Football Manager Blog | Football Manager Guru | So The Season Begins for Wolves

After going through players after players looking for the best transfer deals and tinkering with formation and tactics, I am glad to say that Wolves is finally ready for the new season. Training schedules are sorted out, so is tactics down to the small details like set piece takers and how we are going to attack corners etc. I have a fair idea of what different players are capable of and who is in my starting XI. Let’s just get down to looking at how my Wolves team fair in the opening games of the 09/10 season.

My first game, saw me host Birmingham, and my team was strong favourites to win, something we delivered in style. A 5-0 thrashing of Birmingham in my first game in charge sent morale in the team soaring high. Krivets was unlucky not to score on his debut as he hit the bar, Otamendi my new extremely promising CB scored on his debut from a corner. Fonseca also scored a debut goal. But the player that really stood out today was Milijas who scored a hattrick, 2 of which are from outside the penalty box (long range efforts as you can see from the 3rd picture). I was right in my assessment of Milijas in my earlier post on Wolves, his long shots will be a great asset in this season indeed. Great way to start the season.

The next game saw Wolves travel to Burnley, where we played to an exciting 3-3 draw. This result led me to suspect that my defence might need some strengthening in the next transfer window. Enyeama notched an assist in the first goal leading to Fonseca scoring to make us lead 0-1. He kicked a ball upfield from his own penalty area, to set Fonseca through on goal at the other end of the pitch. Once again, I was right in my assessment of Enyeama in the previous post, he does have great distribution that can lead to quick counters.

Fonseca scored again to make us 2-0 up, making him 3 goals in 2 games. However, as Michael Ball was still not match fit, I was playing my 2nd choice left back, Surman. Surman was not coping well at all, as he made 2 mistakes that led Burnley claw their way back into the game. Another defensive error saw us trail 3-2. Eventually, Milijas equalised with another trademark long-range effort (I am starting to really like his long shots). Kevin Doyle had an awful, awful game.

The next game was a league cup game, and I was playing League Two’s Macclesfield, and I fielded my second string of players. Nothing significant to note, except my 3rd choice striker, Ebank-Blake scored a hattrick.

Arsenal sent us crashing back to Earth in the next game, as we suffered a heavy away loss. Arsharvin and Fabregas absolutely tore my defence to shred, which saw Michael Ball playing at LB. Perhaps Ball was not as good as I though originally. Clearly Wolves needed a stronger defence  before I could challenge the big boys, something to take note off.

In our next game, we hosted Chelsea at home, and suffered yet ANOTHER heavy 0-3 loss. Talk about unlucky, 2 big sides played us in a row. We were keeping the score at 0-0 close to half time when Enyeama made a mistake to lead to a goal. This was frustrating considering the fact Wolves were playing quite well before conceding. What’s more frustrating is that it was crucial the team had a chance bounce back after the thrashing that Arsenal handed out to us last game. Michael Ball was the culprit for the 3rd goal.

To rub salt into wound, Fonseca my star player this season broke his arm and will be out for 5-6 weeks, this is a very heavy blow to the squad, especially after we lost 2 games in a row.

The next game we played away at Man City. And we lost 4-3. It was a good effort though, and the plans of Wolves were pleased, because well, we were tipped off to lose heavily against a full-strength Man City squad. Heck, we even managed to steal the win. We went 3-0 up before half time as you can see before letting City come back to score 4 after half-time. Perhaps I should not have asked the team to retain possession and increase time wasting to the max. I also should not have slowed the tempo of the game down and played short passing. Because apparently, my side is just not good at retaining possession. We probably could have won, if I kept up the attacking pressure against Man City and not tinkered with the tactics. Ball puts in another terrible performance at rating 4, and I am starting to get a little irritated by his performances.

I critisized him in public, and lets hope he will change for the better.

Our fortunes did not change in the next game against Everton away as we lost 3-0. Once again, Michael Ball made a big mistake to lead to their first goal. Just check out the weakest player in the screenshot. Guess who? Michael Ball again.

Wolves finally returned to winning ways in our next game at home against Hull, where we thrashed them 5-1. Suddenly Fonseca’s injury seems to be forgotten as Ebank-Blake took his place in the starting XI and slamed 2 goals past Hull. In the whole game he had 2 shots on goals, and that resulted in 2 goals as you can see in the screenshot. Talk about clinical finishing. He really showed signs of brilliance in this game.

I droped Milijas for this game after his formed and morale hit rock bottom after the string of losses to Arsenal Chelsea and Man City. David Jones started in his place and put in a good performance. Krivets seemed to have put his previous bad performances behind him and returned to scoring ways with a goal

Apparently all the post match scolding of Michael Ball seems to have taken effect as he played fairly well in this game making 8 interceptions on the left of the pitch. He also notched an assist in this game. I really hope he has changed for the better though.

Kevin Doyle finally turns up in this away game against West Ham. My 2nd 3-3 score draw of the season. Leaky defence strikes once again. Doyle scores 2 goals as we drew with a talented West Ham side. Dyer scored 2 goals, one of which is a screamer from outside the penalty box. It was a good result, as many people tipped West Ham to win due to their home advantage.

My side returns to their winning ways, with a 2-1 home win over Wigan. Ebank-Blake turns up scoring a goal for us, while Enyeama made a string of good saves. Wolves is doing far much better than their relegation rivals.

Currently my side lies 8th in the league. Has my side really turned the tide to return to winning ways starting with the match against Wigan? Or will another team send us back to ground again. Stay tuned for the next post.