Wolves blog: No passengers
Friday 25th September 2009, 7:04AM BST.
Just as my fellow blogger, John Bray, was reacquainting himself with his yellow chair, mine was unused at Molineux on Sunday, hopefully for the first and last time this season, writes Wolves blogger Nathan Lloyd.
As mentioned in my last blog, I was gutted when I had to travel up to Harrogate, North Yorkshire for a conference and exhibition on the day of the Fulham game.
I then had to cobble together my match report from the intermittent online coverage with Middle Eastern commentary and the few minutes of highlights the BBC granted us that evening.
Perhaps selfishly, but when I missed the game I was kind of hoping it wasn’t going to be high on entertainment but that we would still scrape the three points.
I was really glad my hopes were dashed when Wolves produced an energetic and hungry display against a Fulham side who are failing to match their performances from last season and who have always been worse travellers than Mr T.
The midfield against Fulham looked far more effective than in previous games with the pace of Edwards introduced on the right and the steal of Castillo added to the middle.
We simply can’t afford passengers in the Wolves side, certainly not that this level and I think Mick realised this by taking Nenad Milijas’s out of the firing line against Fulham.
For all the Serbian’s obvious quality, the pace of the English game may not suit him. He may be a gamble that doesn’t work out, but it is probably too early to pass complete judgement, so fingers crossed that he may just need time to adjust like many imports before him.
Greg Halford was much more effective at right back and wasn’t exposed so heavily for his lack of pace as when he is deployed on the right wing.
It was a vital victory and one that has got us firmly back on track and the Wanderer everybody seemed to be talking about after the game was Christophe Berra who by all accounts was an absolute rock at the back.
Christophe built on that good performance with another man of the match display on Wednesday night against Man Utd.
I was travelling back from my conference on Wednesday and could have easily dropped in at Old Trafford to catch the game.
But given the ridiculous ticket price, which I don’t think we need to revisit and the fact that a couple of blogs ago I labelled the Carling Cup as ‘Mickey Mouse’, I decided to get home and watch the game on the box.
Even if we did think that Man Utd put out a ‘B’ team, self-confessed Wolves fan Sir Alex, could still field a starting 11 that boasted eight international players.
And United’s quality was even more apparent when it was barely noticeable that they were reduced to ten men on the half hour mark.
But Wolves acquitted themselves extremely well and it was great to see the return of three of our best players in Foley, Ebanks-Blake and Kightly.
Sylvan obviously looked a tad rusty but held the ball up well and nearly scored with a cracking turn and shot. It was also cracking to see the returning Kightly running himself into the ground obviously relishing in playing in one of the best grounds in Europe.
Elokobi was 2nd best to the dazzling feet of Nani for most of the game until George decided that the obvious solution was to give the Portuguese twinkled toed Ronaldo wannabe a kick and he soon ran away to hide on the opposite flank.
The Hoff was lively and a nuisance to the United defence all night, but still looks a little off the pace of the English style of play.
Biggest surprise of the night was perhaps David Jones, who looked sharper than last season and I thought he was a contender to be our best player of the night.
Overall, a useful run out for a few of the lads coming back from injury, a decent performance and to lose by the odd goal at Old Trafford is certainly nothing to be ashamed of, and with a little more belief and luck we could well be in the draw for the next round.
Back to the important stuff and Sunderland in the league on Sunday.
Realistically, this is a game that we could grab at least a point and maybe all three. Mick will no doubt get a rousing reception for what he achieved in the North East with the equivalent of a £5 book token.
Buts that where the sentimentally will hopefully end and Mick will set the hardworking Wolves pack to get at Sunderland from the off.
Mick has already said that the likes of Kightly and Ebanks-Blake will have to wait their turn to get back in the starting 11 having only just come back from injury.
But what a bench we will have sitting down in the North East with those two probably being joined by the Hoff, Kevin Foley and hopefully David Jones who did more than enough on Wednesday to warrant his place ahead of Milijas.
Confidence in the camp is obviously high at the moment and I doubt the result at Old Trafford would have done anything to puncture that.
I think Steve Bruce may just be surprised at the energy and determination of this current Wolves side and we may just edge it on Sunday.
Good luck to Daniel Jones on his loan and possible full time move to Notts County, the oldest Professional football club in the world.
Let’s just hope he is happy with the set-up there and doesn’t do a Sol Campbell and run away from Nottingham because the water is too wet or because the pitch is the wrong shade of green.
Enjoy your weekend.
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Come on me babies!
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Let’s build on the promising display in Manchester….More goals please
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1 point would be a great result
3 points is even better
Come on ye WOLVES
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It’s not yellow!….It’s old gold
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I was surprised at how well the Wolves played on Wednesday. I think that you may well be hanging around long enough in the Prem to finally get that Black Country Derby!
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4.Mixu Pantyliner
It is yellow. We haven’t worn old gold since the Sixties and the Pantone is a lot darker than the chairs at the Mol.
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Though im eager to see kightly start its probably wise to ease him in – perhaps for the entire second half ??? And apart from Milijas and Hahnemann I think Mick has a wealth of in-form and returning players to choose from.
We are Wolves.
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I agree that from what he has done so far Milijas is not worth a place. But I hope people don’t write him off yet because there is no doubt the guy has talent. Maierhofer I am less convinced about.
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Say what? Wolves have been nothing but useless so far this season. Sack Mick and lets start looking at competing at the right end of the Premiership. This mentality that we should be scraping for survival is ridiculous.
We are Wolves, a big big club and yet we are all talking about 40 points simply to stay in this pantomine league. Get real, and get Mick out of the club.
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Mick will get a good reception up there, he got them promoted and gave him 5mil to keep them up. He was getting free transfers a couple of whom are still at the club. He’s done a great job for us and that’s all I really care about but to say he will get a bad reception is wrong. I would go with the same team that started against fulham and bring on Kites for Edwards and Ebanks Blake for Doyle later on in the game. Lets go for a win, I dont think Sunderland are unbeatable.
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Not an easy game as Sunderland are playing well at home,Defence needs to be on the ball especially the two CBs as Bent is on fire at present.1 point would be a good result 3 a Brucie bonus(pardon the pun).To all the fans travelling up to the Stadium of Light enjoy the day and lets hope the long journey home is a worthwhile one.
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Number 9: Are you sure. I think we are doing ok, I think also MM is the good for the club, lets judge him after Christmas, if we are 12th in January then things are progressing well. Give the guy a break.
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SilasLuzhny…comment No9
I can recommend a good lunatic asylum for you
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9. You’ve stopped taking your tablets haven’t you ? You silly boy.
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9……LOL…..jesus, you really are way too hopefull….we were massive, but remember the days of the barty brothers ? we were nearly a bleedin asda carpark !!! from a small acorn etc.
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WELL I’M GOING FOR 3 POINTS ON SUNDAY. SUNDERLAND AIN’T BRILLIANT AND WE’RE GOIN’ PRETTY WELL AT THE MOMENT. A POINT WILL BE OK, PROVIDING THE TEAMS AROUND US DON’T ALL WIN AS WELL.
A NURSE PLEASE FOR NO.9.. HIS SEDATIVES ARE WEARING OFF.
BARMY ARMY!!!!!!!!!!!!
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6…cheers Cpt.
I know the RAL chart may say yellow.
But my heart says old gold.
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Whats wrong with having an opinion? And I get called a lunatic? I’m just saying our ambition and aspirations are small fry. We used to be winning league cups and now we lose to a 2nd string Utd side with 10 men!
This blog is small fry. Why not say it like it is? Elokibi is useless, he was torn to bits by Nani. The hoff is just a lanky freak who amazingly jumps lower than when he stands still.
Milijas, what a waste of money. We’ve barely scored a goal this season and yet we have had a realitively easy start against teams we used to playing in the Championship only a couple of seasons ago.
The fact we didn’t beat Hull will come back to haunt us.
I don’t go to Molineux anymore and now I know why.
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Burnley put 3 goals past them so why can’t we?
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Two good performances on the trot and we will have some quality on the bench. There is no doubt in terms of quality of squad we are better than Pompey, Hull, Blues, Wigan and Burnley but the latter have been brilliant at home.
Sunderland are hit and miss and possess the likes of Turner and Bent, so this will not be easy. They totally outclassed Blues on Tuesday. Will be happy with a point!
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#9 Here I think we have a comedian with a tongue firmly wedged in his cheek. You can’t make the comments he has under the name used….. Those 2 are a reminder of just what is good about this current side and the set up overall.
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18. With all your negative C##P it’s just as well you don’t go to the Mol anymore. We can do without your type of “support”.
Just for the record, That 2nd string United side still boasted 8 internationals who would make most 1st teams every week in the Prem !! As for George being useless – yes he did get caught a few times by Nani’s absolutely blistering pace but how many like that are there ? I reckon he gave as good as he got. As for the club being small fry etc you just cannot expect to compete (yet) with the likes of the top 5 or 6 teams. The money isn’t there, the commercial base isn’t there and persuading top internationals to come to a side that we know are going to struggle to start with is nigh on impossible. Survival is the name of the game for now. Hopefully we can kick off from there.
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If only i’d known there was a fellow Wolf in town for a few days. There’s not many of us up here!
I think the verdict is out still on Milijas, he may take time to adjust to the game over here and has an obvious pedigree with his record.
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SilasLuzhny – gotta love a wind up merchant. Nobody else get the feeling what he’s saying is just to get a reaction?
Let’s go into the game positively. Sunderland are far from unbeatable. Stopping Darren Bent could equal job done.
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23.HarrogateWolf
The exhibition was a dull as ditch water, but Harrogate itself is a lovely place, obviously quite affluent.
As for our friend SilasLuzhny, he/she probably wouldn’t be happy with just a top four place this season.
Ignore their comments, people like that love negativity and will never be truly happy until Wolves finish rock bottom and they can tell everyone that they told you so. Sad.
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No24. At last someone has realised that a few people on here are just looking for reaction – and they get plenty of it. Make a sensible suggestion to promote debate and nobody responds, talk crap and everyone is queuing up to satisfy their cravings and encourage them to give us some more! My Mum always told me when I was bringing up my kids – Don’t laugh at them, they will only do it even more.
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we will get the 3 points at the stadium of s****e,and no9 you dont go up wolves anymore,so shut up
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Why do people react so badly to some constructive debate? I love the Wolves but can I not say that they should have more ambition? We didn’t bring in enough quality over the summer and now we are paying for it.
I don’t just do this for a reaction, I do it because I truly believe what I am saying.
Even the blogger reacted. I’ve put a tenner on a Bent hatrick this weekend. That kid will murder Berra.
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I thought this was supposed to be a blog on Wolves rather than an update on the bloggers working week.
As for playing Halford ahead of last seasons POTY.. Well I despair, I really do.
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Would the real Del Woppio please stand up.
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28 – I think the club does have ambition – certainly Steve Morgan has come out and said as much (witness the plans to develop the stadium and his comments about not being a yo-yo club).
It will take time to get to where we want to be. We bought the best players available to us this summer, and clearly some of them are taking time to settle and some of them won’t ultimately make the grade, but we have to understand that this is a longer term process than simply waving a cheque book around and signing any mercenary that is only interested in a big payday. We have to realise that it will take 2-3 seasons to achieve at least comfortable low-mid table finishes.
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31 talking total sense there mate, I honestly think some people spend far too much time playing footy manager, pro evo and fifa. Of course we should aim for the top and no-one has said we aren’t but this is a long journey and promotion to this league to borrow a quote from Sir Winston Churchill ”This not the end or the beginning of the end but it is the end of the beginning” So SilasLuzhny (not convinced he is for real) we won’t win the war by Christmas but we are on the right track so Pipe down and go and watch some Videos of us under Hoddle, Taylor etc.. and see how far we’ve come
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31,It will take time to get to where we want to be. We bought the best players available to us this summer,Sorry mate cant agree on this point,would rather we had signed fewer but better quality than we did.Althougth Steve has made various comments regarding the clubs Ambition nothing tangible is there of yet.Yes we now live in a Greedy world but if you want to be up there with the best then you have to pay the Wages as do the rest of the premiership teams.It remains to be seen if we do stop up this season then will the Investment be readily available to push on to the next stage.I think 28 has made some valid points and only time will tell if the current management have the desire to make us once again one of the best teams in the country.
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23 harrogate wolf did,nt know there was another wolf here surounded by leeds supporters good blog nathan wish i knew you were in town too like harrogate wolf mentioned fantastic if we can get 3 points on sunday UP THE WOLVES
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malta – the truth of it is even if Jez would sanction a big money signing, the likelihood is that the player in question would weigh up other offers from Premier/Las Liga/ Serie A/Bundesleiga clubs and would sign for a club that is more likely to stay in that league than Wolves. Players are greedy, but all of us, regardless of what job we do, wouldn’t want to take a huge pay cut if the team/business we worked for wasn’t successful. If we stay up this season, I would expect better quality players through the doors next summer. Also, if we’re looking pretty good in January, there’s nothing to stop up signing one or two players for a high fee (think Beattie in at Stoke last season).
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34.Harrogate wolf 1
I’m back there at the end of October for another exhibition, so let me know if you t’other Harrogate wolf are about and we will go out for a jar or two in the evening. Believe me I need something to look forward to, these exhibitions are extremely dull.
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SilasLuzhny…My guess is you are BobWolf.
We’ve had a solid start so far..just one poor performance at Blackburn, but the others have been Premiership quality, even if we didn’t win them all.
Mick, Morgan & Moxey have invested well & have shown more long term ambition than most other Premiership clubs. Spending everything you’ve got then hoping a foreign billionaire will bail you out is not really much of a business plan.
Yes, there were better players available but most were so hugely overpriced & overpaid that they would bancrupt the clubs they go to. Some of these players would have wanted even more cash to compensate for the risk of playing for an unproven club. Err, thanks but no thanks.
But you make one vaild point…the Hoff does appear to be better in the air just standing there. He should be jumping for long balls all day every day in training till one actually hits him on the head.
Simon :)
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35,Vim If we wont pay the wages now do you seriously believe that things will change in January? Also the number of posts similar to yours regarding not signing for Wolves,Fulham Stoke Hull Blues Sunderland have all invested in the sort of players that we should be looking at,Why would they be willing to go to them but not us? Is it the location-think not,Is it the prospect of a short premiership stay-maybe or is it the shortsightedness of the wolves management who seem to believe that Championship standard signings will prevail in the prem.One must also bear in mind that most of our Stars are on long term contracts and come next season the maximum squad size allowed will be 25.
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What a load of old tosh. The Hoff isn’t struggling with the English game at all, he’s just too good for the Wolves team!
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Nathan, yeah give me a shout. Get me on stevelaidler@hotmail.co.uk. I know a few good places for a pint having been here for a few years now.
Up the Wolves!
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