The Squad 2015/16

[PuntsWolf]

Yes Wolves aren't playing at the same level as the others, but Barca are head and shoulders above the opposition. Wolves having Afobe and Dicko is barely relative to Suarez, Messi and Neymar.

 

[Deleted Cyber]

Would people complain more if we won 1-0 for 5 games and drew 10 games 0-0 or won 8 games 3-2 and lost 7 games 3-2 (yes we would have 1 point less).

Wouldn't you rather be entertained rather than bored?

The former is less likely than the latter. you wont ever get 15 clean sheets in a row full stop. The point is that you cant lose if you do not concede. Every game starts at 0-0 and is the build from point. If that means griniding out 1-0 wins then great. Solidity is good for a team if it has ambitions of longer term success at a higher level. If you concede goals at championship level you could be a sieve in the premier league. Look at us in League 1. Record clean sheets and runaway league winners but not runaway scorers Rotherham exception. Looking at the season so far would I have preferred a 0-0 with QPR hell yes! We were too open and once they had worked us out that was that, only one team was going to win even from 2-0 down. Add errors to that and it does compound the crime. This reasoning is why I think we will do as well away from home this year as we will at home. Teams coming for a point will probably get one either because they nick a goal and we cant score more than one like Ipswich last year, they park a bus or we give sloppy goals away. Clean sheets really do help mitigate 2 of those three scenarios and will give us a better chance of more points.

However it is a balance. I want us to play the right type of football based on solid foundations. We do not have the squad to play games of we score more than you in this league at the moment. I would take a season of 10-9-4 at home now and 11-5-7 away as that would get us really close 77points better than I would have hoped.

 

[Tony Towner]

Deslandes is a left back, Edwards should be competing for *just* the advanced CM role with Wallace and Byrne competing for the right winger spot with Henry. Personally unless we have a massive injury crisis we'll see next to nothing of VLP, I think he's done here now.

Edwards towards the base of the midfielder is, was and always will be a car wreck.

Assuming we start Afobe and Le Fondre I think we'll see VLP on the bench until we sign a forward on loan (assuming we do). Makes Reid's injury more desperate for him as I think he would have taken that role given the start to the season he had made.

 

[GoldFlagFlyingHigh]

I think you can forget RVLP featuring unless we get a couple more injuries. He didn't even feature yesterday in the Liverpool friendly, unless he has an injury I'm not aware of.

 

[Lycan]

I think you can forget RVLP featuring unless we get a couple more injuries. He didn't even feature yesterday in the Liverpool friendly, unless he has an injury I'm not aware of.

Who played in that game? I've not seen a line up anywhere.

 

[Kenny]

WOLVES: McCarey, Doherty, Upton, Carter, Rowe, Wallace, Price, Saville (Weeks 86), Graham, Enobakhare (Ennis 89), Le Fondre (Ronan 60).

 

[YoungWolf]

McCarey Doherty, Upton, Carter, Rowe, Wallace, Saville, Price Graham, Bright, Le
Fondre

Ennis, Ronan and Weekes came on

 

[GoldFlagFlyingHigh]

From what I'm hearing McDonald's place may come under threat very soon. I think Edwards is likely to move inside for now but KJ still has high hopes for Saville to play alongside a strong player like Coady.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Yeah, Ken has been talking Saville up quite a bit. Didn't go to the Barnet game but I heard some good reports on him. I haven't written him off, very disappointing first season but I don't think we ever worked out where he was best deployed, certainly most were pleased when we signed him. He probably has to make a mark the next time he does get a chance though.

I haven't written off Evans either, I think people forget how good he was to about October last season.

 

[Lycan]

Definitely agree with both points Deutsch, two young players with a lot of potential. Despite the sig, I'm still a bit of a George Saville fan, I think he was very harshly criticised last season.

 

[GoldFlagFlyingHigh]

Yeah, Ken has been talking Saville up quite a bit. Didn't go to the Barnet game but I heard some good reports on him. I haven't written him off, very disappointing first season but I don't think we ever worked out where he was best deployed, certainly most were pleased when we signed him. He probably has to make a mark the next time he does get a chance though.

I haven't written off Evans either, I think people forget how good he was to about October last season.

On Saville, I think a strong player next to him is essential. McDonald was never this. But to be fair most of his appearances came when he had Clarke playing upfront which impacted massively on the rest of the team. If Sako didn't do anything during this time, then nobody did.

 

[Nando]

Saville played some lovely passes in that Barnet game. He's clearly got talent - we just need to find out how to extract it from him.

 

[YoungWolf]

In his initial performances, alongside Evans and McDonald, I thought he did okay. If he sticks his one on one against Reading in, or his shot against Charlton hits the post and goes in rather than agonisingly spinning across goal, he might have been seen as having a very positive start to is Wolves career. My issue with him when I have seen him (and this was the same against Fulham in the under 21s) is he doesn't seem to be able to go up a gear, or change the tempo, all very one paced. I would worry abut him as part of a two, but think he would benefit playing next to someone like Coady as pointed out.

I still have high hopes for Evans. If Edwards is played centre midfield in a 442 from the start I will be very disappointed

 

[Alan]

As has been said before, Saville was unlucky in that he came into the team at a time when we were fiercely missing Dicko and no one seemed to know how to deal with it. By the time Dicko was back, Saville had been dropped.

 

[Johnny75]

In his initial performances, alongside Evans and McDonald, I thought he did okay. If he sticks his one on one against Reading in, or his shot against Charlton hits the post and goes in rather than agonisingly spinning across goal, he might have been seen as having a very positive start to is Wolves career. My issue with him when I have seen him (and this was the same against Fulham in the under 21s) is he doesn't seem to be able to go up a gear, or change the tempo, all very one paced. I would worry abut him as part of a two, but think he would benefit playing next to someone like Coady as pointed out.

I still have high hopes for Evans. If Edwards is played centre midfield in a 442 from the start I will be very disappointed

I think that's a top assessment. I don't think Saville is good enough, just an average academy product we've overspent on. There's much better about and he's just another example of the Jay Spearing factor. I would like to see Price started, it's no secret why we do well with him in the team but for some reason KJ doesn't and that's a flaw on the manager's part.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

The problem we've had with Price - more so since we tried getting two strikers in the team from Jan/Feb - is that he and McDonald typically offer absolutely zero goal threat. If you're playing 4-4-2 or a variant of it then you cannot have your central midfielders scoring one goal between them as happened with that pair last season (and it won't be many more this year).

Might be different now we're more likely to go back to 4-2-3-1 with Dicko out - be it Afobe up top or in the number 10 role.

 

[Johnny75]

I think we'll see a return to 4-2-3-1 and hopefully Price. I think Coady has addressed the goals from central problem and I hope Wallace and Byrne chip in with quite a few too.

 

[Lycan]

Could Coady & Price work as a midfield 2? Had this conversation with Aiki after the Blackburn game and I'm still not sure.

 

[YoungWolf]

We have that option, and if we did I guess it would be Henry/Wallace and Byrne either side of Edwards behind Afobe. Le Fondre was excellent against Charlton, I can see Jackett wanting to pick him, which makes me worry about us playing Edwards and Coady in the middle. I would like to see price back in the team.

 

[YoungWolf]

Could Coady & Price work as a midfield 2? Had this conversation with Aiki after the Blackburn game and I'm still not sure.

I think so, but we'd lack a creative touch through the middle, same goes for if we play Edwards there. We'd be relying a lot on wide play.