Wolves 1-1 Leyton Orient

Wolves today slipped out of the promotion places after a 1-1 draw with Leyton Orient at Molineux. Youngster Ethan Ebanks-Landell scored his second goal for the club as Wolves dominated the first half. But, Orient equalised on the hour mark through Mathieu Baudry as both teams were forced to settle for a point.

- After the Boxing Day defeat of Crewe Alexandra, I wrote that it was one of Kenny Jackett's strangest line-ups this season, especially the selection of Jake Cassidy as a lone striker. But, we won with Cassidy playing a big role in the opening goal, and I assumed that Jackett had taken the opportunity to give Kevin Doyle and Leigh Griffiths a rest before today's big game against Leyton Orient. So imagine my surprise when I saw Cassidy (without a goal in 22 previous appearances for the club) in the starting XI. With Griffiths seemingly still on the naughty step (although in fairness, he was absolutely woeful against MK Dons), it was maybe something of a surprise that Bakary Sako was recalled at the expense of Dave Edwards. Elsewhere in the team, Scott Golbourne presumably hasn't recovered fully the knock sustained against Crewe, although he was on the substitutes' bench. Ethan Ebanks-Landell deputised at right back, with Sam Ricketts switching to left back, the position in which he made his debut. 

- One of the questions I had pre-game was who of the creative triumvirate behind Cassidy would play in the middle. My personal choice was Henry, believing he has the nous to play that role and create chances (and he never sticks to the right wing position anyway). Instead, Jackett opted for the directness of Michael Jacobs, and he gave easily the best performance I've seen from so far. He caused Orient's defence all sorts of trouble with his willingness to get beyond Cassidy and run directly at goal. Firstly, a weaving run saw a shot blocked, before a second run saw his effort smartly saved by Jake Larkins in the Orient goalkeeper, but the rebound horrendously screwed wide by Cassidy who would never have had a better opportunity to open his Wolves account. Early in the second half came a second dangerous run, but this time he dragged his right-footed effort wide of the far post from 20 yards. Bakary Sako also had one of his better games, playing very wide on the left hand side. It was noticeable that the first time he got on the ball that a buzz went around Molineux. He is the player we have who can produce that piece of magic. At times today, his crossing was too close to the keeper and he didn't really have chance to unleash that fearsome shot of his. In fact, the best thing he did was a nice pass to release Kevin McDonald through the middle, one-on-one with the keeper. Unfortunately, McDonald doesn't really have the pace to get away from defenders, and his shot under pressure was slightly too close to Larkins in goal. 

- I've mentioned a number of times the way that Henry likes to play across the full width of the pitch, and this was demonstrated by the opening goal. Henry, who was pretty much in the middle of the pitch, was able to play a one-two for McDonald to spread the pass out to the advancing Ebanks-Landell. With Henry so far infield, there were acres of space for Ebanks-Landell to move into, and he blasted the ball past the keeper at the near post, not unlike Jordan Mutch's deflected effort against Sunderland yesterday. Ebanks-Landell getting forward was a feature of our attacking play. With Sako holding his position wide on the left, Henry in the first half and Jacobs in the second seemed to have license to drift inside, providing space for Ebanks-Landell. I would have doubted before the match that the fullback had the offensive capabilities to make a difference going forward, but he was actually surprisingly effective. The one problem was the back of cover behind him. Leyton Orient played Dean Cox on their left wing who was a danger in behind Ebanks-Landell. Neither McDonald nor Price really dropped in to cover the rampaging defender, and at times Danny Batth was left one-v-one on the right touchline. I'd have been tempted to swap Batth with Stearman to give us that extra mobility down that flank.

- Orient started with a 4-4-2 formation, with Kevin Lisbie and 25 upfront. They played a lopsided 4-4-2, with Dean Cox pushing forward on the left, but Romain Vincelot tucking in on the right hand side and Robbie Simpson dropping slightly deeper to offer a little more cover on that flank. Russell Slade made a halftime substitution that changed the match; Moses Odubajo had played the first half at right back, and hadn't really got near Sako. But, Elliot Omozusi switched across from left back, and Odubajo pushed forward to right wing, and it was from this position that he set up Mathieu Baudry for the equaliser. We went to sleep as Orient took a quick free kick down their right hand side. The ball was moved well for Odubajo to roll a lovely ball across the six-yard box for Baudry to touch home at the far post. Ironically, Henry had put in an almost identical cross a couple of minutes earlier, but no one managed to get close to it. 

- Kenny Jackett also made a couple of changes, both of which had negative effects on the game - I am struggling to think of a substitution that Jackett has made this season that has changed a game in our favour. Anyway, just before half time, Price seemed to pick up a knock and was replaced at the break by David Edwards. This massively affected the balance of our midfield, and negatively impacted Kevin McDonald’s performance. In the first half, the partnership between McDonald and Price was working well. They work on the same wavelength, and are both happiest with the ball at their feet bringing other players into play. Edwards is a very different type of player, whose main strength is running around a lot. Whether through design, or just because McDonald doesn’t have the same sort of confidence in Edwards as he does in Price’s ability to keep the ball, McDonald spent the second half much deeper than he did in the first half, and as a result had far less influence in the match. The second substitution saw Leigh Griffiths introduced for James Henry, when the majority of the stadium was expecting the ineffective Jake Cassidy to be removed. Personally, I think was quite a negative substitution, forcing McDonald even deeper and negating Jacobs who was excellent in the number-10 role. Jacobs was moved to the right hand side of midfield, where I am yet to see him play well, and he continued this trend. Admittedly, we now had two strikers on the pitch, but they were cut off from the rest of the team and we further lost the cohesion that we had in the first half. Finally, Kevin Doyle came on for Cassidy, but had very little time to make any difference.

- I thought that today’s midfield had the best balance I’ve seen for a long time, and I’d be disappointed if Jackett has to revert back to the 4-4-2 formation we’ve seen a lot this season. Obviously, it helps to have striker in front of them, and Jake Cassidy doesn’t appear to be this player. Now, as you all know, I don’t value goals from strikers as highly as other people, but I spent much of the second half trying to work out just what Cassidy brings to the team. He doesn’t seem to have any quality that stands out as an asset. Now, I’ve no issues with him being given the opportunity to prove me wrong, but to play him in the biggest game of the season to date was probably a mistake. With that midfield, and the attacking potential that it has, it needs a striker to knit it together and so I’d have played Kevin Doyle in that lone role. But, it probably highlights the need to bring in another forward player in January, especially if Björn Sigurðarson is hightailing it out of Wolverhampton. 

- We’ve now played all 23 teams in the league, and I think that today’s first half performance was the best under Jackett to date. It is very noticeable the way that the team has evolved over the first half of the season – think back to the first couple of games against Preston North End and Gillingham where Lee Evans and David Davis were the preferred midfield partnership and Doyle and Griffiths were without doubt the strike duo to take us up. Kenny Jackett has made an awful lot of changes over quite a short period of time – of the team who so limply accepted relegation at the Amex Stadium last season, only Sako, Doyle and Matt Doherty are anywhere near our first team squad at the moment. But, the highest ranked team we’ve beaten this season is Port Vale in seventh. In comparison, we’ve beaten every team from Gillingham in 16^th downwards. Our next home game is against Preston, currently in fourth. At some point, we need to start beating the better teams; that would be a lovely place to start.