The Squad 2015/16

[Tredman]

Sometimes having a player who embodies the clubs ethos and loves the club is worth more than having a very slightly better passer of the ball.

At the risk of coming over all 'wolves ay we' I'd rather my team were a team of try hard cloggers than overpaid playboys (not that I think hause or EEL are in that category)

I'd also point out that certain posters on here were of the opinion that EEL was god awful last season - things can change very quickly.

 

[Deleted Cyber]

Its a shame some of the senior decision makers at Wolves dont read this forum. There are times when collectively we make a lot of sense. This page is one of those times.

 

[YoungWolf]

Batth is captain, when he comes back from injury he will be back in (unless his replacement is in fantastic form). He is better than both EEL and Hause. Hause has potential to be better with more experience perhaps

 

[Norman Deeley]

The trouble is we have a squad of only four or five players, or types of player, and then multiples of each.

For a holding, ball retaining, non scoring midfielder read McDonald, Price, Evans, Rowe, Saville, Coady etc.
For a young, athletic CH/FB read EEB, Haus, Iorfa, Hayden
For a pacy, goalscorer Dicko or Afobe.

We have no striker cover or alternative 'type', no wide player on the left, no midfielder with a goal threat (barring the occasional Edwards purple patch, although 1 in 10 is hardly doing that job) and no leader.

The squad has numbers, but half do the same job.

+1 Exactly right, says it all

 

[Langers]

Having looked at the squad we have, I really don't think it's as bad as is being made out.

We definitely need to bring in at least 1 wide player (the priority) and a backup for Afobe/Dicko, but otherwise I don't think it's worth panicking about. There is still time for us to bring those players in. We don't need another keeper, the defence is fine, central midfield now appears to be well stocked. I agree with the argument that the squad is imbalanced rather than 'wafer thin'.

'Mid table squad at best'?! Come off it - give the players we've got a bit of credit. Fine - it's not as promising as we'd all hoped it would be at the end of last season and I'm not for one moment suggesting I'm happy with it and we're ready for Blackburn but if we can bring in at least two signings to go straight into the matchday squad, I think we'll be there or thereabouts.

 

[Nando]

Worst case scenario is we have a season like Blackburn last year. We've got a great strikeforce for this division. They will score goals.

We need the last couple of additions in order to really throw down a challenge and I'll be disappointed if we don't get them but some are being OTT.

 

[Langers]

Worst case scenario is we have a season like Blackburn last year. We've got a great strikeforce for this division. They will score goals.

We need the last couple of additions in order to really throw down a challenge and I'll be disappointed if we don't get them but some are being OTT.

I agree with you. Obviously a lot depends on keeping our key players fit but that applies to all teams in this division.

 

[Lycan]

Worst case scenario is we have a season like Blackburn last year. We've got a great strikeforce for this division. They will score goals.

We need the last couple of additions in order to really throw down a challenge and I'll be disappointed if we don't get them but some are being OTT.

It'll be the defence which is the key part IMO. No way does a team with a back 5 as good as ours finish lower than 7th or 8th in this division.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

It'll be the defence which is the key part IMO. No way does a team with a back 5 as good as ours finish lower than 7th or 8th in this division.

Wednesday did last season.

 

[Jolemai]

Wednesday did last season.

You feel their defense is on par with ours?

 

[Lycan]

Wednesday did last season.

I don't think Wednesday's defence was that good at all, they were just incredibly negative under Gray.

 

[Lord Knows]

I dont think Wolves defend very well as a team, especially from the front.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

You feel their defense is on par with ours?

Man for man I've little idea, don't even know who Wednesday's first choice back four are, or if they even play a back four! They conceded less goals than Wolves though so they must have been doing something better surely? Having looked again even Brighton managed to concede less than Wolves and they only finished a couple of places above the drop zone.

From what I've seen I wouldn't say Wolves' back four is THAT good to solely guarantee such a high finish.

 

[YoungWolf]

No but a combination of the back four and the front two we have is pretty impressive. Our spine is VERY strong.

Wednesday had a good pairing of Lees and Loovens last season at centre back, the former has been linked with a move away while Loovens has signed a new one year deal, but is getting on and has had injuries in the past. Westwood is a very good keeper for this level, but their full backs aren't as impressive. I would rather have our set of defenders and keeper.

 

[Derby Wolf]

Man for man I've little idea, don't even know who Wednesday's first choice back four are, or if they even play a back four! They conceded less goals than Wolves though so they must have been doing something better surely? Having looked again even Brighton managed to concede less than Wolves and they only finished a couple of places above the drop zone.

From what I've seen I wouldn't say Wolves' back four is THAT good to solely guarantee such a high finish.

It depends how you look at things surely, we conceded 16 over that November period, from the defeat against Bournemouth the last goal of the next 16 conceded was Leeds 23 games later in April. It shows our defence was as good and far better than Wednesday or Brighton aside for that sequence of 5 games.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

It depends how you look at things surely, we conceded 16 over that November period, from the defeat against Bournemouth the last goal of the next 16 conceded was Leeds 23 games later in April. It shows our defence was as good and far better than Wednesday or Brighton aside for that sequence of 5 games.

And if you took 5 games worth of data out of various other stats from various other teams I'm sure you could manipulate it to provide the results you wanted there too.

To be fair I'm not mad about the use of stats in sport, a lot of them are far too easy to manipulate one way or another to suit whatever argument you want, there's just far too much left to interpretation with very general stats like that. I didn't have much else to go on in this case though unfortunately.

How did the back 4 generally look in that wank spell compared to the rest of the season? From memory the slump was bought about far more from the lack of Dicko and failure to have any alternate way of playing without pace up top rather than a purely defensive failure, has the threat of Dicko, and later Afobe too, shielded some weakness in the backline perhaps?

 

[Langers]

And if you took 5 games worth of data out of various other stats from various other teams I'm sure you could manipulate it to provide the results you wanted there too.

To be fair I'm not mad about the use of stats in sport, a lot of them are far too easy to manipulate one way or another to suit whatever argument you want, there's just far too much left to interpretation with very general stats like that. I didn't have much else to go on in this case though unfortunately.

How did the back 4 generally look in that wank spell compared to the rest of the season? From memory the slump was bought about far more from the lack of Dicko and failure to have any alternate way of playing without pace up top rather than a purely defensive failure, has the threat of Dicko, and later Afobe too, shielded some weakness in the backline perhaps?

Having so little quality up front definitely didn't help but similarly, Batth was hopeless for that spell (and it wasn't just because Doherty - who was admittedly also hopeless - was playing alongside him). Fortunately, we stopped the rot and generally looked pretty solid at the back when the rest of the team had more of a balance to it.

 

[Lycan]

I'm generally talking about our defence post Bournemouth (H) btw. Adding Iorfa and Hause into the equation made it a completely different beast.

Ikeme

Iorfa Batth Stearman Golbourne

With EEL, Hause and Doherty (meh) as back up. Apart from Middlesbrough, Hull and maybe Ipswich I can't think of any defences as good as that in our league.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Iorfa made a massive difference, Doherty was costing us a goal a game more often than not after Reading away (where their second goal was entirely down to him and his shocking positioning). Also stopped that entire channel being incredibly vulnerable to pace.

 

[The Bear]

I couldn't believe just how tall Iorfa was when I saw him close up at Burton. He's a bit skinny but he's massive!