Ståle Solbakken could probably have done without a midweek cup game to contend with as Molineux’s revolving door continues to spin ahead of Friday’s transfer deadline.
Since last Friday, it’s mercifully been a case of reinforcements arriving rather than troops jumping ship as we welcome Razak Boukari and Bakary Sako to the fold.
If you believe what you see on YouTube, they should bring pace and creativity to the side, two things desperately lacking from the weekend’s disappointing performance against Derby.
Relevant clearance permitting, both of those players should make their debut at Northampton tomorrow as Wolves look to advance in the League Cup. Defender Georg Margreitter is also inline for his first appearance.
League Two Northampton, now managed by Aidy Boothroyd, have enjoyed a solid start. With 3 draws and a win in the league thus far as well as a fantastic first round cup win over Cardiff, they’re undefeated heading into this match and hungry for another upset.
Wolves of course went to Sixfields last season at the same stage and won 4-0. Ebanks-Blake (2), Milijas and Sam Vokes were all on the scoresheet in that one. I remember looking at our squad after that win and thinking how much strength in depth we had. Oh well.
Wolves
I’m expecting the starting eleven in this game to consist of new signings and players in and around the first team squad. This is the sort of thing I mean:
Starting the two forwards is surely a no-brainer? I’d like to see what they can both do from the start, particularly if there’s a chance Doyle could leave before Friday. Someone has to fill the void.
If the three new lads can play, it would be nice to see them get a run out. The likes of Elokobi, Stearman and Davis should also benefit from a run out.
Opposition view
Thanks to Danny from A Load of Cobblers:
Aidy Boothroyd has mentioned that fringe players may get a chance. With a trip to Plymouth coming two days after this match there could be a fair bit of chopping and changing from the Town boss.
On paper it’s another potential upset for the Cobblers but I can see this being just as much of a challenge as last season and we’ll have to be well on our game to come close. I would imagine Wolves would field a stronger side than Cardiff City did a few weeks ago and the best we can hope for will probably be a shot at extra-time. I’ll go for a 1-1 draw after ninety minutes!
Predictions
No PL points at stake for this one, but just for fun I’ll tip us to edge through 2-1.
I’d like to say the performance is more important than the result, but I’ll be disappointed if we get knocked out.
Either way, what happens off the pitch over the next two days is probably going to be a lot more telling for the season ahead than what happens on it.
Up The Wolves.
Yes first in im gonna for a 2-0 comfortable win hoping they field a weekend team.
2-0 to wolves
2-1 Wolves 🙂 Would be nice to repeat last year’s result though!
3-1 victory for the wolves.
We could need a good cup run.
No PL points at stake all season at least, are there Thomas, unless i’ve just woken up from a horrible dream! New boys to rip ’em apart. 4-0 again.
Sorry, penny’s just dropped. Prediction league, not premier. Durrr.
Wolves 5-1 Northampton
I think we will see Johnson and Margeitter paired together. The new boys will certainly play, and Siggy and Nouble have a chance to impress.
Hopefully we put in an assured performance and there is no upset!
3-1 to us for me.
3-0 wolves to win
4-0 wolves for me
I for one would love to see your team tried out . However with so many new faces on board already , I reckon only a few changes from last Sat’ and the same at Cardiff on Sunday. Then with a two week break looming , Stale will be working to get everyone on the same wavelength ready for the visit of Leicester . Hope Sigurdarson gets a start though .
3 – 1 to the Wolves .
Have we all forgotten this match is on TV? When did we last perform in a televised match?
I’d be grateful for a win on penalties.
I agree could be a close game – Wolvbes win 1-0
I had a dream last night that I was playing in goal for the Wolves and kept a clean sheet. I also scored a hat-trick.
It’s got to be 3-0 then.
To the Wolves…. hopefully
Please send me some of the stuff you have been drinking/smoking/injecting yerself with.
Give it to Ben at the next home game, coz he can afford the postage to Texas.
Wolves to win, dont give a shit what the score is or who scores, can be 6 own goals for all I care.
PS who remembers a European game at The Mol where the opposition scored 3 own goals??
Come on, you other old farts out there, name that tune, who was the other team and what was the final aggregate score?
ADO DEN HAAG !! fwaw !
3 own goals 4-0 at the mol and 7-1 agg. nov ’71 man !!!
And we stuffed Academica Coimbra by the same aggregate score!!
Them was the days!
Carl Zeis Jena
Ferencvaros
Juventus
All fell to the mighty Wufflers.
Then we couldnt beat Spurms at home!!
Yep, saw all those games. The one against the mighty Spurms was virtually the only time that Martin Chivers looked like the complete centre forward that he should have been. Trust him to tutn it on against us!
I’m sorry, I’ll type that again.
Yep, saw all those games. The one against the mighty Spurms was virtually the only time that Martin Chivers looked like the complete centre forward that he should have been. Trust him to turn it on against us!
Carl Jeiss Jena?
It’s copious amounts of Oz Shiraz and the occasional bit of Blow (old habits die hard). All easily available at your local store or street corner.
Pessimistic about this one. I think it will be cobblers for us. 2-0
I think SS will try to play a full strength team – they have to learn what he wants them to do still. I’m going for Northampton to shock us 2-1 as we get to grips with the SS system and blood a coupla new’uns
1-3 , I reckon that we’ll get the win, but it’ll not be anywhere near as comfortable as last year.
We’re in transition mode at the moment but it was long overdue and appears to be happening quickly. Here’s hoping that Stale can get the players to understand what he expects from them and gets us playing to our undoubted potential.
Fem dekar gjort er verd hundre i løfteland.
4 nil
Yer wot? U ay from rowund ere ay yer bab?
Google translate?
Five acres done is worth a hundred in the promised land?
Maks no sense in Norwegian tho 🙂
There’s never an easy game so WW must go for a statement of intent 3-1 with 2 of the newbies scoring on debut with possibly Edwards joining in and then a consolation goal for the cobblers.
if the new boys are as good as we need them to be Wolves should see off the Cobblers easily – the new lads will want to show waht they can do – and on Sky too !
I’ll go for 3-0, but wouldn’t be surprised at a bigger score – how about Siggy to get a couple…. ?
we should go One better than last year at least.
Northampton Town 0-5 Wolves
It would be great to see the team that you have suggested here. Would like to see the new guys, but even more somFrank Nouble. He is hungry to get in the first 11.
Could be 5-0 or 1-0 to us – feeling cautious with Sky covering, so going for 1-0.
Northampton 1-2 Wolves
COME ON ME BABBIES!!
I’m heading to Northampton tomorrow night and will be hoping to see the new boys and our potential showing through from the off.
I’ve yet to see a 0-0 when I watch wolves, but then that probably says it all about our defence in recent seasons!! I’ve also never seen us lose! 1-4 Wolves. I’m hoping to see goals.
UTW!
Probably belongs to the last blog post but –
All that talk about Jordon Rhodes and he goes and signs for Blackburn for £8 million! What do you lot think of that? Too much or just right price?
Appears to be a statement of intent.
Shows they have ambition.
Agree with Robin about Essian.
Suspect wages would be a problem.
3 – 1 Wolves
Near miss for us. Rhodes contributes very little in general play (in Div 1) but hits the target a lot. Championship defences/goalies will sort him out. 15 goals a season at our level max. £8 million for that? Another nail in Steve Kean’s coffin.
reminds me of kenny miller, will struggle at the higher levels. wont be any more good scottish players for another generation at least
Am hoping we win 3-0, but would not be surprised if we lost by the same score.
We are in a period of transition.
Zubar must play for linguistic skills alone.
I’d like to see the new centre half with Johnson who, ironically, along with Edwards, might be the only survivors, ultimately, of the MM regime in Ståle’s team. (Goalkeepers excluded).
Please can we have a new left back?
As for a marquee signing, how about a bid for Essien ?
Excellent defensive midfielder, fluent in French, leadership qualities….
Looking forward to seeing how the new team shapes up!
Hi Robin,
Agree your points.
trying to get a left back is a bit like oliver asking for more.
Sorry Robin no you cant!
Its been so obvious for so long even before “Wardy” was sent into that corner by MM.
I remember MM saying “he has solved a problem for us”
I have come to the conclusion that it has become personal and emotional with Jez.
The more we ask the more determined Jez is that we won’t get one.
I think Wardy will have that position for the next 10 years breaking Parkins appearance record.
The elusive clean sheet I hope . Couple up the other end. 2-0 away win .
3-1 Wolves. Sigurdarson off the mark, SEB and Doumbia
Just saw a pic of bakary saka in the dressing room and noticed on the wall behind him is some kind of motto about possession of the ball.
Guessing it wasn’t there under MM. Anyone shed any light on this?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2195229/Bakary-Sako-completes-Wolves-switch-St-Etienne.html
PS I don’t actually read the daily mail, don’t judge me
Glad to hear it.
Yep, I noticed it, seems to be some repetive mantra all round the wall. Obviously SS is trying to make a strong point. Putting 2+2 together (and making 8) I can see now that this is the huge tactical change our beloved players (bless em) are struggling to adjust too!
I mean it must be radical as far as they are concerned, previously to be avoided and gotten rid of at the earliest opportunity.
Seriously seems a great idea and SS seems very intense about it.
Mind you it might just be a reminder that TC is responsible for collecting and possesion of training balls.
Being an old geezer I recall a comment made I think about the old liverpool team by Cloughie. Basicaly saying it was very hard to beat them because they didnt let you have the ball, true then true today.
It says, “the easiest and quickest way to lose possession of the ball is to pass it back to the keeper so he can lump it up field”. Unfortunately our lads cant read cus them iz fick
Wolves 1-0.
I Hope we can use this cup matches to drill in Ståle’s way of play.
So hopefully we can get through the next round.
Also think the international breake coming up benefit Wolves.
More time to get the players gel, and more time on training.
Bonjour Thomas, thought I`d practice my French. Can`t keep a clean sheet, so with all the new quality brought in, lets go for a Wolves trois, Cobblers une, or 3-1.
Al least I can watch the match in peace as my darling wife is working late, incidentally the team you`ve picked looks just right without Ward.
I see our old friend Willie McKay is in a spot of bother:
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4511040/Joey-Bartons-agent-in-car-coke-bust.html
Haha
Couldn’t happen to a nicer bloke!
Having a few minutes spare between designing brochures and writing ads for my vast amount of clients (I wish!) I decided to visit some of the other team blogs that you list just to get a flavour of the comment.
I was surprised to see the apparent lack of involvement and discussion. The Man. U site shows a huge response – but they’ve probably got as many fans just in Wolverhampton as we have. Chelsea and Arsenal were reasonable but as for the rest…
The Blackburn domain name had expired and not been renewed (quite apt really), The Blues site seems to have no comments, West Ham and Liverpool likewise and the last blog posting on the Spurs one was back in July.
I think this says a lot about the quality of this site. The amount of work put in by Ben and Thomas is phenomenal – the writing and opinion is always top rate and always promotes lively discussion.
Also, I think it proves my pet theory … Wolves fans are highly articulate and intelligent and all the others are as thick as bricks!
Cheers Ben and Thomas! Keep up the good work!!
Thanks mate, very kind of you to say.
On the subject of other clubs, I think there are a number of reasons that not many have dedicated bloggers.
Firstly, it’s incredibly hard work, especially if you commit to doing match reports for every single game.
A lot of people tend to start, realise how hard it is and then give up. Others are discouraged because they don’t get enough comments or positive feedback.
I was fortunate as I recruited Ben almost right from the start so the workload could be split and we immediately had an audience thanks to friends and some networking.
It also helps that I do this (online publishing) for a living, so I have the know-how. Circumstances also work in my favour because I run my own business and manage my own time. If I was chained to an office desk from 9-5 it would be much harder.
For these reasons, ‘forums’ tend to work much better for football fans than ‘blogs’.
Forums are good because nobody rules the roost so nobody has the burden of updating it. Anyone can create an article.
The problem I find with this model is the amount of noise it creates. You’ll often find 10s of people saying the exact same thing, so you have to sift through them to get to an original point.
I also like the idea of this being a reference point for fans to use in the years to come. You can already go back to 2009 (via the archive) to see match reports and gauge the general mood of fans at the time. If we’re still going in 10, 20 or 30 years time, I think that will be very cool indeed. A real legacy.
If I’m still going in 30 years time it’ll be a fuckin’ miracle!!!
You’m aint going nowhere Clive
Seconded from US of A
I see Neds gone, seemed a nice guy but it never really happened for him. I dodnt think he ever really came to terms at not being an automatic pick.
The darker side of me wonders how Jez decided he could go for free. Cant help thinking that he has probably cussed SS for telling him he was not in future plans rather than Jez trying to get 10 Bob for him.
I’ve no doubt Moxey wanted to get 10 bob (or maybe a little bit more) but obviously no-one was interested in paying for him. Given Solbakken had told him he wasn’t going to play it made sense to let him go rather than paying him a wage till the end of the season for simply sitting on his arse.
Free for Milijas?
What a muck up that is.
Glad I’m not the only one who thinks that.
There must have been something going on we weren’t told about. I refuse to believe it’s all down to him not running around enough.
Was desperate to see him given a run in the Championship. Really thought he could be a potent weapon.
Oh well.
I’m another who thought he had something to offer.
Surprised he had his contract cancelled. I can think of several I would rather see go.
Having said that I am sure SS knows what he wants and didn’t feel Ned fitted in with his plans.
I just always thought we never saw the best of him. My gut tells me he never quite came to terms with not being a first team regular. He just never did really settle it seemed to undermine his confidence. Its always a problem some players need to feel loved and have a run in the team others can handle it. On the other hand its fair to say he didnt always grasp the chances he got, but again that was something a few players suffered from under Mick. I think it is/was also true of Hammill, what few short chances he got, he simply tried to hard totally tried to overplay to stake his claim. It happens and what a good manager recognises. Its a tough call, you have to do whats best for the team and not let them feel to comfortable, but you also need to give them a good chance and build some confidence level.
I agree he clealry doesnt fit SS style, but i do have a nagging feeling other factors involved. TCs input, wages// something more to it. Easpecially as Jez didnt try to get few bob for him .
I wish him well sorry it didnt work out, but i think it might have been more down to past manager than Ned.
Statement attributed to SS. Makes sense to me and seems our manager understands our intense desire to succeed.
But Solbakken has no qualms with supporters expecting much from his team, despite the summer overhaul and recent uncertainty with comings and comings.
“You can’t really do that (quell fans’ expectations),” he said.
“I will never, ever question supporters’ demands because they must have expectations.
“People want the team to do well and they have the right to ask for good performances.
What more can anyone add?
I’ll be bold and predict a 2-0 win. I’ll keep predicting a clean sheet, no matter how much my head is telling me we’ve got bugger all chance.
See ya Nenad, and best of luck. Hope you go to a team who put you in the thick of it all.
I think it will be not as easy a win as most fans think,3-2 to wolves we are still an evolving team
Havent got a clue what the score will be tonight but would like to say a word on Kevin Doyle.He hasnt scored enough goals and like nearly every player he has his critics – also the transfer window isnt closed yet.But in an era when there is little club loyalty and ambition just always seems to equal more money he has the attitude of a saint.(Now i have said this he will probably sign for Everton).
I see Berra in Scotland squad, with Kenny Miller and Charlie Mulgrew (remember). he he no call for Felcher, I hope ne ver plays for them treacherous buggar.
Lots of new boys to appear tonight! Quite exited to watch this – think we’ll be too much for them – although no clean sheet with Stearman playing (and he’s captain?!) 3-1 to the Gold & Black.
A little of topic but just read this on the express and star website:
“Speculation on deals has been cranked up online by fans peddling rumours of a ‘marquee’ signing, but the boss said: “I’ve heard all that. It will be more crazy over the next 48 hours.”
In relation to your last article, couldit be that not only has this famous blog become source material for the express and star but has also reached Stale’s radar?!
If the blokes got any sense he will read it first thing every morning, take serious note and immediatelly take our advice.
What a second half that was! 😀
yeah dodgy first but second was great. good possession, confident on the ball and the new signings look great. Sako’s goal was a great strike. You can see what SS is trying to do and if the new guys carry on like that, its a good start!
We finally agree Hamlet!
Yes, me babbies good result on we march.
Interesting team selection, seems like we conceded from a set piece again, so whats new.
Cant wait for feedback. Come on Cardiff, yur next.
Away to Chelsea the next match in the cup. I’m there as Stamford Bridge is 5 mins from work!!
First half was shocking. Could not believe how bad our passing and first touch was. 2nd half much better, hopefully stale bollocked them at half time, and they responded. Looked much better when doumbia and sako came on. We now have some powerful, fast players. Not sure of footballing ability yet. As far as milijas goes, good riddance. I hope most of the squad from last year goes.
Fair assessment of the game that.
SS needs more time to get them to gel together. But much better 2nd half.
Chelsea next.. Thats us out the cup then..
be positive…Chelsea will play their reserves, we’ll have Wardinho on the left flank…..what could possibly go wrong???
Doumbia + Sako + Boukari = Power and pace.
Don’t know if their defensive side of the game will be strong and consistent, but it is such a rare pleasure to actually be excited that something good could happen when we get possession.
Nice to see the new faces so involved. Coming outta the darkness and into the light!! Nice to see the central defensive partnership being tried too. Didn’t see game over here but glad Baath made a statement with goal.could this be a young and hungry defense of the future? I know it’s early on but sure can’t a fella get excited. Warm fuzzy feeling all round