Why have Wolves gone….a bit….wonky?

By: Toby | January 19th, 2009

Well, what in flippin’ crikey has gone wrong at Wolves then? That’s the question on a lot of people’s lips right now, I’m going to go through it all a bit, have a little shuffle around, poke a few places and hopefully come up with an answer, it’s like a classic exercise in the essay, essay being taken from the French, “essayer” – to try out (That’s a fact for you, impress the girl you next take to KFC). So let’s try out this one, it’s going to be a hard question to crack I think, it seems hard to track down what exactly has gone wrong this month, but the fact remains that by tomorrow, it’ll have been a calendar month since we’ve won a game in the league. And that’s worrying.

Right first off this isn’t an article of doom and gloom, I’m not going to harp on about individuals and point fingers, stamping up and down in circles shouting “whar I fink is this” and “whar you fink is wrong” no, that’s not my style, and if anything I’d like you to chip in on the comments with what you think has gone… well…not wrong… but…wonky.

The first area which has been bought up a lot pre match in recent games, is our defence. It’d be naive to say that we haven’t missed Mancienne since his recall, that’s an absolute understatement. He came in last time we had a wobble (loses against Norwich, Reading and Swansea had us pushing the panic button) and turned into a cure all, he slotted into our defence, plugged the gaps and turned us into a water tight outfit, we didn’t look like we were going to concede anymore, and if we did, it usually took something decent. But that’s the thing, before Mancienne was when we as a team were playing our most adventurous football, scoring three or four at a stride, once the little genius wedged himself into our back line, we didn’t really need to anymore, we could get one goal, maybe two, safe in the knowledge we weren’t going to concede that many in reply. Now with Mancienne back sitting on the bench for Chelsea (don’t get me started on my rage towards that predicament, why the hell recall a player to sit looking sullen in a tracksuit WHY?!) we’re still as cautious, not punchy up front.

Sticking with the back end of the team, Wolves have had a pretty unique position this season in so much as that we don’t have a regular number one, Hennessey and Ikeme seem almost interchangeable at times, once one picks up an injury or a drop in form the other comes in their place in a readymade and primed condition. Brilliant. Or is it? Defenders need a consistent voice behind them, Keepers have different techniques, while Henners might call one way, Ikeme might another, we’ve seen a few times each keeper come for a ball and hesitate, are they struggling from not being able to communicate with their defence? Our defence worries were compiled this week with the news that Stephen ward has been ruled out for the time being with a hairline fracture to his shoulder. Ward has been a revelation this season, dropping back from striker to left mid, left mid to left back he’s kept Hill out of the team, that’s the same Hill with 300 + first team appearances at left back in this league. He’s been an unsung hero, and I really do think we’ll miss him, he was useful by his very nature at supporting the attack, something that comes naturally to him, Hill doesn’t seem so happy with venturing forwards, and that leaves whoever’s in front of him a little bit stranded.

So what’s the solution to the defence? With my eye on the calendar it seems obvious to say “use the transfer window” but is that really what we need? New players need time to adapt, and while you’ve got time to adapt upfront, you’ve got far, far less time to adapt in defence, you mess up, you concede, you get booed and vilified for the rest of your career. No, I’d say unless we can get Mancienne back on loan, or someone to equal (hard to find) or better standard, we needn’t go running into the transfer market waving around our money like idiots. What about Shackell? Will he get his chance soon? Experienced at this level, hardly featured thus far, could this be his time to slot into the team? After all, he’s had all season to get into the groove.

Moving further up the field we come to the defence, which has been truly sublime at times this season, and equally, at times, seemed anonymous. I think our main problem is that while when picking our midfield the first three names flow out, Kightly, Jarvis and Henry. But what then? No, not even Mick’s entirely sure on that one. With Henry playing a centre mid, at times defensive midfield role, (a Makelele role if you will) he’s the man tidying up after Jarvis and Kightly’s forays up field, making sure we don’t stretch ourselves too thinly across the pitch. His role is an unspectacular one, but a vital one all the same. Henry is one of those players who the neutral or the hyperbolic fan rarely sees the point too, he seemingly does nothing, rarely passes forwards, never really passing more than a few yards and doesn’t score. But they’re the kind of people who thought Real Madrid’s galacticos were a good idea, and Football proved them wrong. You need a Henry in your team, hell he’s a poor man’s Diarra who in turn in a poor man’s Essien, the poor man’s Makalele, and he might be even further down those ranks, considerably so, yet he’s absolutely vital. We all know that Kightly and Jarvis are deadly in this league, so they’re not the issue here. It’s the final position in midfield, whether that be the form of an attacking midfield or a secondary centre midfielder, Mick can’t quite decide who he wants, Edwards and Jones seem to be the main players auditioning for the role yet neither have been convincing enough to make it their own. Now, this might be a place where we should be looking to strengthen in the remaining time we have left in the transfer window, an attacking midfielder who can create and pass with insight, yet still do the day to day central midfield duties is a hard berth to fill, if he weren’t injured, we’d essentially be looking at a Bodde figure, I believe this is why we were going for Gow, someone who could sit in the hole behind the strikers, creating space and chances. Who’s left in the market? Ben Watson? Who knows? Mick has a history of not usually being second guessed, so it’s like whistling in the wind to try and presuppose his next move, yet I think it might be in this area.

Finally, the reason why things have gone a bit wonky, isn’t even on the pitch. It’s in our heads. I think Wolves fans have just gotten into the habit of winning, because we’ve only lost one game since the 6th of December. Because we started the season in the August sun knocking sides to the gutter, anything less than a win is now greeted with deluded ranting, hyperbole and general misery making, we’ve got a winning mentality. Which is great, except we’ve gone a bit over the top with it all, I wouldn’t be surprised, with the current mindset that if we lose against Middlesbore on Saturday the lads will get booed off the pitch, which is utter madness.

If any Wolves fan had been taken to one side by Mick, one hand rested on your shoulder, as he looked into your eyes and said,

“Toby, by ‘eck I promise to you, we’ll be bloomin’ top of t’league in t’January, and I’ll say what more, we’ll have been top two since September”

You’d have said, “Mick, my name’s not Toby, and what’s with the accent?”

But then you’d have laughed in his face, probably said something about eating a hat, hell freezing over and pigs flying over head with a Dutchman riding aloft, wielding the World Cup.

Every time I look at the league table I can’t believe my luck, further more I can’t believe that I get to write about this brilliant, epic group of players every week, the best players we’ve seen in a Wolves team for a long time, the best I’ve ever personally seen. We all know that we’re not top of the league through a fluke, we’ve worked hard to get here, and we have also got the talent to back it up. Perhaps we’ve become a bit jaded by recent results but we know we’ve got it in us to knock five past a team, we just need to believe that again. Perhaps it’ll take a signing or two, Kyel from West Ham was a good start, perhaps a few may follow, but if they don’t we know we’ve got a team who’ve been top of the league for months without need of tinkering.

So I put to you, the Wolves fan, not to twitchily press refresh on the Sky Sports Transfer Centre looking for transfer news (I’ll do it for you), not to worry if we don’t win on Saturday (It’s just the Eon Cup) , but to get behind the team, not just when it counts on the day, but day to day, in the pub, at the bus stop, in the office, at school when another Wolves “fan” slates the team, calls for Mick’s head, moans and groans and wallows in potential failure, we don’t need you “supporting” our team.

Get out there and wear your heart, your club, and all they stand for on your sleeve, and believe, because you never know what might happen next.

So there we are.

Tarra-a-bit.