Time to map out a plan for Villa's future
- Says blogger Matthew Turvey
Freddy must up workrate
Tuesday 25th September 2007, 6:01PM BST.
Freddy Eastwood will lead the line for Wolves’ reserves tonight after being told he must do more to win a Molineux starting role, writes Mark Douglas.
Molinuex’s top scorer – and the most natural goalscorer at the club – has been picked to partner Jay Bothroyd for tonight’s second string game at Molineux, an intriguing twist in light of Mick McCarthy’s public backing for Andy Keogh and Stephen Elliott.
After just 90 minutes out of the team it hardly qualifies as a ‘snub’ for the former Southend striker, but it does offer a clear vision of the work ethic that McCarthy wants running through his side.
The Wolves boss made it clear today that he has been won over by the non-stop industry and endeavour of Elliott and Keogh.
But the question on every Wolves fans’ lips tonight will be where that leaves the mercurial Eastwood in the Molineux pecking order.
Clearly with plenty of work to do.
First things first – Keogh is the one striker assured of his place. His superb individual performance on Saturday offered plenty of evidence that, on current form, he is undroppable.
Skipper Gary Breen may be the manager’s lieutenant on the field but it is the energy and vision of Keogh that personifies Wolves in the McCarthy era.
Few Molineux regulars would put up a case for Keogh to make way for Eastwood – but a snap straw poll would probably see more backing the Welsh international to take that second slot.
The Eastwood dilemma was summed up last Tuesday, when the forward barely touched the ball until one explosive burst late in the second half that threatened to rescue.
He had already done that once before against Blackpool, when his clinical double dragged Wolves out of deep trouble.
But other than that incisive touch he was as flat as the rest of the team as Wolves slipped to defeat against Hull.
At his best Eastwood gives Wolves a natural goalscorers touch and a brooding, ever-present menace unmatched by any other striker in the division.
Since that Blackpool game Wolves have not seen that kind of impact from their £1.5m man.
He was quiet against Morecambe and barely touched the ball at Hull – apart from that one shot.
While he is working hard to improve his game he is not yet, I suspect, a player in the McCarthy mould while Elliott definitely is.
In his three full games he has probably been busier than Eastwood and he is much more of a classic penalty box finisher than the deep-lying Wales interntional.
The striker’s inclusion in the reserves tonight heads a strong reserve side to take on Coventry – with weekend substitutes Darren Potter, Jay Bothroyd, Rob Edwards and Graham Stack all named in the starting line-up.
But there is no place for summer signing Darren Ward, who dropped out of the first team squad on Saturday.
Wolves starting line-up (vs Coventry, 7pm kick off): Graham Stack; Mark Little, Lee Collins, Rob Edwards, Charlie Mulgrew; Elliott Bennett, Stephen Gleeson, Darren Potter, Denes Rosa; Freddy Eastwood, Jay Bothroyd.
Subs: Mark Salmon, Billy Lumley, Martin Riley, Lee Hughes, David Ijaha.
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It’s LIAM Hughes on the bench, NOT Lee Hughes. Lee Hughes should never be seen on a football field again….
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We should absolutly batter Coventry tonight with the side thats being put out. At least the players who aren’t in the 1st team are getting in some decent competetive match practice. A lot better then those behind closed doors friendlys when jez decided to scrap the reserve side coz sir jack wanted to save money.
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A disgrace, nothing more to say really.
MM out
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Nobody’s fool is he MM? A good philosophy that will only make good players better.
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typical MM – workrate and effort over skill and natural talent… MM would never have picked Jimmy Greaves, Matt Le Tissier or Glen Hoddle… he has been the same everywhere he has managed.
I hope you enjoy watching your forwards running back and picking up – not sure who will score the goals though.
good luck in attracting flair players to the Wolves from now on…
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Elliot a better striker than Eastwood????? Its not all about work rate it’s about having the ability to put the ball in the net. This was missing against Norwich. Norwich put up one of the most abject performances I have ever seen in terms of attitude and discipline and yet when they were down to 9 men we left the 2 best finishers in the club on the bench. One more goal would have put us 9th in the league instead of 11th.
MM needs to look at the bigger picture, goals breed confidence. It was our lack of finishing that cost us automatic promotion last year, it seems the lessons have not been learned.
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Tongue in cheek 2………………..
Sack MM for buying a idle player!!
Promote Fred for being idle!!
Give the job to Dingle doug because he plays Championship manager and he knows what he’s on about!!
Sack MM because he’s thick and he doesn’t listen to the plebs on the forums.
Redevelop Molineux into a Zoo because we’re crap and we’re never going to get promoted with MM and Morgan. One Wolves..One direction
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How long before the headline “Kightly must up the workrate”?
Looks like a season of kick and run for you I’m afraid – the new Scunny !!
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Was it just me or was anyone else less that impressed by Elliott on Saturday ? How MM can prefer him over Eastwood defies logic. A bit like Darren Ward over Jody a couple of weeks back.Is Supermick losing the plot ?
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WOW, thats our reserve team? could very easy be the first choice, be interesting to see how they get on. First time for years I have seen a reserve side of ours that good, bodes well in the months to come.
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This club has just gone mad!
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funkster76-prat!
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The top names don’t necessarily equate to the top team.Sometimes coaches have to kick players up the ar.. to get them going. I don’t think it does any harm to let the “stars” know that they are expected to work. Freddy is naturaly better but he is a tad lazy. If he ups his workrate imagine what a player he will be.
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looks like your reserves better than your first team,mind you thats not difficult,dont get to over excited :-) boing boing
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work rate is good, but running around like a headless chicken doesn’t put the ball in the net! got to play jay or eastwood with MM favorite who will never be dropped….. even if he doesn’t score again this season!
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Re nightflyer69
YOU LOST 3-1
BOING BOING
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Why has the club gone made. Eastwood played poorly against Morecambe and Hull, 2 bad games and you are dropped. That is exactly the position we wnat to be in. Eastwood now has to pull his socks and play for the shirt.
Imagine an eastwood with his undoubted quality and the work rate of Keough and Kightly.
WOW.
Good man managemnt by MM. We have a squad use it.
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McCarthy seems to have lost it.
One decent performance from the team-and all of a sudden he drops the guy that without any doubt is our best goalscorer.
If persistant with Elliott,this will come back to bite Mick in his backside.
It is an incorrect decision to make to play Elliott instead of Eastwood-and the thing is this is what Mick has wanted all along.
McCarthy better hope this will work in the next couple of matches,because if it doesn´t I suspect a majority of the fans will want him sacked.
This is it Mick.You have laid everything on the line here,and personally I cannot see this gamble pay off over any longer run.
Playing Elliott,who missed everything..and then some against Norwich,who hasn´t scored frequently for a long time(due to injury,but hey..they do count!)-instead of Eastwood who has proven himself on the pitch to score frequently is an unacceptable decision.
I hope I am wrong-and Elliott comes out blazing..but I don´t think it will happen.
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I’d play Eastwood over Elliot any day, he’s the most proven goal scorer we have.
If Eastwood and Bothrord had been given a run out against Norwich, we would of undoubtedly scored a couple more goals.
I hope this is clever management by MM and that it doesn’t backfire on him/us!!
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Some of you writing on here can not see further than your nose. It’s plain to see to everyone how good Eastwood is ability wise and now Mick is trying to motivate him to put in the workrate to match and when this works in a month’s time (or however long it takes) you’ll be saying “why wasn’t he playing all along” as you will be unable to see, like anyone with common sense, that his period on the bench is what will have made him.
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work rate, work rate, work rate!
We need goals, goals, goals!
Freddy it looks like you won’t get a real chance until MM gone and at this rate it will be sooner than later.
He’s put three nails in coffin already
1-hasn’t strengthened defence (everyone could see we needed a central defender with pace)
2-sent Jody to Stoke (he now looks like a plonked because he had to eat humble pie and bring him back after saying we didn’t need him)
3-told Steve Morgan what he has is good enough (biggest mistake yet, that’s laid the foundations for his own sacking)
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21.Wolf
What you on aout nails in coffins for?
1 – Everyone approached may have turned the mighty Wolves down…
2 – He brought Jody back when needed
3 – Morgan is an astute business man. He will not rush to blinkered, partially informed decisions.
We are far too early into a season to make this decision. We did it 40 years ago with Cullis, 10 with Taylor, and three with Jones, and it worked wonders each time.
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Happy Baggie – I seem to remember quite a few Albion fans banging on about Kamara’s lack of effort last season, especially when he handed in his transfer request ?? Whilst I would personally start with Eastwood, the rotation of players like Elliott and Eastwood has positives. Eliott socred as soon as he was back in the team at Sheff Utd, and when Freddie comes back in he’ll know exactly what he needs to do.
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So dingles res lost 3-1
Ours lost 4-2 incase nobody knew!!!
lol
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Look Whispy … Stop going on about how ugly the players are and ask the one important question of the moment, which is, Mick WHY DON’T YOU RE-CALL DENES ROSA???? The lad is a top-notch international who is ON FIRE in the reserves
C’MON YOU WOLVES
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Lazy like the rest of the team….Wolves was warned that he was lazy….Hahahaha makes me laugh every wolvbes player is rubbish and there manager sucks to!……..Boing boing roll on november
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I’m amazed at wolf’s nonsense (21).
1. Mick wanted Mancienne and/or Ridgewell and/or Gabbidon and/or Cahill. Jez Moxey has admitted interest in Mancienne and the little evidence we have indicates interest in the other three. And that list may not include everyone.
2. Mick expected to get the central defender with pace (see 1) so he sent Craddock to Stoke. When we didn’t get any of the above, he had to bring Craddock back.
3. How do you know Mick told Steve Morgan that what he’s got is good enough? Were you there? That contradicts the club’s admitted interest in Mancienne. It also contradicts the report of a fan on this site that Danny Gabbidon told his mate that he was willing to come to Wolves, but Wolves refused to pay Gabbidon’s contracted wages. (A report backed up by rumours from Wolves that Gabbidon’s wages were too high.)
Nails should be being hammered into a coffin, but it should be the coffin of Wolves’ wage structure. I hope strongly that Morgan is reaching for his hammer right now!
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Boing Boing, how old are you? I quite enjoy some of the witty banter that goes on on here and find some of you Albion fans comments quite funny. But BoingBoing you seriously sound like a primary school child and are not even funny in the slightest and I think even your own fans would have to agree with that. The only laughing for you I do, is at you.
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I thought we bought Freddy Eastwood to score goals, hes delivered that in the league games.
Do you think Sheff Utd bought Beattie for his workrate, do you think Steve McLaren sticks with Michael Owen because of the work rate. No, its simple – they score goals and do the job they’re paid to do. I dont buy all this extra effort rubbish Mick keeps banging on about.
However, Im convinced that class will win out and Freddy will become a regular and oust Elliott.
For the record, Im fully behind the manager and think hes lifted the club.
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27,nippo lobo I always tend to agree with you,your analysis always seems to be spot on mate.the information i had that wolves where after rammage not saying wich club he plays for.
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These baggie fans seem to know a hell of a lot about the Wolves team and their players. Yes that’s right they see them about once or twice a season.
MM is right to wait for Eastwood to develop into a pass and move guy.
At the moment Freddy still thinks he is a Southend player ie. just stand there and wait for the ball.
We looked good against Norwich and the movement from 10 players was fantastic.
FE will be back don’t worry about that but as a better player in the gold shirt.
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Good message, Hughesy (29)! But, as a matter of interest, the Blades’ Beattie works like a horse!
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Hey Nippy Lobo (No 32) – lucky Blades having James Beattie, hard work and a sackful of goals. Me thinks that is a rare commodity these days
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Notts wolf 31 – Eastwood a “pass & move” player? – I thought he was a shoot and score player – thats what he’s good at. Whats next .. Kites at the back stick for corners or Keough marking the zone ??
If a natural scorer is scoring would you rEALLY
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YIKES – COMPUTER GLITCH…
ANYWAY, WOULD YOU REALLY WANNA SEE FREDDY PLAYING cOV RESERVES MIDWEEK ??
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let`s leave the bitching ladies! time is the one that will tell!… sometimes we have to drop players to get a reaction from them.. the next time he play`s will tell us alot about FE, it`s early day`s yet he aint even settled yet nor have our other new players, mm no fool and he`ll put players in on merrit not reputations and that`s what we need!! plus a pacy centre back.
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We at Southend knew Freddy wasn’t the best worker in the team but MM has got it right in giving him a run in the reserves. It worked here and I am sure it will work for Wolves
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Well maybe E&S have added another possibile answer to the ‘dropping’.
According to their headlines Freddy was arrested for brawling recently in Essex (thought that was normal there!)
Given the make-up of the squad (lots of young players)maybe, if true, that behaviour is s
considered unacceptable?
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In addition to my comment above, what I would like to say is that we as fans can never know all the facts behind some decisions, we can only guess as to why certain things are done.
What we can do is give people a chance and trust those that are closer, to make the right decisions.
After all its their job that depends on making more right decisions than wrong !
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PETE (2) yeah rite,do you feel silly now :-)boing boing
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real (28)i think boing boing is really funny :-)boing boing
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Re terrywalsallbaggie (40)
No i dont feel silly but i will admit that i jumped the gun a bit predicting that. But then again i am a wolves fan so i’m used to being let down by then.
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Work rate?he had better do a few rounds with Ricky Hatton he maybe a bit ring rusty.
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awwwwwww pete (42) come n be a baggie mate we wont let you down,only problem is i cant garantee you a free pie n pint :-)boing boing
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mm is the best manager wolves have ever and since the likes of graham turner
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45 – not a lot of competition there is there ?? Jones was your best manager and you let him go WAY too soon.
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