BHA 0 - Wolves 1 The highway robbery verdict thread

[Dublin Drummer Wolf]

diabolical and appalling is overkill for Doherty today, felt his positioning was poor (as it always will be) but of the back four I felt it was Batth who was the poorest, he was anonymous for most of the game. Probably why sky gave Eel MOTM, as he was doing the job of two men!

As with this style of play, Doherty is not a long term solution for the left back position.

I think Doherty has played better in the LB role than the RB role, apart from a few brain farts today, he read the game well and got into the spaces to clear our lines well, he even managed to kick it further than 10 yards and won some good tackles.

Definitely not good enough in the grand scheme of things, but if he's playing, I'm glad to see him playing well instead of costing us goals.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Sig didn't make the best of his chances in L1 but it was crap from Ken how he'd get 45 minutes here and there, then hauled off and parked on the bench for weeks, while Doyle was inked into the starting XI despite contributing nothing.

 

[Aikiwolf]

Im happy to see Siggy back in the team, his touch and passing was good today, and he seemed to have that bit of quality we were lacking going forward, his touch on the byline to take it past their LB and almost create a chance showed what we've been missing, someone with a bit of a footballing brain who can use his strength to make defenders commit before cutting and crossing/shooting, and he was the only one who managed to pass it directly to Afobe from the wing.

Hopefully Kenny gives him a run up front alongside Afobe, think they could partner each other well, but I'm not hopeful of seeing it.

That touch past the LB was lovely!

 

[sycophantia]

Just got in and read the matchday thread (and a few other reports) and it seems that all our crap players did ok. While obviously it was ugly, I have to say that the tactics of the last 3 games have probably been the right ones considering our previous few performances. I would expect 3 clean sheets on the bounce when we were mostly under the cosh will give the defence a lot of confidence and so hopefully our midfield can be given a bit more license to attack in the forthcoming games and it makes it a bit easier on the eye, the cup game would be ideal to try and play a bit more football when there is less pressure and WH will probably put out a weakened team. Pleased Siggy got some time and did ok, he could turn out to be like a new signing. With hopefully Williamson coming in and if we can hold on to Afobe along with the additionof Zyro, I'm hopeful for the rest of the season.

 

[FrankMunro-371]

The FA Cup, particularly the early rounds is nonsense nowadays, if Bilic takes it seriously and doesn't make wholesale changes they should piss it, on he other hand if he does then we might have an outside chance, having said that, it depends on how seriously we take it.

The early rounds of the FA cup is anything but a nonsense. Many clubs at lower levels of the pyramid have been financially rewarded by good cup runs. For teams at that level a cup run can make the world of difference. This season Barwell reached the first round proper. Their income from this run will pay for the rest of their season.

 

[YoungWolf]

Horrendous performance but obviously, glad for the 3 points. We have steered ourselves away from any potential relegation fears (for now) which we failed to do this time three years ago.

What was stunning about this performance was the lack of plan, or any idea what to do when we won the ball. As others have said, we seemed quite happy to not only let them have the ball but give it straight back when they did give the ball away. As the game progressed McDonald began to improve us in this aspect I felt as he tried to twist and turn and keep us in possession but his efforts meant little when his midfield partners gave him little help nor the rest of the team. Straight back to Ikeme and hoof was probably our most used pattern of play. That is what worries me greatly. To do this personnel in the team need to change, because that eleven isn't going to go and suddenly start playing vibrant football. But why would Jackett change a winning team, he clearly thinks this is the way forward. This style is certainly not sustainable, we have got away with it in this and Reading game, but if we are to have play off aspirations we have to come up with better.

Ikeme - 8 - Fantastic save to preserve a precious three points. Handling was good, one scary moment when he failed to communicate to Graham that he wanted to clear the ball but we managed not to fuck up from that incident.

Iorfa - 7 - Murphy gave him a really good test today, but he did well as I can't remember him conceding any chances and he was one of our few outlets going forward. Won some good challenges in the air too.

Batth - 6 - Sluggish for me.

Ebanks-Landell - 8 - Other than the moment Wilson made him look silly (which he recovered fantastically well) he was really good I thought. Very brave, didn't get dragged out of position either which has been a major issue for him.

Doherty - 6 - Did OK. I think he's better on the left because he covers better for his centre back and he doesn't let as many crosses come in. If Jackett doesn't rate Golbourne he needs to buy a left back because Doherty isn't the long term option there.

Henry - 6 - Same as he has been for a while. Some good flashes of play where he can create some space for himself but quality on the ball is poor and he makes poor decisions.

Coady + Ewards - 6 - Both worked very hard but do little to help us when we have the ball. I felt sorry for McDonald, as they don't support well or even if they do get the ball they give it away so often.

McDonald - 7 - Influence grew throughout the game. He's not played fantastic recently but he's one of the few trying to get the ball down and play. Won lots of freekicks too to buy us time!

Graham - 7 - Made the goal. Every team who plays him have only found one solution to stop him so far - kick him a lot. Bruno should definitely have been sent off by the time he had injured him. Works so hard too!

Afobe - 6 - same again, so isolated. He does well sometimes to keep the ball but he can only do it for so long and he was so drained at the end of the game

Siggy - did OK! Looked fitter than I thought he would and had a couple of nice bits of play. Wasn't great defensively.

Byrne - little time to have an impact on the game

 

[pr0sl0]

Today was like watching a worse version of Alex McLeish's Birmingham side. I'll take the points but bleurgh.

 

[slink]

Pretty much agree with all of that YW. I think the last 3 games will split those who only care about the result and those who care about style of play and having a plan.

 

[ROVERT47]

The early rounds of the FA cup is anything but a nonsense. Many clubs at lower levels of the pyramid have been financially rewarded by good cup runs. For teams at that level a cup run can make the world of difference. This season Barwell reached the first round proper. Their income from this run will pay for the rest of their season.

When the Premier League and Championship teams join in is what I meant.

 

[Kenny]

How we are playing is not nice to watch and you have to hope it's a short term thing. After the Sheffield Wed game who on here, apart from Frank, would have expected 3 wins and no goals conceded?
8
It was vital we got out if the holiday games clear of the bottom 3. We did that and somehow we have got ourselves in touch with the play offs.

January is a big month now and will show the managers ambitions and also what our board wants. Hopefully Zyro adds something to our attacking play. Essentially all we need to do is plug the gap between the, now solid, defence and the isolated Afobe. Sort that out and we could be seeing another 7th place finish.....

 

[sycophantia]

I enjoy the early rounds, in fact I enjoy the whole thing, if certain clubs wish to undermine its importance thats up to them but for me its almost as important as the league.....until we get knocked out of course and even then I like watching the occasional giant killing act, Bradford/Chelsea was particularly satisfying.

 

[StuardoWulf]

Today we beat a sh!t team by an own goal (under no pressure), we had 36% possesion and set up like Chelsea did against Barca in the semi final a couple of years ago.
We are now reduced to this shocking crap against rubbish teams. Yeah its all about results blah blah blah. Thing is Mr Poato head can't change it because as soon as we open up our attacking options we will start leaking goals again. If we continue playing like this we will see Molineux emptying even more.
heres a bit of Kenny Jackett interview on BBC?:
“Now we want to build on what we have done – we don’t want to stand still,” he added.
“We want to be as good as Brighton are and want to be in that position in the league.
“As a club we have still got some way to go until we do that.
See all you cynics he does have a plan.
He has got to try and play football forget about Edwards and play to score goals. You gotta feel sorry for Afobe absolutely wasted at Wolves. Who would blame him for pushing for a move?

 

[arklowolf]

I just watched it (recorded it earlier) yeah, it wasn't pretty, but I thought every payer contributed and we deserved the win. Top drawer save by Ikeme at the death. Siggy played well when he came on. Thought coady had a good game as well. 9 points and no goals conceded, can't knock it.

 

[east-coast-wolves]

To be fair to the players, all bar Doherty for most of the game (he improved as Brighton got more desperate), they all played quite well, given what they were tasked with doing.

The tactics are horrendous, but I suppose pragmatic and might have been necessary given how things were going, but I really hope it is a short term thing and Kenny doesn't confuse winning with playing well.

Siggy also looked very bright when he came on, even if it was out wide.

There's definitely reasons here to be optimistic. Improvement still necessary though.

 

[FrankMunro-371]

Forgive me for being a little confused, but after we beat Reading, and yes I admit we were a little fortunate in that game, the good folk on here said if we carried on like that we would be in a relegation battle. We then beat Charlton, and again we are branded as lucky, which we patently weren't, and the good folk on here said if we carried on like that then high flying Brighton would beat us easily. We have now beaten Brighton. Is there any possibility that the management and the team might get a little bit of credit for turning things around?

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Nope.

 

[YoungWolf]

Such a wum.

As we have already discussed, we are al delighted with nine points. It gives us a safety net and now we have ten days to bring in players and address the issues surrounding our current situation (this has still been a poor season, which even surely you would admit?)

If we were to continue setting up in this fashion and playing as we have done in this style, one that does not entertain the fans as KJ always claims he wants to do, we will not continue to win games and clean sheets as we have done in the last 3 games. It is not sustainable.

 

[slink]

The players have got credit Frank for all their effort but the standard of football is awful. Things haven't turned around either. When we start to look like a side with a plan and we put together a run where we look like a side capable of winning games rather than pinching them like we did today and against Reading then the management will get credit.

We actually defended quite well today but i expect us to do so with 9 outfield player behind the ball, our attacking play was nearly non existent. The really good sides(Derby, Boro) would absolutely batter us at the minute.

 

[Kenny]

Probably only Boro and Derby that can be classed as really good sides in this Division. After watching games on Sky, most of them are just like the game from today.

 

[pr0sl0]

There are two factors here - there's the results, and the football itself.

For the former, Jackett can be said to have turned things around once he's matched - or, ideally, beaten - the tally from last season at the same point. After 24 games last season we had 37 points, so at 31 now we're not *that* far behind. (Although it's also worth saying that we had a good January last year, and we'd have to win the next five games straight to pull ahead of 14/15 by a single point...) So, some evidence that Jackett might be on the way to earning credit for reversing a decline in results.

But it's hard to give credit on that basis alone because the football itself stinks so much, and is going to do nothing to really fix our fundamental issues in tactics, personnel, training, whatever, that have left us struggling against the better teams of this division (and which will make us completely untenable as a Premier League team if we did somehow manage to squeak promotion).

It's like giving credit to George Osborne for reducing the deficit when he's been relying on one-off sales of state assets. It works for a few years but eventually you run out of stuff to sell and you've still got an economy in the shitter for when the next recession hits.