As we know all too well, it’s been a miserable few weeks for Wolves supporters. Four defeats on the bounce, a serious injury to a vital member of the squad and a stupid sending off for the team captain. Couple that with a little club down the road giving football lessons to Arsenal in their own backyard and, well, it’s all a bit depressing isn’t it?
Recently I asked what we all thought of Mick as a manager and where he might take the club. The response was very largely positive. I think it’s fair to say that most fans like him, think he’s a good bloke and that he has achieved a lot so far. Of course, that was before our last two defeats and there has definitely been more criticism since, some even calling for his head now.
As they say, football’s all about opinions. We all see things differently regarding styles of play, players and managers as well. So the debate on Mick will continue while we all desperately hope for a change in fortune.
However, although I am largely behind the manager, I am increasingly finding myself bemused and bewildered by decisions on transfers, selections, formations and injuries. I just have so many questions and no answers for the likes of:
1. Having established we desperately need a new left back, how can he sign a player that can’t play left back?
2. Having replaced Ward in the Villa game to save him and the crowd further punishment, how can he play him in the next match after Elokobi largely solved the problem?
3. Why doesn’t he try Mancienne at left back?
4. How could anyone think a returning Edwards was a better bet than a fit Guedioura wide on the right?
5. Why have we spent tens of millions of pounds on new players and are still largely playing our championship team?
6. Why do we need such a large squad of average players for 38 league games? Most are just getting paid to train whereas we could have better players on the pitch.
7. Why, with all our medical and fitness staff and our state of the art fitness ‘laboratory’, are so many players suffering injuries for so long and, often, so mysteriously?
8. What has Mick got against Mujangi Bia now he’s had his hair cut?
9. How can he hope to stay in the premier league if he won’t play the few class players we’ve got?
10. Why have four strikers when we need five in midfield to have any sort of possession?
11. Why did he not spend the money on what we really need, a quality central midfielder? You could have Drogba up front for us and still lose 1-0.
12. Why didn’t he check out Maierhofer’s web site BEFORE he signed him?
You can probably add to the list. But please, any answers anyone?
13. Why drop SEB when he was playing well and started scoring goals again?
Regarding question 11, I think we did have enough in midfield at the start of the season Henry, Guediora, Jarvis, Jones, Milijas, Kightly & Hunt (when fit). Unfortunately Mick chose not to play Guediora for some reason and now we’ve lost him probably for the whole season. Henry, well I don’t need to mention how his season’s going so far, and now Jones seems to have fallen out of favour. They’re not the most talented bunch of midfielders but I think if they’d all stayed fit and out of the media spotlight they’d have enough to keep us up. Milijas may still come good and I can’t wait for Hunt to get to full fitness. Edwards seems to be the flavour of the month but as far as I’m concerned he certainly isn’t the answer, even if he was “excellent” on saturday!
Agree with you on the wide midfielders Nick, but if Milijas isn’t the answer in the forward central role( and a lot on this blog agree with Mick that he isn’t), we need to get someone in January. On the other hand, things may improve when Hunt is available and we can attack on both flanks.
There are certainly more questions than answers at the moment, Martin. Just think yourself lucky that you’ve even glimpsed Mujangi Bia’s new haircut. Us expats without access to the hardcopy local rags have quite forgotten what he looks like!
Can’t fathom the talent on the bench situation at all. I just think these players must perform radically different in training somehow. Or perhaps they get lippy with Mick or otherwise rub him up the wrong way.
So, no answers I’m afraid. Although I fear the answer to No.2 has got something to do with “showing faith” or some such nonsense …
He’s looking pretty natty on the official site right now Kowloon, if you fancy a buchers.
One of my big questions would have to be about Fletcher.
It would go something like this:
Last season the 4-5-1 formation was tremendously effective for us. However, as we were short on goals another quality striker was an essential purchase in the summer, to act as cover for Doyle and offer the flexibility to play 4-4-2. Steven Fletcher is a quality striker.
Surely he should either be playing as the lone striker in a 4-5-1 (although this wouldn’t suit his game), as a partner for SEB or Doyle in a 4-4-2, or not at all.
We paid £6.5 million for a striker, not a right-sided midfielder.
This leads me onto a question about the starting lineup in general.
Can we not play 11 players, whoever they maybe, in the positions they were brought in to play?
Last season, during the 4-5-1 days, everyone knew their position, everyone did their job and the results came. Why have you abandoned that principle?
…that was more than one question I realise.
One can only assume, Thomas, that Mick expected to be playing two up front, certainly for home games. As we get overrun with only four in midfield it’s just not an option and i suppose he’s under pressure to play his new record signing somewhere. I feel that until he resolves our lack of class and resultant lack of posession issues, it’s going to stay one up front.
Even with the effective 451 people complained about square pegs in round hole. Foley right midfield? A forward at left back?
Hopefully we can get an effective 442 going, with two wide players and two good centre midfielders.
All valid questions… all frustratingly without answer…
Someone mentioned a conspiracy theory that Mick is trying to get fired… the more we witness the playing of championship donkeys over million pound signings the more this is sounding feasible…
As for the Ebanks Blake commonet, you gotta be kidding… how often have you seen him play ? Doyle and Fletcher are the only two poistions (and Goalie) Mick seems to have got right so far.
grumlbe grumble
Don’t you think that Hanneman shows what a fantastic difference a great signing can make. I have no doubt that we would have got relegated without him. I think it shows that a lot of our signings were uninspired to say the least.
Fletcher has had 1 good game so far and that was way back against stoke. He’s looked completely disinterested since then. Haven’t seen Blake do much wrong so far.
In answer to your question i’ve probably seen every minute he’s played this season.
When you say Doyle and Fletcher are the only 2 positions he’s got right is that when they’re playing up front or on the right wing because they’re certainly not in the right position on the wing.
I’m not writing Fletcher off because I believe he will come good but he’s being played out of position and it looks like he’s really not happy about it.
Another tactic.
McCowardly is firm in his belief in all things Ward, Berra, Craddock and Foley.
The more they get berated and pilloried, the more he sticks by them, with his “I am the manager so I am right” attitude.
So, lets try some reverse pyschology (spellin) Let’s all say how wonderful our back four is, especially Ward, who should be in a World 11, and then perhaps our useless manager will drop the fuckin’ lot of them!!!!
Anything is worth a try.
New campaign, Mick, ………………We Love Ward!!!
FOMM
I just don’t understand how a man with the qualifications and experience of McCarthy can’t understand that a back four that struggled against Championship teams will without doubt be pulled apart by premiership teams. Craddock is a good player in the championship. He would not get in any other team in the premiership -and that speaks volumes when we consider he is probably our best defender!
Our weak defence hinders the midfield, who spend most time acting as a 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th defender which in turn leaves our forwards stranded.
A lot of people say McCarthy has been great for us, and I agree but sometimes you need new and fresh ideas to take you to the next level. So thanks Mick for the wonderful promotion season, and thanks for keeping us in the premiership last season, mainly because the teams below us were SO bad! But now we want something better, something that you are unable to provide in this league – a team that attacks, a team that plays its best players a team that if it gets relegated does so with a fighting spirit.
We are the laughing stock in this league and rightly so – it’s been a long time since I’ve been embarrassed by a Wolves team – March 2002 to be exact – but at the moment… well let’s just say I’m glad I live in Canada where nobody knows who the Wolves are! The headlines and stories may appear harsh but are they really wrong? We did kick lumps out of Newcastle, Henry’s challenge on Zamora did break his leg and then just as it begins to settle down Henry does that tackle against Gomez – I could have crawled up my own arse at that time!
So my one question for Mick McCarthy is this – When are you going to leave, because you have taken us as far as you are capable. Oh and when you go take Clipboard Connor with you. Good riddance and goodbye McCarthy!
Don’t bottle it up Jed. Tell us how you really feel.
The Fletcher signing, as i’ve said before, was the one i took issue with.
Only a child would think that simply buying another good striker would equate to more goals and points. We didn’t score goals because we played two back 4s in front of each other! Only Doyle and Jarvis threatened the opposition on a regular basis. This worked fine as we picked up the odd 1-0 win and were hard to beat. Playing a more attacking side is fine if the defence can then cope, however with our championship defence that isn’t the case. We’re now not that threatening upfront but we’re an unmitigated disaster at the back.
What’s going to happen is obvious. The team that played the 2nd half of the season will be restored and results will gradually improve and Fletcher will NOT play.
Huge waste of money. I doubt Morgan will back him again at that price.
Not exactly much to look forward to it. My hatred for McCarthy has returned. This all just goes to show he has taken us absolutely as far as he possibly can.
Great blog Martin. You sum up perfectly my own feelings right now.
But as for Q1 – I don’t believe Mick would agree the need for a new left back had been established. As Clive pointed out, if Mick managed a WorldXI Ward would be left back!
You’ve probably got it there Scooped. Morgan says Mick, get us a new left back so he gets one that’s much better in midfield. Van Damme still gets in the team but Ward keeps his place. Genius!
Why waste three months last summer chasing a work permit for Milijas, and then deem him notgood enough for a first team place?
Why sign Halford in the frst place when all and sundry knew he was pants?
What sort of sedative do you put in the tea at half time?
I still reckon Ward is his love child.
FOMM
Tell you what Mick…I’ll pick the team for the West Ham game…here goes
VOKES
EBANKS-BLAKE
JARVIS HALFORD MILIJAS MUJANJI-BIA
HILL ELOKOBI BATTH STEARMAN
IKEME
Would that line up do amy worse?
Yes. It would do both Amy (presuming she supports wolves) as well as any worse.
It has to be
Hahnemann
Foley – Berra – Craddock – Big George
Fletcher – Halford – Milijas – Mancienne – Jarvis
———————-Doyle——————–
How about-
HAHNEMANN
FOLEY CRADDOCK BERRA ELOKOBI
STEARMAN MANCIENNE
JARVIS MUJANGI-BIA
MILIJAS
DOYLE
Defensive but allowing Milijas free to play offensively. Won’t happen of course, it’l be same team with Jones in for Henry.
I don’t believe Fletcher is shit or a waste of money. Ok, Mick should’ve prioritised at the back, but then he did bring in van Damme and Mouyokolo, although it’s turned out van Damme can’t play in defense and is leaving in January anyway.
But Fletcher is quality like Doyle, you can’t say he’s a waste of money just cuz we’ve got a shit defense. A Fletcher up front can only help matters, after all Doyle hasn’t scored yet
I totally agree that Fletcher is quality, but the problem (my opinion) has been that to accommodate him we are no longer playing the 4-5-1 which served us so well last season (or, if we are trying to play it, it means Fletcher is out wide where he looks (a) wasted and (b) unhappy).
To be fair to Mick, he probably thought that the move us forward we needed to play more expansive football than last year, hence the second striker. But we are getting overrun in midfield game after sodding game now.
IMO, the time has come (especially with the upcoming run of fixtures against elite teams) to admit a failed experiment and to revert back to the 4-5-1. If that means benching Fletcher or even Doyle, so be it.
inneedofsomegoodnewsaboutwolves.com
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lol nice one!
try much later I reckon!
Here’s some good news, we haven’t got a game this weekend so atleast things can’t get any worse.
My question for Mick
Dear Mick
What qualities exactly does S Ward bring to my/your football team? And in your opinion are they (if any) better suited to a) the premiership, b) the championship, c) making tea on the team bus.
Kind regards
Mark
My question for Mr. McCarthy is this:
Will you be sacked before the Chelsea game or after?
My question for all you lot over there unlucky enough to have to go to the West Ham game is:
Are you going to voice your displeasure, or just chant “Super Mick McCarthy” at him?
FOMM
I would be surprised if he’s still with us after we get beat comfortably by the Happy hammers.
I don’t think any anti-Mick chants would go down too well to be honest. Things aren’t going well at the moment but I do think the majority of the Molineux faithful will stand by him, not sure how long for though.
Can’t see “Super Mick McCarthy” being sung unless we bang in 3 or 4 without reply, we are that fickle.
I can see us chanting Karl Henry’s name when it becomes evident how much we miss him and how poor a job Mancienne does in his place.
We`d be aq lot better without Ward. Any premiership full back should have the pace, athleticism to see off any pacey opposition right winger/wide midfield player. The benefit of that is that if this was the case at the Mol, then jarvis wouldn
Oh dear computer error….I finish as follows. Then Jarvis would not have to protect the full back by playing so deep – he would be free to help our strikers play.
What kind of football team are we – 2nd from bottom right now, playing shite, in trouble, and unexplicable team and player position selection, bereft of tactics, MM thinkjs we were brilliant with 10 men against Wigan, oh really, I must have blinked while the game was on then.
I hope I`m wrong and we stuff WHU, if we don`t we are bottom, thats the football team we are.
and bottom for the foreseeable future.
The worrying thing is we couldn’t have asked for an easier start to the season and we still only got 5 points. Wish we’d had the top teams first now. I think Hunt will make a difference but probably not enough to take points off the top four. The ‘excellent’ comments from Mick worry me too. Think we can loook forward to lots more of the same, i’m afraid. Does seem very lacking in ideas.
Morning Martin. Great blog as per usual. Interesting that the first three questions relate to the left back position. I’ve always enjoyed reading Martin Samuels in the Sunday papers whose favourite phrase (when referring to Sven usually) was:
‘Great managers solve problems, the others manage to create them.’ (or something like that!)
Shame that our left back position has been an ongoing problem for the past three years or more and it is further away from being solved than at any other time.
The annoying thing is that the position is not like finding a 20 goal a season striker, which should be far more difficult to do.
And a very good morning to you Ben.I like that quote, very perceptive. You know, football is avery simple game isn’t it. We need a new left back and we’ve got the money to buy a pretty decent one, shouldn’t be difficult. Van Damme was like me going down the shops for a bag of potatos and coming back with a non-stick frying pan. Only difference, i wouldn’t have misspent 2 million quid. When you see such pretty simple things being mishandled, it suggests there’s a lot of fairly muddled thinking going on. Round pegs in square holes and very short of ideas. I still like him though!
I offer you Harry Redknapp as the opposite. Knows a shit player when he sees one, buys a good one to replace him(usually on the cheap) and plays him in his proper position. Simple. And Harry’s no genius that’s for sure.