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ricardo

Ricardo's report v Wolves

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Apart from a couple of wins in recent years our overall record against Wolves has been pretty poor so I wasn''t expecting too much on this damp and chilly Halloween. When I saw the teamsheet I was even less enthused and for my part it showed up the fallacy of playing a full strength side at Arsenal.Anybody who missed the first ten minutes can consider themselves fortunate because they missed absolutely nothing apart from six hundred seconds of almost terminal boredom enlivened only by a wild 30 yard flash over the bar from Vrancic. After that Wolves decided that there was little to fear and began to come forward in numbers. Gunn had to leap to his left to palm away a goalbound shot after a period of pressure from the visitors then only a couple of blocks by Klose and Pinto kept the goal intact.When the goal came it was a simple one. Two City defenders missed a straightforward corner and Boly, with all the time in the world  headed home from close range.  With Murphy unable to hold on to anything up front and Watkins spinning about like a clockwork toy on speed there was not much to get excited about but City continued to come forward in their pedestrian crablike manner until their movse inevitably broke down. Maddison was City''s only highlight but he was dumped every time he looked like creating something and it took far too long for the ref to start flashing the yellows.It looked so easy for Wolves as they waited for the breakdown then swept down the field at a rapid pace with City defenders scurrying back to desperately cover. How another goal didn''t come God only knows and somehow we arrived at halftime just one adrift.I''ve come to not expect any reaction from Farke whatever the score and once again I wasn''t disappointed as the same crew carried on in the same way with the same results thus confirming Einsteins dictum. A tedious move forward ended with losing the ball while trying to recycle it backwards and somehow a Wolves three on two failed to profit from it. I eventually lost count of the times that this happened. My son tried to get the crowd going but in truth it was like a morgue round me and shouting encouragement seemed as embarrassing and sinful as raising your voice in church.Just after the hour, Murphy and Husband were hauled off and Jerome and Stieperman came on. The latter caused a bit of a stir with a prodigious long throw but Wolves bundled it away easily enough. Watkins eventually got a header on target but John Ruddy could really have spent the entire game in a deck chair such was the rate that we worked him. Mrs Ricardo binned my gloves and boots thirty five years ago but I''d take odds that even I could have kept a clean sheet tonight. Jesus Christ! it was tediously poor stuff.With twenty minutes left there was a steady stream of leavers in front of me and although Madders vainly tried to plough his way through a couple of times, the Wolves box was as crowded as Jarrolds on the first day of the January sales. In desperation we went three at the back but all it did was weaken the defence and yet more desperate last ditch tackles had to come in to save the day.With ten to go Wolves finally nailed the coffin down when City twice failed to clear a ball in from the right. It was only two but it could quite easily have been five and as for scoring ourselves, there was more chance of being struck by lightening. Thankfully the ref drew a line under proceedings before things got worse and out we traipsed after one of the most powder puff and inept performances I''ve witnessed in many a year.After the string of away wins I was beginning to think the playoffs might be on but to me now, it looks like mid table at the very best. Madders played with heart, Timm and Pinto shew they cared, the rest, meh

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A sad state of affairs when you start a home game without a recognised striker in the line up. Watkins completely out of his depth and Murphy a big disappointment throughout made us look toothless to say the least.

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In fairness to Watkins he was up against a couple of good defenders with nobody getting close enough to help him.

Can''t really defend Murphy though. Poor football wise and never looked like he was applying himself.

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Farke changed the formation (but not the personnel) at about 30 minutes and went to try and neutralize their wing backs, he then changed it again on 55+ minutes with the start of the substitutions, so to say he didn''t change things is a little disingenuous. We just never looked like scoring (apart from the header on to the post in the first ten minutes) and Wolves outclassed us.

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Great report Ricardo - absolutely spot on. We were so pedestrian with our sideways movement when we did eventually get into their box the whole Wolves team had got there half-an-hour earlier.

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[quote user="TIL 1010"]A sad state of affairs when you start a home game without a recognised striker in the line up. Watkins completely out of his depth and Murphy a big disappointment throughout made us look toothless to say the least.[/quote]

This is where Farke and Webber find themselves in a tricky situation: an injured striker and another running on empty means you need another striker on the books to come in - they need to be good enough to play in the first team, but also patient enough to know they''re 3rd in the pecking order. Carlton Morris might fit the bill, but he''s getting valuable regular game time at Shrewsbury which is probably more important for his development. So, I guess that leaves Fonkou and Abrahams who presumably Farke does not feel are ready.

We also need to remember this Wolves side are no mugs and are leading the division for good reason, so would throwing in Abrahams (my preferred option) even have made a difference. Likewise, not helped by others having a bad game too.

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Or they sign someone who is going to be higher than 3rd choice.

Because at the moment we''ve got a striker who can''t get fit and a striker who can''t score goals. So if at least one of those situations hasn''t significantly improved by January then they need to do something.

Unless of course we''re nowhere near the top 6.

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[quote user="GJP"]Or they sign someone who is going to be higher than 3rd choice.

Because at the moment we''ve got a striker who can''t get fit and a striker who can''t score goals. So if at least one of those situations hasn''t significantly improved by January then they need to do something.

Unless of course we''re nowhere near the top 6.[/quote]

Correct :)

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I think Ricardo''s report sums up how I felt. The only thing I believe he has missed out is that it was amazing that Vrancic was still on after 25 minutes and Wes never got on off the bench.

The coach has to take the blame for this one. He can''t use tiredness as Wolves played ET against City in the Cup.

His selection and tactics were boring, unlikely to bring success and not proactive at all.

It has been said that we have been meeting teams who park the bus and stop us playing. Wolves didn''t park the bus and came to play. So what excuse for that performance?

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I thought I read last week that Wolves hadn''t played many of their first team in the cup ?  (But that still leaves the question of why we did, as the OP points out - "tiredness" may be used as an excuse but it was our choice to field that team in the middle of a fixture pile-up).

 

I''m going on Saturday, it''ll be interesting to see how things pan out after a couple of poor home displays.

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