Blog: Wolves should target more than not losing

So it's been a steady if unspectacular opening salvo for Dean Saunders' Molineux tenure, writes Wolves blogger Tim Spiers.

His appointment has lifted morale around the club and the players - the ones who didn't really fancy doing what the previous manager told them - have responded well.

Which is very nice of them. Thanks lads. Nice to see you doing a bit of work for your £15,000 weekly wage.

When Saunders gave his first press conference he talked of getting the fans excited and playing good football.

But in his first two matches, especially last week at Sheffield Wednesday, he's gone down the route of trying to make us hard to beat first and foremost - no mean feat given what's gone before that this season.

That's meant shots, chances and goals have remained at a premium.

We had five attempts on target in total against Wednesday and Blackburn - coincidentally the same number as in Stale Solbakken's last two league games.

On the flip-side, we have just conceded the one goal and a penalty at that. However, the lack of imagination and ambition at Wednesday was surprising.

Sitting back and trying to earn a point when you are fighting for your life in the Premier League, I completely get.

I will never forget being at the Emirates just over a year ago when we held off Arsenal with 10 men, backs to the proverbial wall, and earned a fantastic point.

It felt like a win and the wild celebrations at full time reflected that. But doing the same at Sheffield Wednesday in the Championship? No thanks.

Especially if we want a cheeky run at the play-offs, which Christophe Berra suggested was still possible this week.

Thirteen points is the current gap, with 18 games to go, whereas we're seven above the drop zone.

Personally I can't see it happening - the only way it would is with new signings to get us going and that looks unlikely with just a few days of the window remaining.

It appears Saunders has been told to sell before he can buy - an interesting insight into Steve Morgan's short-term ambitions with so much money in the bank, even if the squad is bloated.

We have not been linked with too many players although the two headline rumours - Stephen Warnock and Simeon Jackson - would be excellent additions.

But the only way we will salvage something from this dreadful season is if a striker propels us into the top half and within sight of the top six.

The current crop look unlikely to do that, but Jackson has the Championship pedigree to make a big impact.

He's been unlucky not to feature regularly for Norwich, who prefer playing a lone striker and a big, bulky one at that.

If we could snare him from the Premier League, he could hopefully do something similar to Sylvan Ebanks-Blake in 2007-08, when he notched 12 in 20 matches to help us rise from 12th to seventh.

But, if signings aren't forthcoming, then Saunders must play to our strengths, which isn't our defensive backbone.

The lack of creativity in our team this season has been startling at times but there were three players on the bench at Hillsborough who would change that.

Namely Jamie O'Hara, Slawomir Peszko and Bjorn Sigurdarson. O'Hara, in particular, has to play - in fact he'd be the first name on my teamsheet.

Saunders took a risk when he bruised O'Hara's ego the other week, suggesting that Karl Henry and David Davis were likely to work harder and play more of a team role.

Despite what some would have you believe, i.e. the morons who pilloried him after the Blackburn game last year, O'Hara is actually a very willing worker.

And he's the only central midfielder we possess who can spot a run, pick a clever pass and see the game in anything but straight lines.

For those reasons, he's far too valuable to ignore and we're hardly in the position of being choosy and leaving our best players out.

Peszko and Bakary Sako on the wings, Henry and O'Hara in the middle and Sigurdarson and Ebanks-Blake up front - that looks decent to me.

So as much as a couple of dull draws is appreciated after a traumatic losing run, we need to start releasing the shackles.

That's the only way these players will finally get their confidence back and the only way the fans will finally have something to cheer about.