By Tom Bason
September 4 2013

Wolves progressed the second round the Johnstone's Paint Trophy with a victory on penalties over local rivals Walsall. Twice Wolves took the lead, through Liam McAlinden and Bakary Sako respectively, but on both occasions Walsall were allowed back into the game. Aaron McCarey was the hero in the shootout, saving Walsall's first two efforts before David Davis stepped up to dispatch the winning penalty. 

- A mixture of the peculiar rules of the Johnstone's Paint Trophy, which force a team to select six of the eleven most used players, and the fact that it is an international break, limited the team that Kenny Jackett was able to select. Personally, I want us to win this trophy; does any Wolves fan aged under 30 have a better chance of seeing us play at Wembley? We were still able to blood a number of youngsters with Aaron McCarey, Jack Price and Liam McAlinden all selected, while new signings Scott Golbourne and Kevin McDonald were able to make their first starts at Molineux. 

- We played a 4-3-3 style formation, with Bakary Sako and Bjorn Sigurðarson playing as wide men, and youngster McAlinden through the middle on his own. I thought this was a sensible choice, given the relative inexperience of the squad. It also allowed all of our midfield to be playing in their natural positions; I had been worried pre-game that one of Price or McDonald would be shunted out to the flank. The three midfielders didn't really seem to have set roles, all playing as standard midfielders, as oppose to one of them being told to either sit deep, or play further forward. Davis was the more defensive minded player of the trio, although it's not really clear whether this was tactical instruction or his natural game. 

- The best moment of the match was probably the opening goal. McDonald played a (perhaps slightly overhit) through ball for McAlinden to chase down the left hand channel. McAlinden then did well to keep hold of the ball under pressure from Walsall defenders, and play the ball back to McAlinden. The ball was then worked across the pitch to Jack Price, who played a delightful slips pass inside the Walsall fullback for Doherty to run onto, squaring for McAlinden, who had made his way into the penalty area, to knock in. Doherty's attacking intent was evident through the match, and while that was the first time of the evening he got to the byline and was able to pick out a striker, it wasn't the last. He'll never be Cafu, but he appears to be working on his composure when getting the ball in advanced positions. That he should have done better for Walsall's second equaliser, we'll ignore for now, seeing as he got an assist and sank his penalty. 

- While we were on top for the first 20 minutes, it would be difficult to argue that Walsall weren't at least the equal in terms of play for the remainder of the match. Walsall pressured well, forcing our defenders and midfielders to play risky passes across the edge of the area - at one point in the second half, we lost the ball deep in our half, won it back only to promptly lose it again. As Walsall pushed our midfield back, it left McAlinden quite isolated upfront, being forced to scrap for long balls into him rather than the intelligent and probing type of pass that led to his opener. Given that we were on the back foot, Sigurðarson and Sako generally stayed on the flank, meaning that McAlinden didn't really have anyone to help him. It would be difficult enough to be playing this position, never mind if you're a kid making your full professional debut. 

- In the second half, we moved to a loose 4-4-2 formation, with Sako playing more on the right hand side and Price nominally on the left. Given that Doherty was getting forward well, this meant that many of our attacks in the second half came down this flank, especially as it seems to be Sigurðarson’s natural inclination to drift out to the right as well. This marginalised Price slightly on the left flank, especially as it’s not his given position. Towards the end, Anthony Forde was introduced for McAlinden, and we moved back to a 4-5-1 formation to try and preserve the lead. Forde played on the left hand side, and in winning the ball once, and going on a mazy run down the left, showed more aptitude than I’ve ever seen from him before. It’s ridiculous to think that it’s over two years since he made his Wolves debut, and shown very little since. Maybe Mick McCarthy is to blame; after all, he made his league debut at Stamford Bridge, starting his second game a month later at Arsenal. In fact, his three first league appearances for Wolves were spread over a 6 week period, against Chelsea, Arsenal and then Chelsea again. After that baptism of fire, surely he was then picked in easier games? Nope, McCarthy never picked him again.

- I thought I’d write a little bit on each of the new players, as many of you won’t really have seen them yet. Kevin McDonald has impressed in his short Wolves career so far. When he arrived, I expected him to be more of an attacking midfielder, someone who could play in the hole behind a forward. From what (admittedly little) I’ve seen, I’m not sure this is his position. I think he would be far more suited to a Frank Lampard style role, where he breaks from deep, rather than being further forward to being with. McDonald is strong, and very difficult to knock off the ball. I like that he’s prepared to receive the ball in difficult situations, although at times I felt that he held onto the ball for slightly too long. Overall though, I think he will be a very good player in this division, and definitely has the ability to step up to a higher level.

- I wasn’t overly impressed with Scott Golbourne on Saturday, with him looking like a left back playing in midfield rather than a left-sided midfielder. Last night, he played as a left back and looked far more comfortable there. Considering he was playing for Barnsley as a wing back, I expected him to be more adventurous going forward. He seems to have decent pace, but hasn’t really used it yet. There was one good cross that he put in during the first half that gave me hope that he can offer something going forward, but at times the difference in intent between him and Doherty was stark.

 - I like the look of Jack Price. He’s quite small, and from a distance reminds me a little of Adam Johnson. When he played short passes, he looked very good, particularly the through ball to Doherty for the opening goal. I can well imagine him and Lee Evans passing U21 teams to death with their one-twos. I liked that he was always looking for the ball, aware of the space around him and offering an angle to receive the pass on the half turn. The negatives – firstly, he was not involved enough. Even though he was looking to receive the ball, he was quite often bypassed with players seemingly preferring to play the pass to McDonald instead. Maybe this is just a question of seniority, and as Price plays more games, he will become more dominant. I also felt that when Price tried to play more expansively, his long passing let him down. He doesn’t yet have the range of long distance passing that Evans does. But, on the whole, I think he has potential.

- Upfront, Liam McAlinden was a player that I think many fans wanted to see. He was fresh from scoring a hat trick against Fulham U21s last week, so should have gone into the game full of confidence. Unfortunately, he wasn’t really involved as much as he would have liked, with Sako and Sigurðarson both staying quite wide and none of the midfield really getting forward quickly to support him. He was involved in the build-up to his own goal, holding the ball up well then showing good hunger to get in the box and finish the move. I went to the game last night hoping that McAlinden would be pushing ahead of Jake Cassidy to become the fourth choice striker, but I’m not totally sold on this.

- In goal, Aaron McCarey was making his debut, and he will surely be looking to push himself into Kenny Jackett’s thoughts, perhaps to the extent that either Carl Ikeme or Wayne Hennessey could be sold. McCarey was confident on ball, at one point dribbling past a Walsall forward, before clipping a (slightly overhit) pass out to Doherty on the flank. He wasn’t really asked to do much, apart from pick the ball out of the net twice, neither of which it looked like he could do much about. He seemed confident when facing the Walsall penalty takers, standing on the edge of the 6-yard box to greet the arrival of each taker, presumably to make him appear bigger. He made two fine penalty saves, and generally looked good.

Wolves 2-2 Walsall - Wolves progress on penalties

Discussion started by Wolves , 04/09/2013 12:37

Wolves
04/09/2013 12:37

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013:09:13:22:42:40 by toomb.

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toomb
04/09/2013 12:38

Apologies for the delay



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