It all started so well...

By Tom Bason
January 26 2013

Wolves went down 2-1 to Blackpool as Dean Saunders’ unconvincing start as Wolves manager continued. Sylvan Ebanks-Blake had provided the Molineux faithful with the lead, before a Tom Ince double gave Blackpool the three points. To compound Wolves’ misery, Roger Johnson was sent off late on for violent conduct.

-          We made one change from last week’s tepid affair at Sheffield Wednesday, with Jamie O’Hara coming in for David Davis. Well, I say we made one change; we made one intentional change, but Stephen Ward was injured in the warm-up, and Słavomir Peszko was given an unexpected start. Before Ward was injured, I can only assume we were set again to play Kevin Foley as a right sided midfield (I point blank refuse to even consider him as a winger). At least with O’Hara in the side, we wouldn’t have been lumbered with three defensive midfielders, but with Peszko having impressed with his two recent substitute appearances, Foley must surely have been struggling to justify his continued selection. I actually wondered whether he’d have played left midfield to try and double up with Ward to shut down Tom Ince.

-          One thing did strike me – this was possibly our strongest bench of the season. We had Björn Sigurðarson, Tongo Doumbia, Jake Cassidy and Stephen Hunt (who I’d pretty much forgotten was still a Wolves player) on the bench, all of whom, in theory, could come off the bench and actually affect the match. For so often under the stewardship of Ståle Solbakken, he had no real options on the bench, no players who could be introduced and be realistically expected to perform better than the player they were replaced.

-          The first half was undoubtedly better than last week’s abysmal performance in Sheffield; I’d even go as so far to say that we edged the opening 45 minutes. It was still quite direct, but there was a little bit of midfield passing. Most notably, it was Jamie O’Hara who tried to get on the ball, but even his first thought appeared to be to get the ball forward into the strikers as quickly as possible. It was the same with Bakary Sako – last week frustrated me in that Sako was hitting the ball long to the forwards, when he’s clearly got more talent than needing to do that. He did it a little bit today, but they were more long passes than hoofs; one in particular found Kevin Doyle running down the right channel, and eventually his left footed effort was blocked. We took the lead when Ronald Zubar overlapped Peszko, and his cross was converted by Sylvan Ebanks-Blake. Infuriatingly, we got in to a number of promising positions down the flanks, with men in the penalty area but the crosses were poor. Peszko had one excellent chance to float a ball into the area where the forwards outnumbered the defenders, but didn’t look up and put his cross beyond our players.

-          Blackpool equalised at the very end of the first half with a farcical goal - Roger Johnson was followed a ball back towards the goal, gesturing for Carl Ikeme to come and collect. Ikeme stayed on his line, and Tom Ince nipped in to poke the ball past the exposed goalkeeper. It was a shocking goal to concede, especially on the stroke of half time when we’d probably edged the first half. I’m not sure who’s to blame; both players need to consider the role they played in it. But, I have been critical of Ikeme being slow of his line before, and there was a similar(ish) incident earlier in the game where he and Zubar were both insistent the other dealt with the ball. But, Johnson was the player in possession of the ball, and once he realised Ikeme was in two minds about what to do, should have just put the ball out for a corner. In all, an extremely sloppy goal that can only have come about through a lack of communication and leadership at the back.

-          But, that wasn’t the most important incident of the match. I mentioned earlier that I thought maybe Foley would play on the left to double up on Ince, but as it turned out, Foley played at left back directly against Ince. And he did very well. Ince is a player who will generally look to cut inside on his favoured left foot and head directly for goal. And, when he’s against a left footed left back, he’s forcing that fullback to make the challenge with his weaker right foot. But, with Foley being naturally right footed, it meant he was being taken on the side he’d want; he was defending with his right foot rather than his left. Only once, very early on in the game, did Ince attack Foley down the outside, and he went past him far too easily. But every time Ince tried to cut inside, Foley was reasonably comfortable. I’d even say that the first hour or so was Foley’s best performance of the season (not that I’d want him there permanently. He’d struggle against a right footed winger on that flank). And, on the other side, Ronald Zubar was excellent. Aside from his assist, he barely gave Matt Phillips (who was eventually substituted) a kick.

(this continues on a second page: Page Two

Wolves 1-2 Blackpool

Discussion started by Wolves , 26/01/2013 19:03

Wolves
26/01/2013 19:03

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013:02:09:19:34:44 by toomb.

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toomb
26/01/2013 19:06

Apologies, quite a lot to say this week, so it goes onto a second page



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