By Tom Bason
December 26 2013

A first win since November sent Wolves back into the promotion spots after a 2-0 victory over Crewe Alexandra. Michael Jacobs' first goal for the club set Wolves on their way, and leading scorer Leigh Griffiths wrapped things up in stoppage time.

- This was of the strangest starting line-ups of the Kenny Jackett era so far. With Björn Sigurðarson seemingly ostracised from the first team squad, it was left to Jake Cassidy to lead the line up front. Presumably Leigh Griffiths and Kevin Doyle were rested for Sunday's top of the table clash with Leyton Orient, but it was still a big ask for a player without a goal in his 21 prior Wolves appearances to play upfront on his own. Saying that, Cassidy's best game for Wolves came as a late substitute in the victory at Shrewsbury, where he came on and was excellent in holding the ball up and drawing the sting from the game. I wondered pre game whether that would be the role he played, as the player whose role is to hold the ball up, and provide the ammunition for James Henry, Michael Jacobs, Dave Edwards and Kevin McDonald in a Stéphane Guivarc’h or Serginho type role. 

- The centre of midfield has been our Achilles heel, and so against a team like Crewe who are reputed to keep the ball well, it wasn't really a surprise that Jackett went for the extra body in there. Jacobs and Henry played on the flanks, although neither really stayed there much. In the centre, Price sat the deeper, with McDonald slightly further forward and Edwards the player with the license to get around Cassidy. With Henry and Jacobs' tendency to drift inside, there was a reasonable amount of room in theory for Scott Golbourne and Sam Ricketts to attack. The problem was that Ricketts was aware of his defensive responsibilities and was reluctant to leave Richard Stearman and Danny Batth 2v2 with Crewe's strikers. I think that Price could easily have dropped 10 yards deeper when we had possession, which may have given Ricketts that additional platform from which to attack (to see a good example of this, watch Gareth Barry playing this role for Everton, and how it allows Seamus Coleman and Bryan Oviedo/Leighton Baines to push forward. 

- The opening goal was a perfect example of how the relationship between the fullbacks and wide men can be utilised. Cassidy received the ball about 30 yards out, and with James Henry tucked in on the left side, there was space for Scott Golbourne to bomb in to. Cassidy's pass was exquisite, and Golbourne was able to take the ball in his stride and clip the ball to the far post. Here, it was met by the winger on the other flank, Michael Jacobs who was able to power a header home. It was a really good move, and I can’t think of many better goals that we have scored this season. Later on in the first half, Golbourne was almost slipped through on goal in very similar fashion, but unfortunately slipped and couldn’t get the ball under control properly. 

- I think that Wolves probably edged the first half, with Edwards, Price and McDonald at times giving us control of the midfield, and Crewe relying on getting the ball forward quickly to their strikers on the counter attack. I guess the one problem with this formation is that it had our two most creative midfielders the deepest, with a very workmanlike front two in Edwards and Cassidy. The Welsh duo will run around a lot, and use their energy to create problems but aren’t really likely to create anything. When I’ve suggested this formation in the past, I’ve advocated giving James Henry that second striker role. And so, at times Price and McDonald kept possession nicely, but there was very little incision. With Henry and Jacobs tucked in, the main outlets were Golbourne and Ricketts. I’d have liked to see McDonald especially get further forward and use his passing range in a more offensive area of the pitch.

- Upfront, Cassidy continued his run without a goal for the club (I reckon it’s up to 22 now, nine of which were starts. Tomasz Frankowski played 18 games without finding the goal), and apart from playing a large role in the opener, did little to suggest he will score anytime soon. I’m not saying he had a bad game, there were one or two nice touches, and he generally brought the midfield into play quite well. But he also appeared to pull out of a couple of tackles, and always looked slightly behind the attacking play. He was joined in the second half by Leigh Griffiths, who replaced Edwards. Griffiths almost scored soon after coming on, meeting a deep Henry cross at the far post with a header that somehow Ben Garrett in the Crewe goal deflected onto the bar. In truth, Griffiths should have scored, but he made up for it late on, drilling home from just inside the penalty area. Before then, we had not taken a few opportunities to create a chance on the counter attack, with both Griffiths and Cassidy blasting high and wide from distance when teammates were well placed.

- Generally, I think that in the Christmas matches the points are more important than performances. Playing four games in nine days means that line-ups will be disjointed and very few teams will have the sort of fluidity we might expect. The match on Sunday is obviously massive, and we need to improve on our record against the better teams in this division (Swindon Town in seventh are the highest ranked team we’ve beaten this season, and are the only team in the top-8 from whom we have managed to take three points). I’m not going to say that it’s a must-win, especially as the two games that follow it are teams who we have already comprehensively beaten this season, but three points would be lovely.

Wolves 2-0 Crewe Alexandra

Discussion started by Wolves , 26/12/2013 18:23

Wolves
26/12/2013 18:23

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013:12:29:18:58:05 by toomb.

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jamwolf
26/12/2013 19:19

Good report, thanks Tom.

Back from Oz for my first visit to the Mol for a few years v Orient on Sunday.

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toomb
26/12/2013 20:31

Fingers crossed it'll be a good game for you!



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