Wolves 4-0 Gillingham
By Tom Bason
August 10 2013
Kenny Jackett’s first Molineux match in charge of Wolves saw a comfortable win over newly promoted Gillingham. Despite kick off being delayed by ten minutes, Wolves raced out of the blocks with Leigh Griffiths scoring his first Wolves goal just five minutes into his home debut. Lee Evans doubled the score, before Bakary Sako ensured it was game over after just half an hour. Griffiths then wrapped things up with a penalty in the second half.
- Wolves lined up in a reasonably standard 4-4-2 formation, with a number of changes from Tuesday's disappointing defeat at Morecambe. The most interesting decision was the leaving out of Björn Sigurðarson. The Icelander missed the League Cup game due to illness, and presumably wasn't deemed well enough to start today. This meant that Kevin Doyle returned to the starting line-up, while wunderkind Zeli Ismail made his first appearance for the club. With both Doyle and Bakary Sako being available to play (and perhaps being expected to put themselves in the shop window), this should make everyone wonder what the hell Stephen Ward has done to be complete banished. Kenny Jackett has not held back in saying that Doyle earns too much for a League 1 club; this is surely more than Ward is earning, and given the paucity of options beyond the starting XI, he surely could offer something
- Zeli Ismail was surely the player that most Wolves fans wanted to see today. I've never known such a fuss about a Wolves youngster; I guess that with the amount of information that everyone has at their fingertips, it's impossible to keep a young talent hidden, and it is so easy for myths to become fact. It reminds me a little of Ross Barkley at Everton, a player who from a very young age was tipped by Toffees fans to be better than Wayne Rooney. Anyway, it took Ismail a while to get into the game. In the early stages, much of our focus was down the left flank, while right back Matt Doherty seemed to prefer to pass the ball inside into Lee Evans and David Davis rather than down the touchline. The first opportunity he really had, he made the most of. Running down the right hand channel, he committed two defenders before clipping a cross that almost led to a goal. This seemed to flick a switch in his brain - perhaps before he was a little nervous, but from then on he was far more involved. I'm not sure whether it was planned, but he spent a lot of time away from his right wing position, drifting inside to join Doyle and Griffiths upfront. He almost certainly won't live up to the hype, and if there is ever a £100m footballer it won't be him. But, on this performance, he can perhaps be a player who has a big say on this season.
- The opening goal came from Leigh Griffiths. Griffiths was excellent throughout, and is surprisingly good with his back towards goal. His all-round play is very good, and he brings his teammates into the game. His first was well taken, receiving the ball on the edge of the area with his back to goal, turning and firing a well-placed shot beyond Lee Nelson in the Gillingham goal. I wrote after the Real Betis game that his finishing reminded me of Robbie Fowler, and this was an example of this. He didn't worry about hitting his shot too hard, just concentrated on accuracy, guiding the ball into the corner. His second was a penalty after a completely ludicrous challenge on Evans in the penalty area. Considering it was a penalty to make is 4-0, his celebration was a little over-exuberant, but they were his first goals for the club so I'll let him off. He and Doyle upfront were far too good for Gillingham's defenders, which is unsurprising considering they're both international players.
- While Doyle and Griffiths played well, it was Davis and Evans who provided the platform for them to play. The two of them were excellent, constantly ticking the pall over with quick, crisp passing. At some point I'll try and count the number of 1-2s that Evans is involved in, but I suspect I'll run out of fingers and toes pretty quickly. A cynic would say that Davis has found his level, but I think he's giving the standard of performance that he gave when he first broke into the first team in the Premier League. Of the two of them, Evans was happier to break forward and appeared to take his goal very well, with a nice flick into the corner.
- Saying that, Gillingham made it very easy for them. Their midfield seemed happy to give Davis and Evans the time to play and pick their passes. On the odd occasion a Gillingham midfield decided to press, their defence stayed back, and Doyle would intelligently move into the space between the lines. It was nice that we had the players, whether it was Davis, Evans, Doherty or Sam Ricketts, who were then able to pick the pass into Doyle. In the first half especially, this was a good source for our attacks, with Doyle then having the ability to either drive at the defence or find Ismail or Sako breaking from the flank.
- Talking about Sako, he could easily become quite a problem player. This is nothing against him personally, but at times it was like he was playing for a separate team to the other ten players. Whereas the rest of the team were patient and unselfish in their build up (Guti style back heel from Evans summing this up), Sako tried to do the spectacular every time. I can barely remember him playing a simple pass; instead every time he got the ball he was trying to beat his man. Even though Sako was the more dangerous player compared to Ismail, it was the youngster who had the better game, contributing far more to the team than Sako managed. Despite this, there was one hint of his potential brilliance. Evans massively overhit a long pass towards Sako on the left, with everyone in the ground thinking the ball was going to harmlessly bounce out for a goal kick. Instead, Sako chased it down, keeping the ball in just inside the goal-line. His defender chased him back, and closed him down seemingly giving Sako nowhere to go. Sako put in a superb cross from out of nothing, whipping a ball across the 6-yard box that was begging for a touch. But, this was a one off. Perhaps in a few weeks, when we get fed up of the rest of the team being too intricate and we're crying out for someone to just hit ball towards goal as hard as he can, Sako (assuming he's still at the club) will come back into the reckoning.
- In defence, we were quite solid. The major cause for concern was a suicidal back pass from Ricketts. He waited for striker to close him down, and then under hit his pass too far ahead of Carl Ikeme. Ikeme just about managed to get their first, and no harm was done, but I couldn't help think about his mistake against Betis a fortnight ago that ultimately cost us the game. Maybe, for a player with so much experience at a higher level, at times he will switch off, thinking that League 1 is too easy. But, the rest of his game has been good, while his two footedness is an asset going forward (incidentally, we do seem to have quite a few ambidextrous players - I can't work out which is Ismail's dominant foot (he dribbles with his left but takes corners with his right (is this basis for a song?!)), while both Evans and Davis seem happy to pass with both feet). The rest of the defence were pretty much unchallenged - Stearman made one error that a better team would have capitalised on, and there were a few pinball moments in our box, but as a unit they are developing. Doherty in particular had a good game, but I'd like to see him develop his attacking abilities. With Ismail drifting inside (and later being replaced by central midfielder Jack Price), Doherty often had acres of space to move into. I was critical of his selection as a wingback last season, and while he seems to have developed a nice knack of nutmegging his opponent, his final ball was often poor. But, he looked untroubled defensively and I have no issue with him keeping Kevin Foley out of the team.
- This was a nice touch:
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013:08:23:23:50:50 by toomb.
Good to see some real analysis of our youngsters - sounds like there might be some hope after all.
As for Ward apparent unavailability. No smoke without fire. Perhaps? Who knows? I see the 3 were not named in the programme.
The inclusion of Waggy's name was a nice touch. Some of our players over the last few years were not fit to lace his boots. A master of his trade. A wonderful player.
I recall you had a good day out at Bristol last season and saw a rare good performance. Fingers crossed for the same again.
Yes, I also thought including Waggy's name as part of the squad, was a really nice touch too
