Mick McCarthy sets Wolves survival target
Saturday 27th November 2010, 11:50AM GMT.
Wolves boss Mick McCarthy today challenged his team to produce the eight more wins and 29 points he feels will beat the drop.
McCarthy believes a stronger Premier League this season will mean the safety net has been raised to 38 points from the 35 West Ham stayed up with in 2009-10.
The Molineux chief acknowledges that total seems a long way off at the moment as he went into today’s clash against Sunderland with just two wins all season.
But he believes once his team gets a break, they will start picking up points.
“We’re 29 points away from the 38 we finished with last season,” said McCarthy. “It’s 10 wins but I think that will be the total that will keep any team in the Premier League this season because there have been so many draws.
“I said at the start of the season we were looking to maintain Premier League status and that’s got to be the aim.
“We’re only one point worse off than we were this time last year.
“Let’s get our good players back and fully fit and get a slice of luck – something to start us off and it will turn for us. We will be alright.”
McCarthy admits Wolves are looking for a catalyst similar to the clean sheet they earned in the shock win at Tottenham to start them off.
If anything, last year it was keeping a clean sheet at Tottenham after scoring in the first few minutes and holding on to win 1-0,” he said.
“We had three wins out of four, winning at Spurs, losing at Manchester United and then beating Bolton and Burnley.
“We got nine points out of 12 and I guess we’re looking for that sort of run of results.
“Last year we were thinking we’d got to start playing better and if we did, could we start winning games.
“My view is always a positive one – we’re a better team but we need a slice of good fortune from somewhere. That might be the fact that Ronald Zubar is back. It might be the fact that the team I cobble together produces the best performance we’ve ever had or a performance from someone that wins the game for us.”
McCarthy also re-iterated he has the full support of chairman Steve Morgan.
“Steve’s hugely positive and supportive and has been since he got here,” he said.
“I know I have to get results – I’m the most honest of all about that.
“But it’s still nice to know that in the face of adversity, people still think you’re a good manager and you’re still doing a good job.”
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Excuses excuses excuses ….
Cobble together a team…. how about you use your expensively assembled buys from the last two transfer windows????
The only people missing of any merit are your beloved son Karl Henry and Craddock. Both of which, aren’t premiership quality footballers.
I presume the adversity you refer to is the fact you’ve bought badly in the market and we are now slipping rapidly towards relegation and you need to championship squad to play every game as if it’s an FA cup final?
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Mick says ‘Lets get our Good players back’? So are you saying Mick you’ve got/bought ‘BAD PLAYERS’? UTW: GOOD LUCK TODAY LADS:
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The only way that we might survive the drop is if ‘MM GOES NOW’ and takes that absolutely useless Clipboard Connor with him!
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so we spend 40 odd million on players and mick targets the same as last season!!!!
someone please tell me why this silly clown is still here ?
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As well as starting to look like Tommy Trinder he is starting to sound like him as well.
There is more chance of Fraudly Harrison winning three World Tiltles.
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THE MAN IS DELUDED AND LIVES IN THE CLOUDS, MR MORGAN DO THE HONERABLE THING AND GET RID OF, SO WE CAN HAVE A CHANCE OF SATYING UP AND HAVING OUR NEW STADIUM!!!!!
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I take issue with the last paragraph, how can you be doing a good job when we are second from bottom, letting goals in and not scoring?
However let’s all hope he starts today and we get a good win and performance!
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COM ON ME BABIES….. WE CAN DO IT !
Mick, if you pull that off i will never question you again !
If you pull off 38 points you can play USA upfront on his own and i still wont question you and ward can have his own stand named after him lol
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Im Glad to see MM have given Wayne Hennessey his chance back between the sticks, he’s waited his time without moaning, and deserves a game, as Mh hasn’t been the gk we all know he can be and was last season. Its also great news that Zurbar is back we’ve also missed his pace and ability, lets hope with these changes our LUCK changes with it. Big George Elokobi at CH? altho he’s played there in reserve games many times, looks like Foley on the RW? again which im not over keen on, but Mick picks the team NOT US muppets? UTW:
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You are DREAMING
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oh dear….
1 up front….1-2 down
How do we expect to win a game?
Sorry this is getting ridiculous…..at home 1 up front, why not play with 2 up front?
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SHOCK HORROR
now 2 forwards on and we score…….
come on MM…..lets play 2 up front and stuff em…..go for it
don’t be so scared, we will win more than we lose if we just go for it
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SHOCK HORROR
Wolves score again….SEB….oh my god…..he is a striker
What….2 strikers on the pitch fo wolves and we are in front
MM please take note – 2 up front = WIN WIN WIN
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Correct……Wolves win with 2 up front
and SEB scores….
Comewith on MM lets stick with 2 up front and have a real go at it
If we go down at least we can go down fighting
wolves4eva
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richwolf, im afraid mcarthy will be here for another week because the team you and i support have won 3-2.
oh well heres to the boys in old gold well done my babbies.
happyclapper and proud, call me deluded i dont care we bloody won. utw
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I did say on the boards before that their forwards were playing well, but their defence isn’t the best , which proved to be right. Well done to the lads, but i thought ‘YOU FANS’ were ‘SUPERB’ today all i could hear on Beacon was you all singing/roaring you heads off all the way through the match, so a ‘HUGE’ pat on the back for ‘OUR AMAZING FANS’ cause at 1-2 down it would have been easy to turn on the players/MM but you never ,so its been a ‘GREAT DAY ‘ foe all involved with WOLVES FC. UTW:
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I hope Mick stays with us for another 10 years. He is the most honest Manager you could wish to find. We are ‘only’ going to be about survival for some seasons to come. What you lot forget are all the years down there in the wilderness and now you think that in Mick’s second season in the Premiership, we should be aiming for a top 6 position! Get real, it will take another 5 seasons at least of struggling before we even become a proper Premiership team. Just a pity that this season that the likes of Blackpool, Boggies and Newcastle are doing so well, so far, but it is a long season still to go. I do hope however, that he is able to strengthen the defence during the next window as we are definitely weak there. Keep the faith for Christ’s sake.
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