Tag Archives: Matt Jarvis

Frimwrong?

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Before we start, I would like to point out that I love watching Frimpong play.

You can see he has the potential to be a fantastic defensive midfielder, but what is really exciting about him is his rawness. He always looks slightly on the edge, just on the verge of losing control of the ball, and himself. A battler, something that will benefit Arsenal no-end, and in a couple of years will be aiming to cement a first place in that team.

But is he the type of player that we need? I mean, REALLY need?

Sure, it’s great that we’re adding more defensive elements to our team, and Frimpong will be the type of player that will suit Wolves down to a tee. A physical battler who ‘puts in a shift’ is something that will warm up Mick’s McCarthys no end.

But how will this bolster what will essentially keep us up, scoring goals?

We have Fletcher at the moment, and we have Jarvis who is able to create chances. And that is pretty much it. It doesn’t bare thinking about if they both hit a bad run of form, or worse, were injured.

Our issue going forward is stemmed around the playing styles of Henry and O’Hara. I’m not doubting the quality of either, but both like to pick the ball up from deep.

There isn’t an issue with this, some of the world’s best central midfielders do it. But we’ve seen countless times before or times where Henry or O’Hara have collected the ball, turned and there not being anybody 20 yards in front of them. As a result they have to resort to either playing it back, or playing the longer ball, whether this is to our striker or over the head of their right back for Jarvis to run onto (which never bloody works)

This used to be effective sometimes when Doyle was on top of his game, but with him struggling, it’s meant that our main goal threat, Fletcher, having to come deep to try to knock on balls when he should be the one chasing them.

And if it’s not Fletcher coming deep, its Jarvis or the other wide player coming out of position to look for the shorter ball in the middle of the park, bringing them out of the area where they are most effective.

We need someone to play in that hole. Somebody who can link the play up, bring Fletcher and Jarvis into the game easier as well as being a goal threat themselves. We saw O’Hara do it briefly, but his natural style meant that he ended up dropping deeper and deeper anyway.

So who would be that ideal player?

Long-term, I’m not sure. David Edwards did it effectively against Man City last year, especially his runs into their area. But he doesn’t have the the creative quality or pace to carry this on.

Is there then an argument to go for another loan signing to look at this in the short-term? If we are looking at players like Frimpong who are largely unproven in the Premier League, players who are young but not yet given an opportunity in the first team, then what’s stopping us looking at somebody else?

For me, all this points towards somebody like Josh McEachran.

A creative midfielder who also has the ability to play out wide, he has huge amounts of potential. But when he’s competing against the likes of Mata, Sturridge, Lampard, Meireles, will he be given the opportunity of first-team football in the near future?

He is somebody that Chelsea do see as part of their future, he signed a 5 year deal this summer, and there has been talk of him going on loan to other teams.

And his style of play would easily suit us in both a 4-5-1 and a 4-4-2 formation. Granted, it would mean dropping Henry or O’Hara, but Mick has already dropped Johnson, Doyle and Jarvis this season, so this isn’t something he’s afraid to do.

As I said earlier, I am excited to see Frimpong in a Wolves shirt. But if we are to push on and reach our target of being comfortably safe before the end of the season, we need to start looking at pushing forward in a more positive manner.

Wolves v Stoke preview

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So, surprisingly, I’m not that hungover today. Considering it was a leaving do filled with tequilla, sambuca and Jager, I think I’ve done pretty well.

The part that isn’t so cracking is that I’ve been awake since 7 this morning…I didn’t have to wake up early, I didn’t have to carry out any important tasks…no…I just woke up dead early and couldn’t get back to sleep.

So what did I do? The obvious of course. Watched a film starring Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson who decide to rob a train which is referred to as ‘The Money Train’…yeah I’m not joking. And Jennifer Lopez was in it. Wearing lip liner. I’m not sure why I watched it all.

It did however give me a chance to think about the game today (that and women…and how I’m going to design the emails I need to do this week…yes, my brain is a riveting place)

So, how should we play against the 11 men who come from the place you don’t want to go on a Wednesday rainy night?

Defensively, bring Jarvis and Edwards/Hunt (depending on fitness) back to double up on their wingers. We do this anyway, but we need them playing against each other. We all know about their effectiveness in the air. So forcing them to play it through the middle and relying on somebody like Glenn Whelan to dictate the pace of their play…well…I don’t think I really need to finish that thought.

Going forward, there must be an emphasis of keeping it on the ground. Again, Jarvis and Hunt delivering balls into the area won’t be as effective as it has been in previous games. Shawcross and Woodgate/Huth/Upson will deal with anything like that easily.

But the most important thing, not just for the quality of the match, but my sanity, is for somebody, anybody…

TO RIP OFF THAT FUCKING FAKE TOWEL/UDNERSHIRT FROM UNDER RYAN SHOTTON’S SHIRT.

I mean, come on Stoke. First you brought the long throw thing to the Premiership. You managed to get away with taking at least 17 seconds for every throw Delap took.

But this, this is just silly.

Sometimes I feel sorry for Stoke fans. I’ve seen them on ocassions, for example when they beat us 3-0 at the Britannia last season, and they can be a good football team. They do have some very good players in there.

To see players passing the ball around well, making it difficult for some very good teams to break them down. And then having to rely on tap-ins and long throw-ins to get you into games.

And not just that, actually bending the rules to facilitate this type of play? It’s almost depressing.

So, let’s not play it into their hands (no pun intended) let’s force them to keep it in the middle of the pitch. Let’s not give them the opportunity to fire a cannonball into our area.

…Ok, I must stop here. You have probably noticed that I haven’t gone into anything about our slow centre backs, or that Jarvis should be running behind Fletcher and/or Doyle at the CBs etc etc etc. The reason why is that the sight of Wesley Snipes and Jennifer Lopez samba dancing got me thinking of something else.

Do you think Rory Delap is actually happy with his existence?

Zonal Marking posted about his contribution against us last season, where the number of throws he attempted was much higher than passes. And I wouldn’t be surprised if this was a fairly consistent statistic across all the games he has played recently.

Could Rory Delap be considered as an actual footballer?

Or is he the guy in hockey who comes on just to score penalties? The guy who spends years of his life working hard, training hard to be a hockey player. Only for somebody to go ‘actually, we only need you for about 10 seconds every Saturday’

Or is he the closest thing we have to a footballing Milli Vanilli? Somebody who looks like one thing, but turns out to have been faking it all along, stripping them off any rewards and dignity that they had.

As a player, it must be quite nice for somebody to ask you to put together a training video. I mean, you must be pretty good to be able to do that.

But then you get asked to do a training video for chucking a ball dead far.

To know you’re not very good at your job, but then freakishly effective at something which is seen as negative but other people. I don’t know, thinking about it gives me an empty feeling inside.

Whoever takes the throws against us, whether it’s Shotton with that fucking undershirt, or Delay,when they beat you, it leaves a sour taste in your mouth.

I like my mouth to have the hummus in it. Come 10 to 5, I hope that’s all I taste.

Wolves vs Sunderland review (Thank you Lady Luck, you sexy woman)

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It wasn’t Eva Green or Liv Tyler, but sometimes, all you want and need is Kat Slater.

I’m sure a number of us had the same, worrying feeling in the back of our heads. Even with O’Neil not being in charge of the match, it would give Sunderland that boost that they needed. That they would nick something at the end of the day. That they would see us, down on the floor, give us a helping hand then stab us in the heart with the knife they are holding in their other hand.

Apart from the other obvious reasons, this is why this win meant alot. Aside from the excellent performances from Berra, Edwards, Jarvis and Fletcher, the win meant alot because, for once, lady luck was smiling on us.

It didn’t look that way at first. The penalty decision gave us all horrible flashbacks of that Newcastle game. Our own Vietnam flashback. Then I saw the replay, and it hurt. It really hurt. I saw us staring straight at defeat once again. I thought it was going to be another week of heartbreak. Even a reassuring shoulder pat from my friend couldn’t help.

Then that wonderful minute happened.

It was like the world’s best surprise party where all your favourite people came along with the presents you wanted, and gave you that reassuring hug you’ve wanted for weeks. ’It’ll all be fine Matt, I told you it would be’.

And then, lady luck decided to come round to our house, wearing a secretary’s outfit and gave us a right smooch, right on the lips.

And it all came via Jamie O Hara’s shoulder.

I saw it straight away, I’m pretty sure more of us did. Steven Fletcher certainly did, looking about, almost waiting for the inevitable whistle…that never came.

When I realised the shriek wasn’t coming, I laughed, really loudly. And then started celebrating.

Granted, it meant that we all had to endure 10 minutes of tapping our feet, trying not to bite our nails just so people don’t mention is as ‘nail-biting’ and instead just repeatedly shouting ‘shit…shit…shit…fuck off sunderland…fuck off…thank god;

But at the end of the day, its wins like these that could be a turning point. Wins that puts smiles on our faces, the players’ faces, and Mick’s face.

And at the end of the day, that is the only thing we’ve all been looking for.

Chelsea vs Wolves review (Or something is starting to creep up on me…)

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I missed the first 30 minutes.

By the sounds of things, I’m bloody glad I did.

Now, I didn’t think we’d get a result at Stamford Bridge today, but being totally outplayed with no shape and worst of all, no apparent plan. It all made for depressing catching up.

And as a pro-Mick Wolves fan, this is when my first real doubts are starting to come into my head. The majority of this stems from his tactical choices today.

Why play a negative 4-5-1 when we are playing a Chelsea team are low on confidence and have struggled at the back this season?

Why not play with a more attacking minded centre midfielder playing just off Fletcher? Chelsea play with a deep midfielder. Our centre midfielders play far too deep. Massive gap in the middle of the pitch between our central midfielders and Fletcher. So what’s going to happen? Play a long ball upto him, which will get cut out easily, played to Romeu who will have the time and space to play a simply pass for Chelsea to start up again.

And again, why play Ward, our most consistent performer this season, out of his favoured position? What happened last time we did that? Elokobi was ripped to shreds by QPR, and Shaun Wright Phillips in particular. So who should we play to try and keep Daniel Sturridge out of the game?…

Although to be fair to Stephen Ward, he was a most effective attacking player today…which is pretty worrying…

So, what can we take from today, aside from repeating the above?

We looked at our best when Jarvis and Ward drifted in, especially in the final third as Ward’s chance shown. And this is something that I picked up on a while ago that we should be doing, but still aren’t.

Off the ball diagional runs right at the CBs are going to be difficult to defend against. Both full backs and centre backs need to quickly make decisions about their positioning and exactly who to track. Naturally CBs would mark the strikers, but with wingers running at them too? And do the FBs track or hold the line? These are things we should be exploiting, and having players with pace like Jarvis doing this would make it far more effective as well as leaving space for the full backs to exploit.

Secondly, and quite simply, Jarvis is much better on the left. He is much better than Stephen Hunt on the left. He has also looked like producing something when he has come on as a sub recently. So let’s start him next game, hey?

Look Mick, let’s just have a quick, private chat. This is a bit of a heart-to-heart with you. A one-to-one. Just me…and you.

I think you’re great, you’ve done so much for us. But there comes a time where doubt starting creeping into even the most loyal fans’ minds, and that time is now.

Prove me wrong on Sunday Mick. Prove to me we are where we belong. Show me that soon I can stop dreading watching us play.

I know you can do it Mick, please, please, don’t let me down.

Why I’m (almost) ashamed to be a Wolves fan right now (Or a Wolves vs Swansea preview)

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Wolves fans comments on Facebook post.“Sack the bastard.

Hang him. That hanging bastard.

Scoop out his bastard heart with a bastard spoon, then put it in a bastard blender, add some bastard oregano and bastard paprika and blend the bastard thing. Then feed the bastard his own nicely bastardly seasoned heart.

He’s a bastard!

The bastard!”

The above seems to be the common(ish) thought of some Wolves fans. The ones calling for Mick’s head.

The ones I called morons and try to ignore.

Try to…

But in this digital age where you can easily express your own opinions and have complete strangers read them (yes, I realise the irony of this sentence) it’s hard not to be washed up into their sea of spewing shit. An ocean filled with opinions which are badly thought out and constructed as a result of basing all their football opinions on writings of The Sun, or at best, Henry Winter.

Now I’m the first person to tell people I’m not an expert in football. Far from it. However I can clearly see that the majority of what these ‘fans’ are saying is absolute balls.

Yes, losing 5 games in a row is poor form, but that’s what it is. Poor form. It’s understandable, confidence is low after QPR, you could see that in Jarvis’s performance against West Brom. You can see it in Johnson’s sudden lack of organisational skills.

These things can however be sorted.

What won’t help to get it fixed is when ‘fans’ decide to boo/sarcastically cheer the player who took a pay cut so he could join us. A player who has worn our captain’s armband and our shirt for a years and has been proud to do so. Granted, he wasn’t playing well, but do you think he’s that big of an idiot to not know that already?

And as for Mick…well…I’m worried that we are in a situation where we actually have to defend him.

Aside from the incredible job he has done over the past 5 years, this is his third season in the Premiership with a predominantly Championship side.

Three years ago would anybody have thought that Matt Jarvis would have played for England, and Karl Henry would have also been considered by Capello?

That Kevin Doyle would be looked at by Arsenal (even if these were rumours)?

That Stephen Ward would be the answer to our left back problems?

All of this points to the sterling job that Mick has done.

For people to organise a strike before the game calling for his head? It almost makes me ashamed to be a Wolves fan.

But in a way, it’s people like this that will spur Mick and the team on. They will want to prove that they do merit a place in the Premiership, that on our day we can play and we can be difficult to beat.

Yes, I am worried about the pace of our defence against Sinclair, Dyer and Graham.

Yes I am concerned that Mick may make the change from 4-5-1 to 4-4-2 when it was looking effective like he did on Sunday.

But won’t all this be forgotten if they put in the performance that we all want? Us football fans are fickle after all.

And if that happens then I guess we would have to thank the boo boys. For their motivational skills, for being real fans.

Well you lot can. I’m not.

I’m going to thank Mick.

Mick the bastard.

West Brom vs Wolves

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So I watched the derby in the only way I know how. In bed, hungover, surrounded by flat, left-over bottles of Pepsi and any food within reaching distance.

The hangover was well and truly justified though. It was a long Saturday. In the pub at 8.30am for the rugby. Then didn’t get in till 3.30am. It was a day that involved:

  • An Eastern European guy who thinks one slice of toast equals two eggs
  • Nearly getting strangled by another Welsh guy when we scored that try
  • Insane amounts of ale
  • Getting lured into some cocktail festival with the promise of free G&Ts, and all we had to do was design our own cocktail umbrella. Mine looked like somebody had sellotaped crayons to Michael J. Fox’s fingers. I was then told by a very posh girl that she loved what I had done with my trainers. The look they have is one of being utterly shagged and having holes in them
  • Going to a gay bar where I danced around a group of lesbian friends, doing the YMCA on my own
  • Going to a strip club, left entrance was ‘live shows’ the right entrance was for ‘gay hardcore porn’. Contrary to any rumours, we took the left turning. We were pretty much the only guys in there for most of the night. Surrounded by strippers, chatting and drinking with them. I pretty much felt like Tony Soprano…if he had holes in his shoes…and no money
So I guess the resulting hangover is a real contributing factor to add into this gloomy review.

The game today showed again that one of our central midfielders really needs to be more attacking, and the benefits of having one where shown when Milijas was on the pitch.
With O’Hara and Henry naturally deep playing midfielders, there is always a gap between our forwards and midfield. This just means O’Hara tries to launch these Hollywood, game, nay, FOOTBALL changing passes that inevitably don’t work. Having somebody who links them to Doyle and Jarvis meant we were able to get at West Brom early on.

Just a shame then that we decided to go 4-4-2 and take Milijas off.

I would have liked to have seeb Jarvis and Hammill cutting in and running at their centre backs. They were able to deal with Doyle in the air and for strength, but would have struggled with somebody running at them.

So arguably we would have moved to a more 4-3-3 formation, and going back to 4-5-1 when not in possession.

Bit too risky for Mick I guess.

The biggest issue however, and one that if you follow me on Twitter is all I bloody talk about, is that our centre backs really lack pace. We couldn’t handle QPR’s pace, we couldn’t handle Long today (who was excellent and would have caused any teams problems) and this is something that other teams will surely pick up on.

Is there not an argument that when Zubar is 100% fit, or when Foley comes back, and potentially until we bring somebody in in January, we look at moving Stearman into the centre?

Yes, he has his ‘Stearman moments’, but you would hope that somebody like Johnson who can (well, he certainly used to be able to) organise a defence would certainly help that side of things.

And personally, Berra has simply been making too many basic mistakes in recent games. He can be found ball-watching, not in line and again his lack of pace there can cause real problems in letting attackers in behind our defence.

But of course, none of the above can really happen yet, so it’s handy we’re coming up against Swansea next who have quick players like Scott Sinclair, Nathan Dye and Danny Graham…

Still, I got to see about 8 naked women last night.

Wolves v Newcastle (or a review of a game I didn’t watch)

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Yes, I didn’t actually see the game.

I mean, there really are more important things in life than football. Don’t listen to what that Bill Shankly says. Maybe he really did feel that way. I mean, he may have been shagging training cones for all we know.

The weekend just gone started with a feeling of the unknown. I didn’t know what to expect when I got there and saw him. I’d heard things that hadn’t filled me with hope. At first, it looked like this was going to be true. A man I only ever saw as being strong was looking weak, his only protection coming from a horribly thin hospital bed sheet.

But over the course of the weekend, things got better. A lot better.

He swore, he insulted, he was rude. This is the man I know and love. He also joked and laughed and winked, but that isn’t as interesting for somebody outside of the family.

So what the hell has this got to do with me writing a review for a game I didn’t watch?

Well, the series of events has led to me deciding to do so and, no matter the score or performance, I will try (I am a miserable bastard after all) to do it in a positive way.

All I need are two things to make this happen:

  1. The BBC live Saturday football feed
  2. My imagination – When I was a kid, I used to write football stories. I’d make up teams and players, using complicated rules involving dice to determine results. I’d then draw diagrams of some of the goals…sad?…yes…loserish?…yes…

So I guess what we have here with this post is a kind of a ‘Roy of the Rovers’ situation…

No!

What we have here is a ‘Wardy of the Wanderers’ situation.

So here, ladies and gentlemen, is the first, and probably only episode of…

Wardy of the Wanderers!

Our hero Wardy pulls up into Molienux’s car park. He steps out of this replica of the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang card, takes off his aviators (somebody once told him he looked like TOm Cruise with them on…I think they were drunk…or blind…or both). He takes a deep breath, taking in everything around him. The smell of the piss-stained subway. The sight of a tramp beating off into a bush. He takes it all in and says ‘Today is going to be a good day’

Upon arriving in the dressing room, Wardy is met by his manager, Mick ‘Dryrish’ McCarthy.

‘Wardy! Superman! How the devil are you? Chitty alright? I like how you walk, it’s super!’

‘Umm…yeah…thanks…’

‘Ready for the big game hey? Ready to show those brown ale drinking bastards what you can do?’

‘Yeah…fine boss…just as long as you don’t play me up-’

‘-No Wardy, you were right, I was wrong. I’ll never put you up front again. I know that you can rip teams apart, even from left back!’

‘Um…yeah…if you say so’

‘Good to hear…Oh Wardy, if my missus wasn’t looking this way, I’d kiss you. I land a right plump one on those Irish lips of yours’

‘…Umm…I’m going to go over here now…’

Our hero and the other Wolves players are kitted up, raring to go. In comes Mick, football socks rolled low, tracksuit trousers rolled high.

‘Remember lads, there’s one thing, and one thing only, we need to do to win this game…give the ball to Wardy…NOW LET’S DO THIS!’

All the Wanderers jumped up in unison, punching the air and high fiving each other…

All except one…

Wardy sat there, a nervous look across his face as he muttered just two words to himself.

‘Oh…piss’

The Match

The Wanderers start well, Wardy dictating the game from his playmaker role at left back.

Early on, Jamie ‘I Love Danielle I Do’ O’Hara nearly scores with a cross. This doesn’t go down too well with Mick.

‘FUCKING HELL O’HARA, IF YOU’RE GOING TO CROSS, DO IT PROPERLY!’

He turns to Tezza Connor

‘Bet Wardy would have crossed it’

This has an effect on Wardy, and so has a word with Matt Jarvis to ‘be better’. Jarvis, as a result, delivers a peach of a ball into Kevin Doyle. However, forgetting that Doyle is only half as Wardy as Wardy, he gets poor contact on the ball and Tim Cruela De Ville saves.

Then the unthinkable happens.

Newcastle score…

Twice

And it’s fair to say, Wardy was nowhere near the ball when it happened. It wasn’t his fault. He was helping a small dying child live out his last wish by feeding a deer ice cream with him. I mean, what was he supposed to do? Say no to a dying child?! Mick looks over at him, wipes away his tears and applauds, as does Terry Connor. It’s all a bit like the ending of Cool Runnings if you ask me. Moving.

Half time comes, and of course Mick isn’t happy.

‘WHAT THE BEJBUS WAS THAT?!! Have you forgotten last week? Have you forgotten how much we relied on other people who aren’t Wardy! You know what to do, now come on!!!’

These words of wisdom obviously pay off and Wardy takes the game by the scruff of the neck, makes sweet passionate love to it and leaves it his number so they can do it again next week.

It’s a shame that the our evil villain then makes this his time to make a statement.

Enter, Mark ‘The Barrell of Hate’ Halsey

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

With the red in his eye and the cackle in his laugh, he almost pisses himself when he sees Stephen Taylor impale O’Hara’s leg with his boot, ripping it in two at the knee.

Wardy goes running over, like a medic on the beaches of France, clutching his magic sponge.

‘Wardy…I can see a light…I can…see it’

‘No Jamie, stay with me. You’ve got too much to live for. Live for your baby. Live for me. Live…live for Danielle’

‘DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANIELLE’

And with that, Wardy mends Jamie’s leg with a bit of blu-tac.

What a guy.

However, we then see the downside of Wardy’s talent.

The evil villains sidekick, the linesman, was blinded by Wardy’s sheer football talent. There was nothing he could do, but don his evil source of power.

His black…straight…too low for his eyes…baseball cap.

And as a result, well, he cruelly, against the cries of Kevin Doyle, disallow his bullet of a strike from about 6 inches out.

‘Linesman, noooooooo, how could you? It was clear!’

‘MWHAHAHA, me linesman, me disallow your goal, me ruin your day. Me shit on your new contract you highlighted hair bastard’

And with that, the game ended. The other 10 Wolves players fall to the floor, weeping uncontrollably. Wardy saw this and parted the way, to console each one.

‘Come now my child, come along to the coach and we will leave for a better place’

And so they went, two by two, onto the team coach, to take them to a better place.

Spearmint Rhino.

Preview: Liverpool vs Wolves

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Saturday…

Last Saturday…

Jesus fucking christ…

It was so bad I started drinking 15 minutes into the game.

It was so bad that I passed out on my mate’s sofa shortly after Match of the Day had started, in all my clothes.

And it wasn’t just the pitiful performance, but the pantomime involving Joey ‘I like The Smiths, they are dead good’ Barton and Kelvin. Annoyingly, I got wound up by his comments. As a result, I did what any upstanding, respectable gentleman would do. I called him a prick on Twitter and had a go at him over a series of one, two, three tweets.

He didn’t reply.

Score one to Warrilow…

I think the less said about the first few days of the week, the better.

And I would love to say ‘well the Millwall game really must have boosted our confidence in time for Saturday’…and yes, it was a good result, let’s not be doing a merry jig around the Lionel Messi school of football just yet, there’s a few things we need to point out here:

Milwall are a Championship side

They haven’t won in six league games

They haven’t scored in five league games

Let’s not jump to the conclusion that we’ve ‘turned the corner’ just yet.

Yes, I think the better performances from the team that night should be playing on Saturday, but we have to bare in mind our opponents and venue and be reasonable.

Because of this I would only bring in Guedioura and Hunt.

I strongly feel Gueds (we’re on close mate basis now all of a sudden…not really, it’s just because I can’t be arsed copying and pasting that arse to spell surname anymore) could be really effective in a 4-5-1 formation playing just off Doyle:

  • He can be great at running at defenders with the ball at a fair pace, and against somebody like Carragher, this could prove to be pretty dangerous.
  • Get Doyle to do his usual fantastic work of winning and holding the ball up, trying to pull defenders towards to him to enable Guedioura to run into this space and bring others, namely O’Hara, Jarvis and Hunt into the game.
  • He’ll be confident and pumped after his performance on Tuesday, and we need somebody like that starting tomorrow after last week. Get him to push up, close down their CBs, make it as uncomfortable for them as possible. Yes he may be reckless in the tackle, but I’d rather he did this in their half rather then starting him right wing and having him commit fouls closer to our penalty area.

So why leave Fletcher on the bench?

Granted, I would only employ this tactic for this game, Fletcher is somebody we can bring on later if need be. Whilst we have no cover for strikers at the moment (and I include Sam Vokes in that nothing) we need attacking options on the bench.

And this is why I’d start with Hunt in front of Hammill.

Liverpool have some great attacking full backs, in particular Jose Enrique who has mad a fantastic start for them. Hunt would be perfect to track back and make life difficult for him. We need that little shit attitude that he has to team up with Stearman and just not let him be as influential as he has been. Hammill would provide us with a great attacking option later on if needed, especially if we brought on Fletcher with him, went 4-4-2 and looked to Hammill to really test the Liverpool defence with some of the great crossing we have seen him produce for us so far.

And just to pre-warn you all, I am going to the pub to watch this game. This time though, I’m hoping I don’t pass out early on any form of furniture.

Liverpool v Wolves: A Liverpool fan’s perspective.

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My good friend (I have to say that as he’ll be reading this) Chris kindly offered to provide me a perspective of tomorrow’s game, but from the other side of the pitch. He is a Liverpool fan, and he knows his stuff. Well, he says he does, he generally talks about Uruguyan football, and everybody just goes ‘Oh right…’. I bet he’s making it all up…the bastard

Anyways, after you’ve read his bit, check out his blog and follow him on Twitter.

Hello. My name is Chris McDonald and fresh from being branded “an LFC fan and a total wanker” by Mr Matt, I’m here to discuss the Liverpool vs Wolves match tomorrow.

Am I both a Liverpool fan and a total wanker? You want the truth?

You can’t handle the truth.

(I am.)

Liverpool are fresh from being utterly eviscerated by Spurs at White Hart Lane last weekend and earning passage to the next round of the Carling Cup at Brighton on Wednesday. The season so far has been a mixed bag for Kenny Dalglish and his team. But there are a few things to comfort Liverpool fans ahead of the match against Wolves

It’s at Anfield

Liverpool have largely struggled with their away form over the last couple of years. There may have been away victories against lower league opposition in the Carling Cup and an Arsenal side who are currently playing like a lower league side (albeit with the added bonus of a 9 year-old bedwetter’s level of bravery), but Liverpool have been defeated in their two most meaningful challenges on the road.

The Stoke defeat was unlucky – the Reds dominated a game played in tough conditions for a team that harbours ambitions of passing the ball and playing good football. The grass was kept long so it was difficult for the likes of Suarez, Enrique and Downing to carry the ball, and short ground passes weren’t travelling as easily as they should have been. Similarly, it was a ridiculously windy Staffordshire day, and with the Britannia’s three open corners accurate long passing was all-but impossible. Charlie Adam’s hitherto dubious success rate when playing his glamour balls (sounds wrong) fell through the floor.

Spurs was a lot more worrying. The team started off on the wrong foot both tactically and in terms of mentality, subsequently falling apart into tiny little pieces. Spurs were irrepressibly excellent, but Liverpool matched their hand with an unforeseen level of abject uselessness. One thing Spurs cottoned onto about Liverpool is that when pressed aggressively, the team tends to drop incredibly deep and struggles to distribute the ball from defence effectively, becoming trapped in their half far too easily.

The right side of defence that day – Skrtel and Carragher – are not great on the ball and were repeatedly pressed and harried by Spurs’ forwards into either punting the ball forward (and Jamie Carragher needs little encouragement to do this), or passing back to Pepe Reina… to punt the ball forward. Liverpool do have defenders who are capable of distributing the ball into midfield, like Agger, Enrique, Johnson and Aurelio. But even if two of those players were playing that day (though Agger went off early with a fractured rib), Modric and Parker were excellent into pressing the midfield, and Jordan Henderson and Charlie Adam in particular were given the runaround.

Adam is becoming a slight concern for Liverpool fans, as he seems to require more time on the ball than he is being afforded. Having impressed at Blackpool, he doesn’t seem accustomed to being a part of a team that the opposition is more likely to “get amongst”. Similarly, he seems leggy, cumbersome and out-of-sync with the defensive duties expected of him, getting caught ahead of the ball, not having the legs to effectively track back and making lunging, clumsy tackles. Xabi Alonso was often targeted by teams as the best way of stopping Liverpool from playing, and his form dipped for a couple of season as he struggled with the extra attention put upon him. But even without the same direct targeting, Adam has at times really struggled to wrest the midfield initiative when the team is put on the back foot.

All of that said, the problems have not been so manifest at Anfield, where teams have tended to sit off Liverpool. The Reds dominated against a surprisingly timid Bolton side, and had an excellent first 45 at home to Sunderland. But that Sunderland game was instructive – in the second half Steve Bruce’s team pushed on and were more aggressive against a flagging Liverpool side and were possibly worth more than a point by the end of the game.

Wolves best hope for a result at Anfield is to be bold and get on the front foot. If Mick McCarthy instructs Wolves’ midfield to sit off and play a more containing game, then it will play into the Reds’ hands and afford the likes of Adam to play their game unhurriedly.

Martin Skrtel probably won’t be at right-back

Martin Kelly returned to the Liverpool starting line-up at Brighton on Wednesday, and Jon Flanagan got his first minutes since a couple of unconvincing showings against Sunderland and Exeter. Both are far more comfortable and natural right-backs than centre-back Martin Skrtel. A bizarrely effective match against a woeful Bolton aside, Skrtel has always looked about as comfortable at right-back as I do watching Irreversible.

Against Spurs Skrtel was not only put up against Gareth Bale – who wasted little time in making him look as foolish as humanly possible – but was fed like a lamb to the slaughter by the coaching team’s decision to play 4-3-3 away to a team with a more technical midfield than Liverpool’s. Spurs’ entire gameplan was predicated upon Modric getting the ball out to Bale – which he did with ease – to run at a non-right-back aided by the protection of, well, no-one.

From an outsider’s perspective, one of Wolves’ great strengths is out wide. I’m guessing that Hunt is most likely to line up on the left, though the thought of Jarvis being given the chance to run at Skrtel doesn’t exactly fill one’s heart with confidence for Nosferatu’s handsome younger brother.

Kelly on the other hand is rated extremely highly by Liverpool fans. Originally a centre-back at youth levels, he has stepped into playing right-back in the first team with remarkable ease. His loping gait masks an unexpected turn of speed, making him difficult to beat on the outside, and he’s good enough on the ball to distribute and cross well. The biggest concern with Kelly has been his fitness record. He has suffered numerous muscle injuries over the last few years and has only just returned from another. He is expected to challenge Glen Johnson for the right-back spot long term, but given the pair’s injury-proneness in recent seasons they’ve spent more time challenging for time with the physio.

Skrtel might still play though, either at right-back or in his natural berth at centre-back (where he can either be excellent or horrific – confidence has always been his issue). Daniel Agger – by far Liverpool’s best, most talented defender – is injured (again), so it will be a choice between Skrtel and new boy Sebastian Coates to replace him. Given Kelly’s injury problems, there might be an issue with asking him to play two matches in three days. Flanagan appears to have slipped back to fourth choice, so if Coates retains his place from Wednesday night, Skrtel might find himself at right-back again. Should that happen, Wolves should look to exploit his vulnerability, either through Hunt’s industry and harrying or Jarvis’ ability to beat a man.

The Captain is back

Finally, after having his groin’s other banjo string snapped, Steven Gerrard is back. For player, club and fans it has been a long time coming, and Gerrard now finds himself being reintegrated into a vastly different team to the one he limped out of six months ago. The question is where he’ll actually play when he is ready to start games again. It seems unlikely that he will start the match tomorrow, but Kenny Dalglish is not afraid to spring the odd surprise (witness Suarez starting against Sunderland some five minutes after the Copa America had finished).

Should he start, there will be three options for Gerrard:

1. Central midfield (where he wants to play but where most fans not blinded by the Sky Redknapp-Gray axis don’t want him)
2. Behind the forward (where he is most effective but faces renewed competition from a renewed strikeforce)
3. Right-midfield (where he hates playing but is actually very effective and would likely thrive with the freedom to cut inside in the current system)

Over the course of the season he’ll pop up in all three spots (often in the same game), but right now one of the latter two seems more likely. Adam is Dalglish’s guy in the middle and Lucas is rightly untouchable at the moment. It then becomes a question of which of Liverpool’s expensive new acquisitions makes way – Andy Carroll or Jordan Henderson, neither of whom has greatly convinced thus far. A Gerrard-Suarez combination up front would recall the Gerrard-Torres pairing and could be devastating. Though as stated, within this system where the wide-midfielders are granted licence to cut inside between the lines, Gerrard could become as excellent an attacking weapon as he was in the 2005-06 season when he scored 23 goals largely from the right.

Regardless of tactical shenanigans, you’ll find few Liverpool fans expecting the Wolves game to be a gimme. Casting aside memories of last December’s 1-0 Anfield defeat (that wasn’t Liverpool; that was the Roy Hodgson Mediocrity Roadshow), fans’ burgeoning expectations have been tempered by the last two league defeats. The bullish (and frankly ridiculous) calls of “let’s challenge the Manchester clubs” have been replaced by “okay, let’s knuckle down because fourth isn’t going to be straightforward”. I’m sure Wolves fans get pretty sick of being patronised as being a “hard-working 110% effort Mick McCarthy team”, so I’ll just say that Liverpool should be feeling suitably chastised by two league defeats on the bounce. A reaction is demanded – not just by fans, but by players and management too. Liverpool are at home and looking to get back on track – they will respect Wolves, but will be expecting to win.

As for this wanker, after the match grumblings and shared vitriol, Matt and I are going out in London to celebrate the 20 year anniversary of Nirvana’s Nevermind. By that point our friendship might have been irreparably damaged by football (but probably not). Oh well, whatever, nevermind.