Well, all I can say is, I hope this is the low point of the season.
What a complete mess.
And the sad thing about today is how little Blackpool actually had to do for the three points.
When Luke Varney powered in his once-in-a-lifetime volley in the third minute, you immediately sensed what was about to come.
And so it began.
Wolves dominating possession, passing the ball neatly, but in the areas where it really matters, coming up woefully short. We had 20 efforts on goal in the match but didn’t force their keeper into a meaningful save. That tells it’s own story.
Jarvis skinned his man time and time and time again, yet not once did he pick anyone out, or equally, did a forward make a clever run across a defender to get on the end of anything. I don’t understand how that’s possible with Doyle, Fletcher and Ebanks-Blake all on the pitch.
In fact our likeliest scorer throughout was Milijas; his incisive run and shot striking the inside of the post to sum up our woeful afternoon. And while we’re talking about the Serb, why oh why wasn’t he in the starting line-up? He’s been our best player in the last five games and the only touch of class we have in the entire squad.
Pathetic Mick.
I’m our manager’s most loyal supporter, but his decisions at times not only infuriate, but also defy any kind of logic.
Still, in my opinion, we didn’t lose this game because Mick McCarthy left out Nenad Milijas.
We lost it because Kevin Foley allowed Luke Varney to pull a long ball down and cut inside unchallenged, and we lost it because Marcus Hahnmeann came for a cross he was never going to get and we lost it because our forwards couldn’t score in a brothel, until the last minute at least.
Do those things fall at the manager’s feet? Well, you can certainly point to the fact Mick bought these players, but slack individual errors such as those from Foley and Hahnemann cannot be accounted for by anyone.
The first thing we must do in order to address this shockingly bad run of results is to cut out those sloppy mistakes. We can’t give teams a head start every single week and expect to see an upturn in our fortunes.
It’s all very well screaming ‘Mick out, Mick out’ from the rooftops, but if players are going to switch off and cost us goals, week in week out, it won’t make a blind bit of difference whose sitting in the dugout.
So by all means, blame the manager. But also blame the players too.
They can certainly do better. Much better.
I like Mick, but I’m starting to wonder whether he has reached that stage where he’s lost the plot, doesn’t know his best team, and will soon lose the dressing room.
I agree totally. What other manager gets £20m to spend…wastes it on crap and is still in a job…..he is out of his depth…..go now Mick for the sake of the club…….9 defeats out of 11 games…..GO MICK GO
I also agree totally, I feel that he has bought players that are not suited to the level of play required for the premier league. The team can play football but Mick is not playing the players that are in form i.e Milijas – coming on after 30 mins instead of starting. We need a man who knows how to work at this high level and someone who needs to step up, get Ray Wilkins in.
I agree that Nenad shouldn’t have been dropped but he must have been knackered. He’s been playing a lot more frequently than he ever has for us and that could be the reason. I thought Jones played ok, and Mancienne looked a lot bettr at right back.
We need to start getting some results, starting with Sunderland.
He’s a professional f**king footballer Louie. Knackered is doing six 12 hour shifts in a week not dancing round a f**king football field on a Saturday afternoon! When he came on he didn’t look too knackered! It’s great that you are so supportive of the Wolves but for f**k sake take off those rose tints and look at what is happening.
Did I say at any point I agreed with the decision to drop him?
Was there any need to have a go at me?
In fact, why is it that whenever I disagree that people feel the need to have a go? It’s called an opinion. Stop being such a saddo. I’m asdepressed as you about the result, but I don’t think going on about it is going to help.
Maybe it’s because I’m 15 and you feel like a big boy talking to me that way…..
I agree its your opinion son, I can also disagree with it. You age has nothing to do with it. Maybe I’m jealous of your eternal optimism, I used to have that but supporting this shower of shite for 35 years has turned me into a miserable old f**k!
If age has anything to do with, why the patronising tone?
If you have been supporting this side for 35 years, I’m fairly sure that this is the best Wolves team you have seen so I’m a loss to why you are so negative.
That is all.
Louie,
don’t take anything you read personally.
This is not the best team of the last 35 years, not close, not within a mile of the best team.
When you have been a Wolves fan for over half a century, then you will have the perspective of age and experience.
No one is patronizing you, just like the rest of us, we are all fuckin’ fed up with a bloke who has lost his way, and needs to go.
Once he’s gone, a new manager will turn the players around, get more out of them by various means, tactics etc, and we’ll be Ok.
But, MM has to go,now.
Have a nice day, it could be worse, you could have been born in Sandwell!!
Louie you’re an absolute charmer and without doubt my favourite blogger on this site. Your dedication to our great club is heart warming and i love your optimism although, alas, i’m unable to share it. It says what a mess we’ve been in that this is the best team you’ve seen but, as Clive says, it’s nowhere near the best we’ve had for 35 years. In 1980, for example, we won the League Cup in front of 95,000 at Wembley defeating not only the LC holders but also the European Cup holders, Nottingham Forest, who went on to retain it that year. The team included that day Derek Parkin, Emlyn Hughes, Kenny Hibbitt, Willie Carr, Andy Gray ang the great John Richards, a centre forward who scored goals for fun. We’ve made progress the last two years but God we’ve got an awful long way to go and now we seem to be going backwards.
Louie, it’s not the best team in the last 35 years, as others have said (indeed I’d go further and say this is not as good as the side which got relegated from the PL in 03-04).
But that’s not the point of my reply: I just wanted to say that when I was 15 I wish I was as articulate and as capable of defending myself as you are. Good on you.
Excuse my terrible maths.
I meant since 1985, which is 25 years ago. That’s why I can’t understand the negativity as I truly believe we have a squad of very good young players.
Can’t quite agree on the 03-04 bit Kowloon. We had some good players, but they were ageing and on their last legs. Our best player was a complete twat too.
Also, I must say that despite thinking people are a bit negative it’s nothing like some message boards you get. On here at least you have some articlulate and sensible thinkers.
If we were that sensible we wouldn’t be Wolves fans!!!!!!!!!!!!!
remind me, which one was a complete twat?
Difficult to find anything positive about that apart may be for Doyle getting his first in the league this season.
I said at the end of last season if we could sign three players who would be first team regulars we would be OK be it seems to have been a regression back to the Championsip starting eleven. None of the signiings have come anywhere near “cutting the mustard”.
Oh for a fully fit Michael Kightley to compliment Jarvis.
To me that looked like a dress rehearsal for a Championship mid-table match next season.
Zubar and Craddock must walk back into the team with some match practice. i would try Foley at left back when Zubar returns.
Also time to give Hennesey a chance. Todays error topped of a few shots that could have bben saved but were not. USA has been ace but needs a rest.
I think we could do with Zubar, and a flying fit Michael Kightly. Zubar just because he’s such a positive player, I’d love him to be good at centre back.
I think Mick did buy three or four players who he thought would be first team regulars. Hunt, Mouyokolo, Fletcher and van Damme looked like they might improve us. Obviously, for whatever reason, none of them have particularly improved us but we must give them a chance.
The way its going they will get their chance…..in the championship
I agree. As many of you know I’m a little obsessed with goalkeeping – I don’t think Hahnemann has been anywhere near as good this season as last. He doesn’t command his area so well, his distribution isn’t great and he looks slower and less agile. I want Ikeme or Henners.
Kightly’s finished we need to move on.
McCarthy’s finished we need to move on.
Morgan is not going to sack McCarthy any time soon. We need to move on
Morgan is only interested in commercial revenue the team are a by product,so yes,you are correct ,we are stuck with him
Don’t agree with you on that one Dazza. I think Morgan is a football lover too and his plans for the club rely on continued success for the team. This guy’s used to getting what he wants and i wouldn’t be surprised to see Mick gone if things don’t improve soon. We’ll soon find out any way.
I think Morgan will seriously consider firing McCarthy if things get any worse, but how long does he leave it? We’re already 5 points adrift.
The last thing Morgan wants is for us to go down. Out will go the stadium plans, and after all that spiel about being a big club again i don’t think he’d just sit back and watch
Clarity and wisdom within 15 words. Excellent Bob China
I am shocked at how Mick keeps thinking we play well…am i watching a different game….. we rarely shoot, we can’t defend and most of the players simply aren’t good enough…….I really think he has lost the plot
To be fair David, we do have a lot of chances. But yesterday like last week it was too late. It’s the defence where the problem lies and also, when we get these chances we’ve got to score them
I disagree with lots of chances. We had a lot of situations but it’s not like strikers are missing chances in front of goal, we don’t miss open goals and the keeper was not overly tested. Yes as I have said from the off though, we have a championship defence totally disorganised.
We have one way of attacking – Jarvis… yesterday his final ball was dreadful and he couldn’t find a striker for love nor money. This is another thing that depresses me , McCarthy is talking about strikers practicing their finishing in response to yesterday but for me the finishing wasn’t the problem.
Opposition coaches and full backs are getting wise to Jarvis this season, IMO. Of course they have to accept that he’s got loads of pace and trickery, but they appear to have cottoned on to the fact that his left foot is somewhat hit or miss when it comes to pinpoint crossing. So, even if he gets past his man on the left channel, as long as he’s kept on his left foot, and not allowed to cut inside onto his better right foot, then there might be no end product.
When Jarvis switches to the right (where you’d think he might be more effective for crossing the ball given the relative strength of his right foot) he seems to lose the ability to beat his man for pace. Perplexing.
Notable for me that the only quality cross coming from the left hand side yesterday was by George Elokobi (who didn’t have a bad game at all, IMO), and – hey presto! – we scored.
The problem I think is that we don’t have an out and out right winger. It’s odd that Mujangi Bia has been nowhere near the side for that reason.
Jarvis’ crossing has improved loads over the years, and can still get better. I didn’t think it was his crossing however yesterday, the strikers were in terrible positions. It’s odd how none of them ever held their run as we could have had a couple of goals from pull backs.
It may sound odd, but I knew Jarvis would have a few problems at first playing on the right. I’ve played left wing, and even though I’m right footed I find it easier to take the man on rather than on the right. I don’t know why but maybe it’s the way he approaches. Against Chelsea for the first time he looked comfortable there and he put in some quality crosses.
Anyone know why Milijas takes hardly any corners? It was annoying when in the last minute, Jarvis’ corner went to the first man and that was the end of the game.
That’s a really good point about Milijas. Sweetest left foot at the club, Fantastic dead ball player and he used to take the corners too. Why he doesn’t anymore is beyond me. The corners from Jarvis yesterday were poor with several not clearing the front an which drives me insane!
By the time I wake up tomorrow morning it will be 2pm UK time and hopefully we will have a statement of some sort from the very quiet Steve Morgan!
ive only watched the last few games in bits and pieces (i spent the first 65 minutes of the blackpool game trying to fix the internet) but i do remember a couple of times milijas standing unmarked at the edge of the box and jarvis delivering groundpasses to him.
although i would much rather good quality from set pieces than the occasional crack from outside the box.
Jed – the Milijas corner issue has p*ssed me off for two seasons (on the rare occasions he has played).
And Foley taking longer free kicks – why, oh why?
Try these – normally very reliable –
http://www.atdhe.net/
http://channelsurfing.net/
I really don’t know how bad things have to get before we see or hear some reaction from Morgan or Moxey. This season is fast becoming an embarrassing disaster. Good thing is that we have now got rid of two of the “easier” games
I agree with every word of Thomas’s blog. We’ve somehow mutated into a team that can play some pretty stuff in the middle third of the park, but we have some serious issues up front and also at the back. Silly lapses seem to be the order of the day.
The squad’s morale must be at rock-bottom now. As things stand, no matter what team we put out, I just cannot see us improving enough to get out of the hole we’re currently in.
Desperate.
Only watched brief highlights? on that awful MOTD, cant watch any more when i know we’ve lost. Couldn’t agree more though Thomas, what a complete mess. Mick reverted to type, dropped the one class player and brought in three of the championship team. It takes some doing to spend a lot of dough on 4 new players and yet the team looks considerably worse. We looked half decent towards the end of last season. Looks like Hahnemann’s getting close to his sell by date as well. Clueless at the back and up front. Something’s got to change quick.
Read the blog, enjoyable and balanced as ever but I am sorry I have to say this is what I have issue with:
The first thing we must do in order to address this shockingly bad run of results is to cut out those sloppy mistakes.
We have made mistakes every game because we have substandard players all over the pitch and when you are not quite good enough you cannot suddenly “cut out mistakes”… it’s not as simple as that. Mick is now saying we must be better in both boxes? what better at defending and attacking? err that is everything about the game!
As for blaming the players and not just the manager – I do blame the players – they are not good enough. BUT they are his players, he has built this team, spent £30million on building a team capable of competing in this league and we are languishing bottom of the league, no clean sheets and incapable of creating clear cut chances. This pre season and season has been a total disaster and that lies at the feet of our manager. His selections are a total disgrace, he has invested heavily in players that he has no faith in and as a result he persists with players who are not up to it and make mistakes. This is not something you can sit down and think “ok lets cut out the sloppy mistakes lads”.
Mick McCarthy did a fantastic job getting us promoted and keeping us in the top flight, but things change, the job has changed and he has done such a bad job over the last 6 months, you cannot forever support someone on previous good work. We have won 2 games in 14 – this is a total disaster!
Agree 100%.
Fuck ’em all off to the gallows and bring in the kids!!!
Can’t really argue with any of that Daniel, pretty accurate evaluation of the situation i’d say.
Following on from Daniel`s to the point analysis, they say silence is golden, but the owner and board of directors of our club seem to have gone to ground. MM has n`t even had the ` vote of confidence` .
This seasons results have been a disaster, things have to change and strong decisive action needs to be taken. MM appears to have lost the plot, his position probably now untenable, so come on Mr Morgaqn, save our season, save your development plans, take some decisive action before its too late.
I keep checking SkySports news online. Half expecting to see the headlines ‘McCarthy Sacked’ (or something along those lines).
I think he knows his days are numbered. The board are just too busy trying to finding his replacement. That’s why it’s so quiet!
Gone by Saturday P.M.???
The fans need to voice their opinion on Saturday…loudly!!