Wolves v Stoke: Preview

From one derby to another. This one I suppose not quite so big but probably a game about big players. Physically. Rory Delap's thow ins will be coming from all areas, just like Greg Halford's. They have their big players, like Beattie, Fuller and Faye. But Christophe Berra has proved a menace at dead balls, often positioning himself where the ball is being aimed. He set up Kevin Doyle's goal at a throw in (our only success at throw ins) and set up a goal against Sunderland. I hope it's not a game of who can throw the furthest, as we can ply some good stuff. Credit to Stoke though, their style may not be pretty but what do they care if they succeed?

Tony Pulis is in his second spell at the Brittania, and has fast become a legend there. He's built his team well and this season made some very good signings. He has bought Huth and Tuncay from Boro. Huth has won the premier league with Chelski and Tuncay has shown he can do it in the recent European championships. And what a signing James Beattie was, his goals after joining from Sheffield United in January were crucial.

Something we will need to match is our chanting. Stoke are known for their noisyness (a word?) and are very intimidating. I often wondered last season whether they will ever move stadiums if they kept improving. We need some points from this game (our next two being Arsenal and Chelsea) to keep us out of the bottom three, somewhere we have not been in this season.

I reckon Mick will want us to try and play our way out of this game, but if trailing he will probably bring on his trademark substitution, a big centre forward.

I reckon the team will go like this:

Hennessey

Zubar
Berra
Craddock
Elokobi

Kightly
Henry
Castillo
Edwards/Halford

Ebanks-Blake
Doyle.

Hopefully SEB/Doyle ca get us something out of this game. 1-1.

Sometimes you just wanna...

So now we know why Matty Jarvis has been dropped. His end product isn't enough. I think that is absolutely ridicolous. This means he should drop Michael Kightly, who is yet to put in a decent cross! Dave Edwards (who I think has had a terrific season so far), Greg Halford, are also not great crossers of the ball, and Jarvis brings more to our game than them two. Speed. He is fouled countless times, one freekick leading to the goal against Wigan I believe..
Against Stoke I don't think he will pick Jarvis, or against Arsenal and Chelsea. But after that, we have Bolton and Brum at home, two games he has to play in for me. At home we need to attack them with both wingers, Aston Villa do it with Milner and Young so why not? It has payed off for them so far.

Got a different opinion to me? Or agree and want to let it out? Comment.

Wolves 1 Aston Villa 1: Sylvan finds his goalscoring touch

A decent performance, especially in the first half. We had a lot of possession without carving out any real chances. What the defence were doing in the first minute I will never know, but luckily Agbonlahor can't kick with his first left foot.

I think Dunne should have been sent off though, when he tugged Doyle away from a goalscoring opportunity. Our corners were getting nowhere, as most of Kightly's crosses were hitting the first man. If Mick picks his team by not losing your place when playing well, how come Halford was sub and Jarvis lost his place v Everton?

We came under it in the second half, we held them out well but they got the goal with ten minutes left and I thought we were out of it. Nenad had had some good touches and his flick was brilliant when Kightly got the penalty. There was no messing with our first penalty of the season, and a first goal for Sylvan. I think he will start scoring for fun now, and we'll need him to if we want anything from the next three games.

Hennessey - 8 - Did well at corners and made some good saves.

Zubar - 7 - Solid and did well against arguably the best winger in England.
Craddock - 7 - Some vital clearances when we were in trouble.
Berra - 7 - Defended well against Villa's big boys.
Elokobi - 7 - Miner hardly caused him any problems.

Edwards - 7 - Started well but went quiet towards the end.
Castillo - 7 - Sometimes his passing is great sometimes terrible. Strong tackler as well.
Henry - 8 - Very classy and hardly made a mistake.
Kightly - 6 - Doesn't look confident enough to take his full back on.

Ebanks-Blake - 7.5 - Held the ball up well, his partnership with Doyle looking positive.
Doyle - 7 - Great on the ball, nearly set up a few chances.




MOTM: Karl Henry - the captain has oozed class in this hungry side, an example for the others.

Wolves v Villa: Preview

Our first local derby of the season against a team who have beaten Chelsea and Liverpool, and have a very pacy attack. Don't forget that their last three goals have come from set pieces. Any reason to be worried?

Wolves' last five league games - LWLLD
Villa's last five games - WWLDW

And yet I remain confident. This side is very good at bouncing back as we did after Portsmouth, and tomorrow let's hope we continue that. The performance away at Everton was superb, but we'll have to be better than that if we want to win. It looks set to be a game based around wingers. Young and Milner could cause us problems, don't forget Agbonlahor. We have our own, if they both start which seems unlikely. Mick is too stubborn to change the team. Jarvis and Kightly need a run of games together and then they will really get going. If he does play Jarvis, it will be at the expense of Dave Edwards, as Mick will play two holding midfielders to be safe. He will want to have Halford for the throw ins, espeically as Rory Delap's throw ins saw Stoke give Aston Villa a scare last season.

Martin O'Neill has done a fantastic job, guiding the Villans to consecutive top 6 places. He's never won in march with Villa, which is when we play them away! His signings have looked odd at times, but always come good. He has set up a brilliant team which can change it's play with Carew and Heskey. He is wary of the threat we pose, and won't undermine us.

Our problem at home is we don't press like we do away. They think they have to try and control, and give the other team to much time on the ball. Mick needs to change this, it's just not working. Mark Lawrenson has put us down for a 2-1 win, and I'll say the same. Doyle and SEB.


Probable line-up
Hennessey

Zubar
Craddock
Berra
Elokobi

Kightly

Henry
Castillo
Jarvis

Doyle
Ebanks-Blake

Player Focus

This week I will be looking at Andy Mutch (bottom, duh!).

Andy spearheaded the Wolves attack with legend Steve Bull, and struck a mouth watering partnership. Signed on our way down, an impressive 7 goals in 15 games wasn't enough to keep them up. The next season he joined forces with Bully and just missed out on promotion through the play offs. The following season their combined goals added up to 53, and Wolves lifted the 4th division title. They improved on that the season after with their partnership scoring 58 league goals (83 in all competitions!) bringing wolves a succesive league title.

While he never played for England, he did make the England 'B' team 3 times and the under 21s team once, but didn't score.

Andy was a trainee at Liverpool and Everton but never made the grade at either. He started his professional career at Southport, where he returned to in 1999 for a year. He played 75 times for s'port, and bagged 29 goals. In 1986 Graham Turner snapped him up at the Wanderers.

Part of one of Wolves' greatest partnerships, and in less of the limelight than Steve Bull, but he did something Bully never achieved. A season in the premiership. Bull did score in the top flight for Albion, but only lasted two games in the world's best league. Mutch left the Molineux in 1993 for £250k to newly promoted(to the prem) Swindon. He scored 6 goals for them in his 50 games there, but left for lowly Stockport County, where he won promotion and got to the League Cup semis under Dave Jones (who was later to be Wolves manager). He lasted two seasons at Edgeley park, and left for non-league Barrow. He returned to Southport for one game but soon joined the Telford United coaching staff.

In 2007, he stepped up from his assistant manager position to manage Vauxhall Motors. His first managerial job ended badly, and resigned after losing 6-0 at home to Kettering. His next tenure didn't end well either, where he was manager at Burscough for a a season, and was recently sacked.

Andy has also worked for a car company that specialised in selling to footballers.

Any thing horribly wrong, or something important that I've missed out?