With Man Utd crashing out of the Champions League on Wednesday night, I’d say it’s about the worst time to be heading to Old Trafford.
Good players and good teams respond and Sir Alex will demand nothing less than comprehensive victory.
With that in mind, I wouldn’t bank on him fielding a weakened team, as he did in this very fixture last season.
We should have got something out of that game, squandering a glorious chance to take the lead at 1-1, before conceding a soft injury time goal.
If we come anywhere near that close to getting something out of this match, we’ll have played very well.
United were of course thumped 6-1 on their ground by City not so long ago, but to put that defeat into context, it was their only loss in 14 Premiership fixtures. They’ve won 10 of the other 13.
The Team
I feel a bit for Mick McCarthy this weekend. Whatever team he puts out, we’re highly likely to lose and his tactics torn to pieces as a consequence.
If we play 442 and get tonked, he’ll be accused of being too open. If we go 451 and lose narrowly, people will say he rolled over.
Tricky.
The two big decisions are the shape of the side and whether or not to put Karl Henry straight back in?
This is the eleven I think we’ll see:
So that’s Hunt dropping out, Edwards moving over to the right and Henry back in alongside O’Hara.
I’d be very surprised if Henry was left out, so I think it will most likely be 442 as above or 451, with Doyle dropping out.
Prediction League
Well done to the 24 pundits who correctly guessed we’d beat Sunderland.
10 of those 24 also got the 2-1 scoreline so it’s 3 points all round for those clever chaps.
So congratulations to Morph, Hamstall Ridware Wolf, Stourbridge Wolf, johnok, Michigan Wolf, Ade in China, Exeter Wolf, Vladimir, Clemens and of course, me.
Special mentions for Stourbridge who aside from getting the score right also said Fletch would get both our goals and for Exeter Wolf, who moves up to top spot in the overall league.
This weekend, I must predict defeat. 4-1 United.
I’m hoping we’ll put on a decent performance and offer some resistance. A capitulation like we saw at Stamford Bridge would not be welcome.
If you’re heading to Old Trafford, have a great time and get right behind the lads.
Up The Wolves.
* Apologies for the lack of posts this week. Busy, busy. More to come next week to make up for it. Can I also repeat my encouragement for people to visit http://en.gravatar.com/ to get a personalised picture to sit alongside their comments. Thanks!
First comment – I feel under more pressure than Hennessey after a poor short backpass by Zubes (or Karl).
Funny feeling we will be right in this until the end… ManU 1- Wolves 1
Man U 2-0 Wolves. But getting something out of this might not be out of the question. Those United players looked *gutted* when they traipsed off the field in Basle.
Come on, let’s be positive!!! I think it’s a good time to be going to Old Trafford especially after their tough midweek game and Vidic’s injury. I agree he’ll go for 442 – but this really means the pressure’s on Henry to play a blinder. I’d be tempted to go 451 with hunt and jarvis wide, dropping doyle and putting edwards alongside karl in midfield. We’ll see.
I agree with you in this matter. MM gave in the midweek Doyle his support, claiming Doyle is an invaluable asset to our team. The main argument was workrate; his capacity to work hard in 90 minutes, running the channels.
O’Hara has other momentums to his game also; scoring goals. In an attacking midfield/forward role he will probably more often find himself in goal scoring positions.
The match scenario taken in consideration, and the team we’re playing against, a 4-5-1 formation is preferable to 4-4-2. An other option is to play him as a midfielder.
Yeah i think this could be a good time to play them. Everyone will be talking about the Europa league, uniteds loss of revenue, how this has hurt the players, rooneys ability to play in the final game of the Euro group stages. Hopefully we will just be the team in teh background, work our socks off and pile some more pressure on them. 2-2 with ward and Edwards to get the scrappy goals.
If we can keep it tight for the first 20 minutes it will be interesting to see how the old trafford crowd react. I have to say I’m not expecting much with Johnson back in the team, but utd are so used to steamrollering opposition at home, they might just turn ugly if they are struggling to break us down..
The way the press are building this up, the utd fans will be thinking all utd need to do is turn up for a nailed on rout! (Here’s hoping they’er very wrong!)
Man Utd 0 Wolves 3
A victory that will have us pull away from relegation…….
Man Utd 1-1 Wolves. Scrappy, boring game, but a welcome point
Dream on fellas! 3- 0 loss to Man Utd. I will take it as long as we don’t get totally thumped, I’m more interested in our home games.
Yea we’re gonna lose this due to a penalty made by Berra.
2-1 Manu
I’ve got to go with United on this, but you never know. Hopefully we won’t get rolled over though and it won’t derail us too much going into the Christmas fixtures. I’ll go with 2-0 to United.
Chelsea revisited…
Man Utd 3 – Wolves 0
Ah well. They’ve got to have a bit of good news this week…
This is interesting. Goes some way to explaining our problems. Confirms what many of us notice – lots of ‘token gesture’ closing down in midfield without any committed plan to press the opposition.
http://fourfourtwo.com/blogs/statszone/archive/2011/12/09/clash-of-the-titans-at-stoke-walcott-aims-for-baines-revenge-passive-wolves-risk-mauling.aspx
Adam very interesting link
Excellent summary of our frailty.
Surely the manager determines this type of play.?
Certainly, as the objective blogger points out, we are consistent in this failure to win back the ball.
Still think, completely without logic, we will win 3-0.
Fletcher and Johnson to score.
My crystal ball is not clear on who will score twice!
oh, balderdash!!
Elokobi’s gonna get a hat-trick, you idiot!
Sorry but I have to say it Hamlet.
It is almost as idiotic an idea as thinking MM is a good manager!!
If we win 3-0, (even if Elokobi gets a hat-trick, lets hope he doesn’t get the chance), you will be one of the first to say what a feasible scoreline it was!
hehe, we were both joking about that scoreline! Well, at least I was! 😛
Oh, and these idiots who think MM is a good manager…would they be mindless idiots by any chance?
I have to say it robin! 🙂
Like I have been saying all along, we have a defensive midfielder who does not tackle!
I watched the game at Old Trafford last season sat amongst the home fans and was gutted when their winger turned Ward inside out and scored in almost the last seconds. Groundhog day big style. That day Henry and Stearman were exceptional, and if we had a left back fit for the premiership with some pace we would have got the point we deserved.
Watched them in midweek and the Swiss team after taking the lead had numbers behind the ball for the rest of the game. Was it Nanni – the Man Utd right winger, well if he plays we do have a problem when he starts running at our pedestrian left back.
Nobody expects anything result wise from the game, even if our performance has merit, so for me its a 2-0 win for Man Utd.
As my son in law said yesterday the new Man Utd perfume is Channel No 5, where you can watch them in the Europa League in the New Year.
I wish I had gone to Adam B`s link before I posted my comment above.
The link is very interesting, and the reasons are we don`t tackle or intercept in midfield, as only Henry has the pace and athleticism to get stuck in. Our defensive lack of pace at left back and at the centre also explain why we back of quicker forwards. We are probably the slowest side in the premiership, MM`s failure to grasp what all the other managers have, ie that to play and succeed at premiership football you need pace, quick feet and a level of athleticism running through your side.
Its not the first time this poiont has been made.
No reason we can’t have a good go at them but I fear we’ll come up short. 2-1 to Man Utd
I hope we don’t make the same mistake we did against Everton, when they were there for the taking. I know it’s all relative, but Man U are at the weakest they have been for a long time, with a number of key injuries.
Yes, our problem is that we don’t have the enough quality players to effectively operate any system against the better sides, but we have MORE chance of getting something if we have a more attacking formation on Saturday.
I think United are likely to respond to going out the UCL on Wednesday. 3-0 to Man Utd.
The Edmonton Canada Wolves Supporters Club are heading to the Elephant & Castle on Whyte Ave, Edmonton (all 8 of us!) tomorrow morning to watch the MIGHTY Wolves spank ManUre 1-0
If you fancy hopping on a plane, then feel free to join us!
http://elephantcastle.com/edmonton_whyte_ave
Hi Jed,
I had the chance to take a job in Edmonton 12 months ago. If only I’d known!! Still a long way from the Mol and quite cold at this time of year?!
Canada is awesome.
Enjoy the game. I’ve gone for a 1-0 Wolves win also!
nice one fella! I came over for work in 2007 and never went back, then stumbled into some fellow wolves fans wearing the old gold and the Edmonton Supporters Club was formed – even got a facebook page!
Utd will be dangerous opponents having gone out of the Champions League. Fergie will have wound them up and we will suffer the backlash of probably their strongest team. I cant see us scoring even with the spanish muppet between the sticks as we wont have the possession. We will do well to come out of it losing by the odd goal, but I fear at Chelseaesque performance first half going in 3-0 down, Utd adding one more second half for us too end up the wrong end of a 4-0 drubbing.
Anything else would be lying to myself.
Fear the worst.
Fergie will bring in his pacy kids and marmalize us.
Could be double fgures………and then we would go in for half time!!!
Prediction, but it’s my dad’s computer so I’m not taking it seriously, United 6 Wufflers 0
FOMM
I hope Henry doesn’t play. I was really impressed with Edwards and O’Hara last week, and I’d like to see Hammill get the nod ahead of Hunt in a 442.
I’m not sure whether it’s a good time to play them or not, Vidic is out, they’ve lost their last 2 games and their midfield is looking quite weak… but Fergie will murder them all if they lose again… then again I’m not sure the young kids can handle the pressure… Lets go for a 2-1 win! Easy Easy Easy.
3-0 United. Can’t see anything here.
3-1 United. Just can’t fathom us wriggling a point from this. Although, of late we’ve been pretty damn competitive against Sir Alex’s men (Two 2-1 scores in the league and another close one in the league cup last year, if I recall correctly). Fletcher to score.
3-0 to United – Like others say, I can’t see us getting anything out of this game…
4-0 Man United.
Can’t see us getting anything at man u but would love to,lets face it we’er not good enough.
We only just about beat sunderland at home so me thinks it will be a bit of a doing,hope not
but we are still papering over the cracks no matter what we wish,hope i’m wrong..3-0 man u.
Just a thought we played better without Carl Henry, looks like McIdiot will include him and
change a winning side. also thought Zubs had a good game will he drop him aswell.
I honestly don’t understand why so many people hate Karl Henry! I think he’s one of our more consistent players – certainly not our worst player!
Just making a point Hamlet i don’t hate Karl,I’m just asking do we play better without
karl in the side in my opinion we do.
Man Utd 2:0 Wolves – Champions league backlash!
I’m fearing the worst for this game! I think we’ll get battered in the 1st half, change tactics and come out battling with a much better performance in the 2nd and maybe pull a goal back. Too little, too late!
Man Utd 5-1 Wolves (let’s hope I’m very wrong though!)
Not optimistic at all. We huffed and puffed against Sunderland and were not unlucky in a scrappy game between two poor sides.
Man U 3 Wolves 0
But it is not these games that should make us stay up. The win against Sunderland was invaluable!
UTW
Myself and Jed are the only two who have predicted a win for us.
It looks almost 1-17 on, in bookmakers parlance & almost 1-10 on, we will lose 3-0!
Well Robin at that price worth a couple of bob on us .
Wolves to win 1-0; no doubt about it we are on the up and they are on the way down.
UTW!!
We always seem to play well at Old Trafford without getting anything. So my prediction is we play shit and scrape a point. 1-1.
Its going to be ugly, but I’m going to say we’ll get away with a point 2-2 they’re going to be all over the place at the back without Vidic.
Remember that at Liverpool, we gave Docherty a run out, at Chelsea, Forde got some first team action is Old Trafford where Zeli gets his opportunity in readiness for all that I foretold in the Sunderland preview???????
We are playing a team in red and white stripes next up at home, I obviously mistook the Stoke for Sunderland in my vision (I await the law suits from disgruntled Sunderland players).
Think we’ll lose but not get so hammered. United have made heavy weather of some games this season
1-0 Reds
Now is the perfect time for Wolves to finally grab a point away at United. They’ve hardly been impressive lately, so I’m going for 1-1.
man u 1 wolves 2. You may say im a dreamer, but im not the only one, i hope some day yuull join us, and wolves will be number 1.
man u 3 wolves 1 sorry lads wow be strong enough to turn these over.
Careful you must be when sensing the future. The fear of loss is a path to the dark side. Man Utd 3-0 Wolves.
Yoda, what happened to your picture?? Copyright hassles?
My smartphone before I commented from. My picture disappeared. Yes, hmmm.
2-1 wolves! Fergie then gets the sack and we get known across the world as those frightening wolves in glorious gold, who every player
Good job that last post was sent before I wanted to…I was beginning to ramble. Yes, as I was saying, we will win, Fergie will be fired and a third world war will be waged, this time against fat Americans by millions of disgusted mufc ‘fans’ across the globe
Careful Ben, its a slippery slpoe this prediction lark. I’ve been avioding the voices in my head ever since the Sunderland prediction post, they’ve got a straight jacket for me.
on this slippery slope its hard to press the buttons on the keyboard in the correct order!
You jinxed us Ben! I am now personally blaming YOU for our loss! 😛
Glad the game in on ESPN3 in the USA…..With Hennessey and Fletcher both in great form and ManU reeling, an early goal should do it….Wolves 1-0….
United 3-1 Wolves 🙁
Great preddo by Thomas.
Well, we went toe to toe there. We tried (and did) play some good football, and Fletcher scored an excellent goal (and, as the biggest Jarvis-sceptic on the board, I have to eat crow and say that he was easily our MOM today, he tormented Smalling all game and sent over some great crosses). But ultimately we were outclassed (giving them way too much room and time outside our box in the first half was a big problem).
No disgrace, but we have to get something out of each of the next two games. Especially since I get the feeling that the teams in the bottom three are beginning to wake up.
I think he’s the only one who predicted right!
You know, that’s an idea to make the Prediction League more interesting… if only one person gets the correct scoreline then 5 points instead of 3!
Tempting, right Thomas? 😛
We had a go but came up well short,ManU could have had i think a few more goals.
our midfield was none existant defence lethargic and laboured at times,
Admittedly United played well but our passing was crap and we gave the ball away to cheaply.
Saying that we are what we are a bottom 6 side and thats all we can hope to be at the moment.
Hope our war chest in january gets a bigger injection of cash because i think we need it to
get a couple or three players in because 3 mill won’t be enough. Jarvo and fletch MEN O M.for me. Zubes getting there.