Cardiff City 3-1 Wolves

Wolves today slumped to a second defeat of the season with a 3-1 reversal at Cardiff City.

Bakary Sako gave Wolves the lead before a fine Peter Whittingham hattrick secured three points for the Blue Red Bluebirds.

- The starting eleven wasn't a particular surprise, although I'd always have David Davis ahead of Dave Edwards. The biggest surprises came on the bench, with none of Ståle Solbakken's signings featuring, which was a huge disappointment. I also felt it left us short on attacking options if needed late on. Neither Frank Nouble or Anthony Forde have looked particularly penetrating in the time they've played this season, and neither would particularly strike fear into the opposition defenders. The final surprise was the captaincy being handed to Kevin Doyle, ahead of Stephen Ward. The captaincy doesn't mean a huge amount in Europe, so maybe the armband will be passed around. But given how significant it is over here, Ward may well be disappointed with that decision.

- We took an early lead through a fine Bakary Sako freekick, just 10 minutes into his first start for the club. With everyone expecting him to deliver a left-footed cross to the far post, he wrapped his boot around the ball and guided it into the near post. It wasn't the most powerful of strikers; certainly a similar effort from Peter Whittingham later in the match had more pace, but Carl Ikeme was able to save. Instead, the excellent disguise of his effort, along with superb accuracy was enough to beat David Marshall at his near post. It was an impressive start to his full debut, but he failed to back it up throughout the match. At times he looked very dangerous, running at his fullback and whipping crosses into the near post, but he only really did this when close to the goal line. Saying that, he was probably the pick of the outfield players, although that's not really saying much.

- The lead lasted barely the blinking of an eye, as Whittingham rolled in from the penalty spot. The penalty was conceded by Ronald Zubar bringing down the impressive Craig Noone in the penalty area. It was the second time in the first ten minutes that Noone tied Zubar in knots, Sławomir Peszko getting back to clear the ball on the first occasion. Zubar was very poor at right back, and it would have surprised no one if he'd been taken off, even before halftime. As it was, he managed to avoid being hauled off until the 73rd minute. I'm not sure how long Kevin Foley is injured for, but I've always felt he's a superior player to Zubar, and will add a measure of consistency and calm to the defence. Saying that, as poor as Zubar was, Craig Noone was excellent. It will be Whittingham who gets the plaudits for his hattrick, but Noone was twice brought down, leading to Whittingham's first and second goals. He's a player I would have been happy for Wolves to look at, and I expect him to cause trouble to plenty of defences this season.

- For the second consecutive league game, Carl Ikeme was man of the match. He's a goalkeeper I've never been entirely convinced by - for one reason or another, I missed most of his spell in goal in 2008/09, when he apparently did well. Prior to this season, I thoroughly expected Dorus de Vries to be the number one, especially as we were turning down seven figure bids from Liverpool. But, Ikeme has been the pick of the players so far this season, tipping brilliantly onto the post to deny Derby County, and saving an effort from Noone that I thought had gone in. He missed a couple of crosses late on, but generally looked commanding. It'll be interesting to see if de Vries gets a chance this season, and then what happens when Welsh international Wayne Hennessey returns to fitness.

- Once again, the problems defensively weren't caused by the defence. Kevin Doyle and Sylvan Ebanks-Blake continue to look like they've never stepped on a pitch together before. I think I may only have to write this paragraph once, and just copy and paste it into every report I write in the future. Ebanks-Blake still looks very immobile, and unable to use his considerable backside to protect the ball. Someone of his size and build should be a lot better at receiving the ball with his back to goal and holding off defenders, but this doesn't appear to be a skill he possesses. As usual, I'm nowhere convinced that he warrants a place in the team if he's not scoring goals. On the other hand, Doyle adds to the team but doesn't score enough goals. At times, it looks like Doyle is playing in the hole, but this isn't really a position that suits him. Depending on the fitness of the new boys, I'd quite like to see Doyle as the central striker with either Sako or Björn Sigurȡarson in the number 10 role.

- The midfield didn't gel either - unsurprising really seeing as there were three brand new signings and Dave Edwards in there. The most worrying thing was the way in which Cardiff's central midfielders continually broke forward without being shackled; Whittingham's second was a perfect example of this. I'm also far from convinced by Tongo Doumbia as the deepest midfielder - I don't think his positional play is particularly good, and doesn't impose himself enough when the opposition have the ball. My views on Edwards don't need to be repeated, but I really don't think he's a suitable partner for Doumbia. Doumbia is good on the ball, and I think needs to be given the freedom to move around the pitch in the knowledge that he has a little protection behind him, perhaps a little like the way Patrick Vieira was always covered by Gilberto Silva in his latter days at Highbury.

- One of the things I was expecting with the arrival of Stale Solbakken was a little more tactical flexibility from a manager who was able to influence the system used midgame. We hadn't really seen this yet, with a fairly rigid 4-4-2 being used in each of the games so far. Today though, he started to experiment a little. With the team 3-1 down, and time ticking down, Richard Stearman and Frank Nouble were introduced, and the team switched to a 3-4-3 formation, with Ward pushing forward into midfield and Sako moving inside. It was a bold change, but left us even more exposed through the middle than we had been previously. However, this was more down to the personnel utilised and the change did allow us to press further up the pitch, while we always had a spare man at the back allowing cover when Cardiff tried to counter attack. It may have been more successful had Davis been introduced rather than Nouble, with Sako playing in the front three instead of playing as a slightly advanced central midfielder. Still, it was an ambitious change designed to bring us back into the game, and hopefully a sign of things to come in the future.

- Sako's freekick got me thinking - when did we last score direct from a freekick in the league? I'm thinking perhaps Nenad Milijaš' effort at White Hart Lane in 2009, which went close enough to brushing a hair on Doyle's head to be given to the Irish striker. Milijaš scored in the League Cup last season, but I can't remember many goals direct from freekicks under Mick McCarthy at all. Answers on a postcard.