Stalemate at Molineux - Wolves 0-0 Everton

Wolves today kept their fourth clean sheet of the season and extended their unbeaten run to two with a 0-0 draw at home to in-form Everton.

- First of all, I'd like to explain the feelings of confusion I had going in to today's game. Both of my parents are Everton fans, and I myself was a Toffee until I, for some unknown reason, decided to support a local team; Wolves had the best name for an impressionable eight year old. Yet, despite this, I have always followed Everton. Wolves are my team, but Everton are a very close second, and I basically support them if they're not playing Wolves. But, today, for the first time Wolves had nothing to play for. Everton, while not battling for a European place have the chance to finish above Liverpool, while every place is worth nearly £500k - a lot of money for Everton. So, this morning, my head was telling me I wanted Everton to win, but I wouldn't know what my heart would want until kick-off. Once the game got underway though, I was supporting Wolves. While I may not have been too disappointed had Everton scored, I wanted Wolves to win every 50-50 and was willing the team forward on every occasion.

- The starting line-up was exactly what I expected. It had been reported that Kevin Foley and Matt Jarvis had knocks, and there is absolutely no point risking making any injury worse. I was slightly surprised James McFadden was starting on the right for Everton, although he'd done well when introduced against Man United a couple of weeks ago. If there's an area Everton need to strengthen, it's the wide right area.

- I was slightly worried about Everton's three man central midfield dominating Karl Henry and Dave Edwards, especially Marouane Fellaini who was majestic in the Goodison return match, and particularly did a job on Kevin Doyle in the air. Yet, Fellaini was played further forward, with Tim Cahill often the deepest midfielder, alongside Leon Osman. Doyle appeared to be tasked with dropping deeper, and goal side of the third Everton midfielder, but doesn't really have the discipline to do this for 90 minutes. This meant that, potentially, Everton had an extra man in midfield, yet because Cahill was playing deeper it was often him. Cahill has, in the past, been an excellent goal scoring midfielder, famed for his heading ability, and knack of finding space in the box. He's not the most technically gifted midfielder though, and was unable to make the most of the space he had. I was far happier to see him with room to move than the far superior Fellaini.

- When Christophe Berra went off injured, surely the obvious choice to replace him was Fan's Favourite Roger Johnson. Yet, it was George Elokobi who replaced Berra. I realise Johnson has been out of form for the season, and is probably the most hated player at Molineux in recent times, but what is the point of having him on the bench if he's not to be used? In a nothing match, wouldn't it have been better to have given a youngster the chance to experience a first team outing? They wouldn't have necessarily needed to have played, but even if two defenders had been injured, surely Zubar could have moved to centre back with Karl Henry playing at right back. Or, perhaps this is another example of Terry Connor's obsession of having both right and left footed centre backs? Had it been Stearman who was injured, would Elokobi have been introduced? As it happened, Elokobi did reasonably well, and still looks more comfortable in the centre than he does at fullback.

- Wolves formation stayed consistent throughout, with the only substitutions being like for like changes. Everton made on tactical change, bringing Denis Stracqualursi and Gueye on for McFadden and Cahill. This obviously gave Everton two forwards, but cut the supply lines. All of a sudden Everton were playing a midfield diamond, with Fellaini holding, behind Osman and Magaye Gueye and Steven Pienaar floating in behind Stracqualursi and Nikica Jelavić. This massively limited the width of Everton’s midfield (as seen below), and with Leighton Baines injured, they were never going to get huge amounts of support from the fullbacks. Generally, I felt we were quite happy for Sylvain Distin and Tony Hibbert to have the ball, safe in the knowledge they wouldn’t hurt us defensively. As it was, all of Everton’s attacking thrust came through the middle, where we were able to defend reasonably comfortably.

- At the final whistle came a, frankly embarrassing lap of (dis)honour. The players seemed afraid to get too close to the edge of the pitch; instead being happy to walk the circumference of the centre-circle. I’m no expert on the workings of the knee, but Wayne Hennessey was walking without crutches, albeit with quite a pronounced limp – surely this is a good thing? Yet, I was more interested in the players who weren’t there. Of the players who have been involved this season, I couldn’t see Adam Hammill, Adlène Guedioura or Jamie O’Hara. I don’t think anyone would be surprised if all three have already kicked their last ball in a Wolves shirt.