The Soccer Blog: Wolves just hate the late show

By: DJ | November 6th, 2010

seb For the second time in ten days at Old Trafford and for the fifth time this season Wolves lost points to a late late goal. It was another sickening end to a game where the overall performance was excellent, and Wolves remain one place and one point off the bottom of the table after this latest episode in a repeating nightmare that is getting harder to swallow.

Wolves as expected fielded an unchanged team and adopted the same approach they had at Chelsea by focusing on ball retention and doing so very effectively. And although this led to an uninspiring opening 15 minutes it was livened up when Karl Henry had Van De Saar scurrying across his goal to collect a 40 yard lob from a misplaced clearance. United reintroduced Hargreaves who broke down within a couple of minutes to be replaced by the unimpressive Bebo. And United were stringing little together with Wolves dominating possession and definitely the better side throughout the opening half. The closest to a Wolves goal came from an inswinging cross by Jarvis that just eluded Hunt on the far post. But just as we entered the one minute of injury time at the end of the half Fletcher found Park just inside the Wolves are with the time to turn and shoot past Hahnemann. It was a lead United certinly didn’t deserve.

United had more of the game in the early stages of the second half but rarely looked like scoring and McCarthy decided to take a gamble by introducing Ebanks Blake and Fletcher instead of Hunt and Edwards. The formation at that stage became a 4-1-4-1 with Henry in front of the defence and SEB, Fletcher, Milijas and Jarvis behind Doyle. And SEB was to put Wolves level within two minutes. Milijas shot across the face of goal and Ebanks Blake blocked the ball and turned and slotted the ball past Van Der Saar. United stepped up a gear and were forcing Wolves to defend deep after the goal but the defence were holding firm and looked comfortable. Mancienne was introduced instead of Milijas to add more defensive cover as we went 4-2-3-1. And although United introduced Scholes and Macheda they still were not creating clear chances. And from a rare attack Wolves could easily have taken the lead. Mancienne got forward and when he knocked a Doyle cross down in the area there was a great chance for Fletcher but he blazed over.

That was to be Wolves last chance as United dominated and Wolves were having increasing trouble getting out of their defensive third. 4 minutes injury time was added which I thought was about fair given we had seen 6 subs and the game had been held up following a clash of heads. Wolves needed some possession to hold out and when they produced some controlled passing the time was drifting away, but a misplaced pass by Fletcher gave United one last chance to attack and they made it tell. The ball was played out to Park on the right wing and he cut infield acrosss the area before shooting through the crowded area and beating Hahnemann on his near post.

Hahnemann – looked secure but might be disappointed to be beaten at his near post not for the first time this season.

Foley – maintained his excellent form with United creating little from his side

Stearman – a couple of moments of almost costly indecision but generally another very good showing and brought the ball out of defence well

Berra – I made him Wolves best player on the day

Ward – like Stearman generally played well but caught out when hesitating on clearances a couple of times

Hunt – still finding his form and gave the ball away a lot first half but improved as the game went on

Edwards – not able to influence the game anywhere near as much as last week

Henry – certainly one of the best players. Won lots of important tackles and passed the ball well

Milijas – another impressive performance with accurate passing and no little tackling back

Jarvis – Brown dealt with him well early on but gradually caused United problems when cutting infield without making as big an impression as in recent weeks

Doyle – against the best centre back pairing in the country still proved a handful and made some good runs down the channels

SEB – showed again he can be a scorer at this level and unlucky not to be in the team as we persist with 4-5-1, although didn’t look too comfortable operating on the wide right

Fletcher – missed a great chance and gave the ball away to lead to the United winner. Needs some games in his best position as a striker cause midfield or wing never looks his bag

Mancienne – surprised when it was Milijas he replaced when Wolves needed some possession but did a good job when he came on

This really is a time for players and supporters to show whether they are glass half full or half empty characters. The positive ones will remember another excellent performance against one of the top teams. Others will be getting increasingly peeved by Wolves inability to hold what they have in the closing stages of a game. We can but hope the players retain this level of performance when we play opposition that will be less equiped to pinch a result. But the continual shedding of late goals must test the spirit of management, players and supporters alike.

Category: Team News

Tags: Team News
« Wolves entitled to have their dreams | Home |
Leave a ReplyIf you have not commented here before, please take a moment to peruse our
Commenting Guidelines. -->

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website

Russia gets Nasty in World Cup Bid Panic on the Streets of London, Panic on the Streets of Birmingham Injury List Lengthens Ahead of Montenegro more news...

Search The Offside

Support Your Club Official Gear at SOCCER.COM

The Soccer Blog

Pages

Sunday, 7 November 2010

Wolves just hate the late show

No comments:

Post a Comment