Last season, I thought one of the major reasons Wolves always struggled, was their inability to grind out draws in close matches.
Too often we’d be in games, but rather than keeping things tight and seeing it out, we made a suicidal mistake and allowed the opposition in through the back door.
Case in point, the injury time giveaway at the Reebok courtesy of Ronald Zubar.
So, despite the inept first half performance today (more on that in the moment) you’ll forgive me for being more than a little satisfied with a well-earned point.
Yes, by the end, we probably should have won it as we dominated possession in the final 20, albeit without punishing a creaky Bolton defence. But a draw is a solid enough result and maintains a slither of daylight between ourselves and the bottom three.
Fletch’s early second-half goal was crucial. No surprise to see him once again getting on the end of a Matt Jarvis delivery to nod in the equaliser. That’s 8 for the season, which is particularly impressive when you consider he’s struggled with injuries. Lets just hope his latest knock doesn’t cost us his services for Monday’s game against Chelsea.
Dave Edwards was another who impressed in the second half, bursting forward to good effect, which just begs the question, why the hell didn’t he start the game?
Throwing Elokobi in and shifting Ward into central midfield was ridiculous. There’s no other word to describe it. Well, actually there are, but that’s about the only one I can publish.
Credit to Wardy, he got on with it as usual and smashed the bar with a superb effort from distance. But that doesn’t paper over the fact that it was wrong of Mick to play him there.
We did nothing in that first half and still could have come in level, which definitely says more about Bolton than it does about our limp, insipid display.
Thankfully, Mick wasted no time in correcting his error and was immediately rewarded with the equaliser. Lets just hope that’s the end of the ‘Ward can play anywhere’ saga.
I think Johnson and Berra both deserve a pat on the back today. Not much either of them could do about the goal and that aside, they dealt with everything that came their way.
The skipper carried on his improvement from a solid second half at Arsenal, whereas Berra has become the model of consistency. The Scot remains a vastly underrated player in my opinion.
Nice to see Foley make a return too. I think we’ve missed his ability to put foot on ball and maintain possession neatly, especially when we’re up against it.
With Frimpong set to join alongside Jonnson tomorrow in the January sales and the team showing more fight on the pitch I think there’s reason to be cautiously optimistic heading into the second half of the season.
If it’s anything like the first, it will at the very least, be interesting.
Happy New Year!
Up The Wolves!
Putting Elokobi anywhere near the first team, and then no – pace Ward in mid field, sheer unadulterated brilliance! The most astute tactical decision I have ever seen in my life!!!
That alone sums up why McFuckindickhead HAS to go.
Forde played OK on Tuesday……never seen him today.
Has Hammill expressed a desire to screw McIdiot’s wife or what? Why didn’t he play?
And, much as I don’t rate him, Foley is a much better fit in mid field than Ward. Actually my fridge is better than Ward in any position.
Having said that, the point was welcome, but once again, an inept and really pathetic display.
Two headers on target, and not a single shot. Don’t come crying that Ward hit the bar, that doesnt count. If it’s on target its either saved or a goal, if it hits the woodwoek its not on target.
I feel sorry for those of you who paid good money to watch that pathetic excuse for a football match. One of the worse games I have ever seen.
And thank you very fuckin’ much Aston Villa, now we have to face a Chelsea back lash next week.
And why dont Blackburn lie down and die like they are supposed to?
Three points there for the taking today, but no one can hold his head up and say he played well, coz we were shite, again.
Can’t control the ball, can’t pass the ball, can’t win a header, and can’t outthink a piss poor opponent.
If that’s the best you can come up with McCarthorse, we are fuckin’ doomed.
FOMM
Ward’s shot was on target because Jaskelainen tipped it onto the bar, it was in fact a great save!
Poor team selection, why move our best player from his position? Why put Elokobi in at all? And why switch to 442, when in a 451 we looked better defensively and in the first half at Arsenal showed we can play a little too.
Frustrating, an opportunity wasted in my opinion.
i agree i think Mick made a rick today in a game we could have won – we now have to keep picking up points from more difficult fixtures to keep out of the bottom 3.
Damn, Louie you beat me to it in pointing out COH’s clear example of wardism. the shot was on target. Jaskelainen saved it. Wardisdm! let’s kick it out!
LKWOOF
LKWOOF – Genius. Don’t think you’ll get Clive on board though. No matter how long he continues to be one of our best players. Ward that is, not Clive.
And therin lies the rub.
If Ward is one of our best players, it says little, but actually a lot, about how crap most of the rest of the team are.
For me only two players can hold their heads up as having a good season so far.
Fletcher and Hennessey.
The rest fall way short of the benchmark of Premiership football.
FOMM
Good post and a fair review. I feel a little torn at the moment though…..the little angel sitting on my left shoulder is saying this is a valuable point, come the end of the season but the little devil of ambition sitting on my right is saying that this is a team who have only won once today at home all season ! Maybe we missed out on the spoils??
Impressed with Wayne once again and really good to see him establishing himself as a top international keeper.
My one random question is this……(please excuse me if this has already been discussed on the blog before)……
Why the fuck do we insist on passing the ball back to Wayne who proceeds to lump it forward every single time we kick off??
Fletcher = 6″1
SEB= 5″8
Doyle=6″0
I wouldn’t call any of these a target man……frustrates me greatly !
Fuck it….rant over and bring on Chelsea !
I’ve said about this before. We must be the only team in the league who ‘attacks’ by passing back to the keeper who then hoofs it forward only for us to then lose possession. It’s clearly Mick’s negative, defensive tactics and this is why we will be relegated under him sooner or later.
When will he see that we CAN’T play the long-ball game and just keep it on the deck?
We’re not going to win or lose a match with our kick off. Does it really matter? More importantly we’re failing to play any decent football for the other 89 minutes when we’re not kicking off. We were up against a really poor team today and we were’t much better. How can we still be playing SEB? A championship player at best. Can’t believe we have to rely on Fletcher to score all our goals, what other teams have 1 player scoring the majority of their goals. Thank heavens for Hennessey (is he a championship player?), without him we’d have lost the last 2 games. When’s Mick going to quit so that someone else, who – no one knows, can take over and do much better and get us into Europe. Moxey can fuck off as well because he’s keeping the club in the black too well. It’s all going wrong. I can’t believe we’ve been out of the bottom 3 all season. I hope we lose the next 10 games so that we’ve all got something to moan about. Frimpong???? who’s he.
Well at least I didn’t have to kick the imaginary cat.
Satisfied with the result but fearing the Chelsea backlash….. Again.
Wolves should get shot of Elokobi or release on a free. He is too slow and often his strength is used against him after players throw themselves to the floor whenever his inevitable ‘1 yard too slow leg’ juts outward. Ridiculous decision by MM.
I’ll take an away point almost every time, no qualms about it. Hopefully Chelsea continues their poor form on Monday.
Anybody else think SEB was particularly poor today? Never really got involved and strayed offside about 5-6 times by my count. Why not play Doyle or go 4-5-1 even? He hasn’t been scoring enough to warrant his first-team selection. I think he should be our “super sub” off the bench and really nothing more at this point.
Fair point about SEB, he WAS poor, but I think it was important to give him a game as Doyle isn’t scoring and he is (presumably) a different source of goals, or not. This shows we need a goal-scoring recruit in January…on top of the rest of the recruits we so clearly need.
I read somewhere that we’ve got ‘funds’ left over from the summer. Let’s hope we flippin’ spend them then. Never has a January window been so important in my opinion.
SEB’s never really been the sort of player who gets involved much in the game. He’s a goal scorer. In the championship he scored loads of goals so it went unnoticed that he didn’t do much else. Unfortunately, in the premier league, he doesn’t score as many goals so it becomes more apparent that he doesn’t do anything else. I love him though, it still feels wrong to me seeing SEB on the bench but that’s probably me being a sentimental old fool. There’s nothing as good as cheering a SEB goal.
Mick put in elokobi because Edwards was not able to start because he has such a high work rate he could not have played the whole game (wolves.co.uk)
If you believe that you are as mad as mick,Elokobi is shite will never be premier class.He’s only championshite.sorry m8.
Mick said that Edwards wasn’t ready for 90 minutes, because he’s only trained twice in the last few weeks.
If Edwards can’t play 90 minutes why not start him and bring him off after 60. I’d rather start with the strongest team possible and change it to suit as the game goes on. Ward is now a very good left back and should stay there.
Foley and Edwards could have done 90 in midfield between them. Moving Ward and playing Elokobi was a poor decision.
Why the hell do you all criticise Elokobi? He didn’t make any big mistakes, and is in fact ,when in form, a brilliant player. You got some big hang-ups people! Deal with it!
Regarding Elokobi. No complaints against him in the bolton game. In previous games he has been torn to shreds due to his lack of pace. A player who gives 100% who i like but put him up against quality and it causes games to be lost. Thats why people criticise Elokobi. Its no hang up. Deal with it!
Well, I agree with “no big mistakes”. There were even a couple of moments during the 1st half where I was mouthing “Played, George!” under my breath. Not too sure that he’s a “brilliant player” by PL standards, even when he’s on top form, though …
The bigger problem is Elokobi + Ward in the same XI. They are both left-backs, and nothing else. On the evidence we have to hand, Ward is the better of the two, and so Elokobi has to go back to the bench, IMO. They cannot play in the same team again. It just left us looking unbalanced, too deep and short of heft in the middle of the park (Ward’s shot onto the crossbar notwithstanding).
Sorry but got to disagree he’s not good enough and never will be in my opinion.like i said only good enough for the championshite…
Well Berra was one of our weakest links a couple of seasons ago, now he’s one of our best and consistent players. Ok Elokobi had some performances earlier on in the campaign that wasn’t as good as we could have wished. Players train and improve…
Berra has improved i agree he has some natral ability but Elokobi is a liability.
“Why the hell do you all criticise Elokobi?”
Fans criticise him because he’s awful. He busts a gut for the team, but Elokobi just can’t cut it in the Premier League.
Speed is an ability, especially accelaration, which is possible to improve on. He’s faster than Stephen Ward, but due to his body weight his accelaration isn’t optimal.
Any other season I’d prob take a draw against bolton away so fair dos. Hope we can pick up up 1 or 2 points in the coming few games too! Well Played!
Always an unwelcome surprise MM’s team selections.
Agree with Clive about Forde.
The defence is improving and having Foley back is a great bonus.
Will Frimpng be able to be involved Monday?
Chelsea are there for the taking and we should be thinking of getting another point, even three.
At least MM should play 4-5-1 against them….
Frimpong is going to be in the squad, also heard Forde might be playing.
I’d go with this:
Henners
Foley
Johnson
Berra
Ward
Forde
Frimpong
Henry
Edwards
Jarvis
Fletcher
Which is not a bad side!
I think there should be room for Stearman.
He played well when he came on today and well against Arsenal.
I’d have Stearman right back, Foley in the middle and Frimpong to come in for Foley or Edwards, depending on the game.
However I am sure that what I think and what MM thinks are solar systems apart!
2 points lost here, we have the players to beat a poor Bolton side, sorry Mick first half was terrible and that was on you, not the incorectly selected players.
We cannot outplay Chelsea, must keep it tight and frustrate them, and maybe steal a goal?
Afraid Mick messed up today if we dont pick up some points against Chelsea and Spurs it will look like a lost opportunity.
Got to agree with you Thomas on McIdiots lack of judgement on team seection.Elokobi should
never be allowed to put on a wolves shirt again pitty we can’t get rid of him for a free on jan 1st.That said the game was a btm of league clash,we were rubbish in the first half had’nt got a clue but what do you expect when players don’t know where they are playing.the second half was a lot better only because he saw what a f..kup he made in the first half.he’s got to start with his best side every game and try to get some kind of cohesion going.Chelsea next up so i hope he plays frimpong in the middle he’s got a bit of pace just what we need against
them.hope to get something but if we play like we did against Bolton i think they will overpower us and lose.So mick have a bit of a think and do it right. utw.
Very well said John
My big problem with McCarthy this season has been his awful selection, i.e. today! If (like he said) Edwards didn’t have the fitness for ninety minutes why not give Guedioura a start, rather than fannying around with Wardy!
Great article today. Does Mick make these decisions just to try and wind people up. Because its not based on logic. Elokobi at left back. Ward out of position. Long ball first half every chance with the super tall Ebanks Blake up front. Two points lost today against a Bolton side we could have beat. Mick, i am still behind you for this season but you could test the patience of a saint. Pull your finger out o your a..e and leave Elokobi out of the first 11.
Happy New Year .
My hangover is huuuuuuge.
UTW.
Despite your hangover, you succinctly summed up my thoughts exactly. Kudos.
A few more signings and a few less horrific team selections should bring about significant improvement.
Yeah, a bit disappointed because we basically threw the first 45 minutes down the toilet. What is it with playing Elokobi and Ward in the same side? Our bench looked better than our outfield.
Still, a point is a point and we seem to have arrested our decline. Hopefully Frimpong will prove to be the real deal and we can continue to clamber up the table.
Happy New Year. I can barely see what I am typing.
Turn the light on?
😉
As i was aguest at a Spurs fan’s house i watched their game against Swansea. First season in the prem and they are already light years ahead of us. Get this. They keep the ball, they close down and win it back, they have frightening pace in Dyer and general pace and atghleticism throughout the team. An exceptional Spurs team at the top of their game had to play second fiddle for long periods and deserved no more than a point.
This is what is possible when you have a manager who knows what he’s doing. Premiership style football and a pleasure to watch. Compare that with McCarthy’s confused thinking and team selections, long ball crap and lack of pace throughout the team bar Jarvis.
The third year in the prem and no sign that we are improving. We are going no where with McCarthy and all the signs are that we are stuck with him for a lot longer. I really think we should be expecting better than this.
That sums up what I’ve felt for a long time, Martin. Teams that have come up this season knock the ball around the park. In contrast, we pass it along the back line and then to Hennessey who proceeds to lump it up the pitch. Possession squandered.
Generally, a point away in the Premier League shouldn’t be sniffed at. I just hope we’re treated to better football in 2012.
Happy New Year all.
blackpool anyone?
I think before we go around hailing Swansea as footballing Gods, we should acknowledge that they’re currently just 3 points ahead of us.
So if the point is ‘we’re crap’ and ‘McCarthy has no clue’ then how good can they and their manager really be?
There’s a sense of deja vu here too isn’t there? Burnley and Blackpool in each of the last two seasons have supposedly ‘played the type of football we should be playing’, but where it did it get over the course of 38 matches? We both know the answer to that.
Yes, I’d like to see us get it down and pass more and as you’ll know from my reports, I seldom agree with Mick’s tactics, but I certainly wouldn’t swap Swansea’s squad for ours.
We’ve underachieved so far, which is acknowledged by everyone within the club and that in itself is a sign of progress. Two years ago, we’d have said ‘well, that’s where we are as a club’, but now we know we should be doing better with what we have.
Although it’s difficult to do, you can only really assess progress after 38 games.
Thomas,I think the real problem is MM and his coaching methods or lack of it, his plan B
should be his plan A if you get my drift.as you said we just can’t pass the ball we seem to frightened to hold on to it at times thats got to be something to do with coaching or lack
of it.i still think we have the player’s to survive in this league but with a better manager +
coaching staff we could be mid table i know its only a few points between us and the mid
table teams but where do you think our next points are coming from.?..i hope we can get
at least a point tomorrow.UTW.
The fact we are any points behind teams like Norwich, QPR and Swansea in their first seaons says a lot imo Thomas especially if ,as you say, we have the better squad. And to compare us with what Burnley and Blackpool could reasonably hope to achieve is difficult. We’re not talking about a club with little money, run down ground and fan base under 20,000 who have somehow found themselves in the best league in the world. We’re talking about a club with premiership facilities, financially very healthy and a wonderful fan base who are half way through their 3rd season.
Blackpool, in particular, made a good fist of surviving and i wonder what Holloway could have achieved with all the advantages McCarthy benefits from. I think Swansea are in a much more solid situation, ground fan base etc, and i don’t see them finishing below us this year.
We were very, very close to replacing one of the relegated clubs last year and there’s every chance we could go down this time.
Put it this way, if i was chairman of Swansea i would be offering Brendan Rogers a long extension to his contract. If i was Morgan, i’d be looking for signs of improvement very soon.
Sorry to bang on about it but after the excellent performance against Arsenal cant get my head around Mick’s bizarre team changes – he has put a gloss on it and seems happy with a point but we have got to get a win sometime soon and i think the next four opponents are Chelsea Spurs Villa and Liverpool.
Happy new year to Wolves fans everywhere.
If Edwards couldn’t manage 90 minutes then what about Guedioura. Clearly his Wolves career is over.
Watched MOD, and guess what, Ward was the player their goal scorer tuned inside out and ran away from and under no pressure from a Wolves player had time to pick a great shot.
Whem MM gets sacked lets hope he signs Ward for his new club. His lack of pace, mobolity and quick feet are a ongoing liability for my team.
I agree fully with those above who say MM is a dinasaur who who has not signed enough players fit for premiership purpose, and whose tactics are hoplessly outdated. I`m with Clive FOMM.