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Wolves blog: The Fightback
Friday 10th April 2009, 10:05AM BST.
Wolves blogger Nathan Lloyd is still smarting from the under-par display against Blues this week – now he wants the perfect response.
For the players on Monday night, the St Andrew’s pitch must have been like trying to play snooker on a table of gravel rather than cloth. It was a pitch that was surely more suitable for farming potatoes than staging a decent game of football?
OK, perhaps I do sound a bit bitter. You could argue that the Blues had to contend with exactly the same playing conditions as the Wolves, but perhaps they are more accustomed to playing in wellies and dodging farming machinery on their way to goal than the men in gold and black.
At Molineux we play on a pitch which doesn’t evoke memories of that overplayed Match of the Day FA Cup clip of Ronnie Radford slaying the Toon at Edgar Street back in 1972.
Anyway, I’ll shut up about the pitch. We were completely abject on Monday night. Apart from Jody Craddock and Matt Jarvis, the rest of the player’s should hang their heads for that pathetic showing. Manager Mick McCarthy can not escape the finger of blame either.
Last season there didn’t seem to be a blog go by where I didn’t mention Mick’s love of playing the proverbial square pegs in round holes.
This campaign Mick still occasionally strays into the dangerous territory, but he seems to have realised that it’s a dangerous gamble that doesn’t often pay off.
So why did we see a team sheet on Monday night that included Stephen Ward playing in his most ineffectual position on the left of midfield? With Jarvis obviously not ready for a full 90 minutes, where was the forgotten George Friend?
Why sign a perfectly able winger on loan from West Ham in Kyel Reid and instead decide to play David Edwards on the flanks completely out of position?
Bringing Andy Keogh off the bench and into a blood and thunder battle was also a mistake, when you have a much more robust and able competitor in Sam Vokes in your artillery to call on earlier than we did.
Matt Hill coming off for Jarvis and then dropping Ward into left back was also ridiculous. Why doesn’t Mick just swap like for like, or is that just too logical?
After the deplorable and indefensible red-card tackle by Lee Carsley on big Chris Iwelumo, we should have been in a position to push on against a Blues team that were hardly brimming with ideas.
But they just seemed to want it more than Wolves on the night and, although it pains me to say it, were worthy winners.
It’s never easy to forget a bad result and a pitiful performance like that, but surely beating turmoil club Southampton later today would be the perfect tonic to ease the nerves amongst the fans?
We will of course be missing three of the players that have scored over two thirds of our league goals this season in Sylvan Ebanks-Blake, Chris Iwelumo and Michael Kightly.
But if Mick can play to his strengths and put out the right side against the Saints, then hopefully we will get back on track.
My starting XI for the game would begin with Wayne Hennessey in goal, who needs more than ever to put in a performance after that powder-puff display on Monday night.
The back four would be unchanged in Hill, Craddock, Christophe Berra and Kevin Foley.
Craddock was as solid as Berra was flimsy at St Andrew’s, but one bad game does not make for a bad player.
Foley, who has somehow been tagged with the dullest ever nickname for a footballer in the history of the game, ‘The 7 out of 10 player,’ is another who will hope to get back to playing more to his capabilities.
In midfield – if his fully fit – I would start Jarvis on the left or start with George Friend and introduce Jarvis later on.
I would pick Karl Henry and David Jones in the central positions with Reid tight on the right flank. We need width, and if he goes for Ward and Edwards on the flanks, as he did on Monday night, we will play too narrow and that will allow Southampton’s pacy full-backs to roam forward.
Up front he must start Vokes alongside Harewood. I think most fans would agree that Mick got it right last season when he decided Freddy Eastwood wasn’t good enough, but I think the time has come to show faith in Vokes, give the lad a run to the end of the season and let’s see if he can deliver.
Anything less than three points would be a disaster, especially given the fact that we are the first Championship game in a packed footballing Easter agenda that has so many permutations, I would need another blog to go through them.
On Monday we visit Pride Park, which has always been a happy hunting ground and after their 4-1 mauling by Cardiff, hopefully the Rams’ confidence will be at rock bottom so we can go there and grab the points that could give us an unassailable lead at the top.
I don’t care if it isn’t an exciting game, let’s just roar the lads on to all three points, then sit back and let the chasing pack squabble over 2nd place.
Have a bostin’ Easter.
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We are doomed if Muppet keeps playing his favourites, this has been his & our downfall since his appointment. Ward is NOT GOOD ENOUGH , Keogh should only come on late in a game, if at all. Give Vokes a chance – fail this time & the fans will NEVER FORGIVE YOU 7 YOUR DAYS AT MOLINEUX WILL BE OVER!!!
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That isn’t me in the picture by the way… far too much hair!
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you just know that ward will play.
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I think Monday night was possibly the worst game of football ive seen in years! A must win today! Agree completely we need width and pace!
If we win today and Monday I think the outlook could be golden!
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As Nathan points out, 2/3rds of our goal power is missing (not inc Kightly assists). I worry that we might persevere with playing Harewood in to match fitness/sharpness if we are not careful…we aint got time to do that.
Harewood needs to perform today (60 mins only) or it would be spanish archer time for me.
Is Harewood a striker who shows for the ball or plays off his strike partner? because if he is the latter then it is a big mistake playing him with keough cos the ball won’t stick up front at all.
My team would all but resemble Nathan’s, Micks I feel will differ by 2 or 3 players which could make all the difference.
Whoever plays, we need to be as clinical as possible in front of goal from the word go as I think the first goal will be a massive factor on this game.
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lets hope harewood has adjusted now to this league, win some headers and hold up play better, he’s a big lad with talent but we do not have the luxury of giving him several games to settle in. The fans will never be as important as they will be over the next few games….lets roar them on !!!!!!!!!!
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reid on the left his right foots for standing on and sorry jody was poor on monday southampton have pace up front maybe time to recall stears i fancy us for a big win today
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Thud.
Thats the sound of you hitting the nail on the head about MM’s square pegs in round holes observations.
Playing ward, edwards and keogh over vokes, friend and reid is what cost us that game.
I would have even prefered the high energy edwards in the middle instead of out of from henry.
We will lose today if he plays keogh up front and ward & edwards on the wings.
MMs favoritism is all that is standing in the way of automatic promotion.
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They need to keep fighting as i think 3 more wins will do and and lets start with one today..
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Yes its time for most of the team who played the other night to finally role their sleeves up and fight harder than the oppposition even if they are regarded as as smaller club or are many places below us. We are all fed up with the apparent casual attitude of too many players at the moment – DON’T THEY WANT AUTOMATIC PROMOTION? For God’s sake do whatever it takes ‘win it Kites’ or whatever but just go and do the business and treat the last 5 games as 5 wars!!!
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great blog .couldnt have put it better. you must be listening to all of the comments before writing this in order to get it right. Sack Swain and take his place . Very fair constructive comments.
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the person in the pic says it all
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We are 11 points away from promotion and potentially by the end of today games we could be 6 away! COME ON KEEP THE FAITH, The finish line is there!
Agree with the whole of your blog Nathan, square pegs and round holes never works last year is best example of that. I would play Jarvis right and Reid left. Jarvis is right footed and Reid left. Reid looked out of place on the right last time he played there!
Just want to throw this out! Hill??? Did he get taken off on monday as something happened in the dressing room, as they blamed him for the goal??? (Yes i know it wasnt his fault but was a little bit down to him!) Because Ward was the worst player on that pitch in the first half!
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You are very eloquent and rational in your analysis of who should play and why today, Nathan.
But I don’t think it will come down to that at all this afternoon. Players individual skills will have little baring on the end result, because this will be a battle of nerves and the team that has the coolest heads will get the goals and three points.
I hope and want to believe that the coolest team today will be Wolves.
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Nathan,excellent blog agree 100% MM Playing players just to give them a game could rebound disastrously.Friend/Jarvis must start Ward OUT.3 points is not negotiable anything less would be a disaster and the unthinkable could happen Down to third place by monday night.NOW WE WILL SEE HOW GOOD A MANAGER MM IS.Come on Wolves show the world why we are ready for the Premiership.Off to see the game with the Malta Wolves Supporters club St. Julians (DRAYTON PUB).
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Not wishing to be negative.But how many games have we won with Edwards playing right midfield,and Wardy playing left midfield?Surely Mick knows this.Come on lads,lets put it up the saints today.(Rememeber we have an awful record against them @ home)
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It wasn;t the pitch that beat us on Monday, it was ten men Blues with a Manager who knows his stuff.McClown has bought 3 loan signings, 2 of which don;t even feature in teh squad, he leave sout Stearman, and plays that Carthorse Berra, He plays players out of position, and perseveres with dross like Henry , Jones, Edwards , Ward and Keogh who are obviously not good enough. He brings in a keeper for cover, but keeps on playing Mr Flappy, the latter day Alan Boswell. No Nathan, forget the pitch, lets have a look at the team we put out, simply not good enough.Tonight, we will lose against Saints, because Mcduff will keep on with his favourites. W ehave no attack, no midfield, and pedestrian defence.Lord help us if the miracle did happen, however, failure in the play offs will dictate that it won’t.MCCARTHY OUT !!!!
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Don’t always agree but this is pretty much spot on. I’m glad someone has finally pointed out that Jody Craddock was excellent on Monday. I think I would prefer Dave Edwards in midfield to Karl Henry in a home game we must win. Proper wide players essential – what else did we widen the pitch for??
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Good blog Nathan.Your team selection would do the job,but we all know that Ward and Keogh will play.I forcast it will be an awful match,it is on Sky, which is the kiss of death for us,please Mr Morgan what ever division we are in next season ban the T.V. cameras. The best we can hope for is a scrappie one nil to us,but I have this terrible feeling of foreboding.The runes just don’t seem to be falling right.
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Agree with most of the points
McCarthy’s insistence in playing Stephen Ward is baffling to say the least. George Friend has impressed when I’ve seen him so give him a chance if Jarvo isn’t fit
Blues showed on Friday that many of the Wolves players don’t fancy a battle, I thought Henry and Jones had a shocking game. Wolves have to toughen up as other teams will spot this weakness
One thing that annoyed me about Monday was after the match with Edwards , Henry and Stephen Ward all saying we had an off day, blah blah blah
We are top of the league, we played like a team of frightened rabbits struggling with relegation
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Thanks Nathan we will regardless–happy Easter mate—-Have your pen ready I think there will be plenty to comment on without this “Impossible” anthem do we really need that at this time–More Like the Old Themes that the Police banned and are played at Chelsea–Good Luck all no prediction-Just a win Crazey Dave.
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Get rid of Muppet Mick and get a proper manager in!!!
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Mad MM Team Talk today
you all must give the ball to S Ward and A Keogh, if any of you shout at them you will be off, and replaced by my other son N Collins.
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Well Said, but what’s the betting ward will appear on the teamsheet, Reid with Jarvis/Friend, is ideal but will it happen !
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MaltaWolves.. Thanks Alfred. Hope the game on TV is 1000% better than that dross on Monday. Hope all is well.
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The pitch was rubbish but it is the team selection that left me cold. No proper winger while playing two big forwards.?????? Playing ward instead of a conventional winger was inappropriate. We had no one on the pitch that could penetrate their defence. I think we went for a draw.
We are also rubbish when on tele and when the weather is bad (have you noticed that?) However
we can still defy all by getting 88and less if Reading or Sheff utd lose points. One or both are due to do that today. A draw would mean we would only need 86 points. Also surely it is most unlikely that they will win all the remaining games so it could well be we would be up with say 84 points ie seven more.We have three home games and two ‘winnable ‘away games’.
The gist of this is that if we don’t go up them we really didn’t deserve it while Sheff Utd would have deserved it.
No way will we bo so competitive next year if we fail. Banks, Kightly, Foley. Hennesay Berra will all be gone.
NOT BUYING A CREATIVE MIDFIELD PLAYER IN JANUARY IS THE REAL REASON FOR OUR PLIGHT NOW. Three million or so then would have secured many millions later.How on earth did Norwich and Plymouth take points from us? I do not feel good about this but a win today will calm fears. A loss or draw and we will be relying on the playoffs – hopefully without Sheff Utd cos they are on fire at the moment.
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Nathan, historically, the Easter fixtures invariably deal a body blow to our season from which we infrequently recover.
I can’t see us getting much at Derby and we are poor against Saints.
It would be TOO morose even for this old grump to point out that if we lose today we could be in 3rd place on Monday night.
So I won’t.
It does, however, open up a whole new can of worms.
Suppose for instance BC & SU get auto and we finish third, ultimately failing in the play-off’s; could we claim financial compensation from West Ham, on the grounds that SU should not be in this league?
After all, WHU are keeping afloat with the Prem cash. If they were in this league they would probably be deep in the smelly brown stuff like Charlton.
We must have a chat soon about what is about to happen in Scotland, because I am convinced it will happen soon in England.
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How come my post didn’t get past the moderator?
There was nothing contoversial, sensitive or abuse in it.
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Nice to see that Kevin Foley is ALREADY thinking about his summer jolly-up in OZ ! ! !
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Forget the damn pitch, it was the same for both sets of players, if we’re not careful we could be 3rd teatime on Monday. Ward must be dropped, Friend MUST be re-instated to left wing. Far better than Reid, Jarvis MUST play. When SEB returns next week he will be tentative about his hamstring. Therefore Time for Ward to play out of his skin as he will surely be picked, time to step to the plate for Harewood and as for Keogh, I hope the God’s are shining for you today son cos its not sunny out there
Anyway, all the best lads, can’t bite me nails as I’ve got none left. Can’t pull me hair out as I’ve got none. Any suggestions anyone???
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Everyone copy paste
Friend in Ward out
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Friend in Ward out
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Friend in Ward out
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Great blog mate, Let’s just hope that Monday upset the player’s as much as it upset us, Realy should be a easy 1 today but???????????????????
………UP THE WOLVES………
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17. Lol, what a comment. On so many levels.
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CHAMPIONS 2009 WWFC
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wwfc 3 saints 0 bob wolf /jiwal idiots
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About 95% of you need to eat your words. Keogh was class today and deserved a goal. It just wouldn’t come for him, but he worked tirelessly and created loads. He was very unfortunate. I thought it was an excellent starting line up that obviously worked. 1-0 up after 38 seconds, 3-0 up after 30 mins. The second half substitutions were clever thinking too. Jarvis, Foley and Vokes being rested for Monday. As for Foley, this man is the most under=estimated player in the league. He’s pure class. He may carry a boring tag, but his consistency should be applauded. If it wasn’t for EB’s goals this season, I think Foley should get player of the season. Trappatoni must play Foley for Ireland and drop that donkey McShane.
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3 points closer 2 the promised land why r we still getting on the players backs surely we should be backing them over the finish line. First half we were quality today the only change i would make to mondays team is to swap keogh for SEB if he is fit. also Edwards was quality today!!
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Saints fan here in peace!
Thought you lads played well today and deserved to beat us at least 3-0. Thought the crowd were superb, best away atmosphere I’ve been to all season. Good luck in the prem lads and think of us next year in league 1 starting on minus 10!
Cheers, Phil.
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Not sure why my other post never made it… but good luck for the rest of the season from a Saints fan.
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Well done Wolves. See you when you come back down to the prem!
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Jiwal….complete idiot!!!! that “dross” you refer to has got us to the top of the league and kept us there for 90% of the season, stick to commenting about netball you halfwit !!!!
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