Formation switch key to survival
Friday 23rd April 2010, 1:36PM BST.
Mick McCarthy today warned Wolves would have been down by now if he had not changed to a 4-5-1 formation.
Wolves are a win against Blackburn away from retaining top flight status for the first time since 1981.
But boss McCarthy believes the changes he installed against Liverpool on January 26 have been vital to their chances of survival.
Since then they have rattled off three wins and six draws in 14 games to climb six points clear of relegation with three matches left.
“If you don’t score and ship a load of goals you’ll get relegated,” said the boss.
“It was clear to me halfway through the season that we weren’t going to score a load of goals so it was important we stopped leaking them. Fortunately we have. We’ve managed to get a few clean sheets and have become harder to beat and the change in formation has certainly helped.”
McCarthy also hailed the introduction of keeper Marcus Hahnemann as a key influence after the American kept seven clean sheets.
“He’s had a huge impact. Wayne was fabulous last season but I was aware he’d had no Premier League experience,” he said.
“So Marcus was one of my first phone calls last summer, and, to his eternal credit, accepted it and the fact Wayne was No.1 and he had to dislodge him.
“Marcus came in at a time when we needed more solidity and experience and he played very well.”
McCarthy warned Blackburn will arrive at Molineux determined to secure a top-10 finish. “They won’t want be part of our party knowing if we win we’ll stay up and there’ll be plenty to celebrate for the fans,” he said.
McCarthy insisted he has heard nothing about reported £2.5m interest from Liverpool in keeper Wayne Hennessey.
Wolves reserves surrendered a two-goal lead from Sam Vokes and Nathan Rooney in the first 25 minutes to draw their final game 2-2 away to Portsmouth.
UK Sport
Latest Blog — A week is a long time in football
This time last week we were staring down the barrel, third from bottom with a worse record than at the same stage last year, writes Saddlers blogger Mark Jones.
Saddlers Blog
Business Awards
Book a Business Awards table
Join our celebrations of the region's best in business on Thursday March 22 - book your table now
Lifestyle
Interactive Dining Out map
Hundreds of reviews by the Express & Star and Shropshire Star's teams to help you decide where to eat.
entertainment
All the film reviews
Before you plan a trip to the pictures, get our critics' verdicts on all the latest movie releases
OUR NEW APP
Get the new E&S app
Download the Express & Star’s new app to your iPad or iPhone to get one week of access to our digital newspapers absolutely FREE.
expressandstar.com
Popular sections
Useful links
Unfortunately Mick’s right about the formation – but perhaps only because the player recruitment strategy didn’t really deliver last summer.
Very very proud of the Wolves this year.
Hahnemann player of the year for me.
Report abuse
And So Say All Of Us!!!
Well Done MM
Report abuse
Back in August there was one goal and one goal only, PL survival. No matter how boring, unentertaining and ugly (and it has been ugly) that goal seems like it has been achieved. For that, well done MM & boys.
But be warned 3 M’s; expectations for next season are going to be a little different/higher. Don’t expect the fans to be happy week in week out watching 11 in defense going for 38 nil/nil draws. 4-5-1 is great away from home against the top 4 but it’s primarily a defensive formation used to nullify an opponent’s superior midfield. Let’s take the game to the opposition next season and let them worry about us for a change instead of us worrying about them. (Yes I know Barcelona sometimes play 4-5-1 but we are not Barcelona…….yet!)
MM, you should by know by now who is PL material, who has PL potential and who needs to be let go. Hopefully the other 2 M’s will support your transfer endeavors to strengthen the team.
UTW
Report abuse
No celebrating or praising success yet, we are not safe qand still in the danger zone.
We need to stay focussed get the points and not have to rely on others slipping up!
Report abuse
What he really means is that until January he didn’t have a clue about either the formation nor the best players. 15 points out of 42 is disgraceful. The sooner he is sacked the Better!!!!!
Report abuse
We will never now if we survived due to formation change or not.But we survived so fair play to mm.As I am still not a fan of mm but he is the boss of my beloved so I will continue behind him.I will say this much though if we win tomorrow then for the last two games other players should be given a chance along with other formation.
Has for wayne henn this is a position were I personally do not think you need any particular experience in a league,it’s not as if prem players head or kick the ball at goalkeepers substantially harder.Wayne is a loose cannon or one could say a FLAPPER otherwise he as good as HENN at shot stopping etc.
Lets go for entertainment tommorow micko give them the licence to thrill you may find yourself pleasently surprised.
Well done WOLVES love you forever.
Report abuse
SO VERY PROUD TO BE A WOLVES FAN!
WELL DONE THE 3MS ONE MORE WIN AND WE ARE THERE!
Report abuse
Let us not forget Hull losing at home to Burnley and losing in the last minute to Portsmouth has also helped.As the Duke of Wellington once said it has been a close run thing.But our manager deserves lots of plaudits IF we pull it off.And it is still IF.
Report abuse
#5 Well done Tony!!! – there had to be “one” didn’t there?!!
MM delivers promotion to the Premier and (touch wood) achieves the Board’s (and most fans) objective to stay up.
MM always warned that games would be ugly – but that was less important than retaining PL status.
Many do not have a clue as to how difficult it is to attract new players to join a newly promoted PL club with a modest budget. We did not want to do a Pompey did we?
Next year is another matter – our objective must be consolidation and acquisition of quality players. I suggest higher than 14th would be excellent!
Yet you want him sacked! What planet are you on?
Report abuse
Yes the 10 men in your own half formation works very well. But makes for dull matches. It will be interesting how we proceed next year. Will we press forward more with a few extra signings or stick with this method? Only MM can answer that one.
Report abuse
chris hoggard – and losing in the last minute at Arsenal and Birmingham didnt have the counter effect??
Its all swings and roundabouts and you finish where you deserve in the Prem. Well done Wolves, you are going to finish above 3 other teams because you are better than them. Nothing else to it.
Report abuse
Well said Tony Wolf, only problem is you are talking to people with rose tinted glasses.
Report abuse
Tony Wolf you are banker (god my typing is crap!!), English Exile wherever you are stay out there and hopefully soon you’ll lose your internet connection.
Now where are my glasses!!
Report abuse
Tony wolf – 15 points out of 14 matches that included Man U, Chelsea, Arsenal Tottenham, Liverpool, Aston Villa and Everton is not disgraceful by any stretch of the imagination. Just what do you expect from a newly promoted team? Sacking managers always works doesn’t it? Just look at Hull this year, and Newcastle last year
Report abuse
what idiots some of these supporters are thicko bought the players and they are all rubbish apart from doyle,his playing formation is rubbish his talk is rubbish he is rubbish and he should be sacked.
Report abuse
Tony wolf. 15 points from 14 matches which included Man U, Chelsea, Arsenal, Tottenham, Liverpool, Villa, and Everton (7 out of the top 8) is not disgraceful by any stretch of the imagination. What do you expect from a newly promoted team? Sacking managers always pays dividends doesn’t it. Just look at Hull this season, and Newcastle last season.
Report abuse
5 & 12 – YOU ARE BOTH NO BRAINERS!!
I am not a massive fan of MM but good god give the man some credit! When he arrived at the club we had 4 regular first team players left, he has built a team to get us in the Prem and it’s looking like one that will stay there this season and then introduce QUALITY which will see us safely to mid table next year. We and he, all acknowledge that some signings were mot up to the quality required bit even the best make mistakes – Fergy & Berbatov for £30+ Million?????
Get behind the lads tomorrow and get a win so that like last season, we can at last enjoy the final two games!! UTW!!!
Report abuse
It does make you wonder sometimes if the premier league is really the best league in the world. Half the teams are so scared of being relegated, they approach every match just wanting to cancel out the opposition. We are not seeing many goals at the wolves, nor are we likely in the near future as every team arround us is playing the same game to stay up.
Maybe you could compare it to tennis, the mens game is getting boring because, the serves are getting faster and faster, games are won or lost on someones serve. The womens game is better because there are more rallys and more skill is shown, because the game lasts longer than a 100 mph serve!
Maybe our premier league is like mens tennis fast and furious, players doing anything to win, at the lack of quality in game play.
Our championship, maybe more like the womens tennis were teams, are not all made around speed and game plans of not losing at all costs….
Looks like we will have to play against Blackburn the boring way at least once more this season.. Just to stay up.. After that I hope we can at least try to entertain the supporters a little bit more.
Report abuse
do not know why i bother reading the comments because i just get angry when idiots like Tony Wolf & English Exile make childish comments like that.
I bet you 2 were moaning for years about not getting promoted blah blah blah and now that we are promoted and hopefully staying in the premiership, you want to sack the man behind it.
Bravo….you are not wolves fans you are pretending to be fans probably because you feel the need to support your local team. Well do us (geniune wolves fans) a favour and DO NOT comment again.
Report abuse
NO 11 Of course it is swings and roundabouts,but you surely would have expected Hull to get something against Burnley and Portsmouth,they didn’t and that has certainly helped us.Portsmouth’s financial problems also helped us out.But as I said IF we survive Mick will deserve lots of credit.
Report abuse
English Exile, like tony (who?) you are a prat, certainly not Wolves fans.St Louis ?olf I question your loyalty, 38 nil nil’s, what are you on about, so you would have us attack every match and get relegated! the trouble is with a lot of so called “fans” in these pages, you have ALL been proved wrong by MM, his coaching staff and players, you have not got the guts to say you were in fact wrong and he was right,never mind your true beloved team are back in the prem next season and it ain’t Newcastle!
The Real London Wolf – don’t you know by now that those Like above, do want us to do a pompy, spend,spend,spend and take the club into oblivion – THEN THEY CAN SAY THEY WERE RIGHT AND THAT WE SHOULD HAVE SACKED MM MONTHS AGO, morons the lot of them.
We are Wolves……….they are not………..
and yes english exile (sinking ship comes to mind)I have got rose tinted glasses and have had for 57 of my 61 yrs (57 yrs going to matches)
Report abuse
IF we stay in PL (I think just 1 point against B’burn will be enough) I do think people on here still need to get real.
Attracting quality players over the summer is still going to be difficult. Look at Wigan – they spent over 5 years in the PL and again struggling to survive. Why would it be any different to us ?
Am I the only one who still miss to see the real commitment from Mr. Morgan. He wanted to buy Liverpool and in the big4 you DO spend big and buy worldclass players. Well, so coming to Wolves why shouldn’t we expect him to splash the cash he would no doubt be expected to do at Liverpool .. ??
As mentioned here the perspective this season was nothing less than survival but I don’t think that next season in the PL will be anything different. WBA and Newcastle are better than Hull and Burnley. Yet we now have team of youngsters who all have some PL-experience which might just be the reason we survive another season. So for me it’s the season beyond that will define where we’re going.
Unless of course Mr. Morgan is ready to spend the money one would have expected at Liverpool.
Sorry to appear so negative because I think this season is a job well done. Thanx to MM and the team – and hopefull we will all be celebrating saturday !!
Report abuse
Mick is a legend!!The formation change was a master stroke and the signing of doyle at the start of the season was pure genius only problem is i look abit like him but a much fatter version after far to many balti pies in the ground and keep getting abuse at the games pack it in wolves fans we all support our local team yours gav caddick (Face of wolves mobile)
Report abuse
IF we win tomorrow We should all hail the players and MM for a job well done. Our only purpose this year was survival and nothing less.
I just think we need to get real on here. Why would next season in PL be anything different from this one ? It will probably be harder as WBA and Newcastle seems like better teams than Burnley and Hull from whom we got 8 points this season !
Unless we buy some real quality players we will struggle. Yet we have a young team which might adapt better to the standards next time around We still need to see one thing. And that’s the real commitment from Mr. Morgan. A man who puts in bid to take over Liverpool must have an idea of what it needs to take it to the next level. And what spendings must be.
But I just love the spirit of our current team which I think is much down to McCarty-ism
and we can´t afford to spoil that spirit then we will start to loose games. Spendings this summer must be wise and I think we should keep Milijas and Guediora.
3 quality signings this summer would be Zigic from Valencia (team-mate with Milijas as Serbian national), Hunt (again !) from Hull and Shorey from Villa. With Kightly back then we will almost be there !
UTW
Report abuse
£2.5 million for Hennessey, bit cheap. Not sure about that one.
Report abuse
5 – 15 from 42 is averaging just over a point a game which is what every promoted team aims for for survival. Whats disgracefull is people like you critisising a fantastic achievement, from one of our best managers in years.
Its ok all you doom and gloomers saying were all entitled to an oppinion, but oppinions should be based on facts, and the fact is, survival from this league is an achievement that should see the manager given more time in the position to improve the squad. not be sacked because you think he wont perform the miracles you expect based on no facts what so ever.
15- all his signings have been rubbish and his tactics have been rubbish, and we are relegated, wait, thats not right?
Theres no reasoning with your oppinions because nothing will be good enough for you glory hunters. He keeps us in the championship, then gets us promoted as champions, then keeps us in the premier, but he hasnt won the premier league and got us the champions league title so get rid of him.
16 – I would have expected man city to beat hull, but that wasnt the case, as well as picking up points from the likes of chelsea and tottenham, which didnt help us too much. The league table never lies, and portsmouths financial problems were there own doing. Thats like saying that team only got relegated because they made bad signings., and that helped us. Oh and if burnley had of signed torres, messi, rooney and ronaldo in the summer, they may have survived and that helped us.
Report abuse
15 – Did you have other things to do when it was English lessons at school ?
Report abuse
The defence has been great 2nd half of the season and has given us a platform to stay up. But the trade off has been goals and entertainment. Next season will be a harder league as the three that look to be going down have been very poor. I and many others would like to see more than 4 strikers and midfielders on the pitch for home games, but only players who are good enough. We currently dont have those players or they are not performing ( milijas, surman, halford etc). Interesting summer ahead
Report abuse
MM gave the 4 4 2 a go but did not work due to SEBs lack of form and confidence partly due to no pre season. If we had had kites playing in a 4 5 1 there would have been miles more goals. Bad signings? Only the hoff and halford. hahnemann and zubar r quality and milijas will come good. Anyway well done MM and the team. He will not be sacked and if u r not happy go and watch the tescos – attractive football with relegation!
Report abuse
‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ and ‘coulds’ and ‘shoulds’ are big words.The fact of the matter is that we are six points ahead of Hull City with three games to go and a much superior goal difference.We are not there yet,but stand a good chance of staying in the Premier.If we do stay in the Premier,we need to move forward.This season’s tactics won’t work next season because the League will be stronger and teams will be more prepared for us.
Report abuse
Spot on Tony Wolf,MM is a second grade manager,and other peopls results are saving his face,,oh to see a goal,sorry a Wolves goal today.
Report abuse
It wasn’t that long ago these pages were full of people moaning about us leaking goals! MM tightens up the back and we start getting points and a real chance of staying up. But now we hear the same people moaning we arn’t scoring as well!
First season up guys! Lets be real. We have shown we can play, the writers are full of the grit and team spirit in this side and surely in the off season we can now attract 1 or 2 PM players in those ket positions who are confident we are the real deal and here to stay!
Report abuse