By Tom Bason
December 29 2012

Wolves lost for the second straigh home game, with a 2-0 defeat to Mick McCarthy's Ipswich. Aaron Cresswell gave Ipswich a halftime lead, before DJ Campbell wrapped up the points on the hour mark.

- Wolves made two changes to the team beaten by Peterborough on Boxing Day, with David Davis and Björn Sigurðarson in for Tongo Doumbia and Jermaine Pennant. Sometimes a strong settled XI can be an advantage for a team, but it is surely puzzling everyone that Ståle Solbakken seems to think that majority of the starting line-up is fine to play week in week out, especially the defence which is unchanged since the defeat to Millwall. 

- Wolves were again playing a 4-2-4 formation. And it was 4-2-4 rather than 4-4-2. It was so frustrating at times when the defence had the ball and Bakary Sako and Sigurðarson were pushed right up against their fullbacks. The problem with this is that it only gives them two ways of receiving the ball - either the ball played over the top for them to spin on to, or a pass into their feet. The problem with the first option is that it needs players with the ability to make the pass, which we don't have. A few times in the first half, that pass was on but the ball was overhit and skidded through to the keeper on the wet surface. The second option, the pass into feet, is that it means Sako and Sigurðarson are then receiving the ball facing away from goal with a fullback up their backside. Surely, when you've got two wingers with that sort of pace, you want them to get the ball facing the goal and with space to run into. Our own tactics were far effective at negating their threat than anything Ipswich did. 

- The second problem with the 4-2-4 was the massive gap between Karl Henry and David Davis in midfield and Kevin Doyle and Sylvan Ebanks-Blake upfront. With the two wingers so far forward, Henry and Davis had no simple forward pass. Instead, they were either trying elaborate balls into the feet of the forwards or playing the simple ball back to the defenders. We didn't have a single attacking player who was playing on the half turn, in a position to receive the ball and turn towards the opposition goal. Everyone was playing with their back to goal, meaning they have fixed positions. If a forward has his back to the defender, the defender knows where he is at all times. And with Henry and Davis both being defensively minded midfielders, neither particularly made the runs forward necessary to cause Ipswich's defence any problems at all.

- One of the possible advantages of 4-2-4 is that it pushes the opposition defence right back. After all, if you're an Ipswich fullback, are you really going to push forward away from home in the knowledge that Sako and Sigurðarson are looking for any opportunity to get in behind you? And this perhaps worked to a degree, but didn't prevent the most important moment of the game, Ipswich's opening goal being scored by their left back Aaron Cresswell. 

- There were no changes at halftime; instead Ståle made all three changes in the 63rd minute, right after DJ Campbell doubled Ipswich's lead. It was perhaps a slightly fortunate goal, in that Christophe Berra stepped forward to clear a defensive header, only for the ball to be returned right back where he should have been and Campbell went through to score. 

- Anyway, the substitutions. In the past when we've been chasing a game, Ståle has favoured a move to three at the back, although I don't think this has yet actually resulted in any goals. Instead, the system stayed basically the same, although Tongo Doumbia and Jamie O'Hara are both naturally more offensive players than Henry and Davis. The change that seemed to ire the fans was the substitution of Kevin Doyle for Jermaine Pennant. Now, it's well known I've always been a big Doyle fan, but I had no qualms with his being taken off today. As usual, he and Ebanks-Blake weren't linking particularly well, but either could easily have been removed. Maybe it was because he was taken off for Pennant that there were boos - he's not exactly set the world alight since joining although I still think he at times looks one of our classier players.

- Perhaps the most disappointing thing was the complete lack of fight shown from the team when 2-0 down, especially at home. Generally, I'd hope that players would strain every sinew to get back into the match, but for the last 20 minutes it reminded me of a late season Serie A game where both teams are happy with a draw. In fact, if either team was going to score, it was Ipswich. This perhaps isn't really surprising when you look at the attacking options they had on their bench. Substitute Michael Chopra should have done better with one chance, and had it been Ipswich chasing the match, they also had the likes of Jay Emmanuel-Thomas and Jason Scotland to throw on. This is a key moment in our season now - I'm not advocating Ståle leaving the club, but the paucity of options throughout the squad makes it clear that reinforcements need to be brought in.