Interesting blog. (Also a good one, but ‘good’ doesn’t always equal ‘interesting’.) I think the views expressed mirror the assements of a majority of Wolves’ supporters at the moment:
(1) The back-four – and the team’s defensive play – needs strengthening. The obvious solution is probably to make a change at left-back (Mancienne to replace Elokobi). But then, what about central defence? Agree that Zubar should get his chance, but partnered by Berra (in-form, but unexperienced at this level) or Craddock (if fit, brings experience and aerial strength)? Right-back: Might as well play Halford, as both Foley and Stearman seem to be half-fit/injured ATM.
(2) More goals needed. Doyle can’t do the job all by himself. I don’t think the problem – or indeed solution – necessarily is who to play alongside him up front, but equally important: Create a balanced midfield including one or two players who can also feed the forward(s) (Milijas, Castillo?), and maybe even score a goal or two (Kites, Milijas). Simple?

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Before I get shot down in flames, I am a Wolves fan through and through and go to most away games and season ticket holder at home.

The problem is we are leaking goals, really sloppy ones. I agree we have played well at times but our start was very kind with fixtures. We can play great stuff at times without putting the ball in the net and the problem we have is the defence doesnt hold up even against Hull and Portsmouth at home. We have to score 2 or 3 goals, or 6 at Sunderland, to get a win. Mick needs to get the defensive midfielders and defenders sorted out. Mancienne is a weak link at the moment, id try moving him to left back and play someone else in the middle. George is crud at this level.

I am trying to be positive and was very optimistic before we kicked a ball this season but the defending is at times a complete shambles. Its ok people saying we played well at Sunderland but think about it………we had to score 6 goals to win that game! Now the fixtures are getting tougher I just hope we arn’t completely trashed before we can sort the defence out.

I hope im wrong but in my opinion the defending is not good enough to keep us in this league.

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NO THERE WAS NOT AN IRONIC CHEER FROM THE SOUTH BANK!!!!! It came from the Steve Bull! So stop blaming everyone in the South Bank.

I heard nothing from the south bank, it came from everyone sat in that half the pitch and that side the ground Kites was playing!

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A VIMTO FOR THE RIGHT SIDE … cheers for the blog nathan , woke up as usual thinking about the wolves . always nice to read likeminded thoughts . im 44 nearly , ive always been loyal wolves . i go to nearly every game and have done for years . i was lucky to have the luxury of richards hibbet era , and the going to games where we always seem to win , beating arsenal by 4 , united 3 1 , with our our fourth dissallowed … and then a lifetime of this trying to get back thing . Weve got some good young players this time, but for what ever reason we ve failed to sign experience . so all of a sudden confidence is low . any player will tell you that confidence is about 60% of ability . who remembers when we turned the corner at the bottom of the old fourth division . When we expected nothing . i used to sit in right side back then . who remembers that ? WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU FROM ? we re from wully vi hamperton . and when the ball went forward , we used to get to our feet and shout charrrge ! It was a laugh , but do you know what , the attude of just a couple of hundred of us , started to spread through the support and then we all witnessed that thing reaching the players and we found ourselves on our feet more often . this is whats happened at stoke . Lower expectations but more support and more encouragement . i know a lot of those fans are still at the wolves cos i still bump into some of them . the team selection is out of our hands but the true support isnt !!

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Not one of your best Nathan,of course Mick needs to start with his best eleven,surely he should every week.And you skirted round the Andy Keogh issue,creative foreward was your discription,,headless chicken is mine.iff as you say he has been our best player,apart from the Pompy game,why havnt we been scoring goals,whatever title you give him,he takes the place of a striker,he has been given more chances than any other Wolves player,and the justification for this is that he runs around.As long as he is one of our front two we will win nothing,we need midfielders and front men to score goals,,creative foreward is a luxury we can do without.

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“I would like to see him (Zubar) come into the middle of defence and I would push Michael Mancienne out into the left-back slot to replace George Elokobi.”
You took the words right out of my mouth!
This seemed to be the general opinion after last week’s game. Let’s see what Zubar can do.
And Halford needs to produce more than a long throw-in!
I’ve said it before, Keogh starts on the bench for me but comes on when we are a goal or two up so as to disrupt the opponents play. Ideally the job of a forward is to score goals, but unfortunately he doesn’t do it enough, despite having the chances. But I’d still have in in my first team plans.

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One big problem —– the manager

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10 brummierobwolves

Mancienne isn’t a left back, but what other options do we have? Matt Hill isn’t the answer and Wardy isn’t fit.

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Bleating again Nathan……

Look, Mick McCarthy obviously isn’t up to the task and the board have wasted 20 million on a bunch of players with no experience at this level.

Why does he persist in sticking by the side of the likes of Keogh, Henry, Ward etc… Players not good enough at this level.

Come January, Wolves will be rock bottom and Steve Morgan will need to think seriously about getting in a new manager ready to spend January’ budget for the window.

Portsmouth was a disgrace. Hull was a disgrace. Sunderland was an embarrassment.

Come on board sort it out. We can already see the abyss of the Championship opening up like a giant chasm.

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mick is faced with a very difficult dilemna. We need a strong central midfield pairing as was shown by the improvement when castillo came into the side. However we also need some creativity. If he were to bring in milijas (who clearly can’t play in a 442!) he would need to go with 1 up front in a 433/451 formation. He’d then be slated for leaving out SEB! If he goes 442 and plays SEB and doyle up top there’s no creativity in the middle. it would be in character for mick to play milijas out of position on the left in a 442. (probably with mancienne out of position behind him!) Thats what my money would be on! Who’d be a manager eh!

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I’ve never been Keogh’s biggest fan but he has adapated better than many to the Premier League. I don’t think he’ll ever be prolific and i’m not even sure he could ever break the net whith his often lacklustre shots. What i thought after last weeks game was thank god it was Ebanks-Blake who blasted over from 4 yards. Had theat been Keogh i hate to think of the crowd reaction.
Looking forward to the weekend off!

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I’ve never been a big fan of Keogh but he has adapted better than many to the Premier League. He will sadly never get the goals his effort deserves. This league is unforgiving and any lack of quality and skill is found out.

I’m glad it was Ebanks-Blake and not Keogh who shot over from 4 yards last weekend. I’d hate to think what the crowd reaction would have been like!
Looking forward to the weekend off!

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Get a grip man. You are actually talking some sense at last.

Mick told me in pre-season that he likened Zubar to a young Desailly. If he turns out to be even a tenth of the player, then I am truly excited.

And wait until Milijas comes back from international duty. We have a real player on our hands, and he just needs time and games to become the wonder player we all know he can be.

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I am starting to agree SACK THICK MICK!

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28. bojangles wolf

GEORGE FRIEND? Since when has he been back on the radar?

Vokes and Doyle up front? Is it april fools?

The only sensible point is that you said Berra has been good, which he has.

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seems like the general consensus is to replace keogh.

not gonna happen.

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Wholeheartedly agree, lets get George Friend in the team along with Vokes. Freshen things up a bit and remind the likes of Doyle that no one is guaranteed a starting place.

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32. Norfolk Wolf

Agreed. I’m sure the majority of the detractors on here bat for the other side….

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Imagine the crowd reaction if Keogh had shot over from 4 yards in front of the North Bank last weekend instead of Ebanks-Blake.

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Dissapointing start 2 the season, but stil got ages 2 go. Andy keogh ok start 2 the season but not the answer 2 scoring goals mcarthy needs 2 get his head out of his arse and play ebanks-blake and doyle 2geva because we need 2 c them play from the start of a game 2 c if they can play 2geva. Halford he gives us the long thrown in, but end of the day foley and kightly need 2 be on the pitch so we got a bit more quality. Elokobi may not be the best footballing left back, but hes the strongest of all our defender. We aint seen zubar play, but at the moment i dont think u can change are 2 centre halfs. This is my team 4 everton 4-5-1 away from home
hennessey
foley
berra
mancienne
elokobi
kightly
henry
edwards
castillo
jarvis
doyle

subs – ebanks-blake, maierhoffer, hannamhen, halford, zubar, surman and mijias

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Loyal london wolf, fantastic post, ah the good old days i agree you only have to look at burnley, you get all the experts and ex players saying they play great football and this spreads confidence right through the club from the players to the fans. they start games expecting to get a result and at home they have. I think mick has got to start being a bit more positive and that will rub off on the players and us fans. We went in to the pompey game to negative and we know how that one turned out. So co me on Wolves top half finish…

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KENT WOLF .. ive got a nice drop of claret in my hand and im raising it to you now . CHEERS MATE . up the wolves

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no38 Hey Kent Wolf I’m in the Billy Quite and I have not had a prawn sandwich for at least a fortnight.I also think you are spinning it a bit about the old days. The John Ireland stand was about half a mile from the pitch;with a good pair of binoculars you could just about make out Bully’s fringe.You are right the place was intimidating to opposing teams,but that was down to Andy Mutch and the guy you used to wear the no9 shirt.

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Excellent post. I agree with all but two things. I’d happily drop Keogh from the starting line up. The missed chances are starting to mount up again. He scores one every six months then gets the benefit of the doubt for weeks. The other thing is that you mean complement, unless you mean that nice things are being said about the fit players.

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I will shout and scream for everyone in a gold shirt on match day…

but you better believe if keogh starts ahead of seb i will be venting through every channel available after the game

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I am sorry to say that keogh javis henry halford not good enough to keep us up this season mick will be out before we are relegated as morgan will not stand for second class football

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Take a look at the goal George Friend scored direct from free kick at Southend last night

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We need changes for our match on Saturday, and if I were Manager for that one day to give Wolves some hope of saving the game, my team would be as follows..
Ikeme
Foley
Berra
Zubar
milijas
Henry
Edwards
Kightly
Ebanks-blake
Iwolomo
Maierhoffer

Subs from:

Doyle
Keogh
Hennersey
Craddock
Kightly ( unfit )

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how about the crazy idea of dropping Mancienne all together?? no more fitting square pegs into round holes please!

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