Wolves 2-2 Norwich
Zoooooobs
By Tom Bason
December 21 2011
Last night, Wolves drew 2-2 with Norwich City in a pulsating match. Norwich twice took the lead through former wolf Andrew Surman and Simon Jackson, only to be pegged back by goals from Sylvan Ebanks-Blake and Ronald Zubar.
- Anyone who reads these knows my views on Kevin Doyle, and so can probably imagine my reaction to the news that he was left out. I also have very mixed feelings about Ebanks-Blake, and if Doyle was to be left out, I'd have liked to have seen Adam Hammill bought into the starting lineup to play just off Steven Fletcher.
- The only word I can use to describe the first 20 minutes of the match is pathetic. It reminded me very much of the first half performance on THAT day against Blackburn Rovers last season. It wasn't even just a lack of effort; there was a distinct lack of cohesion in the team, with players seemingly going where they want without any other player covering for them.
- This is in direct comparison of the Norwich team, and in particular their front players. Neither Zubar nor Stephen Ward are particularly hesitant about bombing forward from fullback, and so when we attacked, Steve Morison and Grant Holt pulled wide into the space vacated. This automatically meant Roger Johnson and Christophe Berra were pulled apart and were left one on one with a Norwich striker. This was clearly calling out for one of the midfielders, probably Karl Henry to drop back a little deeper and cover the space between Berra and Johnson, similar in the way Sergio Busquets did for Barcelona last season, but this lack of fluidity is one of the major drawbacks of a 4-4-2 formation. As it was, Morison and Holt were able to draw the defenders out, and Johnson in particular struggled - Morison twice going past him, the second resulting in Norwich's second goal.
- When Morison and Holt did pull wide, this obviously left a space in the middle of our defence, and it was cleverly filled by Surman and the excellent Wes Hoolahan. Both of them were prepared to break beyond the strikers, with Surman's fine header opening the scoring.
- Possibly the biggest problem with our team was the performance of Stephen Hunt. This is not to say he had a particularly bad game, although he missed a sitter and has never particularly looked like creating anything. Instead, it was more the positions that he took up which hindered the team. He started from a nominal right hand side position, but was very rarely there. This meant there was a lack of width on the right hand side unless Zubar provided it. As I've already mentioned, it was the reckless abandon by the fullbacks that caused us problems defensively, but Zubar could hardly be blamed for this. With Surman tucking in on the left of Norwich's midfield, and without Hunt in front of him, there was often lots of space for the right back to move into, and he was used as the outball from midfield. Secondly, Hunt drifting inside meant that Marc Tierney could attack without being tracked - had he made one or two better decisions, Norwich could have created far more.
- On the opposite side of the pitch to Zubar was Matt Jarvis. I'd say that Jarvis is probably currently in the best form of his Molineux career, and early on he caused Kyle Naughton huge problems. Then, Naughton was cautioned, and instead of compounding this by committing him further, he stopped. In the second half in particular, he seemed hesitant to attack Naughton, instead working to release Ward down the flank. We also at times were slow to get the ball to him, allowing Norwich to get another defender out to him. I wonder if this is because of Nenad Milijaš's left foot - it is more natural for him to swing the ball out to the right flank rather than the left.
- The debate that will reign is Ebanks-Blake v Doyle, the sort of argument that will be taking place in pubs up and down the country. The goalscorer versus the all-round facilitator. My main argument with Ebanks-Blake has been that if he isn't scoring goals, he doesn't contribute to the team performance, and I've seen nothing in his play to suggest that he'll score enough goals to justify the other 10 players carrying him. Obviously, there's more chance he'll score than Doyle, that's never been in dispute. But, if I wanted a player who's going to contribute to a team performance, Doyle is the man. I guess a lot of it is down to Fletcher – he is clearly our number one striker at the moment, and so the forward play needs to set up in such a way to get the best out of him.
- We’ve now played all of the newly promoted sides at Molineux this season, taking just two points and conceding seven goals in the process. Of the 270 minutes against these sides, we’ve been behind for 173 minutes and have never once been in the lead. This is not good enough, and I hope that we are considering these seven vital points dropped at the end of the season.
Wolves 2-2 Norwich
Posted by: Wolves (IP Logged)
Date: 21/12/2011 08:35
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Re: Wolves 2-2 Norwich
Posted by: toomb (IP Logged)
Date: 21/12/2011 09:05
Highlights are here if anyone hasn't seen them:
http://www.101greatgoals.com/gvideos/wolves-2-norwich-2-3/
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http://www.101greatgoals.com/gvideos/wolves-2-norwich-2-3/
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Re: Wolves 2-2 Norwich
Posted by: Stourport Wolf (IP Logged)
Date: 22/12/2011 09:06
Zubar is totally reckless as a right back and his positional sense and sense of defensive responsibility is absolutely dire. I'm not convinced that he would be any better in his preferred position of central defence either. To me Zubar should be converted into a midfielder to make use of his ability to drive forward and his general headless chicken and combative style of play.
On Hunt, it was pretty clear to me that Hunt was totally knackered after about 55 minutes, yet it took McCarthy another 20 minutes to sub him. It was like playing with 10 players for 20 minutes needlessly.
Nobody else seems to have said it anywhere else but I thought Milijas was fantastic against Norwich. Some of the balls he was pinging about the field were superb. For me it was worth the admission on Tuesday just to see a quality player like Nenad and I'll be gutted if he goes in January.
On Hunt, it was pretty clear to me that Hunt was totally knackered after about 55 minutes, yet it took McCarthy another 20 minutes to sub him. It was like playing with 10 players for 20 minutes needlessly.
Nobody else seems to have said it anywhere else but I thought Milijas was fantastic against Norwich. Some of the balls he was pinging about the field were superb. For me it was worth the admission on Tuesday just to see a quality player like Nenad and I'll be gutted if he goes in January.
Re: Wolves 2-2 Norwich
Posted by: toomb (IP Logged)
Date: 22/12/2011 10:21
I did mean to write about Milijas, but it slipped my mind. I thought he was at fault for the opener, letting Surman run past him far too easily. In the first half, he was quite quiet but he came into it a lot more in the second half. Some of his passes were excellent, and he seems the only player we have of slipping a striker through on goal with a clever through ball
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Re: Wolves 2-2 Norwich
Posted by: Alkaponewolf (IP Logged)
Date: 22/12/2011 16:43
Shocking result and I after seeing the entire game on Tuesday I really do fear the worst!
We have absolutely NO Conviction, NO Composure, NO Plan, NO Idea....we simply just run around like headless chickens hoping something happens.. Its kick and run and hope the majority of the time...
I was at the QPR V Sunderland game last night in hospitality and was a very good second half made by two managers accompanied by quality coaching staff that made the 2nd half really exciting.
Substitutions and Formation made by both managers had meaning/reason and were well thought out....and more importantly changed the reflection of the game.
We have absolutely NO Conviction, NO Composure, NO Plan, NO Idea....we simply just run around like headless chickens hoping something happens.. Its kick and run and hope the majority of the time...
I was at the QPR V Sunderland game last night in hospitality and was a very good second half made by two managers accompanied by quality coaching staff that made the 2nd half really exciting.
Substitutions and Formation made by both managers had meaning/reason and were well thought out....and more importantly changed the reflection of the game.
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