Tag Archives: steven fletcher

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.

Man Utd v Wolves preview

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So they got knocked out of the Champions League.

They have had a massive injury blow with Vidic being ruled out to the season, adding to a list that includes Hernandez, Cleverley, Anderson and Michael Owen, meaning we will get a week off from Sunday Supplement talking about him getting called up for England.

We had a massive win against Sunderland. Team confidence must have improved as a result, which we can only hope will turn around the form of certain players.

So we all know what’s going to happen.

We’re going to suffer from last minute heartache again. It’s just the way it goes.

So, what shall we do in the meantime, waiting for that inevitable, sinking feeling at 4.45pm this afternoon?

Well is there a strong argument for us to start with the 11 that finished against Sunderland?

Of course, the situation we were in, as well as the way SEB and Hammill play meant we changed our approach and it benefited us and helped us turn the game around.

But whether we should is another matter.

We have seen time and time again that Hammill can be a very effective impact player. Putting him on an hour or so into a game against a tiring full-back has helped in previous games, especially against Sunderland. And yes, it may be more negative to start Hunt instead of him, but with a full-back like Evra, you need a more defensive minded winger. Hunt isn’t the best player at the club by a long stretch, but he’s a little shit. A little shit that you want to make things difficult. And we all can see that Evra isn’t the player he has been of recent times, so surely a fresh legged, quick, direct winger against him for the final 30 minutes would be far more effective.

And we talk about Doyle’s recent dip in form, and talk of him dropping him, with SEB’s performance against Sunderland helping with that opinion.

But is there not an argument that Doyle’s intelligent play would cause problems against a vulnerable Jonny Evans?

Doyle dropping deep, looking for the ball, trying to pull Evans out of position to allow space for Fletcher to run in behind. And if Fletcher is up against Rio today, there is no contest when it comes to pace.

And again, an hour into a game, bringing SEB on would change the way we play. Not just dropping deep, but happy playing off Evans’s shoulder, something we’ve seen Evans struggle against in previous matches.

But will any of this matter come that moment at 4.45 when we cover our faces with our hands, or look at the floor with an empty, vacant stare?

Probably not, but at least we’ll get to be the first to sing ‘Thursday night, Channel 5′

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.

Sam Vokes: Boy starting to come good?…

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Sam Jokes. Sam Chokes. The puns are endless.

Bless him though. I mean, he’s always been like the ugly kitten in the pet shop.

His owner doesn’t really want him, so gives him away to other people. But after a while, they don’t really like looking at him either and end up leaving him on the steps of the owner’s house, filling the night with the sound of running foosteps and sighing.

It’s a horrible way to live I’m sure, being the Oliver Twist of the feline world. But when you do the human equivalent of shit on the kitchen floor every day (missing a sitter from 6 yards out in the last minute against Manchester United), people are going to hold it against you.

And who can blame them? To see this shit-ridden kitten continously popping up now and then, back in the pen, not contributing anything at all apart from wiping their arse all over the brand new carpet in the living room is bloody annoying at best.

But what’s this? We’ve seen a little twinkle in that kitten’s eye. He’s looking over at us and maybe behind that Piccaso looking creature might actually be something useful.

We saw it for 20 minutes in the Carling Cup game against City. He showed good movement, held the ball up well and brought others into the game effectively. And then City decided to turn up. But overall, that was probably the most effective we’ve seen him in a Wolves shirt.

Then on Saturday, what some people would call a miracle, occured.

Not only did we (Wales) score 4 goals in a game, but Vokes scored…twice…in the space of 60 seconds.

His second goal was…well…where the hell did that come? A low drive from 20 yards out into the near post, was a finish wrapped in sheer quality.

But his first goal was the one that showed the most promise. Granted, it was an excellent counter-attack conducted by Gareth Bale and Craig Bellamy, but Vokes showed a couple of characteristics which really stood out.

Sheer determination being one of them, to keep up with the pace of Bale and Bellamy when you’re massive oaf can’t be easy.

Secondly, and most importantly, was his run into the area. Simple, but extremely effective.

With Bale running at the centre backs, Vokes makes his move to the right hand-side. This gives the CBs two options, stick with the imminent danger that is the pace of Bale moving to the left wing, or for one of them to track Vokes, leaving Bale to be 1-on-1 with the defence. Naturally they hold their line, leaving Vokes plenty of space on the right-hand side. Once the ball is played through to Bale, the CBs are out of the game and Vokes caputilises on this with a fairly simple tap-in.

It may not seem like much, but to get into that position is something a good centre-forward would do. Players like Linkear and Van Nistelrooy made careers out of it (before you say anything, I am not comparing Vokes to them)

So what does this all mean?

I am not rushing ahead of myself and saying Vokes is there, that he should start for us, that he could spearhead our charge up the table.

Far from it. What it has shown is his potential aside from being the big man we stick on late in a game as a last resort. He has demonstrated that given more game experience and a boost in confidence, he could be a much more effective forward. One that differs from Fletcher and Doyle in the fact that he doesn’t come deep to collect the ball. He can hassle the opposite centre backs, making clever, simple runs whilst having the strength to bring others into the game.

Wolves Blog recently wrote that our missing link was a forward who played further up the pitch. Our answer could be somewhere we least suspected…

Probably not though.

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.

Preview: Wolves vs QPR

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Coming into this fixture, it was all going swimmingly. Saturday morning we were undefeated, looking sprightly and positive, like a lamb in spring, leaping about in the joyous, care-free way they do. We had a (fairly) clean bill of health, and confidence was high. Add that to the fact that QPR had gone mad on transfer deadline day and spent money like a 12 year old kid on crack playing Champ Manager (or Football Manager if you’re not an oldie, or one of those who calls Pro ‘PES’…) and the likelihood was that how would they all gel and fit in well and so quickly?

Then came the last 20 minutes of Saturday.

And then came Monday night.

And then came the rest of the week.

Basically, I’m alot more nervous than I was.

And it’s easy to see why, QPR looked dangerous against Newcastle, in particular the pace of Shauny Wrighty Phillipsy.

QPR looked at their best when SWP (I always think of SWV whenever somebody uses that abbreviation) was running at them with the ball, forcing the Newcastle defenders to back track, trying to pull them out of position. Whilst Joey ‘Copy and Paste’ Barton looked extremely comfortable and helped dictate the play, just as he did for Newcastle.

Then I thought ‘but this is fine, we have Stephen ‘Superman, but I do look a little like a gypsy’ Ward looking more and more like the assured left-back that we need to cope with SWV (told you!). As well as Karl ‘Bezzies with Danny Murphy’ Henry helping to keep tabs on both Barton, and Adel ‘Right, I’m off to Paris you London wankers…hang on…balls, I’ve forgotten my passport…can I come back?’ Taarabt.

But a couple of things have happened this week which have made me start to doubt this.

First off, the paper talk surrounding Karl Henry vs Joey Barton.

It doesn’t really matter how true this is, for people like Barton, this will just spur him on more. He will want to be more involved, he will want to dictate the game. But more importantly, if he gets a tackle from Karl ‘gentle studs’ Henry which is a little bit late, he’s likely to go down.

Either way, this is going to obviously affect Henry’s game. If he were to pick up an early booking, he’s going to be walking on a tight-rope for the rest of the game. On top of this, if Taarabt is given creative freedom, which he probably will be, Henry will have to pick him up, leaving us with O’Hara against Barton and Derry. Worrying.

Secondly, Stephen Fletcher’s injury and Stephen Ward becoming our new ‘natural number 10′.

I’ve said it before in this post, and my previous post, and I think I may be go a little senile with all these pro-Stephen Ward comments. But Ward has been a better left-back then he’s ever been, then we’ve had in recent years. I’m not saying by any stretch of the imagination that he’s the best, I mean, he’s no Tim Steele, but when his confidence is high, playing the best football of his career, is this the right time to take him out of position?

So we’re left with Elokobi having to contend with SMP…yeah, I’m a bit worried. Shaun’s confidence will be high, George hasn’t started a Premiership game yet this season. Shaun’s pace against…well…Cameroon’s very own Dolph Lundgren.

He’s a whole lot better than he was, but still has these massive lapses of concentration. If he’s out of position, or swinging his leg wildly, it’s going to cause us massive problems.

So how should we solve these problems?

Firstly, I’m afraid to say it, but for one game, and for one game only…we should…go back…to 4-5-1.

I know, I know, but the midfield is where we’re going to win this game. We need to shut them out, not let them have the ball, and having 3 central midfielders, not giving the time on the ball, making it difficult for them, will make it a difference.

In an ideal world, what would have suited us would have been playing Henry as the defensive midfielder, O’Hara just a bit forward from him, and Dave Edwards a little on for him.

Edwards against City last year in this role was excellent. Putting pressure on their players, finding space inbetween the back 4 and the midfield, and picking his run forward out extremely well. He would cause all kinds of trouble for Shaun Derry, but alas, he’s injured. As are the other options for playing in this role. So looks like we’re stuck

And the problem of George? Well, he’s going to just to have to use his noggin.

We need to play to Shauny’s weaknesses. Ensure that we are making him deliver the ball in from the line by pushing him out wide. Have Jarvis or Hunt tracking back just inside so it covers the cut inside, as well as the ball back to support. His crossing isn’t the best, so let’s force him into doing it.

As you could probably tell, the post seemed to have lost a bit of steam towards the end. I guess the long day, late night and can of Red Stripe I’m having don’t help.

Oh, and here’s a video of Paul McGrath singing.