Martin

Irish eyes

“I’ve never been to Ireland love, how do you fancy a couple of days in Dublin?”

Devious maybe, but effective. And sure enough on Wednesday evening the 46a from O’Connell Street transported me to Dalymount Park, home of the Bohs, Bohemians F.C.

The ground was largely deserted when I arrived, with the Wolves flags behind the goal almost outnumbering the spectators. No worries though, they were all in the bar!

Kenny decided not to risk Ikeme on the hard pitch and young Jonathan Flatt started behind our first choice back four, save for Doherty coming in for Ricketts at right back.

Flatt had very little to do as Golbourne, Batth and Stearman in particular all excelled. But the young keeper looked confident and assertive. I can see him pushing McCarey hard this year.

It was nice to see Doherty back and he did OK but I’d say he’s some way from forcing his way back into the starting lineup.

Wolves dominated play with good possession football, playing out from defence through to attack. MacDonald cruised alongside a surprisingly average Price while Sako looked keen and threatening on the left.

Seeing van La Parra for the first time was interesting. Sticking almost exclusively wide to the right touchline, he received far less ball than Sako. When he did he showed excellent pace, good control and a suggestion of real threat.

To me he looked like a guy who hadn’t really settled yet. I wanted him to demand the ball more. Hopefully he will gain confidence as he settles in because there’s a real talent there.

Jacobs started and played well in what is probably his best position, just behind the striker.

Clarke also took his opportunity to shine, dispatching two of his chances and only being denied a hat-trick by an excellent finger tip save. You could tell the fans are desperate for him to succeed so maybe this was just the start he needs. For me though, it’s Dicko until we need a plan B.

Kenny spent most of half time sitting between Sako and van La Parra offering what looked like words of encouragement and finishing with some warm pats on the back. More excellent man-management from the King.

A whole new team in the second half saw Ricketts effortlessly controlling the back alongside a very impressive Ethan Ebanks-Landell. For me he offers much more extra aerial strength and power than Stearman and has plenty of football in him. If he gets a chance, I can see him keeping the shirt.

Somewhat surprisingly for the huge, physical presence he is, Kortney Hause played at left back and I thought made a pretty good fist of it as well.

Henry played wide right and McAlinden made a game attempt at playing wide left, something he would not normally be asked to do.

With so much rejigging, it was little surprise the team’s control over the game was missing second half. There was much more long, direct football which eventually deteriorated into long and aimless. Dicko made a goal out of nothing emphasising the threat he possesses.

Wolves eventually paid the price for some sloppy play when an underhit pass from Edwards resulted in a well taken goal for Bohs and some merited reward for a decent performance.

In central midfield it was a case of little and large as Evans partnered the young Declan Weeks who I was seeing for the first time. He’s small alright but quite strong looking. He’s a lovely little fotballer with a wonderful a awareness and covers the ground with an athletic mobility. He didn’t look out of place at all and can only improve with experience.

So all in all, another satisfactory work out. The Bohs were friendly hosts and the loyal Wolves fans showed once again there are none better.

And the dear wife? Well she stayed in and watched Corrie. But she loved Dublin as much as me.

Try it out sometime. With or without the Wanderers.

Wolves Blog Postcard Stop #6 – Pissouri, Cyprus

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After criss-crossing the globe from the USA(twice) to Canada, to Chile and then down under to Aussie, the Wolves postcard arrived safely in a somewhat less exotic location………. Abergavenny, South Wales, my home for the last 8 years.

The only problem was, the postcard was there……..but I wasn’t. I was 2000 miles away in Pissouri, Cyprus escaping the awful British weather and the interminable Welsh rain.

Cue a helpful Welsh sister-in-law, and a few weeks later the postcard arrived for its own little sojourn in the sun.

Being born in the south of England, I never lived anywhere near Wolverhampton but my dad was born and bred there and I caught the Wolves bug from him as a young child.

I’ve remained completely besotted all my life, an infatuation I have already shared with fellow bloggers in ‘Old Gold Love Affair‘.

Living, variously, in Berkshire, Surrey, Bournemouth and now South Wales, I’ve probably watched Wolves as many times at away grounds as at the Golden Palace. And watching my team has not become any easier now I’m spending large parts of the footy season in Cyprus. All this has never stopped me thinking, reading and talking(my poor wife) about the club I love, far more than is sensible for a man of my age. Obsessed is definitely the word.

We’ve had some decent players in recent times and , of course, the legend that is Steve Bull. But for me, nothing can compare with the team of my youth…. Munro, Bailey, Hibbitt, Richards, Dougan and the rest. Those were the days!

I do feel very positive about what’s happening at the club at the moment, though, and am hopeful that good times are ahead.

Of course lapping up the sun is all very well, but I still have to get my Molineux fix from time to time. So, on the pretence of visiting the mother-in-law, me, the wife and, of course, the postcard, flew back to the freezing cold and rain of Abergavenny in January.

The postcard went for a mercifully brief visit to the mother-in-law’s and then accompanied me and my wife, Kay, up to Wolverhampton for the Bristol City game.

Kay has no interest in football but she loves the weekends spent with the DOOGooders at our favourite Wolverhampton resort, A Parkview Hotel.

As usual, it was great fun, particularly as we were able to celebrate another win, an excellent performance and the present Mrs DOOGooder’s birthday. Perfect.

My wife took that photo, so here’s one with her in it. The love of my life. . .

. . . STEVE BULL!

So now it’s back to Cyprus and this had better be the last live game I see this season.

Because we’re not back until May and that’s when the play-offs start!

* Thomas: Don’t forget you can track the progress of the postcard, read previous articles and find out how to receive it yourself on the dedicated Wolves Blog Postcard section here.

Southampton 2 Wolves 0

Blog, Southampton

With just a few thousand supporters spattered around the St.Mary’s stadium, this final warm up game had an almost eerie atmosphere.

Wolves Southampton — Johnson impressive again

The few hundred die-hard traveling supporters, however, at least did their best to make a noise.

Wolves started with the eleven who finished the Shrewsbury game, with the exception of Sigurdason, who replaced the injured Doyle up front.

And it was a very promising start as Wolves continued with their new possession based style, dominating long periods of play. Indeed, they should have taken the lead early on when Blake, who was put clean through from a good ball by Ward, allowed his weak effort to be smothered by the keeper.

With the wide men, Forde and Davis tucked in, most of the threat out wide came from the marauding full backs. Zubar, in particular, found himself in dangerous positions but was unable to supply much in the way of a telling cross.

Gradually, Southampton got an increasing grip on the game and their possession play had a more direct and dangerous character. Not unusually, their wide men were allowed plenty of space and seemed to be able to deliver crosses at will. One such from the right caused confusion in the defence and was returned from the left for Sharp to sweep home. Another cheap goal and all too familiar.

The second half continued in much the same fashion. Wolves playing in a more patient controlled fashion but not offering much as an attacking threat. Occasionally, Blake and Sigurdason worked an opening, the best of which ended with Blake firing across the area only for Davies to shoot wide when it looked easier to score.

The game was finished as a contest in the 69^th minute when Puncheon fired crisply into the bottom right hand corner.

After that, the game petered out as Southampton produced an endless series of substitutions, two by two; Noah might have filled the Ark more quickly.

Individually, there were some plus points. Ikeme showed that we have a few keepers who could do the job. Johnson again looked full of purpose and dealt with most of the aerial threat. The ubiquitous Henry was full of energy and intent.

Doumbia, Tuesday’s man of the match, had a much quieter game. Asked to play deep alongside Henry, he played the minor role. Late on, when Jonnson replaced Blake, he played to some effect in the ‘hole’ behind the striker as part of a 5 man midfield. We may see more of this.

On the down side, we never really got out of second gear and our attacks looked familiarly ponderous. Forde and Davis offered little as an attacking threat. Forde looks a little light- weight and it’s hard to see that someone with more pace like Kightly would not be a better option. Possibly Ward with a nice quick full back in his stead? We can only dream!

Watching the team trying to adapt to this very new style of possession play is a little uncomfortable at times. It looks like it is a new difficult skill that they can perform but only very slowly and with deep concentration. It doesn’t come naturally and they are finding it hard.

It’s a skill that has been neglected for too long and it’s going to take time. It has to be done though and it will be worth the wait.

Shrewsbury Town 2 Wolves 2

Blog, Shrewsbury Town

Somewhat regrettably, no longer Gay, but Shrewsbury’s now Greenhous Meadow was full of good spirit, if the hordes of travelling Wolves supporters were anything to go by.

And they needed all their good humour in the first half as the Wolves starting eleven were put to the sword. The manager had clearly selected his weaker side to start the match, with the exception of Dorus De Vries in goal. And if the logic of this was the expectation that the keeper would have more to do behind this team, it was logic that Mr.Spock himself would have been proud of.

The newly promoted Division 1 team outplayed and outran our midfield four of Hunt, Jonnson, Milijas and Edwards and opened up our back four of Foley, Batth, Berra and Doherty with consumate ease. To such an extent in fact that the goading home support demanded after the first goal (no doubt encouraged by our large ‘Wrexham Wolves’ flag), “Are you Wrexham in disguise?” Not to be out-done, our boys countered with a valiant “Your Welsh and you know it”, not altogether pleasing my Abergavenny born wife sat next to me.

Things proceeded to get worse as this time our right flank was exposed. Batth seemed to show the attacker towards the goal rather than away from it and his shot rebounded in of a somewhat unlucky Berra.

Our support had now obviously decided humour was the only option. “Yes, we are Wrexham in disguise!” they bellowed.

In truth, it was a pretty awful first half performance. Plus points were few. Batth, for a young lad, did quite well and Sigurdason up front showed glimpses of real pace and ability although the supply from midfield was so poor, he had very little chance to shine. His big partner up front Frank Nouble showed a first touch which went some way in explaining his free transfer status. Big and powerful with some pace perhaps but a long way from the finished article. Maybe one for the future, but plenty of work to be done.

Our defence looked fragile as usual and I don’t see any of them starting at Leeds.

Probably the most disappointing of all was the midfield quartet; slow, ponderous and ineffective. Dave Edwards did ok out on the right but, with so many others available in midfield, I don’t see a place for any of them really.

But if the first half was worrying, the second offered huge promise as an entirely new eleven took the field.

Johnson and Stearman were decisive and solid in the centre of defence. Zubar and Ward offered attacking threat from the back (although still worrying defensively) and Forde and Davies performed well on the flanks. Doyle looked re-motivated and back somewhere near his best. SEB took his chance well, although he still looks somewhat over weight. Yes SEB , I have to say, your bum did look big in this!

But the huge, huge plus was the central midfield pairing of Henry and Doumbia who controlled and dominated proceedings. I know this was only 45 minutes against lower division opposition, but all Wolves fans get very excited, we have unearthed an absolute gem. This boy had it all. 6’ 3”, strong, powerful, pacy, box to box and oodles and oodles of skill. Forget about ping pong or whatever his name was, this guy is hard ball.

Our first goal resulted when he won a ball he had no right to with a shuddering tackle. The second when he won the ball again, skipped pasted defenders in the box and buried exquisitely in the top right corner. A finish any top striker would have been proud of. Year-long loan?

No way. Sign him now, whatever it takes!

Background research

Blog, Ståle Solbakken

It’s funny to think that virtually no-one on this blog had even heard of Ståle Solbakken, never mind were able to pronounce or spell his name.

Now, just weeks on from his appointment, I just can’t imagine having anyone else.

Agreed, he’s only had success in Scandanavia and has never managed in England. True, his only experience in a major European league ended in relegation in his first season. However, his position at Cologne was widely recognised as untenable. Look beyond that and his management history as a whole makes for impressive reading.

In his first 2 years in management he won the second division title with Ham Kam in Norway and then took them to fifth place in their premiership, the Tippeligaen(apparently with one of the lowest budgets in the league).This was their highest finish in 33 years.

In 2005 he was appointed head coach at FC Copenhagen and won the title by six points, largely as a result it is said of the team’s ‘oak-hearted defence’. Now wouldn’t that be nice?

His team impressively defeated Ajax to qualify for the group stages of the Champion’s league( the first time in FCC’s history), a group also comprising Celtic, Benfica and Man Utd. Although they lost all 3 away games, 2 draws and a victory over United left them unbeaten at home and bottom only on goal difference.

That year they also retained their league title, this time by a huge 13 points and with even fewer goals conceded. Now wouldn’t that be nice?

Ståle went on to win 2 more titles and one cup before again progressing to the group stage of the Champion’s league. This time their opponents were Rubin Kazan of Russia, Greece’s Panathinaikos and some club called Barcelona. All 3 were their current league champions.

A 2-0 away win in Athens(not many do that) was added to by 2 home wins and a 1-1 draw against a full strength Barcelona side and FCC became the first Danish side to reach the knock out stage of the Champion’s League.

Pep Guardiola described Ståle’s team as ‘the best organised opposition in his time at Barcelona’.Blimey!

I got this information from an article by Charlie Andersen, the editor of the Nordic football blog Stone by Stone. He goes on to say:

‘In terms of his tactical ability: well, a year or so ago I mentioned him in the same breath as André Villas-Boas and Jürgen Klopp, and I stand by that. I think Solbakken is one of the best young tacticians around, and I don’t mind standing or falling by that statement. The way he organised and prepared his Copenhagen side for big games was impressive, but even more remarkable was the tactical flexibility he instilled in that team.

To take a side so dominant in their domestic league (in 2010-11 they won the Superliga by 26 points) and get them to put the shackles on Xavi Hernández and Andrés Iniesta shows genuine coaching quality. His transfer policy at FCK was sound, too: he tended to sell his most marketable players and replace them prudently and intelligently.’

OK, it’s just one man’s opinion, and all managerial appointments are gambles to some extent, but I am still very excited by this one. And don’t forget, if he hadn’t failed at Cologne, we wouldn’t have had a sniff.

Brendan Rogers at Liverpool, Paul Lambert at Villa, Woy at England, whoever the bleeding A****n end up with. Naah, not for me. You can keep the lot. I wouldn’t swap ‘the bald head who came back from the dead’ for any of them.

Three wise men?

Blog

Reading the blogs on here these days and the responses to Steve Morgan’s recent statements in the E&S, it’s clear that there are a lot of supporters who are extremely unhappy at the moment.

I don’t know how many exactly, whether it’s the majority or not, but it’s plenty.

Fed up with the quality of football and even more fed up with the results. Week after week, in fact year after year, of being outclassed and what most fans hate most of all, losing.

Three years ago I fully bought into the official line. Buying only young and hungry players, spending within our means and stability of management and ownership.

An excellent and sensible business plan. But any plan only has merit in that it achieves it’s aims. And the aims of any professional football team is to progress and become better and more successful.

This is patently not the case at Wolves. The team shows no sign of improvement half way into a third season of premiership football. In fact, I would say we are losing ground on many teams.

So we have a lot of very unhappy fans. The problem is the management are far from unhappy.

First you have a CEO whose aim is to run a premiership team as cheaply as possible. And bullseye! He’s the best there is and is often keen to proclaim it. Lowest wage bill, bargain basement buys, optimum ticket pricing. Stay in the league, anywhere out of the bottom three, and coin the money in.

Then you have a manager who loves managing in the premiership. And who wouldn’t? Wonderful ground, training facilities and money to spend. Fantastic support. Most managers would give their right arm to have the privilege of managing our great club.

And Mick can do it his way. He can generally steer clear of foreign players because they take longer to bed in and they’re not always right good lads like the British boys. He doesn’t have to move good players on to get better ones, he can stick with the lads he likes.

He doesn’t have to put up with criticism from the fans or media, he can call them numpties and tell them he’s ready for a fight if they want one. He can refer to our club as ‘my team’ and last, and best of all, he doesn’t have to win. His job is safe, apparently, even if we go down. Yes, a very happy manager.

And finally we have the owner.

A scouser and lifelong Liverpool fan who tried to buy his club but had to settle for Wolves. How much this adventure is about football and how much is about the various building projects which ownership has allowed I don’t know.

But it’s definitely both.

And the bottom line once again is stay in the league, anywhere above the bottom three, and all is well. Plenty of money coming in and his empire growing. Maybe one day, with the ground rebuilt, he’ll sell up and have just enough to get what he really wanted in the first place.

That is the conundrum facing Wolves fans at the moment. Our main priority, a winning team which is good to watch, is not necessarily the priority of the three men who decide our fate.

* Thanks to Martin for sending in this blog. It’s great to get contributions from far and wide so we can express a variety of different opinions. So please don’t hesitate if you fancy a bash at writing something for us. You can find details on the Contact page.

* If you have some spare pennies, please do consider donating to our March to Molineux walk. It’s a wonderful cause and I’d like to raise a couple of hundred quid minimum. As I write this, we’ve got £67, so there’s still a bit to go. You can donate by clicking here.