Wolves v Portsmouth verdict thread.

[Mutchy]

For everyone at game, watching online, listening to comms...

 

[Timberwolf]

questions need to asked...and the answers aint going to be pretty. Wolves are $$$$, make no mistake. Cant score, cant defend, and its only a matter of waiting til may before its bye bye prem footy.

 

[Del Boy]

I've not felt this depressed after a defeat for a long time, should have picked up one point at least. It doesn't get any easier does it, Everton away next.

 

[16Matt16]

Disappointing

 

[Taffywolf]

Henners: Not at fault for goal. Did all that was asked. 7
Foley: Another 45 mins under his belt not yet 100% Surprised he went off 6
Elokobi. Not good enough for this level, Too slow and gives the ball away too often. 5
Berra: Solid again, Really beginning to look like a good signing. 8
Mancienne: Not his best game but did ok. 7

Halford: Only brings a long throw and set pieces to the party...6
Henry: Not good enough IMO. 6
Edwards: Was the driving force for us today right until the last minute. 8
Jarvis: Has the pace to beat any defender but his delivery from open play is very disappointing. 5

Doyle: Living on scraps but looks quality. 7
Keogh: Tried hard again but sometimes thats not enough. 6

SEB:Linked up well with Doyle, needs a run of games now, Unlucky with chance as it was from a tight angle and the ball was bouncing. 7
Kightlyisappointing. expected more.6
The Hoff: Needs more than 10 mins. won most aerial balls he contested. 7

MM:Should of thrown caution to the wind earlier than the 80th Minute, Needs to find something this week in training that will work at Everton. If we go there with that team and tactics we will get hammered. I would make Berra captain and leave out Henry to bring Castillo in if he's available..5

 

[Wagstaffe Was Magic]

questions need to asked...and the answers aint going to be pretty. Wolves are $$$$, make no mistake. Cant score, cant defend, and its only a matter of waiting til may before its bye bye prem footy.

Permission to panic Captain Mainwaring!

Two stone wall pens denied us today . . .

 

[Dorset DeWolf]

on way out now, $$$$ing $$$$! Mancienne can't start the next game he has been awful again today, will write more when i get back in the $$$$ing car

 

[WolvesAreBoringOnCeefax]

Need to capitalize on our periods of good play, but how we do that I just don't know. There were more than enough chances in that game for us to have gotten something, plus being unlucky with the penalty shouts.

 

[yateleywolf]

Shocking result we needed a least a point. Don`t think we played our best team at the start would of preferred to see both SEB and Kightly from the start.

Really missed the Henry-Castillo partnership to give us the base in midfield.Not sure that MM got it right at the end throwing Hoff on as it just looked like all three strikers just got in each other way.

Just gutted tonight to lose this game especially after we had a stone-wall penalty again not given to us i still don`t know how the linesman didn`t see the ball hit Wilson`s arm.

 

[Langdale Wolf]

Verdict going by the feed from the 25th minute onwards.

Bad. We can play so, so much better. Having been one of the posters who has stuck up for Elokobi, I thought he was very poor indeed. We simply struggled to break them down.

HOWEVER - we were nowhere NEAR as bad as many people on the comms thread make out. The worrying thing - admittedly - is results, but I don't think we deserved to lose today. We certainly didn't deserve to win, but we were much better after the break.

Other points:

Kites - not with it at all today for me, tried to take his man on when he should have passed much too often, a few petty squables which he shouldn't have got involved with. Has 2 weeks to gain a bit more match fitness which I think he needs.

SEB - a lot better I thought, except his late chance which he would normally have buried. Excellent movement, and promising link up play with Doyle (who was superb throughout). A lot more like the old SEB except the miss!!

Halford - what the hell is everyone's problem with this guy?! I didn't think he did too much wrong today and that throw was our major/only(?) threat.

Castillo - badly missed today. Some composure in the middle of the park would have helped no end.

Howard Webb - this is getting $$$$ing ridiculous now. FOUR stonewall pens NOT GIVEN. I make that 6 this season, and that is simply not good enough. For $$$$s sake PL, sort these clowns out. He was diabolical today. The best thing about him was his shirt, and that was garishly pink. Sums up his day. Joker.

The Hoff substitution - can anyone explain to me why it was a strange sub when we're 1-0 down and losing the aerial battle in and around their box, when Elokobi was playing poorly?! Fair play to Mick for throwing EVERYTHING at them.

Portsmouth - yeah, they're bottom. Yeah, we should have won. Yeah, we didn't play well enough. And I expect to hear umpteen comments on here about how poor they were, but fair play to them today. They reminded me of us at Wigan, and you could see how much it meant to them. Defended pretty well except from Halford's throw, which - with more composure and a set of eyes from that $$$$ Webb would have secured us a deserved point.

I am worried about the points total, make no mistake about that. But the performance was not 'doom and gloom' and still a mile away from the squad of 2003. The problem now is the next few games. Still a long, long way to go yet, but I admit that we should have more on the board - at home in particular.

Online feed - excellent. Never went down once. Well chuffed about that. Well, actually, I'm not because of what I saw, but you know what I mean.

Today is a bad day and I'm pretty $$$$ed off, so I'm going to get some Holdens down me, stick FIFA 10 in and rewrite our season so far.

 

[bigbluewolf]

I know nothing about the game, all I've heard is the result but I am so disappointed that we lost. Portsmouth played 7 lost 7 then they play Wolves and we give them 3 points.

We could have been 10 points clear of bottom, now we're only 4.

 

[01molineux]

I have my doubt over McCarthy's home record in the Prem, 1 win in over 20 games is not good enough.

However, that was mostly with Sunderland and these results tend to even themselves out over the course of the season, you cant claim we are going down because of one 1-0 defeat.

Keep the faith and we will stay up!

 

[Darryl Revok]

Verdict? As performances go that was one of the most insipid & woeful I've seen for a long time. Forget the premier league, we won't get a result in any league with that kick and rush rubbish. The lack of creativity has worried me for a long time and it was evident today all game to be honest. Portsmouth were obviously going to shut up shop after going ahead but at home against a team severely lacking confidence we made little or no headway and blustered around.
Poor.

 

[Munich_Wolf]

Poor. Need Castillo in midfield with Henry. Elokobi needs replacing and sent out on loan. Halford offers nothingapart from his throw ins and free kicks, and Edwards is too lightweight for 90 minutes but might be okay as a sub.

It's harsh but Ebanks-Blake needs a run in the team alongside Doyle, with Keogh or Hofmaier replacing either at some point depending on situation.

I'd also drop Manciene and bring back Craddock as soon as possible.

 

[Andy]

I'm an optimist when it comes to Wolves, but in my opinion, how we played is totally irrelevant today. We needed 3 points from that fixture. I really don't care if we were unlucky. Very disappointed with the team today.

 

[north west wolfie]

How dissapointing, well here we go onto everton, villa, stoke, arsenal, chelsea, sort of brings a tear to your eye. Have to admit my bottoms sqeaking now.

 

[North West Wanderer]

Drowning my sorrows in the l tree. My issues are with george and jarvis. Not good enough today. In georges case at all. Noone seemed up for it. I'll report more when home.

 

[Devil's Slide Wolf]

I'm anticipating Keogh winning player of the month

 

[Pengwern]

I feel worse about this defeat than any other game so far. Why can Burnley win their home games, concede 14 away goals in 4 matches and yet be 5 points better than us and in the top half? 3 points for a win, that's why and it suits them, which is why they'll stay up. We've spent more money than three quarters of this League over the summer and, apart from Doyle and Halford, it looks at the moment like we made BIG mistakes, despite all the hype about our scouting network. I suspect we missed Castillo today more than anyone, who was a last-minute buy just as the penny was dropping that Milijas doesn't have the lungs or mind for English Football. Zubar was on the bench while we gave away another free header - presumably Mick sees nothing of him in training to think he would improve our ability to give away fewer simple goals. These were the two main players we bought after Doyle and, frankly, it looks like we screwed up. Sky seem to think we deserved one penalty but are more interested in Portsmouth breaking their 11 month run without an away victory.

 

[Samui Wolf]

We were rubbish today.

In defence of Halford ... he did have 2 good shot from the free kicks, and put in a couple of decent crosses. I thought he was much than Foley today.

Have to agree on big George though, he was awful. I wish Ward was fit now !

 

[Jameswwfc]

Not good enough, we're going down. We'll be bottom very soon. When will our next win come now, i can't see one for a fair few weeks now.

 

[old wittonian]

Poor.

I'd also drop Manciene and bring back Craddock as soon as possible.

I'd drop Elokobi and move Manciene to left back.

 

[Tarcisio Mifsud]

Last season we used to write that our players have great stamina because they are training very very hard. I think that this season our players are getting tired from the 70th minute onwards. It has happened against Fulham, Sunderland and even today inspite that pressure we were putting Pompey's players were always first on the ball. You could see one Pompey forward and 3 Wolves defenders and he still manage to get a corner.

I am of the opinion that today MM should take quite a big chunc of this defeat. Halford should have either started as a fullback or should not have started at all. Foley does not seem to be fit yet and therefore Halford should have started as a Fullback.

Our midfield is not that convincing and we are losing the battle in that area, with our forwards not getting too much service. Irrespective of what was said about Milijas, I think we need him in midfield.

On the other hands our forwards today wasted some good chances particularly towards the end of the first half.

To make matters worse, officials are making it difficult for us by not awarding us what we deserve. Today we had one clear penalty, which I cannot understand how the referee and his assistant could miss, besides we have two other heavy pushes in the area against Wolves and the referee just allowed play to go on.

Man of the match would once again go to Berra with 7.

Mancienne, Henry, Doyle, Jarvis, Halford,Edwards, and Hennessey deserve a 6.

Keogh, Kigthly, SEB, Elokobi, Foley and Maierhofer deserve a 5

 

[jrwolves]

No creativity at all!

Berra and henry picks for me, other than them two, everyone underpreformed

very disapointed

 

[Westport Wolf]

In all fairness to Pompey, they played neat good football, certainly in the first half. They passed and moved while we passed and stood still. They passed in neat little triangles while we hoofed long balls up the pitch for half an hour. They were more clinical in attack and we just weren't/aren't good enough to finish our chances off and kill teams off. We need to tighten up across the entire pitch from defence through to the simple ball control of SEB and Keogh in particular up front. Kightly needs to start and we need someone else at left back. We need to Craddock or Stearman in the middle instead of Mancienne who's getting worse IMO. Most of all we need to fight with spirit as Pompey did. They were constantly first to the ball in the first half. It was becomming embarassing and the goal was comming for a long time. Can't believe Hennessey didn't come for the corner when the cross first came in. NOT GOOD ENOUGH - Learn and move on. We must stay in this division if we are to develop our club and stop becomming a yo-yo club like that shower down the road.

 

[Del Woppio]

$$$$. Offered nothing from open play at all. Awful goal. Boateng had seven yards when they lined up for the corner- three players pointed at him, nobody went, free cross, goal. Jarvis only outlet first half, eight changes Ar half time. Just didn't work. Only Doyle, berra and Henry earned their wages. Sitter by seb missed, did little else. Hoffman won more than he should. Elokobi was awful, mancienne not much better, foley looked pike he had been out for a year. All in all, bunch of $$$$$.

 

[Deleted member 3545]

Not good enough.
money wasted apart from Doyle. team still the same as last season.
defence and midfield still championship quailty.
dont know what tactics to play should it be 442/451/433
Wolves are trying very hard but very nieve.
can see we need that premiership experiance badly.
January need to go out and break the bank and get the players we should of got in pre-season if that possible.

 

[Timberwolf]

Permission to panic Captain Mainwaring!

Two stone wall pens denied us today . . .

I'm surprised you can still see, what with all your blind eye turning.

 

[Dorset DeWolf]

halford must start over foley next game at rightback cos without his throw we've got very little, henry, berra and doyle did well, the others did not

 

[jbarnettuk1984]

Very poor result, performance, everything.

Doyle must be wondering why he signed, as quite simply, he was the only person in a gold shirt who came away with any credit.

Elokobi + Foley's distribution was woeful. I lost count of the times it was clipped forward hopefully with no direction on, completely by passing our midfield.

Henry + Edwards just didn't work. When they weren't watching the ball sail over their heads they were miscontrolling it or giving it away. At least Henry showed a little bite in the tackle but that wasn't enough.

Mancienne was again, worryingly inept.

Berra was again the best defender on the pitch for us. That's three games in a row. I can't help but feel we may have more chance of keeping a clean sheet with Craddock back alongside him though - yes, that's how desperate it's got.

Hennessey didn't do anything wrong and can't be blamed for the goal, after all edwards and mancienne both switched off.

Keogh - not worth a rating because he did $$$$ all. Lost out in every 50/50 tackle, slowed play down, didn't win headers, didn't ever look like scoring.

Jarvis was again busy but nothing seemed to work for him

Kightly seemed more interested in having an argument then getting the ball down and running at players. He hasn't really shown anyone what he can do yet.

And SEB.... he's a criminal for missing the rebound from the free kick. Other then that I actually thought he gave us much more threat then Keogh.

-----

I hate to say it, but it's looking like our only real 'tactic' is to win a throw in and hope for a goal from a Halford throw... it's all very depressing.

Howard Webb - you're an absolute joke.

 

[Davebull]

I thought Henry was very good actually.

One of very few highlights being another very good display from him personally.

 

[wolvo_boi]

Before the season started i was worried, last season we won the league but our record against the teams around us wasnt great. Against the teams finishing 2nd-5th out of a possible 30 points we picked up just 11.

Portsmouth are going to be around us come the end of the season as will Hull, 2 home games where we have picked up just 1 point. We did well against Fulham and did brilliantly to snatch an away win at Wigan as 6 points from those 2 was unexpected. If we cant beat the teams around us though we will struggle because unexpected points dont come very often in this league especially as i cant see us picking many points up with our next run of games.

 

[Wolv3nsam]

Doyle, Henry and Berra good, the rest crap - the ref was a joke, how many times did Pompey handle the ball? I counted at least 2-3 times in the penalty area in front of the North Bank. We missed Castillo today, badly.

 

[Wolv3nsam]

And SEB.... he's a criminal for missing the rebound from the free kick. Other then that I actually thought he gave us much more threat then Keogh.

I thought the angle was very much against him.

 

[bod101]

poor defensive peformance. berra was decent but how two portsmouth forwards are left unmarked for their goal isnt good enough. foley wasn't fit, halford was better when pushed back. mancienne was poor and seemed a little nervous/unsettled but he is young and is going to have games like this. elokobi wasnt as bad some people make out, he wasnt beaten by the winger, his distribution was poor though.

midfield was fairly non existent, henry played well but he can't do it alone, he would win the ball and look for an option only to have a bunch of statues in front of him. edwards isn't capable at this level in the middle, he needs too much thinking time, he was behind the play for most of the game, out wide in previous games he looked ok, for what he offered you may as well have put milijas on. halford isnt a right winger but he is fine as a full back and should have started there. jarvis, really annoying today had the beating of his man but seemed to be playing very narrow, not his fault if that is what he was told to do. Kightly much like jarvis kept going inside a lot which was annoying when there already was a crowded box, he wasn't used to his best ability for me.

forwards doyle again showed quality, keogh stated well but completely dissappeared after 10 mins rightly subbed for SEB who brought some vigour to our play. The hoff also brought more presence to our attack and won a few headers. But tactically bring on more forwards was pointless as we had no supply at all, two wingers who never received the ball and if they did seemed to have to go inside.

V. Poor performance with wolves reverting to the stereotype of giving a team on a bad run there first win.

and special mention to the ex director who returned for his first game this season who sits behind me. Please never return you are like a cancer to the club with your brand of "support"

 

[Wolv3nsam]

elokobi wasnt as bad some people make out, he wasnt beaten by the winger, his distribution was poor though.

You can't get beaten by the winger when you're pratting about in central midfield. The amount of times Berra came across to help him (and in some cases Mancienne) was criminal.

 

[jbarnettuk1984]

I thought the angle was very much against him.

It wasn't the angle that made him kick it over the bar. If he'd have kept it down it would have gone in.

 

[Japan Wulf]

Hard to be positive after watching that.
Really, really hard.

 

[Wolv3nsam]

It wasn't the angle that made him kick it over the bar. If he'd have kept it down it would have gone in.

I agree he should have worked David James at least, you'd expect that sort of shot from Keogh - not a bloke who has scored nearly 50 goals in two years.

 

[Langdale Wolf]

I agree he should have worked David James at least, you'd expect that sort of shot from Keogh - not a bloke who has scored nearly 50 goals in two years.

And if it'd have been Keogh, wouldn't we all know about it?