Wolves 2 Barnsley 1 - Never Give Up, Never Surrender!

[Lycan]

Just watched the game back, we were actually a lot better than I thought we were at first viewing. Not great obviously but we deserved the win IMO.

Thought Coady & Miranda were absolute rocks at the back for us.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Batth was the pick of the back three for me.

Much of our struggles in the first half were down to Vinagre and Doherty not being up to the mark, obviously we fixed one side with Baz coming on but Mr Gloves was very poor for the whole 90 minutes. Right down to his shite effort to head clear the equaliser. It was right at his square head and he half-ducked out of the way.

 

[Lycan]

Batth was the pick of the back three for me.

Much of our struggles in the first half were down to Vinagre and Doherty not being up to the mark, obviously we fixed one side with Baz coming on but Mr Gloves was very poor for the whole 90 minutes. Right down to his shite effort to head clear the equaliser. It was right at his square head and he half-ducked out of the way.

Batth did well with the long balls/crosses into the box and he put in a few excellently timed tackles but he should've given a penalty away when he stupidly barged through the back of Bradshaw, was responsible for Coady's yellow card as he put him in a terrible situation with a casual pass, booted the ball straight out of play 3 times in the second half and to be honest I thought he could've made a better effort to stop their goal going in on the line. He's part of the reason we ended up so lopsided as well, you could tell we weren't comfortable passing down our right hand side with Batth & Doherty and ended up trying to force passes down the left side.

Miranda literally didn't put a foot wrong and apart from one attempted diagonal ball that went straight out for a goal kick Coady was the same.

Vinagre was actually one of our better players going forward in the first half apart from one move right at the end when he cut inside and fluffed a pass when he should've gone to the by line. He was at the heart of all our best moves, it's just that he was just getting absolutely nowhere near Adam Hammill, never even attempted to stop him getting crosses in. When Douglas came on he shut down that side and picked up where RV had left off in an attacking sense.

I agree with you about Doherty, he was desperately poor. There were a few occasions in the second half when Neves/Saiss/Coady were looking for that quick diagonal to switch the play and Doherty just hadn't made the run. 40 yards of space in front of him and he was just ambling around on the half way line.

 

[Johnny75]

Doherty reverting back to type?

With German Phil broken I guess we may well be in the market in January for a new RWB and CF to make sure we don't slip up.

 

[Lycan]

Doherty reverting back to type?

With German Phil broken I guess we may well be in the market in January for a new RWB and CF to make sure we don't slip up.

Doherty was excellent vs Bristol the other week, just not at the races at all on Saturday. His touch completely deserted him and once again as soon as things aren't looking like they're going his way his head goes down and he spends most of the game sulking.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Not really much has changed with him, he always has some good games through a season. Even when he was at LB he played ok sometimes. But it's always more than cancelled out by the number of awful games he has, and the problem is that when he dips below his absolute maximum (which still isn't really good enough) then he looks dreadful.

Of course he is in a position now which masks the huge deficiency he has in his play (defending, of any kind) so he's judged almost entirely on attacking output. That was good vs Bristol City but terrible on Saturday and it's not the first bad game he's had this season either, he was actually worse vs Cardiff.

 

[Johnny75]

Doherty was excellent vs Bristol the other week, just not at the races at all on Saturday. His touch completely deserted him and once again as soon as things aren't looking like they're going his way his head goes down and he spends most of the game sulking.

I didn't think he was particularly good against City. He started very well, got kicked after 20 minutes and then Leko took him and Batth apart quite a few times. I don't think he's as comfortable with Batth there as he is with Miranda and he looked absolutely spent after 60 minutes.

Maybe he's just knackered.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

He's done more running in two months under Nuno than he has in two years under the previous managers so maybe. His natural demeanour doesn't help because it always looks like he just can't be bothered. He blatantly gave up twice in the chase for a pass forward on Saturday, it just looks shit. Leon used to do that as well.

We all know he isn't the answer but alternatives are thin on the ground. Theoretically Marshall, but his general play was terrible vs Bristol Rovers let alone whether he's actually suited to the role (we don't know because he hasn't played there).

 

[Tony Towner]

I've not seen anything since the game itself, but I thought Batth had a textbook Danny performance, some great blocks and sliding challenges, weak distribution and a fuck up that should have cost a goal.

 

[North Shropshire Lad]

The amount of time and space this system affords the RWB means that Doherty should be having a field day. If his energy levels and desire were at their maximum on Saturday he could have caused untold damage but unfortunately, while he was a great outlet, he wasn't actually that effective going forward.

Hugging the touchline, often with 15-20 yards of space when a ball is played out to him, he normally lets the ball bounce rather than taking it on the full and allowing the opposing full back to recover and take the impetus out of our attack.

I've said before, in another of my rare posts, that I'm not convinced by Miranda either and that's yet to change. A little too 'weak' on occasion and not commanding enough under a cross or cross field ball. Baath on the other hand has done more than enough for me and like DW, I had him as the pick of our defence on Saturday.

 

[North Shropshire Lad]

I've not seen anything since the game itself, but I thought Batth had a textbook Danny performance, some great blocks and sliding challenges, weak distribution and a fuck up that should have cost a goal.

Here's the issue with a bog standard Championship centre half that I think Baath is. For me you have to accept the poor distribution and have him clear his lines, rather than expect him to start becoming Beckenbaur or else these mistakes will happen. I don't care if Danny's agricultural, we have players in front of him to 'play', the last thing I want is him playing 1-2's on the edge of our box.

 

[Lycan]

We don't have to 'accept' anything.

If he can't improve his distribution he wont be here for long, it's that simple.

 

[Jack Regan]

He's done more running in two months under Nuno than he has in two years under the previous managers so maybe. His natural demeanour doesn't help because it always looks like he just can't be bothered. He blatantly gave up twice in the chase for a pass forward on Saturday, it just looks shit. Leon used to do that as well.

We all know he isn't the answer but alternatives are thin on the ground. Theoretically Marshall, but his general play was terrible vs Bristol Rovers let alone whether he's actually suited to the role (we don't know because he hasn't played there).

This in spades I watched the steel city derby yesterday and Clarke is a dead ringer for Doherty in both posture and body language, both trudging around the pitch when not involved in the play like they've just run a marathon.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Add Darren Ferguson and Freddy Eastwood to that particular Hall of Shame.

 

[North Shropshire Lad]

We don't have to 'accept' anything.

If he can't improve his distribution he wont be here for long, it's that simple.

I'd rather have a Centre Half with poor distribution that defends well, as opposed to a footballing Centre Half with good distribution that costs you goals is all I'm saying. Turning Baath into a 'total footballer' will never end well.
I can 'accept' Baath for what he is in this division, although obviously I also hope we improve and get an upgrade in time/on promotion.

P.S. I also think Baaths attitude (easy I know on *£5k/£10k/£15k a week...) has been spot on as well this season.

*insert correct figure as I have no idea

 

[Siggy]

I don't care if Danny has improved that much he is still a world away from the quality of Boly both ina nd off the ball. As Lycan says our days of accepting mediocrity are over. He will be back on the bench soon enough then off it completely with Bennett once Hause is fully fit again IMO..

Sent from my HTC 10 using Tapatalk

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

I think we may well end up with a first choice back three of Hause-Coady-Boly in the next month or so. Then Rodders and Danny to back them up. Bennett can go and sit in the Denes Rosa Suite.

 

[Lycan]

I'd rather have a Centre Half with poor distribution that defends well, as opposed to a footballing Centre Half with good distribution that costs you goals is all I'm saying. Turning Baath into a 'total footballer' will never end well.
I can 'accept' Baath for what he is in this division, although obviously I also hope we improve and get an upgrade in time/on promotion.

P.S. I also think Baaths attitude (easy I know on *£5k/£10k/£15k a week...) has been spot on as well this season.

*insert correct figure as I have no idea

Its not about what you or I can 'accept of a bog standard Championship defender, the fact is that in this team he's being asked to do a lot more than just kick it and head it as far away from goal as possible. If he's incapable of distributing the ball in the way Nuno wants him to he won't play when the more technically able players are available

 

[Deano]

I think Miranda is improving, I think there is more to come from him as well, he has a few dodgy moments but he is probably still adapting, if he's still committing the same mistakes in a month or two I'll be concerned.

I see Tim says Neves isn't justifying his price tag as well. Think it's a bit harsh on him considering he has just had a child and moved countries at the young age of 20, plus he's already had some excellent games for us.

 

[Langers]

Neves wasn't brilliant on Saturday but otherwise he's done well so far, especially as you point out that he's only young, with a new family in a new country. It's not like he's struggled regularly.

Both Miranda and Neves are only going to get better as the season progresses - both have done very well IMO.