Wolves blog: Progressing out of pre-season

Wolves signed off their friendly schedule with a 4-3 win over Doncaster on the weekend, leaving them unbeaten over the month with four wins and two draws from six games...writes Wolves blogger Tom Tracey

Obviously, friendlies have no comparisons in terms of competitiveness, but surely it is a good thing to come into the season on a good streak of results that raise confidence levels both among players and supporters.

Twelve goals from six games suggest that Wolves are currently finding the net regularly which will be very welcome for fans used to seeing them score fewer goals than rivals in similar league positions from last season.

Eight goals conceded also shows that perhaps Kenny's faith in the strength of the defence is not wholly justified, although he has been using a mixture of young players and 45-minute sides.

Wolves echo last season's pre-season results, having recorded five wins and two draws before a seventh place finish in May.

This run of results saw them canter into the first section of the season, losing only once in the first two months.

They must be taken with a pinch of salt though – Leon Clarke bagged six goals in seven games but was unable to carry on the form into the league campaign.

Prior to the League One campaign, Wolves took four wins, a draw and a solitary loss to Real Betis from their pre-season before losing only three times until after the New Year.

Despite losing three friendlies out of eight in the return to the top flight in 2009, Wolves managed to achieve a Premier League-era best of 15th place – they lost five of their first eight league games, albeit against stronger opposition than they took on throughout the summer.

Hopefully, Wolves can continue their string of results so far into a league campaign that offers an opening run that is equally as difficult as it was last season – Kenny commanded the team through it extremely well last year, beating all three relegated Premier League sides.

Following the loss of Sako, a different approach must be taken by Jackett as he no longer has Sako's goals and assists that made up such a high proportion of Wolves' attacking game.

The pre-season games were the first opportunity for the supporting public to see how Jackett intends to progress his side with many observing the lack of width and support for the forward players from these six matches.

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Whether his tactics are favoured by supporters or not, these games are a good opportunity for Jackett to tune the style of play to his liking and in a business defined by results, he has been successful thus far this summer.

His Wolves team still appear to favour passing it out from the back rather than hoofing it up field and so still retain some of the qualities of a Kenny Jackett side.

Kenny has also used more young players this summer than in recent years – and not necessarily the obvious choices.

The names that have shone during this summer have not been Jordan Graham, Connor Hunte, Eusebio Bancessi that many would have expected and hoped to see, but Bright Enobakhare and Connor Ronan especially.

Many are keen to see Enobakhare given a chance in at least a bit part role as he has propelled himself into first team squad contention with a successful pre-season including some eye catching goals.

If Wolves, having repeated a similar set of results to last pre-season, can continue into the opening games as they did a year ago, it will be a welcome boost after a summer of unrest amongst supporters.

They must use the positives gained over recent weeks and override the negatives, starting with a positive result at Ewood Park.