Let me start by immediately addressing Karl Henry’s sending off, as I know we’ll inevitably be flooded with opposition supporters baying for our skipper’s head on a stick.
I think we can all be in agreement that it was a horrid, mistimed challenge that was rightly punished with a red card. In my opinion, he had the time to pull his leg away but instead went straight through Gomez and at that speed it’s fortunate the midfielder wasn’t seriously injured.
If you read the blog regularly, you’ll know I’ve been Henry’s biggest supporter throughout this ridiculous media-circus.
In my opinion he was criticised unfairly by Fulham supporters and if he did bully Joey Barton, he certainly got as much as he gave. But this is a totally different kettle of fish I’m afraid and he just has to do much, much better.
Our normally reliable captain let himself down and more importantly, he let Wolves down. Nobody can defend that tackle.
He’ll serve his three match ban and then hopefully, we can all move on. In some ways it might actually be a blessing for Wolves that Henry’s taken out of the firing line for a few games, as he’s certainly made himself a marked man with officials.
And regardless of whether or not you agree or disagree with Mick’s tactics, that early sending off shaped the pattern of the game and was unquestionably the decisive factor. Wigan like to get it down and pass and with a man advantage they had all the time in the world to stroke the ball around under very little pressure.
Still, when the goal eventually came, I can’t help but feel we were a little hard done by. N’Zogbia was barely touched on the edge of the box, yet down he went and the ref duly obliged. From there, it was a cracking strike from Gomez and I don’t blame Hahnemann at all for getting beaten. It was after all, right in the top corner.
The second was a weak one to giveaway and certainly Berra will be disappointed not to have dealt with it better. It was a sad way to finish the match for the Scot who I thought had a solid enough game in the back four. Craddock, Mancienne, Foley and Doyle also performed admirably in what ultimately proved a lost cause.
But with Henry now suspended, Guedioura crocked and a run of horrendous fixtures looming on the horizon, the time has now come for Mick to make changes and put more faith in the multimillion pounds-worth of talent he’s got picking splinters out of their backsides.
I’m talking about the likes of Milijas, Mouyokolo, van Damme and if fit Zubar and Hunt. Jones and Ebanks-Blake must also be pushing for a return having featured prominently in our stronger performances thus far. That’s potentially seven players who could come in and make a serious impact.
Who should get the chop? Well, Edwards and Ward for a kick-off. For all their huff and puff, there’s a definite shortage of quality and if we have to sacrifice some of that effort to get the requisite amount of footballing-ability in the side, then so be it.
This is the Premier League after all.
There’s two weeks until the West Ham match and to call that game a must-win is an understatement of cataclysmic proportions.
Get it right Mick or things really are going to turn nasty.
Well I’m about done. Let me start by saying that I’ve always been a supporter of Mick McCarthy but after today and the last 4 games I’m done with him.
Wigan are shit. Everybody knows it, even their players know it. So what do we do? Play a 5 man midfield consisting of only 3 midfielders, one of whom gets sent off for an outrageous challenge, and another who wouldn’t get in most teams in the championship. We choose to sit our most creative midfielders for one that runs a lot but does little else. We also place our leading scorer on the wing when he’s clearly no winger.
But the real thing that has finished it for me is the fact that after we conceeded on 67 mins he failed to change the midfield when we couldn’t keep hold of the ball. Instead he puts on 2 strikers with 10 mins left, pushes our best striker onto the wing and has a defender in the centre of midfield orchestrating the game. How the f**k can our strikers expect to get the ball if there is no one in midfield capable of passing the ball.
No doubt a few people will day we defended really well for 67 mins. Maybe we did or maybe Wigan were so bad that the didn’t pose a significant threat. Even so after they scored we waited too long to change a team that couldn’t get near the ball and when he changed it he might as well have put wolfie moxey and Morgan in for all the use they were going to be.
Sorry for the negative rant but that’s how I feel. We are easily the poorest team in this league with the tactics McCarthy employs and the players be picks.
Roll on west ham for another chance to snatch defeat.
I have to say, Karl Henry is letting your team down. I’m a Fulham fan (no, I’m not saying it because of Bobby Zamora), I actually have a soft spot for Wolves… but I can’t see what Henry does for you apart from crunching tackles, his sending off was inevitable.
I don’t think he is a bad player, I think Mick McCarthy’s just giving him the wrong instructions.
If you’re not a Wolves fan you only see what the media want you to see. Henry does a lot of crunching tackles but the majority of them are fair, todays wasn’t but the ones against Zamora and Barton were. He’s crucial to our team as we have to battle for every point, he makes it very difficult for teams to play against us.
Are you some sort of pussy who thinks football should be a non-contact sport?
Hard to argue with any of that Jed.
Definitely agree that the midfield is all wrong.
If you’re going to play 3 in the center, Jones or Milijas have to play. Otherwise who is going to pick out a pass in the final third? Just basic.
Stop playing Fletcher out wide too. Either up front or not at all.
I normally try and stay positive but after watching todays game that’s impossible. Why does Edwards get straight back into the team when Guediora couldn’t get a look in and Dave Jones was looking pretty good, atleast he can pick a decent pass every now and then. Edwards doesn’t offer anything. Blake was in great form and he gets dropped for Fletcher who hasn’t looked any good since the first game of the season. Jarvis is our most effective player when he’s on the left but he’s moved to the right to accomodate Ward. Unfortunately it’s looking more obvious every week that we’re a team of good championship players.
Atleast we don’t have to worry about our decent players leaving when we get relegated, we haven’t got any.
Henry’s an idiot, can’t defend him today unfortunately. Fletcher just didn’t look interested. Wigan are crap but we’re worse. Mick needs to shake things up a bit if we’re going to survive, which is looking very unlikely.
Not even gutted. After seeing the beligerant team selection we deserved to get beat. The worst full back I have ever seen in my life keeps his shirt as a despicable feigned injury against villa is now exposed. It beggars belief, and there’s no way Morgan can sanction any transfers when mick won’t play any of the players he’s bought. Why did Jelle get dropped last week when he said himself he wanted to play and had played so well in earlier games? Why has sylvan had his confidence so needlessly battered after being in his best form for yonks? I’m past being angry, just utterly confused
I predicted 2-1 to Wigan. While its not MM`s fault Henry made probably the stupidest tackle since he arrived at Molineux, it is his fault for picking Ward.
Jarvis has to sit so deep to protect him, it removes himas an attacking threat. As we have no pace anywhere else its hardly a surprise we didn`t score.
We are nowhere near our performances last season, and MM appears more clueless than ever, now where is Martin O`neils phone number?
Just saw the challenge on TV.
Was ridiculous in my opinion, how Henry is allowed to be on a football pitch is beyond me. The FA should fine him.
If you insist on comimg on our site, change your name to Fulham fan or something, it’s very annoying seeing your comments under my name. But i really think you should stay where you belong. After all, who’s the other Fulham fan sposed to talk to?
Also why did you post your first comment about Henry being a dirty player before you’d even seen the tackle. Says it all really.
Henry cost us the game today. Has Mick told him to go out and be Roy Keane or something? 10 mins in, you don’t need to go to ground that hard, it’s just stupid. He should stick to what he’s good at.
That being said, having a man sent off doesn’t mean you have to scrap the game plan all together and just give up. This was not Chelsea, i’m sure we could’ve put a few attacks together and mustered a shot on target
To be honest Rich I think the writing was on the wall 30 mins before kick off with the side McCarthy picked. The two biggest disappointments being Ward and Edwards named in the starting 11. Henry’s challenge compounded it. We sent a team out with no attacking threat against a team that was probably worse than us prior to kick off.
We have far beter players on the bench / in the squad than Edwards / Ward / Berra et al – isn’t it about time we started to use them.
I for one am glad I get to watch the games on TV for free because if I had to pay to watch them I guarantee I would be spending my time and cash on something else! This season coupled with the majority of last season is so unbelievably boring to watch, it’s certainly not entertainment!
Can anyone enlighten me about Zubar and mouyokolo? The pathetic club website deem it fair game to treat us so contemptuously that they never update their ‘injury board’, thus happily creating more unneccesary skeptisism and division. Where. The. Fuck. Are. They? If Zubar has snapped his banjo string in the shower wanking and is out for 6 weeks, then tell us he’s out for 6weeks. If not, stop lying to fans that pay 600quid to see such very players with (hamstring) on one week and (foot) the next. This makes me as angry as watching Stephen ward continually sully the once coveted number 11 shirt.
If they are injured they should use the same physio that Ward used last week – limped off with a groin strain, back within a week – amazing! Even I know that any groin strain takes at least 2 weeks to settle so Ward’s physio is a genius to have him back so quick!
Unfortunately for Zubes and Mouyoloko they’ve been using Kightly’s physio!
Hmm, that injury! At least the rugby boys have a laugh and chew on a fake blood capsule. Funny that the club or press never once referred to that particular groin strain. When big ron used to arrange substitutions with Paul,mcgrath it was because he was pissed up before kick off. Ward just plays like he’s pissed up and gets the same wink wink treatment. Ludicrous.
Whats the betting he gets Keogh back fron Cardiff and plays him on the rt side of midfield.
While he’s on, why not buy Collins back?
Stubborn??? Maybe he just wants out as spending nearly £40m on players who he wont play will surely have only one outcome.
I have’t seen any of the match, but as I said on the previous thread, I am now officially starting the McCarthy Out campaign.
He has completely and utterly lost the plot, and has now got out his diary of excuses from when he took Sunderland down.
4 defeats on the trot to crap opposition, roll on the Chelsea match, when they are gonna get so many against us they will declare.
When we get relegated, are we gonna set some new records, such as:
One manager getting two different clubs promoted and relegated in
(almost) successive seasons?
One player getting relegated in successive years with 2 different teams…Fletcher?
The longest run in a team of the worst player EVER to pull on a Wolves shirt……..Fuckwad Ward?
I am now nearly ashamed to be a Wolves fan, we have a completely clueless manager, and the only crumb of consolation is that Morgan gave him a sort of vote of confidence in mid week, and as we all know, that is usually the kiss of death.
Martin O Neil’s number is:
1 800. not in a million fuckin’ years!!!!
My sign out is now changed.
FOMM
Come on lads, let’s hear it loud and clear from the rooftops…….
McCARTHY OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
FOMM
…’there is absolutely no reason to even bring up the word sack, he is doing a damn good job, much better than so called superstar managers, and we should give him all our support and encouragement, on and off the field.’ Clive from Houston, 23 Sept, 2010. Bloody hell Clive, they say a week’s a long time in politics.
It’s even longer in football, especially when you have to watch the shit from Sandwell beating Arsenal, and that with a manager who has English as his second language.
However, McCarthy is from Yorkshire, so English is his second language as well.
This is not a clockwork mouse set up, given the similar situation last season I really thought he would understand that his defence is shit, and change it first after the Fulham game, but then especially after the Villa game, when all the media and their mums were pointing out how shit Ward is, but no, Mick knows best, he puts in a shift and all that bollocks.
But, Mr. McCarthy, we are not in some Yorkshire coal mine, we are The Wolves, and we expect and deserve better.
How long before you realise that what everyone on this and other blogs is saying, one way and another, that your team selection sucks, before you get it?
Can’t you read?
Are you completely deaf?
Are you so stubborn, arrogant and pigheaded that you will not change, no matter how strong the evidence?
We are bottom of the league, and need a fucking miracle.
You, Mr. McCowardly Lion, are not The Messiah.
FOMM
Which martin is this? 🙂
Um, i think that was me t’om, you know the real Martin, the Wolves fan, but even i’m not 100% sure now!
Hi Thomas, agree Mick has got a lot of hard thinking to do before next game. If my blog on how long he should stay had gone out today, the responses would have been totally different. I maintain my criticisms that he picks on effort not class and there is no creativity or penetration from midfield. Watching Edwards loping pointlessly around sums it up for me. It’s not as if he hasn’t got more skillful players to pick. Everything else is in place at the club for a pretty decent team playing watchable football. He’s got to turn it round pretty quick. Morgan’s no mug and he’s used to success. And the fans deserve better than this.
We all know it’s about trust in management and the beauty of football is the freedom of opinion.
So, do I trust Mick? I’ve got to say yes. So I’d love to go on about selection/tactics/Ward/Henry but I won’t.
The facts are simple. We are in serious trouble and if I didn’t trust Mick I’d have to ask myself would a new manager help the situation and who would he be? Would we get or want Martin O’Neill? If not him, who because the rest….. Well you tell me.
McCarthy out? Not for me at the moment and until my trustometer hits the bottom I’ll remain the same.
Come on me babbies.
One thing that has given me some consolation is that I am not the only wolves fan who cannot quite believe the selection of stephen ward and david edwards. I didn’t see the game today but I have long felt Ward is one of the weakest players I have ever seen. He has a good first touch and I think this disguises just how bad he is defensively. He also makes the odd slide tackle but he is consistently exposed. He is slow, cannot defend and when being ran at, is a complete liability. Yes he is still in the team – remember this guy was eventually dropped last year for elokobi, yet he back in the team. Any further up the pitch his inability is not worth even discussing. As for edwards – I find it ridiculous he is a premiership player – he was average in the 2nd tier and now he is just offering nothing going forward or defensively. I would love to ask Mick what is the point of picking Edwards against average opposition but then I know what he would say “he puts in a good shift, he puts in work that goes unrecognised..” It’s not enough for a wide player to put in a shift when you have a defender in midfielder next to a defensive midfielder. There is absolutely zero point have top forwards if they are getting no service is there. he needs to drop one of them and accept we cannot afford the luxury of two strikers when he has a defence that weak and a midfield that offers so little. What annoys me now is the Gueudiora injury would probably never have happened if he had started picking him.. when Mick laments his poor luck with Adlene’s injury, remember he was refusing to give the guy a start even when he is easily out best central midfielder. The manager spent a lot of money in the summer and therefore with that comes added pressures. If we lose against west ham, that could be the end for mick and justficiably as on the evidence of the season so far he has spent badly this summer. Utterly depressing times.
The reason I feel things are so bad is that we have lost to very ordinary opposition, perhaps this sounds bitter but watching villa, I felt they were a very, very ordinary team, yet we have conceded another two goals…
You talk a lot of sense Dan. For me I be;live that Wigan were there for the taking even with 10 men. They were awful and devoid of ideas. Our problem was we had no true midfielder on the pitch who could take the game by the scruff of the neck. We were under pressure for the majority of the game because we dont have a player who can hold the ball in midfield. That has to be Mick’s fault.
I don’t think there is a Wolves fan in existence who, having seen yesterdays team selection, who was honestly excited by it. My reaction was “WTF looking for a draw then”.
Like I said before, I’m in a fortunate position of being able to watch all the Wolves games for free on TV, which is a good job because I certainly wouldnt be paying cash to watch the shite on display!
Sad fact was that we played all 4 strikers and not one o them looked like scoring, and thank goodness we never shelled out 5mill for Mancienne, he is clueless in midfield. Ward and Edwards need to be shown the door, as does Henry who is a complete liability. MCacrthy’ sposition will become untenable in 5 games times, because, quite frankly, I think we will lose the lot
I agree. I think we’re stuck between trying to play a more defensive 442 (remember Quasie and Henry in midfield not working out a while back) or a more attacking 4-5-1. Neither are working. I think we either need to attack properly or defend properly.
I’d like to see for the next game
Hahneman
Foley – Berra – Craddock – Elokobi
Jarvis – Mancienne (in Henry’s role) – Jones – Fletcher
SEB- Keogh (kidding – Doyle)
Cant see us being successful going with 4-4-2 unless we have a pairing of milijas / henry in the middle. henry to boss it, milijas to distribute. otherwise its too like for like. jones i think is waaay too inconsistent, and hes been caught in possession far too often in recent games.
a 4-5-1, or even a 4-2-3-1 is a better idea i think because it allows us to park the bus if need be or launch quick counter attacks a bit better than 4-4-2.
Foley (preferrably Zubar) – Berra – Craddock – Elokobi
Mancienne – Van Damme
Fletcher – Milijas (but most likely Jones) – Jarvis
Doyle
that way we’ve got good cover for the backs with mancienne having the mobility and van damme another option to push up if need be. i know theyre both defenders playing in midfield, but they do offer more than just pure defense.
That, Jub, is a really good shout.
I withdraw the comment above and
USA
Stearman – Berra – Craddock – Elokobi
———–Foley – Mancienne
Van Damme/Fletcher —Milijas ——–Jarvis
—————Doyle
Or swap Foley to RB and VD to holding midfield.
I do not like Henry and Mancienne in the same team.
Very imaginative ideas Jub so they’ve got no chance of happening. I do think it’s the coaching, style of play and tactics which is the problem more than the players. You wonder what Holloway could have done with our squad. His team opened up Liverpool with ease at times whereas we don’t look like we could open a tin of beans to be honest.
yep thats what i feel as well. i really do respect MM for where hes gotten us, his straightforward no-nonsense approach, the young and hungry policy, as well as showing loyalty to his players. however my dislike for his lack of tactical understanding and huge mismanagement of the 1st XI far outweighs that all. the only thing thats kept that at bay is the results that hes somehow ground out over the past year.
but now that the results seem to be few and far between (and i know its only been a few games, but its the pure nature of those games thats so frustrating), and the game against wigan has been the lowest point in the premiership campaign for me, managementwise (even lower than at blues).
and i dont know much about holloway’s style of coaching, but the likes of blackpool and burnley under owen coyle got their results AND play a decent style of football (why do we keep on passing it back to USA from the kickoff!!!????), so why cant we do it with our superior man for man talent as well as the year’s worth of experience?
im just sick of seeing talent wasted on the bench when (to me) it is clear that they would have made the difference in the games that we could have won.
That’s one aspect that has bothered me. That we have these young players who have lots of room to improve (or so I thought). The number who are showing signs of stagnation is worrisome.
Burnley got results? Not enough, they went down
doubt this’ll get read, but i meant burnley under owen coyle. i reckon they were a good shout to stay up if he kept at them.
Fucking hell, just wrote loads and the internet crashed. Basically I was saying Edwards must be doing something special in training because I thing most fans would rather see jones, milijas and guediora(even with a broken leg) playing before him. and he should realise that doyle’s one of the best strikers in the league and stop playing him out wide.
At the start of last season mick didn’t know our best 11 but by the end of the season he sorted it out and we started doing ok when he had a settled starting 11, why have we started this season in exactly the same way??
Fletcher is useless on the wing but I can guarentee Mick will carry on playing him there, it seems like we’re fucking up the whole team to accomodate him because we paid a lot of money for him. Lets go back to how we finished last season, 4-5-1 and bring him on for the last 30 if we need a goal. We’ve changed our whole style of football to suit fletcher and unfortunately he’s not good enough for us to do that. Doyles our best, and probably only premiership quality player, so lets go back to playing to suit him. That’s how we stayed up last year for fucks sake
If we carry on playing him out wide he ain’t going to stay here very long.
Love Mick but starting to seriously question his judgement. Don’t think we’d get Martin O’Neill and there’s probably no one we could get who’d do a better job so not much point in sacking him, I personally think you should stick with managers throuh thick and thin, no team who keep choppping and changing their management has ever done any good. Just wish he wasn’t so pig headed.
Forgot to say if we beat West ham we’re still averaging 1 point a game which is pretty much the target to stay up. And if we get 1 win against one of the big 4 after that we’ll be doing ok. However, probably more likey that we’ll be going into the game against Bolton with 5 points and no manager.
If you hadn’t guessed I’m a bit drunk, work tomorrow is going to be torture.
I’ve just spotted this.
http://www.theoffside.com/leagues/england/english-premiership/karl-henry-doing-nothing-to-help-his-reputation.html
This thing must be addressed. It’s not helpful nor constructive.
Agreed, using the definite article is a disgrace t’OM!! 😉
Someone mentioned long hard thinking for MM now. I think it’s a shame that he needs to think long and hard – the solution seems fairly simple – shoe horn in the likes of Zubar, Jones, Mouyokolo and Milijas, and get competition for places going again.
Edwards and Ward need to sit out for a little while. Thank god Henry’s got a period for a little reflection – talk about believing your own press, what got in to him?!
Thing is Nick, Bolton isn’t exactly a gimme either is it? They looked pretty useful when I saw them against Manure..I would love players like Elmander and Petrov in our side. All the clubs in the league will be looking at us now for an easy 3 points… and those local derbies coming up… I think I’ll go and hide for a year or six
Just back from a trip to Singapore where I saw the match in a bar. Boy did I sink some beer. Got to say +1 to Thomas’s blog and pretty much all the comments (well, Mr. Fulham excepted). Nothing really to add, except that Henry did himself no favours with his “You must be joking Ref” protestations of innocence after the red was shown.
And to think that, as the season kicked off, I thought we had a chance of finishing in the top half … 😐