Wardinhooooooooo

By Tom Bason
November 7 2011

Wolves finally won its first match for 77 days, as Wigan Athletic was dispatched 3-1. After Jamie O’Hara had put Wolves into a 31st minute lead, Ben Watson put in the rebound from his own penalty to send the sides in level at the break. But it was Wolves who forced the issue in the second half, with goals from David Edwards and Stephen Ward ensuring all three points stayed at Molineux.

• The starting-11 was the same as the one that had fought hard against Manchester City in the League. Anyone who reads these will know that I have never rated Adlène, and so the only real change I’d have liked was the return of Nenad Milijaš into the centre of midfield, partnering Karl Henry.

• Talking of Guedioura, I can’t remember the last time I saw a worse performance by a player in a Wolves shirt. The preliminary data (and this is likely to change) suggests he misplaced 40% of his passes, and many of these were simple passes that had no excuse for going astray. He was so woeful that he was moved to the right hand side of the pitch where he could cause less damage, with Edwards taking a more central role.

• However, the half time change saw Matt Jarvis come on, and Edwards continue playing in middle of the park. He looked far more effective here than he did on the flank, contributing greatly with the goal that put Wolves into the lead. I’m still not 100% he has the defensive discipline to play in the centre of the park, although this is something that is improving. However, I see his most likely long term role in the team being the attacking midfield position that Jamie O’Hara currently holds.

• With Edwards switching into the centre of the park, we effectively played four different wide midfielders – Edwards, Guedioura, Jarvis and Stephen Hunt. While Hunt was busy, arguably our most impressive wide player was Kevin Doyle. In the first half, he easily skipped past Antolin Alcaraz before putting his cross narrowly ahead of Edwards, before good work in the right hand channel allowed him to square for O’Hara to open the scoring. In the second half, it was another move, this time down the left hand channel that led to the second goal. Given his lack of goals as a centre forward, could a shift to the flank be a satisfactory move.

• Saying that, Doyle’s record this season at Molineux is two goals and two assists from six home games, not the worst record for a team who have generally struggled this season.

• Despite the win, it shouldn’t be forgotten that there could easily have been more goals in the game, especially for Wigan. Hugo Rodellega’s miss almost has to be seen to be believed, while Mohamed Diame missed a golden chance to reduce the arrears late on. Still, had a penalty been given to Wolves early on, assuming it hadn’t been given to Doyle, the match could easily have been different.

• The aforementioned miss by Rodellega was noticeable as it came just after the Columbian forward had switched to play through the middle of the park. For the majority of the match (before Wigan started playing 4-4-2 when chasing the game), Rodellega played wide left, with the impressive Franco Di Santo as the centre forward and man of the match Victor Moses on the right. However, just a couple of minutes before the miss, Rodellega and Di Santo had swapped positions, presumably to take advantage of our slow central defence on the counter attack. However, it didn’t take long after the miss for Roberto Martinez to move them back to their initial positions.

• I didn’t think Lee Probert had too bad a match. He played the advantage well a couple of times and could probably have given out more cards than he did. The one decision he did have to make though, he got wrong. Next time a forward is castigated for diving, remember the penalty we didn’t get early on as Hunt decided to stay on his feet after being caught by goalkeeper Ali Al Habsi.

• Given our run of matches now (trips to Goodison Park, Stamford Bridge and Old Trafford are in our next five games), today’s result was vital. Not only had it propelled us up the table, it was stopped a run of eight without a win.

Wolves Grab Vital Win

Discussion started by Wolves , 07/11/2011 08:28

Wolves
07/11/2011 08:28

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wolverina
07/11/2011 08:51

Good accurate report. Couldn't register my joy at being able to smile for the 125 mile home trip, for once!, because I couldn't get on the forum for some reason.

I agree about Adlene - he's still too slow and needs to work on that. Couldn't argue with the substitution this time. Thought Edwards had a good game, O'Hara was definitely better and some credit should go to Henry for his contributions.

On the whole, a relieving performance - let's hope this is the turning point, though with yet another ridiculous international break, who knows?

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Bradmore Wolf
07/11/2011 09:19

Yes its a shame we are not playing again next week.

Its a relief.

I think yesterdays performance from Adlene will show that Henry is still a better bet in the middle. Adlene gives too much ball away.

Was this site down yesterday there was not a single post.

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toomb
07/11/2011 09:25

Quote:

Bradmore Wolf
Yes its a shame we are not playing again next week.
Its a relief.

I think yesterdays performance from Adlene will show that Henry is still a better bet in the middle. Adlene gives too much ball away.

Was this site down yesterday there was not a single post.

Yeah it was down. Even the admin site was down so I couldn't upload the story



toomb's twitter

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2longinthetoothWolf
07/11/2011 10:17

KH had a decent game just when we needed him to. There were the odd moments where the ball was given away cheaply by him, but once again, young Jamie was more guilty of this trait.

All-in, a solid performance, where perserverance paid off - that despite yet another keeper being in inspired form against us.

A final word on the contributions of Henno and Doyler. Thought both played their parts well in a spirited two-fingered salute to those that have boo-ed the lads in the past few weeks. Hennessey has had a few critics recently, as has Doyle for his so-called lack of contribution. Both earned their selections yesterday.

Good 3 points against a poor side. I'd take that any day. Well done lads / Mick / fans.

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Southcoast Wolf
07/11/2011 11:07

Fantastic performance and a well deserved victory for the lads quite a relief to finally get a result for a moment yesterday i thought here we go again after a lively start Wigan began to get into it and should have scored really but didnt take their chance and we scored almost straight after and then they were never really in it. UP THE WOLVES!!!!!!!!

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Stourport Wolf
07/11/2011 12:19

The points are welcome but lets not get too carried away with the result as it could have been very different.

I thought Doyle was poor again TBH. If we need to play 4-5-1 it would be nice if he could adopt a more central position. Nice assist for the first goal though.

Toomb has a point .... maybe play him Doyle as a winger in a 4-5-1 as he seems to be drifting out wide on a regular basis and doing OK. It really is no great suprise that his goal haul is on the light side from the positions he takes up. Last 2 home league games he has set up O'Hara from a wide position.

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toomb
07/11/2011 14:30

Quote:

Stourport Wolf
The points are welcome but lets not get too carried away with the result as it could have been very different.
I thought Doyle was poor again TBH. If we need to play 4-5-1 it would be nice if he could adopt a more central position. Nice assist for the first goal though.

Toomb has a point .... maybe play him Doyle as a winger in a 4-5-1 as he seems to be drifting out wide on a regular basis and doing OK. It really is no great suprise that his goal haul is on the light side from the positions he takes up. Last 2 home league games he has set up O'Hara from a wide position.

I can't for the life of me remember which manager made this point (I think it was either SAF about Rooney), but they said that strikers are better off starting out wide and moving inside. The theory was that strikers naturally move away from their markers, and Rooney was moving wide, away from the goal.

Maybe starting Doyle out wide will give him the license to head towards the box



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silver wolf
07/11/2011 15:30

our 3 wins have come against teams who are below us in the table,we have to win our mini league if we are going to stay up,I know some will get carried away with this win but the lads produced the goods so full credit to MM and the team.

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ernesto hunt
07/11/2011 15:37

Still a worrying performance. For me there seems to be a statuesque appearance from our support players not on the ball. How many times did they not move into space which enabled the opposition to easily pressure our man with the ball. This has been happening from the beginning of the season and comes from last season. They are not training sufficiently in triangles.

We have good runners but again fail to appreciated how dangerous a cut back ball from the goal line can be - we did it once with Henry (!!!) and scored!

Doyle is our best 'footballer' and to waste his talent and time waiting for chances that never really come is disgraceful. He has the best footwork, the best short passing, the best balance and tight mobility, he receives a ball well. We should play to his strengths and hope others just have the wit to understand him! Does that mean out wide - perhaps, but not necessarily. I think we need to create the carnage and let him come late controlling the pieces - bit like Alan Clarke. We had his brother here and aren't they similar? We played him to far up when he would have done the top of mid-field job superbly - that's a while ago though.

On playing strategies we seem to be getting fixated on the short hand code instead of studying the objective of each. The best move we made was Henry pushing up really high, at last having the balls to try something, breaking through to the line and cutting it back - with a goal at the end. He should not have done that! His job is to break up their attacks. How dare he think out side the box.

Still think it will be 43 from 38.

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Stourport Wolf
07/11/2011 15:59

Ernesto I dont think Doyler will ever be like Sniffer Clarke? He's never gonna be a fox in the box.

For the record of most of the younger board readers, Allan "Sniffer" Clarke came from Willenhall and is an older brother of Wayne Clarke and was once England's most expensive footballer at an eye watering £165,000 when he signed by Don Revie for his great but very dirty Leeds team of the late 60's early 70's.

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an angry wolf
07/11/2011 20:09

Quote:

Southcoast Wolf
Fantastic performance and a well deserved victory for the lads quite a relief to finally get a result for a moment yesterday i thought here we go again after a lively start Wigan began to get into it and should have scored really but didnt take their chance and we scored almost straight after and then they were never really in it. UP THE WOLVES!!!!!!!!

I dont know how you can call it " fantastic " .. first half wigan had the clearer cut chances and their miss and our well taken goal seconds after finished off wigans spirit as before they had been carving us open at will.
If wigan can stroll through our defense like that , the omens look pretty bleak TBH.Against any other prem team we would have lost that match and if you think that "fantastic " performance will be enough to beat other sides you`re sadly deluded.

Nothing wrong with team spirit etc but the defense is a fckin shambles and looks even worse than last season.

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ernesto hunt
08/11/2011 01:39

Think you are right in your observations, Angry. But I think we are still playing without any real confidence - especially that first period. On the 20 min marker Henry had the ball and just could not find a Wolves player to pass to - and no one had the gumption to move for him to see a pass.

This management had better identify a couple of defenders that we CAN buy ready for Jan.

Stourey, Clarke was able to play that way because of Jones and the rest pushing in the balls. But all of his attributes are similar to Doyles. We are a long way from creating the chances they did - or even getting the calibre of players they had. but Doyle is our prized possession so we must use him where he does the most damage to their defence - I think feeding our other players.

Adlene was rubbish - he needs a lot work . . . 2/3 matches just wont do. Jarvis, though seems to have taken the hint.

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Stourport Wolf
08/11/2011 10:10

Quote:

ernesto hunt
On the 20 min marker Henry had the ball and just could not find a Wolves player to pass to - and no one had the gumption to move for him to see a pass.

I noticed that too Ernesto, basically Henry spun around looking for options and nobody was helping him out but the way I see it is that other players were effectively "hiding" on the pitch by not making themselves available to receive the ball.

This has been going on now for a few games at Molineux and Mick needs to deal with it. Obviously it was completely different once we got our noses in front, as it was in the late fightbacks against Swansea and Newcastle.

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