Tactically, Mick got it spot on against Liverpool the other night. The five spread across midfield ensured that Wolves strangled the Reds’ creativity and meant that they posed virtually no threat to Hahnemann’s goal.
I think Mick got a bit carried away after the game though when he stated that there has never been a better display from a forward at Molineux. Perhaps there hasn’t been a more hardworking performance from a striker in a Wolves shirt for a long time, but Kevin didn’t actually score, so sorry Mick I can’t agree with you on that one.
And although it was a superb performance against Liverpool, it is now 400 minutes since a Wolves player last found the back of the net in the Premiership and that has to be a worry.
With the club now run on such a sound financial footing, how much cash are the 3Ms willing to chuck at the January transfer window to help find those goals and ultimately aid our survival efforts?
More than ever, football club’s finances are making headlines on the front and the back of newspapers for a myriad of reasons.
You’ve got the billions in Manchester; with the blue half in the black and the red half in the erm, red. And big clubs like Crystal Palace, Southampton and Leeds paying a heavy penalty for chasing the dream.
You have John Utaka earning a ridiculous salary for a player of his standard at Portsmouth, a club where the coffers are so thread bare that they couldn’t muster a few hundred quid to keep their website online yesterday.
But despite football being on the brink of implosion, money continues to pour into the game. And after the demise of ITV Digital and Setanta, it’s amazing that we still have as many professional clubs in existence as we do in this country.
Wolves themselves nearly went out of existence in the early Eighties under the rudderless Bhatti Brothers’ ship and I remember as a young lad throwing my pocket money in a bucket to help save the club.
After Sir Jack ensured our continued existence, Steve Morgan has stepped in to ensure that we are now one of only a handful of debt free professional English football clubs.
With so many average teams in the Premiership this season and so many in financial meltdown, perhaps now is the time for Steve Morgan to find the cash to add that bit of quality that could mean the difference between survival and relegation.
The final third is obviously where the quality needs to be added. Our attacking threat against Liverpool only really came from Matt Jarvis on the left flank and an isolated Kevin Doyle through the middle.
As good as Kevin Foley is, he doesn’t give us any creativity down the right and although Nenad Milijas was a bit of a passenger against the Reds he is otherwise our best creative hope in the centre of midfield.
The two recent loan signings from Charleroi came slightly out of left field and only time will tell whether either Geoffrey Mujangi Bia or Adelene Guedioura will prove to be a success or not.
But cut-price signings like these won’t placate the fans or give us a much needed boost that the January transfer window occasionally delivers.
Is it a lack of ambition from the Molineux board or are the club actually willing to spend a few million to keep us on track but are just struggling to bring in the players they have targeted?
Until the transfer window is concluded on Monday, we can’t really judge the club’s dealings. If we did somehow manage to prise Stephen Hunt and found a decent striker from somewhere, would you see that as good business?
It will obviously be interesting to see if Hunt is included in the Hull team when we visit the KC Stadium on Saturday. I’m sure he will be playing and I think the visiting Wolves fans should ensure that Stephen knows that we would love to have him join.
Mick may decide to revert back a 4-4-2 and pop Sylvan back in tangent with Doyle, which I think would be a mistake. Apart from the lack of creativity from the right flank, I liked the look of the new 4-1-4-1 formation, which may be even more effective against lesser teams than Liverpool.
If we can get support up to Doyle a bit quicker than we did midweek, and deploy Mancienne again just in front of the back four, then Mick really could have found a formation that may help us stay up.
It’s another huge game and I fancy us to sneak a result.
And then live on ITV4 on Tuesday, it’s the cup replay against crisis club Crystal Palace. I listened to Brendan Guilfoyle being interviewed on a certain sports radio channel last night.
He is the administrator in charge of trying to recoup as much money as he can for Crystal Palace by selling players and trying to renegotiate contracts and sell-on clauses.
He was also the man who had to inform Neil Warnock that he couldn’t play Victor Moses against Newcastle the other night just in case he picked up a knock, I don’t think I would have fancied that job!
Brendan went on to tell the listeners that Victor Moses will be sold in the transfer window, as will any other players who could demand a decent transfer fee.
As much as I hate to see any club suffer, this obviously means that Tuesday’s game has just got a lot more winnable!
Anyway, enjoy the game at the weekend. I’m off to ask Gareth at SportingBet just who gave him permission to paint the Wolves dugouts baby blue!
UTW!
@Wolvesblogger 