Proper verdict now I'm back home.
If I were to assess that game in isolation, or if you'd shown it to me 12 months ago when we were playing as we were then, I'd say it was a poor performance with little to commend it. But that would be reviewing a game in no proper context, the context now is we are struggling for fluency and have been for months, with no solidity to pay that off. At the very least, you can say that we're starting to become a little more reliable defensively in as much as teams aren't cutting through us at will and having double digit decent chances. There's a long way to go before we can even think of being proper top six candidates (which should always be our minimum aim at this level) but in a season of precious few positives we can say today was better than a lot of what we've served up. Blues are no great shakes but they have been above us for pretty much the entire campaign and that's two games this season where we've dealt with them pretty well.
Ikeme: As stated previously, I've given him a lot of stick this season and I make no apologies for that. Much improved today though. Claimed crosses better than he has done, much much quicker off his line and one excellent save. Kicking was a bag of wank again but I can deal with that so long as he's getting the other fundamentals right and he did today.
Iorfa: Another big improvement on recent showings, defended a lot better and did try to get forward with more purpose (end product was lacking though).
Batth/Hause: It's simply a far better partnership than the calamitous Batth/EEL offering we've had for most of the season, Hause is better on the ball which gives us a bit more licence to play and he's also nowhere near as cumbersome. They weren't overly troubled by Blues' tactic of lamping it to Donaldson (diving prick, as usual) but dealt with what they had to competently. One excellent near post block by Hause.
Doherty: Defended well again. I don't know whether it's someone on the staff putting a rocket under him or if it's just the penny finally dropping but he's eventually stopped letting cross after cross sail into our box uncontested, a big improvement. He's also showing much more urgency than he has done at any previous stage of his Wolves career, again somewhere along the line he's realised that you have to be proactive and defend on the front foot. However - his attacking mini-burst is going to prove very shortlived, Blues had already worked out today that if you don't let him cut inside or chop onto his right foot then he isn't going to hurt you. We could never really count on that lasting anyway, so long as he carries on defending properly then that'll do for the rest of the season.
Price: A clear MOTM for me, organised well, always on for the short ball, passed it well, some key interceptions...basically the archetypal Jack Price performance. Not going to win you games on his own but he can go a long way to making sure you don't get played through or spend most of the game chasing the ball out of possession.
Coady: Usual story with him, bags of effort, some ok defensive work (and one excellent goal saving tackle on Maghoma) but no quality whatsoever on the ball, a couple of truly risible crosses sum him up in a creative sense. Yet for some reason we often had him deployed as the most advanced of our three midfielders. Nothing's really going to change with him, he isn't a very good footballer, he could do a decent job of playing purely as a defensive midfielder with no attacking responsibilities but we already have Price to do that and he's a better player.
Saville: Thought he had a decent game. He's still learning at this level but he closed down well, looked to get involved in our attacking play, did his defensive bits ok, there is potential there as a box to box midfielder although he has to work on learning when to release the ball and some other decision making aspects.
Helan: He's doing a passable job at the moment in giving our side balance and offering a bit of a physical presence but on showings so far I wouldn't want him permanently even if he were available on a free. Frequently makes the wrong choices, isn't really much of an attacking threat from open play, runs into a lot of blind alleys, doesn't even keep it simple particularly well, so often it's him that concedes possession. Set pieces were cack as well.
Byrne: Very poor display. Oddly reticent to take on his man when you'd think that would be his thing. No real threat and rightly subbed. Coming to a bit of a crossroads as he's now getting a few opportunities and not taking them, Ken won't wait forever.
Sigurdarson: I've granted him slack previously as our football has done him no favours but today we didn't wang the ball miles above his head all the time and we did a much better job of getting bodies around him when he held it up. So less mitigation for him having what was another wholly ineffective time, he just isn't equipped to be a target man, he doesn't have the natural instinct to do it and his lay offs are frequently poor. Industrious when moved wide but little else.
Zyro: An immediate improvement, I like his physical presence and he's pleasingly direct. Unfortunately for him he missed our spell in terms of keeping possession and control of the game so he had limited opportunity to test the Blues back four. Will be starting very soon, if not at Burnley then immediately after the break.
Mason: No real time, we're still none the wiser why we signed him or what we plan to do with him.
Not a performance to wax lyrical over, but neither was it of the abject capitulation or sheer torpor variety that we've seen so often at Molineux in 2015/16.
