Yeovil Town

Contemplating a ‘Plan B’ after two games of the season might sound a little churlish to many, not least when they’ve both ended up in 1-0 victories.

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But during spells of last night’s unnecessarily burdensome League Cup win, you were wondering what we wouldn’t give for a physical presence up top to hammer home all that intelligent interplay behind.

Don’t get me wrong, ‘Plan A’ looks extremely encouraging and the yearning for a Chris Iwelumo-type probably misses the point completely in this principled new age of possession based football.

(And imagine a scenario if we score an early goal and teams have to attack us. Then we could really have some fun!)

But for all the quite brilliant passing and moving, the hunch is that we’re still missing that final piece of the jigsaw to convert our undoubted dominance up to the edge of the penalty box.

Bonatini – who cuts the jib of Cedric Roussel in my mind – is still some way from being fit, while Nouha Dicko is still to completely convince following his injury, despite his well-taken winner.

If not a big man, then someone with that bit of devilment to fashion a chance from clever positional play. Jordan Rhodes anyone?

In any case, I couldn’t help but be impressed with this performance, which was laden with quick, incisive interplay in what appeared to be a 3-5-2 formation.

The personnel was almost entirely different to the Middlesbrough XI, save for Boly and Bonatini, but you could tell this was another Nuno side at work with Connor Ronan and Jack Price looking particularly easy on the eye in the middle of the park.

Danny Batth and Ryan Bennett looked competent alongside Big Willy, while our wing backs Vinagre and Jordan Graham were exactly what you’d expect; cool and calm on the ball with no little inclination to attack. If anything, they could have done this even more, with Vinagre seeing a lot more of the ball in the second half, lacking only in a telling final ball.

Without doubt, Dave Edwards struggled, shanking the ball out of play in the opening seconds and generally looking ill at ease when asked to recycle the ball in the pinball game mode we now adopt. His early substitution was telling, as was his reaction to it, shaking his head, kicking a water bottle (albeit apologetically) and throwing some energy bar/snack back at the lad who lobbed it his way.

The times, they are a changing, it would appear. (Bright Enobakhare looked so exciting when he came on, with Jota also impressing.)

But not enough to stop a familiar lapse in concentration when a Yeovil striker was afforded oceans of room in front of goal before we scored, only to shoot wide.

Had that have gone in, then we could have been looking at another League Cup embarrassment. Thankfully it didn’t, Nouha Dicko planted home a close-range header and we all move on.

That was a big win on Saturday.

We’ve been burned before after impressive starts under Solbakken and more recently Zenga, so there’s an element of caution for sure but the Nuno revolution already feels more credible than those false dawns.

There’s decent depth in this squad, albeit with a few key performers out injured, so I’m fully expecting us to progress in this tie even though most of the weekend’s starting eleven will likely sit it out.

I enjoyed last season’s cup run and it would be nice if we could make it through a few rounds in at least one of the competitions again this season. I’m still yet to see us play at Wembley.

Yeovil

It’s worth remembering that as recent as 2014 we’d have been considered underdogs in this tie with Yeovil up in the Championship and Wolves in League One.

Fast forward to now and while we’re dreaming of the top flight, Yeovil are licking their wounds after a 20th place finish in League Two last season and an 8-2 drubbing at the hands of Luton on the opening day of this campaign.

Things couldn’t have gone much worse for the Glovers in recent times and after that disastrous start on Saturday, they’re unsurprisingly rock bottom of the Football League.

Refunds were issued to traveling supporters who suffered the carnage at Kenilworth Road and it doesn’t seem like a happy club judging by various message boards and social media groups.

With little to lose, this is a good opportunity for them to make a amends for that poor showing and given our recent record in the competition, it could be their lucky night.

Wolves

I’m assuming we’ll see a completely different XI, but it’s difficult to know for sure until Nuno shows his hand for the first time in this type of contest. But here’s one possible combination.

That probably won’t be anything like the actual team in all honesty. I just got bored moving the pieces around trying to work who from the second string would slot into each position.

The above doesn’t include Michal Zyro or Joe Mason and if either don’t get a kick tomorrow, you would imagine their time is probably up. One or both might well start though.

Unless Nuno is going to be incredibly experimental, I think he’ll have to use at least a couple of the players who started at the weekend. But again, who knows? All guesswork.

Predictions

Whichever players make it onto the pitch for Wolves tomorrow, you would hope they’d find a way to win – convincingly or otherwise.

I’ll carry on the good vibes from the weekend and hope for comfortable progress rather than the usual extra time dramas.

3-1.

Up The Wolves!

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