Derby draw shows where Wolves are
Tuesday 22nd February 2011, 9:10AM GMT.
Wolves columnist John Lalley believes the draw with Albion displayed everything that is wrong about his team as the dust settles on the Black Country derby.
When the dust has settled and the emotions have calmed, the ultimate winners of last Sunday’s Black Country derby are the teams sharing the relegation zone with both Wolves and Albion.
A draw certainly suited the likes of Wigan, West Ham and Blackpool and Saturday’s game against the Seasiders is, for Wolves, another clash of monumental importance.
Time is running increasingly short and we must start to make inroads soon, otherwise we will be left playing catch up at the fag end of the campaign as our rivals grimly cling on to what they already have.
At the Hawthorns, Wolves came within seconds of what could have been a defining moment in the struggle for survival.
With so much to gain and having come so close to attaining it, to stumble so late on was devastating. The disappointment of stoppage time is a microcosm of our whole season.
Superficially, at least, there has been an unabashed air of confidence exuding from Molineux since the conclusion of the previous campaign.
An air of certainty that just about everything in the operation of the club is functioning with maximum efficiency ensuring a future almost too bright to contemplate.
In reality, we saw against Albion exactly why Wolves sit bottom of the league and why this season has been one of immense frustration. The present it seems has been left to look after itself and we may well be left paying a heavy penalty.
After comfortably subduing a very ordinary Albion outfit for 45 minutes and turning round in front, our nerve faltered. We became introspective, inhibited and uncertain, almost frightened to take the win that was invitingly on offer.
We surrendered a hard won initiative to opponents who themselves were sitting uncomfortably on a knife edge and desperately facing the prospect of another catastrophic defeat.
Albion were clinging to the precipice and the moment to kick them over fell to Matt Jarvis, but his nerve and his composure failed him.
As had been evident at Bolton recently, Jarvis simply could not trust the courage of his convictions and facing the decisive moment of the match, he failed to deliver.
Albion, holding on by their fingertips, were reprieved and the entire shape and direction of the game shifted accordingly. Sensing our lack of a killer instinct, they were revitalised from that moment onward.
Wolves had been doing all the talking but we pressed the mute button. We retreated into the comfort zone opting for caution, rather than showing a positive attitude which was likely to reap a rich dividend.
The final self-inflicted wound was a massive source of frustration but, in truth, it came as little surprise. We invited it and, in doing so, missed a great opportunity to make a really decisive statement of intent.
Wolves have listened to many plaudits this season, a number of them from managers who have just taken three points at our expense.
Manager Mick McCarthy invariably begins a post match television interview with the words,”we played well,” regardless of the final result and, on occasions, he makes a valid point. But, equally at times, the statement is a mirage.
Unexpected triumphs against top teams led to understandable euphoria and confident predictions of ‘our season starts here.’ But the desired lift off never quite seems to occur.
No manager or coach can put in what God has left out, players can only maximise their inherent capabilities and intermittently Wolves defy logic, set the pulses racing and raise the bar of expectation.
But a shroud of frailty has wrapped itself around the team this season, a naivety which is compounded by the continuing saga of a calamitous catalogue of glaring individual errors perpetrated at the most inopportune moments.
We pose minimal threat in the opposition penalty area, our offensive play is based around hoping for a successful set piece and, while it worked wonderfully well at the Hawthorns, the limitations of this approach are glaring.
It’s a ‘smash and grab’ mentality, nick a goal early in the piece, hold on for dear life and hope fortune smiles in your direction.
It could and indeed it should have sufficed against Albion, but such a limited game plan leaves you with the minimum of trump cards in your hand against heavier hitters.
But, all of the teams sharing the relegation zone, Wolves have their own deficiencies and weaknesses that will continue to haunt them as the season draws to a close.
Wolves certainly don’t hold a monopoly on failings and the spirit at Molineux so recently evident against Manchester United can resurface and confound just about everyone.
No, Wolves are far from finished but we have to accept that anymore substantial giveaways cannot be sustained.
UK Sport
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I’m not one for moaning usually but I and many others I have talked too say we lost the game when Mick started to make his changes we looked in good shape til then. Sorry Mick but bad decisions lost us that game………….when we lost our shape.
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Sunday’s game took our running total of points sacrificed in the last three minutes to 10. I’m wondering if that’s some kind of Premier League record. If so, perhaps we could get a plaque or something.
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A season of highs and lows.The highs have been as good as anything we have experienced for many years,but the catalogue of last minute mistakes have been devastating.In my opinion we are so close to being a decent side,just a bit more ambition in the transfer market would have done it.You only have to look at the class of O’Hara to realise that.’No manager or coach can put in what God has left out’.That is a very good comment.
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Think this article sums up what is wrong with the club, and It’s not going to get any better with him in charge as he will not change what he does, he has to Tinker as well as above.
Many of us have been saying this since well before December, whe also bought injured players before the season started, Hunt who so much was expected from hasn’t performed and is injured again, another key player we were told.
We don’t have a true captian or leader on the field.
SEB whose goal saved us last season has been rewarded by a bench place, whilst other second rate players play week in week out.
Everyone keeps thinking the next game is going to be the turning point, it is not going to happen.
When a manager keeps coming out after every game and says he thinks we played well, sums him up, it is now six games where we have conceded a goal in the last mins of extra time, we are bottom of the league for goodness sake, when is the club going to wake up, looks lik Jamie has, his reward will probably be a place on the bench next week!
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RELEGATED WE WILL BE, ABSOLUTELY NAILED ON. AND AS THE HAPPY CLAPPERS KNOW, I SAID THAT BEFORE WE KICKED OFF THE FIRST GAME AGAINST STOKE. AND WHEN WE DO GO DOWN WHAT THEN?.
GROUND REBUILDING TO BE PAID FOR, OUR BETTER PLAYERS WILL WANT AWAY. O’HARA BACK TO SPURS, FLETCHER AIN’T HAPPY NOW SO HE’LL GO, DOYLE WON’T STAY NOT THAT HE’LL BE MISSED, JARVIS WILL GO, AND GOOD RIDDANCE COS HE’S USELESS.
ALL IN ALL WE’RE LOOKING AT A GOOD FEW SEASONS IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP AGAIN, NOT WHAT MORGAN WAS EXPECTING I’M SURE. MIND YOU I BET HE DIDN’T EXPECT TO BUY A 7.5 MILLION STRIKER, TO BE LEFT ON THE BENCH WHILE THE OTHERS COULDN’T HIT A COWS BACKSIDE WITH A BANJO.
IT’S A FUNNY OLD GAME.
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However bad we are in a very poor year in the Prem we will still stay up because we are a better ‘team’ than Wigan, West Brom and West Ham. Wigan and West Brom have a very hard run in and West Ham have long cup runs to cope with as well. Our ‘team’ will keep us up because we will get more points [11more] than the others.
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I think albion were there for the taking on sunday, their defensive play recently has been the worst in the league. The problem is Mick sets out his teams not to lose, ok thats fine for certain games against the better teams in the league but the likes of albion,wigan and teams in the bottom half of the table we have to be more attack minded,the games are running out so mick has to start being more positive,at the end of the day Mick knows his jobs safe so whats the problem.
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¨We pose minimal threat in the opposition penalty area, our offensive play is based around hoping for a successful set piece.¨
Well said John. Most Wolves fans knew this anyway but perhaps those who won´t admit it might do reading it from you. (Careful you don´t get labeled a Moaner or a Numpty),
The real shame of it and I mean SHAME big time is that the manager cannot get tacticly beyond hoping for a point. His subtitutions are as equally woeful as his tactics.
He bought a striker at the beginning of the season and won´t play him, persisting with Kevin Doyle instead. I can´t imagine any other Premier league manager who would be so irresponsible and do the same.
I for one have had enough of this atrocious management regime and will not put another penny into Steve Morgans coffers until Mick McCarthy has gone.
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John
I usually agree with your blogs, but not on this occasion.
Sunday we needed a result, win or draw & we got one, yes the 3 points would have been ideal, but this was a game that we just couldn’t afford to lose & in the cold light of day, after the nerves have calmed, we never looked like being beat on Sunday.
I’ve heard posts saying that Hennessey had to make some great saves, apart from the deflected cross/shot from Vela I can’t think of anything out of the ordinary that he had to do, yes Jarvis had to clear one off the line, but that’s why he is there.
For an hour we controlled the game, & if we had taken the chances we had made, Jarvis & Foley, we would have cruised to victory, but then McCarthy made somewhat of a strange desicion & changed the shape of the team & handed Albion more space to play in & in fairness to them, they used the extra space we afforded them well to apply greater pressure, which as we are all aware, we eventually secom to.
Unfortunately though I think 1 of the 2 teams on view Sunday will be relegated & given our run in I can’t see it being Wolves & I think we will beat Albion at Molineux & sent them down, not being provocative that’s just how I think it will pan out, apart from Birmingham Albion are the worst team I have seen this season & they are on a terrible run, which is a shame because when they have ‘their tails up’ they are a decent footballing team & the Prem is a better place for them being there.
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Excellent assessment, John.
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Silly late goals thats whats doing the damage. If you take away the goals we conceeded in the last 10minutes of the games we’ve played we would be 1point behind Liverpool in 7th place!
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Spot on John,again first half we had the beatings of them,and then let them back in by dropping too deep,playing sideways and back,Karl Henry being the biggest culprit,I honestly think Henry should be rested,at the moment we have better than him..I think Mick was part to blame on Sunday,why bring Jody on,why disrupt the midfield,and again Wardy HAD to come on,iff he had to make changes,what about Hammel,Hunt,Fletcher,Edwards,Jones,in my humble oppinion all better than Stephen Ward..But at the end of the day,or even at the start of the day, we havnt got anyone who can score goals,,last Sunday iff Albions keeper had sat in the stands,we would still have only scored one goal..
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PLEASEDONOTWRITEINCAPSITSREALLYANNOYINGTOREAD
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I can not help wondering how Fletcher feels about his situation. A £7m. striker, once the idol of Burnley, who hardly ever gets off the bench to play for a team that scores few goals. Surely he will be on his way in the Summer?
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4- You are spot on Jamie will need a rest next game because he has been out for so long.
Subs are there if you need them. Although under some pressure towards the end it was only long balls so we need to cut off the supply with forwards to run at them and close down, not sit back and let them do it. He did it against Man U and Chelsea so why not the Tesco’s how are a million times worse at the back.
The problem is if you are going to sub someone then fine but it must be a strait swap for someone who plays the position not bring someone on and move 3 other player at the same time or in the case of Craddock putting him on to create a formation never used in the history of football. No one knows whose job it is to close, pick up etc.
Not going to get started on Henry, but for me Milijas can do his job it just at the moment Henry is just getting in his way!
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It felt more like a defeat than a draw and their fans celebrated as if they had won. I think anytime you ship a goal in the last few seconds it is disappointing [all the more so when we haven’t beaten them at their place for 13 years and they are our bitterest rivals] Mick’s usual naff tactics had a lot to do with it ,and I could see it coming. He took 2 offensive players off and put 2 defenders on, and suddenly our very solid defence, looked all over the place, because the shape went, with players going for the same ball and because we had lost middle and front players in Mc Carthy’s re-shuffle, the ball kept coming back at us, as there was no-one to get the ball out to and up their end . Mick has yet to learn that if the ball is up the other end, the opposition can’t score. He was urging the players up the field, but had the wrong players on, to execute the plan. When he took Jarvis off he should have bought Hammill on [he should have been on from the start in fact]a fast forward in top form, to force them back and give us a player to hold on to the ball out of defence.
Earlier on, the game turning moment was Jarvis missing that sitter, when if he had bagged it, to put us 2-0 up, I am convinced we would have got a couple more and killed them off big time. When is one of our coaches going to teach Ward to get a block on a player before he crosses [kids stuff]?
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No. 5 – Jarvis is useless? Go back to sleep….
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well said southbank.what you should be fearfull of is the signing of long term contracts of his lovechildren ward and henry.you will all have to suffer them.unless of course morgan suffers a blow to his head and comes to his senses and sees that micheal is just a good blagger.howhe can just stand there and blame everything and something that was not his fault week in week out.guess what the pitch was a bit bobbly?is he after astroturf pitches?we will still not be able to defend.
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I am sure that the experts will correct me but I believe that a ref can add time on for substitutions “at his discretion” up to 30 secs. So not only are late subs potentially disruptive but give the opposition more time. I wonder how many last minute goals we could have avoided.
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The “deficiencies and weaknesses” in both penalty areas might have been addressed in January. The return to bargain hunting during this period suggests a degree of resignation to relegation by the club management, and an admission of summer strengthening gone awry.
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I think you’ve summed it up nicely John, many have thought and said the same. ‘IMO’ i would have changed the manager a long time ago, having said that Mr Morgan likes him so we must except it, and get on with it, as Mick will be here for many years i feel. Nobody can get their heads around why he busted a gut to sign Fletcher for £7.5M, then ingore him for most of the season? Perhaps it was another case of Eastwood, something went horribly wrong their too. Mick is very much is ‘own’ man do as your told and your ok, but cross him and your finshed. I like Jamie O’Hara he looks class but he seems to speak his mind and voices his opinion, which he will need to curb or else he may find himself on the bench more than the pitch, after saying we got our ‘tactics’ wrong and backing off far to much instead of attacking them? Mick doesn’t like any player questioning his decisions/tactics/etc. What i like about O’Hara he reminds me of Mike Bailey full of energy full of forward drive, i think he would make a good Captain too, he even looks a bit like Mike short stocky gets stuck in ,he looks a born leader. But to keep him we must retain our PL place, i just hope/pray we are good enough to do it,like ive said before i ‘support Wolves’ first and foremost managers/players second. UTW:
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17.. WHAT? OH YOU MEAN LIKE JARVIS WHEN HE MISSED THAT SITTER EARLY IN THE SECOND HALF.
HE IS USELESS, NEVER BE AS GOOD AS KITES, AND HE’S AS AVERAGE AS HUNT. THAT’S WHY WE’RE BOTTOM OF THE LEAGUE. BECAUSE OUR MANAGER AND THE HAPPY CLAPPERS THINK THE DROSS IN WOLVES SHIRTS ARE QUALITY PREMIERSHIP PLAYERS.
LMAO YOU LOT!!
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We played well, the pitch was a bit bobbly. We (Note Not Wardy) should have closed him down. I can´t blame Wayne. Doylers been brilliant for us. The man´s got complacency written all over him. Of all those players sitting on the bench he put Ward on. Kiss of death. We had that game in the bag. What on earth did he tell them at half time?
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Another Dingle-inspired article from the Distress and Star!
Neither Wolves or Albion are likely to survive the drop. As a Baggies fan, that hurts. I’d love both to stay up.
Yes, you could say we should have won two or three of our last home games. But Wolves have equally a poor record against the Premier League’s bottom teams.
We were a different team for most of the second half of Sunday’s game. And if we show the same mental attitude we have a chance.
We face Stoke on Monday – I have a feeling we’ll break our hoodoo against them. Anything can happen against Blues.
Liverpool aren’t the team they were 12 months ago (and we have a tendency this season to raise our game against the heavy weights).
Villa & Everton at home? Winnable. As is our games away at Newcastle and Sunderland.
Plus, there’s the return leg of the Black Country derby in May. A tighter defence with Hodgson at the helm, and free-flowing football could tilt the survival stakes our way…
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In a Q & A in the Daily Mail on Saturday, MM was asked: What’s the most expensive thing you have bought? He replied: ‘Kevin Doyle’. I honestly don’t think he knows Fletcher exists.
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WELL SAID TOM WOLF
A true fan and a gentleman. I thought of Mike Bailey too, saw him score a similar goal at Craven Cottage back in 66. We need more players like O´Hara and less like Henry. I hope he stays. And as you said. Wolves first, managers and players second.
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Having only missed 4 games this season i dont know how anyone can predict what we are going to do ! We are so inconsistant.
One thing i know for sure is that its not enjoyable i dont wont another season of it!!
Up the Wolves
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Agree with the blog. I thought it was a disgarce that Mick bemoaned the “mistake” by Hennessey at the end. The reason we didn’t get the win was Wolves surrendered the initiative to a fragile Albion instead of pressing for the killer blow after the Jarvis miss. The substitutions were poor and finishing with 3 non-ball playing centre halfs invited Albion on to us in an inevitable “Alamo” situation. The result? Shot through forest of legs from edge of the box – yes it was a mistake but you can hardly blame Hennessey – it was hardly in the Bolton/Zubar class of errors. IMO McCarthy is chiefly responsible for Sunday’s result. Too often “we hold what we have” mentality has resulted in points bleeding away.
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The amount of imes we have thrown away 1-0 leads this season is a real sickener
Tottenham away
Fulham away
Newcastle at home
Just 3 off the top of my head aswell as Albion at the weekend
If we could hold onto leads we would be higher up the table, even if they were draws in some cases
Still got to try and keep the faith some big games coming up
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John Lalley you are a geneous as I could not have put it any better. SPOT ON!
Lets just hope Jarvis, next time put in the same position brings the ball down and takes it round the keeper before slotting into the BACK OF THE NET!
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Good piece John but why hold back, you are obviously a very polite chap who needs to keep the Molineux door open. Tell it like it really is and sell a few papers.
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@southbank barmy army (re:22)
Surely you must realise that neither you nor I nor anyone who comments here or on any other forum is going to change the players we have, even if we do insist on writing in caps lock. Would anyone not agree that as wolves fans it is our lot to give our support to all those who wear the shirt regardless of whether they are your personal favourite or whether or not they are the greatest players in the league , which they’re never likely to be given our position in the football hierarchy. So I suppoes that makes them “Dross”. People often berate the optimists out there as delusional, but who is really being delusional here? Having followed Wolves for decades I would never describe our current squad as dross. You are living in a dreamworld and your constant whining changes nothing.
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As the writer said, we missed a major opportunity to put a nail in your coffin. Jarvis had your full back in his pocket and a few crosses went in and there was no one there to finish. We must utilise SEB or Fletcher in some of these remaining games.
24) You are more or less down. As I said before the game, Albion have about half-a-dozen decent players and the rest are not up to it – Olsson, Scharner, Shorey, Brunt, Thomas, Morrison and Odewingie!
It is highly unlikely that you will beat Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea or Spurs and I have a feeling that you can add Villa, Stoke and Blues to the list. So that leaves you to get 3 wins from either Everton, Newcastle, Sunderland or us! This is from a team that has not kept a clean sheet in 25 league games!
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Mick,s substitutions cost us the extra two points bringing on Craddock with minutes to go was suicidal in my opinion, if he hadn,t tinkered we would have seen the game out, now lets cut all the talking and get three points from a slipping down the table Blackpool. U T W
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Its no good beating the good teams when you cant beat the ones around you.
every game against one of the bad teams is a six pointer and we must take them when they are on offer.
Mick must look at the results when Karl Henry wasnt in the side and see the difference, something changes when he plays wether its the balance or the tempo (or the sideways passing and missed tackles),but we are much better without him at the moment.
someone must teach Elokobi and Zubar how to tackle and Bully has to get hold of our strikers and show them where the net is
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33) brummierobwolves
Thanks for that. But I can’t work out from that list of players if they’re the ones who are “half-decent” as you call it, or those who are not up to it.
Our star man Mulumbu should be fit for the rest of the campaign and Dorrans limped off injured. Vela’s off the mark now too.
Of course, Doyle and Fletcher are bound to start firing in your goals. You must have all the confidence in the world with those two…
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Please do not slug off any of our players. They are doing their best under the circumstances. The facts are however that the tactics they are made to play under always let us down, our forwards cannot score for the life of them and our defence is inadequate and cannot defend and leak goals, mostly in injury time! Add to this the inevidable individual errors and that’s where we are. Bottom of the league and protecting the spot jealously as if we were first in the league.
What kind of training do the players get, what kind of tactics are they subjected to? You can’t get decent players of enough ability and turn them into incapable morons at the stroke of a hut. The blame is squarely on the coaches who should own up and take on their responsibility on the cheek.
Do we think that if we are relegated we will bounce straight back? It took us nineteen years the first attempt and seven the second. Lots of us were screaming for a central defender and left back since May last year! If we laymen could see that requirement and we are not football managers or club owners, what excuses does the hierarchy have?
Shame.
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Well said John – although i agree a little restrained.
When are the powers that be going to realise we are on a one way track, steaming headlong into the buffers and into the Championship.
Time for the players to hear a fresh voice in the changing room and the freedom to express themselves. I imagine Blackpool will let us ‘play well’ before returning to the seaside with all 3 points.
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Defender as a manager so rely’s on defenders and plays them all over the pitch. We need a new pro-attacking manager if we are to go any further, time to get Paul Ince back.
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Totally agree with 37 Bickleywolf.The majority of our players are good championship players but not quite good enough for the premiership but they are doing their best,a thing we have not been able to say about some of our past players may I say!!.MM I am sorry to say thinks the likes of Ward,Elokobi,Henry etc are better than they actually are and for that reason alone should be sacked if we get relegated.We had two shots on target on Sunday which against a poor Albion team is shameful.Everytime we go in front we then seem to sit back and let teams come at us and hope to get away with it.In view of the fact our defence is hardly rock solid these are unbelievable tactics in my view.Mick is a good Championship manager but is out of his depth in this league.
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36) Those are your decent players. Obviously Mulumbu – not on show on Sunday, would be added – Dorrans would not. He has not proved himself yet in the top flight! Vela is one for the future but it must be desperate if he does not get a shirt ahead of Fortune.
Doyle is not our prolific goalscorer but Fletcher or SEB are capable of doing that. Fletcher scored double figures for Burnley last year and they were relegated.
Let’s see at the end of the season but I predict that we will finish higher than the Albion. Time will tell!
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How many times have we tried to defend a lead and failed? We should have pressed on not dropped back. The back four are not good enough to do that. Apparently the manager does not know that. For heavens sake, how long?? Sack him!!!
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Really disappointed with the performance on Sunday. How you can create so few chances (you couldn’t call O’Hara’s a good chance, just a wonderful strike) against a team who are one of the 4 or 5 poorest in the league and playing really badly is beyond me.
O’Hara looks an absolute class above anything we have or have had for a long time. He is certainly showing Milijas (currently runs/jogs around doing very little one way or ther other) what a play maker is supposed to do. As for Henry, i thought it was amazing how many times he managed to kick the ball straight out play on Sunday and the fact that the Manager of a miserable England team thinks he’s good doesn’t suprise me in the slightest.
I haven’t seen a stat for this yet though i’m sure it exists somewhere, but i bet if you checked who has had the least amount of shots this season you would find MM’s Wolverhampton Wanderers featuring heavily.
I’m personally totally fed up of MM. His transfer dealings are atrocious (O’Hara just an accident after Woodgate turned us down and HR offered him!!) and the lack of invention and inability to defend simple situations is staggering.
Someone said to me the other day that if we went down there is no one better to get us back up…but if that happened would we not still be stuck in the same situation as now? Someone unable to improve a defence that was hardly rock solid in the Championship some two years later is not someone i trust to take this team significantly further foward. We are currently the worst team in the Premier League, and i’m not sure what MM is managing to hide behind outside of that critical stat.
And if we do stay up what then…same again next year? Ambition anyone?
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a well written article. I have been saying for sometime that while there is good team spirit and commitment from the team we have no goal threat going forwards and mick just seems happy to nick a goal or keep it nil nil and then just hang on, but we have been caught out at many times with late goals more recently at bolton,WBA.
We will inv not stay up if we continue this way. i would be extremely suprised if we win 1-nil against blackpool who create a lot of chances going forward.
Grace no 9 I cant agree with you because you dont win games by how much possesion you have. How many shots did we have on target at WBA? and chances did we create? very few is the answer and we fluffed them. Yes jarvis should have scored but so should fortune.
hope your right with your prediction though
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Will98. Forget Paul Ince, he is not good enough for Wolves, as a manager he still has a long way to go if he succeeds at all.
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I was in a state of total shock after Sunday’s throw-away game. I knew we’d messed up, but only now is the reality of Mick’s matchday insanity finally sinking sinking in.
There’s only ONE thing more worrying than having a complete numpty running our beloved football team -and that’s knowing that Mick McCarthy is being given free licence to continue his hatchet job at Molineux, courtesy of Morgan and Moxey.
Dreadful, negative football and shocking, inept substitutions at crucial times…yet the idiot continues to receive 100% backing from high above. It’s truly amazing, baffling, mystifying and downright worrying. Honestly, if some of you people are satisfied with McCarthy’s performance and the crap he regularly serves up…well, you’re easily bloody pleased, that’s all I’ll say.
Just as easily pleased as the Fat Controller and Morgan, in fact.
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Fair assessment.We are consistent in losing too many games in the closing minutes and this is because the team can neither defend effectively or score enough goals to finish teams off. It should be interesting to see how the squad does in the Championship with several of the better players gone.
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If you can’t get all 3 at Albion, who were low on confidence and lacking the ability to repel our attacks in the 1st half, i am afraid it spells relegation. This division doesn’t suffer fools gladly..and giving them a share of the spoils when they didn’t deserve it, was very foolish!
Blackpool looks increasingly like a difficult match, and one we’ve little hope of winning. They know how to scrap, Wolves plainly lack the ability to close out games from potentially good positions.
In summary, relegation…he knows it too, it was written all over MM face after match on Sunday.
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Folks continue in numbers to question the manager’s substitutions which reached the height of absolute stupidity on Sunday. Experienced football people agree and in trying to understand the reasons for such poor decisions become totally baffled.
Is the man desperate ? loosing his reason and panicking during the final period ? trying to be clever or just a complete fool ? The only conclusion is that whatever his irrational reason for change, it is obvious that he cannot read the game, for which there is ample proof during the majority of previous encounters. The proof of the pudding is in the eating and it has become very unpalatable.
He has certainly got form on this matter as most Sunderland supporters and those non-blinkered Wolves fans would concur. Even worse is that The Board have no one with the football knowledge to advise and intervene, professionally assesing the incompetence. Whoever is manager next season, the Chairman would be well served by a employing a Football Director who can advise the board.
It is crass stupidity to commit millions of pounds on the infrastructure whilst the essential product is inferior. Successful companies are built on quality product, that product has proved to be failing miserably under this current regime. To Gold Plate a product which fails when you plug it in is a disaster waiting to happen.
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So Blackpool now have 7 more points than us – and whatever you say about their defence, they know how to score goals. They are also more comfortable about playing away from home than we have been. So would you put your house on us beating them on Saturday? No. I have been tipping Blackpool as a likely relegation team – as one of five including us. I’m now inclined to reduce the number of contenders to four, leaving Blackpool out. I hope I’m wrong. We must win on Saturday.
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Anyone that watched the Blackpool v. Spurs match and our match against the Baggies can see why we lost over 10 points after the 90mins are up.
We defend deep and invite the opposition to take pot shots on our goal from just outside our area. Blackpool defend in the opposition area and it ended with them scoring their third goal even though they had a deflection scored against them at the last.
We never looked likely to score a second during the last half hour that we decided to defend outside our area. How come Mick and his assistants cannot see this?
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Bickleywolf it’s no good coming on here and ask some not to slag off our team they’ve made a profession of it.
I am also old enough to remember Mick Bailey what a player he was!!!
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MM spent a substantial part of the close season trying,unsuccesfully,to recruit Hyppia,indicating (correctly) that what he believed to be his first priority for a succesful campaign was a quality defender with proven leadership credentials.When his overtures to woo the former L’pool captain proved unsuccesful there was NO PLAN B….the prospects for the season were in my opinion cast in that moment.
Agree with ever article JL writes..he is my first read post match day as his views make far more sense than any other contributor.
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John,very good article well done.
49,Crockett also very well put.Unfortunately some people(and they are entitled to their opininions)still go along with the BEST MANAGER IN 30 YEARS SO GIVE HIM A JOB FOR LIFE MENTALITY.For the unblinkered MM’S premiership record is abysmal,tactics a joke and as for plan b?.His love affair with players of limited ability is costing us big time.WHY was Hammill dropped on Sunday and Foley a good right back but nowhere near good enough in midfield played.
52 Sue,Mike Bailey was indeed a class act and one of many i have been lucky enough to see over my 50 years supporting our great club.Unfortunately it seems that the club we love so much has brought many people down to the depths that they think Karl Henry is an England prospect.In truth the majority of our current squad are championship at best along with our Manager and his staff.Whatever the outcome this season i firmly believe the board must employ a Football brain to take this club forward as Morgan,Moxey etc are clearly very limited in this department.
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That article was spot on for me, even though an away point was not the end of the world.
Anyway, that’s in the past now and we have to look ahead to Saturday’s MUST WIN game. I will be there supporting the boys, so lets all make sure that our voices of SUPPORT are heard by OUR beloved Wolves and encourage them to get those 3 vital points.
WE ARE WOLVES!!
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