Wolves 1-2 Burnley

Wolves today took a massive step towards League One with a 2-1 defeat to Burnley. Danny Ings and Martin Patterson put Burnley two goals to the good before Mike Duff was sent off. Despite have a man advantage, Wolves were only able to pull one goal back through Nouha Dicko.

- Probably unsurprisingly, Dean Saunders selected an unchanged starting 11. More through chance than design, these eleven men appear to be the chosen ones to get us out of the relegation mire. Again, Saunders chose the 4-4-1-1 formation that defeated Hull City, but slipped up at The Valley. I'm getting fed up of writing about Björn Sigurðarson playing on the right of midfield, so I'll just say SIGURDARSON IS NOT A MIDFIELDER, and I'd have far rather seen Kevin Doyle picked there. 

- This was obviously a must win game, and right from the kick off Wolves showed an attacking threat. Whereas previously under Saunders, and also under Mick McCarthy the ball was passed straight from kick off to the keeper to launch upfield, today we tried something different; Stephen Hunt passed to Kevin Doyle who immediately turned and ran at the defence. I remember Robbie Fowler and Stan Collymore, when in tandem upfront for Liverpool, doing this once. Straight from kick off they ran at the opposition defence, exchanging a couple of passes and being a marginal offside decision away from winning a penalty in the first few seconds. As a kid, I watched this on TV and thought it was brilliant - attack from the very first second of the match. While Doyle and Hunt weren't quite as successful, Doyle being fouled about 20 yards into his run, it did signify the intent that the team had to show. Part of me did wonder whether it was done intentionally, to try and get the crowd excited and on their feet as early as possible. 

- As usual, the system chosen by Saunders had problems. While there has been discussion on this board about Hunt's suitability playing as an advanced midfielder (I don't have a problem with him playing there, and have been advocating it pretty much for his entire time at Wolves) the problem was elsewhere - the flanks. It goes without saying that Sigurðarson didn't contribute much on the right flank, but Stephen Ward is equally as toothless on the left. While his attacking qualities may at times make him a dangerous proposition when playing at fullback, he is, at best, a poor left midfielder. The only time I've been happy with him playing there was when his job description was to stand on the touchline and stretch opposition defences so wide that it created space for Michael Kightly to devastate Championship defences on the opposite flank. He also offers more when played upfront, where he doesn't necessarily have to show any pace, but can play with his back to goal. But a left sided midfielder he is not. 

- After 20 minutes, Saunders changed the shape, pushing Sigurðarson further forward and pulling Stephen Hunt to the right hand side. Now, despite being 1-0 down, I would say that Hunt had been man of the match up until that point. He was his usual ball of energy, but was actually starting to use it effectively - beating players, drifting to both flanks and generally being a pain in the Burnley defenders' backsides. I could understand the decision to push Sigurðarson upfront, he's far better there than on the flank, but wasn't sure about Hunt on the right. Having an 'inverted winger' (i.e. a wide man playing on his unnatural flank) can be extremely effective. Arguably the best wing partnership in the country is Leighton Baines and Steven Pienaar down Everton's left flank. Pienaar isn't a typical wide man, who will beat the defender on the outside and put a cross in, but he doesn't have to be. Instead, he can drift inside and link with Everton's central players in the knowledge that Baines is providing the width outside him (just to give an idea of how successful it is, a couple of weeks ago Baines became the first player in the top leagues in Europe to create 100 chances for teammates. He's a left back. Who plays for Everton. That stat is ridiculous). Now, saying that Matt Doherty isn't Leighton Baines is bloody obvious, but he's not even Stephen Ward. Hell, in terms of getting forward, Doherty isn't even Richard Stearman. Hunt's natural inclination was to move inside, leaving the right flank open for the fullback to push forward. But Doherty doesn't have this in his locker at the moment. Hopefully he will develop into a fine right back, but at the moment he has a nosebleed whenever he crosses the halfway line, leaving us completely devoid of width on that flank. If we were going to move to 4-4-2, I'd far rather have played Sigurðarson and Ward upfront and moved Doyle and Hunt to the wings. 

- The goals were so typical of our defence this season that I'm not going to describe them. If you're a masochist, I'm sure you'll manage to see them, but you'll feel like you're watching a replay of every goal conceded this season. I also didn't see the red card, I was looking over at the bench to see what changes were being prepared, and was pretty surprised to look back at play and see the referee showing Championship Manager's Michael Duff (I got permission from Ernesto in a thread the other day to mention it again...). 

- After we went two goals down, Saunders made a double change, bringing on the half fit (at best) Bakary Sako and loan signing Nouha Dicko. We kept to the same 4-4-2 formation, with Hunt and Sako on the flanks. But it's the final substitution that angered me. Burnley had just had a man sent off, and were 2-0 up in game that if they won, meant they were safe. They were clearly shutting up shop at that point, withdrawing their wide men slightly, and playing 4-4-0-0-0-1 with former Sam Vokes working hard upfront by himself, but completely isolated. So, with Burnley sitting deep, why did we keep the same back-4? I mentioned earlier about Doherty's deficiencies going forward, but Jack Robinson on the other flank isn't much better. Both are developing as players, and as yet don't have the ability to hurt teams going forward. Yet, they both stayed on, and both of them constantly had space to move in to as Burnley defended. Why take off Hunt, who had been as likely as anyone to create a chance? Why not take Robinson off and move Hunt back to left back. He wouldn't have had to defend - he would nominally have been a left back, but in all reality would only have had to attack. I'd even have rather seen Foley come on for Doherty. Foley isn't the most attacking fullback, but has been known to nick the odd goal and would use the ball in attacking positions far better than Doherty did. Please note, this is nothing against Liam McAlinden who came on, a youngster who hopefully will get more opportunities next season, and did well when he came on, actually having a shot. I'd almost forgotten that strikers were allowed to do that.

- I said that Burnley were, understandably, only defending when they had a man sent off, but that was also their primary concern earlier in the match. Just before half time, they potentially had a 3v2 counter attacking opportunity from a Wolves' corner, but didn't even try and score. Instead, Martin Patterson half-heartedly took the ball down the right flank, where Robinson and Sigurðarson combined to hold him up. Even worse, in the centre circle, the Burnley player who was the third man in their counter attack (apologies, I'm not sure who it was), gave up before the potential attack was quashed, and moved back into his defensive position. 

- If you remove the context of imminent relegation, and Barnsley winning against Hull City, today’s performance wasn’t that bad. It certainly wasn’t the embarrassment that was the defeat to Huddersfield Town, or even that Blackburn match in 2011. But we still lost two goals that were poorly defended and didn’t score until it was too late. It occurred to me towards the end that Manchester United score so many late goals, not just because they are throwing men forwards, but because they have a squad of players who are used to scoring goals. We don’t have that; we have one man who is used to scoring goals, and he was probably sat at home with a KFC Box Meal and his leg in plaster. How many times this season have we tried playing Roger Johnson upfront when chasing a goal, and how many times has it worked. None of our players know how to score or create goals. Even those who could it when they joined appear to have had is coached out of them – is it telling that one of the few Championship clubs who have scored fewer goals than Wolves are Ipswich?

- With Barnsley winning, this puts us in an extremely precarious position going in to the final round of games. As I write this, Peterborough are 0-0 with Sheffield Wednesday – if they win, surely it’s all over. But if they don’t… Hopefully Millwall will beat Crystal Palace on Tuesday, meaning Palace will need to beat the Posh next weekend to guarantee a playoff place. But, Barnsley are away to a Huddersfield side who are probably safe, and it is more than likely that a draw will suit both teams. Today’s result has left us needing to beat a Brighton side who have nothing to play for other than whether they want their first playoff leg to be at home or away (they are guaranteed to finish fourth or fifth), but given our recent history of playing games we need to win in order to stay up, I don’t think I’ll be backing us.