards required.

Had it not been for his determination, bravery and all round awareness today, we’d have been out of this game, long, long before Peter Odemwingie finally put the result beyond doubt.

And how predictable was it that while Doyle, Jarvis and Hammill consistently tripped over themselves in promising positions, one decisive swing of the Nigerian’s boot would be all it took to end the contest?

With the possible exception of Fletcher, we just don’t possess that kind of direct threat.

There is absolutely zero cutting edge.

The ball goes into the box over and over and over again but nobody can get on the end of anything. Nobody can register a clean strike on goal. It’s pathetic.

Our manager will now face a stern examination next weekend in front of an impatient Molineux crowd.

I hope for his sake, he has the answers.

West Brom Vs Wolves Preview

October 14, 2011 By

If recent history has taught us anything, it’s that Albion have developed a rather unpleasant knack of coming out on top.

Take last season.

Four points from six against our near-neighbours would suggest the Black Country belonged to Wolves, but dig deeper and you might well come to an altogether different conclusion.

We were all sucking our thumbs at full-time

For starters, the point at the Hawthorns, whether we like it or not, felt like a defeat.

That late Carlos Vela goal also provided the shot in the arm the Baggies needed to embark on an impressive run of form, which saw them comfortably sidestep the relegation drama.

Of course we deservedly overcame Roy’s boys later in the season; a result that proved decisive in preserving our own Premier League status.

But somehow even that crucial victory felt like winning a battle rather than a war.

The same could be said for this game.

Sure, a win on their patch would go a long way towards exorcising the demons of the last decade, but it’s only one battle.

Sitting above them after 38 matches would win us a war.

As luck would have it, we actually go into this match 2 points and 3 places above over dear rivals, but a home win would obviously overturn that in an instant.

Omen? I hope not.

Both teams are struggling, but perhaps in different ways.

Albion have yet to really fire, while Wolves have misfired after a shotgun start. This game will either be a major a tonic for someone or another great anti-climax. I’m predicting the latter but more on that later.

The Team

After all the Karl Henry kerfuffle of two weeks ago, Mick’s team selection will be interesting for this one. Personally, I’d be looking for him to go 451, drop Doyle to the bench and bring in another midfielder, preferably Guedioura or Milijas.

I don’t think he’ll do that though, I think he’ll stick with the same starting eleven that lost to Newcastle.

Hennessey, Ward, Johnson, Berra, Stearman, Henry, O'Hara, Hunt, Jarvis, Doyle, Fletcher

You’d expect Hammill and Guedioura to both be pushing hard for starts, whilst the bench will likely be bolstered by the fit-again duo of Ronald Zubar and SEB.

Prediction League

8 people correctly predicted defeat against Newcastle and half got the score too, so 3 points and a pat on the back go to ben, Exeter Wolf, Putney Wolf and Michigan Wolf.

I think this one will be a draw.

Both sides need the win but neither will want to contemplate losing. I can see that having an effect on the play.

I’ll go for 2-2.

If you’re going to this one, have a great time, stay out of trouble and get right behind the lads.

Up The Wolves.

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