Football Manager Blog | Football Manager Guru | Wolves, 2nd Quarter Of Season

As my squad move into the 2nd quarter of the season, I believe there were a few things that I, as a manager should take note off. Is Michael Ball really capable of filling that left back role? Or should I go shopping in January for a more capable left back. Is Michael Doyle really worth a starting 11 position considering the fact that his form has been erratic and Ebanks-Blake has been consistently out performing him? Is Milijas really as good as I thought he would be? His inability to bounce back from defeats by big clubs is worrying. Let’s jump straight into the first match.

I received a major boost as I moved into the upcoming match, Kikin Fonseca is fit to play again. Thank god, I need more options considering how Doyle has been so inconsistent recently. Fonseca’s ability to play as a forward striker is something Doyle cannot emulate.

Blake scored to put us ahead, but Villa equalised shortly after. Ebanks-Blake then scored another goal just before half time and we went into the dressing room leading 1-2. Apparently, my calls to avoid complacency and to keep their performance up was unheeded as Villa came out and equalised just after three minutes through a long shot from Ashley Young. Emile Heskey then struck on the counter to put Villa in a 3-2 lead. After 70 mins of inactivity from Doyle, I took him off and replaced him with Fonseca. I did not start with Fonseca as he was not entirely match fit. Within 3 minutes after coming on as a substitute, Fonseca equalised to put us at 3-3. Fonseca made an instant impact and this was the boost to the team I was hoping he could give after he returns from injury. Just as I thought we could nick an away draw, substitute England striker Agbonlahor scored to give Villa a 4-3 lead in the dying minutes of the game. I was gutted, as I thought it was a good performance from us tonight. But that’s football for you.

Shortly after the Villa game, to rub salt into my team’s wound, Stearman and Ball, my 2 1st-choice left back and right back got injured and will both be out for a couple of week. What a terribly unlucky day for my squad. My defensive woes looks bad at that moment in time.

My next game saw us host Blackburn at home, where Wolves were tipped as the underdogs. I was without my 1st choice left back, Michael Ball and 1st choice right back Stearman. I had to play my 2nd choice fullbacks Surman and Greg Halford in a makeshift back 4. Blackburn scored early in the game, and I equalised via a Berra goal from a corner. I am starting to notice Berra’s knack of scoring goals from corners at this point in time. Fonseca was once against used as a sub in this match at the 60th mark, as he get closer and closer to full match fitness, but he failed to make the same impact this game. Heartening to know the makeshift back 4 did not leak too many goals though.

Liverpool schooled us at Anfield for 2 reasons. First, they made monkeys out of my two 2nd choice fullbacks, Surman and Halford (who I am now determined to sell in January). And In addition, Otamendi got sent off early in the first half, meaning I played the whole of 2nd half with only 10 men on the pitch. Wolve’s defensive flaws once again showed against the bg boys. On a positive note, Jones and Krivets both scored long range efforts, and once AGAIN Berra scored from a corner (see a pattern here?). It is now crystal clear that I have to shore up this leaky defence in the winter transfer window.

I hosted Everton next, and finally Kikin Fonseca is ready to play from the start. A match-fit Fonseca scored early in the game to make us lead 1-0, although we conceded a sloppy goal. This is the first time in a long while I’ve seen my first choice strikers Fonseca and Doyle partner up front, and it does seem promising considering how rusty Fonseca is. We had some great chances to win the game, but Tim Howard was an absolute beast. Milijas seems to be playing badly after the Liverpool game as his morale is really rockbottom at the moment. Michael Ball was introduced as a sub after his 2 weeks injury.

This game was crucial to us in many aspects. First, we have not seen a win for a while now, and Tottenham is tipped to beat us comfortably at our home ground. This is to be expected if you look at their talented line up with Luka Modric and what not. But I guess my squad had other plans. Fonseca came up big once again and you can see why I said Fonseca is going to be a bargain buy this season. A typical left shot to the bottom corner by Fonseca made us lead early in the game. David Jones then extended our lead to 2-0 at the 27 min after bursting into the penalty box. Fonseca almost had another chance to make it 3-0 in the 77 min, after he was set through on goal by David Jones. David Jones was named man of the match and he was in absolutely red hot form, scoring a goal and creating another. What a great decision to play him over Milijas who was dropped to the bench after his terrible performance against Liverpool, might give him an extended run in the team.

As you can see, We had 5 clear cut chances to Spurs’ 0 and had 10 shots on target compared to their 3. Credits to Hasebe and Karl Henry to shut down their midfield. They had absolutely no chance to create anything worthy at all. This is despite the fact we had 10% lesser possession than Spurs! Great performance by the team.

Shortly after the Spurs game, the media made an interesting comment, equating my name to goals! Although they did also point out my team’s weakness in defence, but it was nice to get some acknowledgment. We do have a relatively talented strike force.

This is probably the MOST dramatic, MOST fulfilling game of the season. Against Fulham away, I dropped Milijas once again, in addition to Kevin Doyle who have been both under performing. I opted to play the more in form Fonseca and Blake up front. We could have won this game if not for Michael Ball’s erratic schoolboy errors. It was by far the proudest achievement so far though. In the early game, we created so many chances yet failed to score due to some great goalkeeping and bad finishing. All it took was two counters from Fulham and we found ourselves trailing  2-0. We hit back immediately after trailing 2-0 forcing an own goal by Fulham to make it 2-1. Fulham wasted no time and took merely a minute to extend their lead once again back to 3-1. The hairdryer treatment was dished out at half time in hope of my squad playing better in the 2nd half. This was not to be, Bobby Zamora put them ahead 4-1 and you would have said it was all over.

My squad made a stunning come back, clawing back 3 goals to make it a 4-4 draw. What a game. A dual substitution immediately after Zamora scored saw me bring on Doyle for Fonseca and Milijas for Jones. And these 2 were instrumental in our come back. Sometimes these 2 players (whom I identified as star players at the start of the season) pisses the hell out of me, some days they make me eat my words when I critisize them. Krivets scored a goal after a series of great passes between Doyle and Milijas making it 4-2. A glimmer of hope? Doyle wasted no time in silencing his critics in the mdia as he scored in the 81 min with a perfect finish to the bottom corner of the net to make it 4-3. The game is on. And in the 88 min, Milijas converted a penalty, after Doyle was brought down in the box as he was about to shoot. Come back, accomplished.

If you look carefully at the stats, we had 26 shots on goals compared to their 10, that’s almost 3 times the shots we had. We had 11 shots on target compared to their 6 on target, an in addition we hit the woodwork once. And we created 7 clear cut chances compared to their 4. Such a waste, we could have won if not for some heroic goal keeping from their keeper. But the result today showed other teams out there Wolves does have the mental strength to come back to snatch points, and I felt so much more bonded to the club after this result. It is such game, that really shows the beauty of our favourite game, Football Manager.

After the game the media asked me to describe the game, and I said, “It was absolutely epic.” It sure was.

The media also pointed out that Wolves had a real eye for goal at the moment and haven’t failed to score in a long time. I responded that we will try to out score every opponent we meet, and that’s how I really think football should be played if I manage a club. True the modern day European clubs will not be all about gung-ho attack, but cautious play. Well, that’s not my footballing philosophy.

Prior to the next game, Alex Ferguson, Manager of Man United, gave me a vote of confidence and said I had the ability to lead Wolves away from relegation, I responded respectfully of course. Afterall, in real life, I am a Manchester United fan (:

Berbatov scored before half time to give United a lead, in a game Wolves was expect to lose at home. Afterall, we crumbled to giants in this season so far. But Wolves feeling high after the 4-4 come back, put in a solid 1st half performance. We were absolutely undeserving of trailing 0-1 at half time. Just look at the half time statistics above. We had 6 shots on target compared to their 5, and if not for some great goalkeeping from Van der Saar, we could have equalised. Nevertheless it was a good attempt for the first half. Encouragement was shown during the team talk, and Wolves went out all guns blazing in the 2nd half.

At full time, we still have not managed to break down Van der Sarr goal who was absolutely on fire. No guesses who the man of the match is, it goes to Van der Saar of course. However, there were many positive points we could take away from this game though.

At full-time, we had 15 shots compared to United’s 8, almost double their efforts, and we had 8 shots on target compared to their 5. We created 6 clear cut chances to United’s 2. It such a waste that we had to lose this game, because we really put up a great fight against a top team. Most of my players are probably earning a quarter of the average United player’s wages. Really unlucky not to at least get a point.

Ebanks-Blake could have won the game for us as he had 5 shots on target, all of which Van der Saar saved. If only his finishing was a little more brutal, we could have walked away with something. Still, that’s some impressive goalkeeping for you.

After 17 games this season , Otamendi is looking to be a great buy already as he made a total of 15 interceptions, far ahead of anyone else in the team. No wonder he has been attracting interest from other clubs. Definitely one to keep for the future. Brilliant young defender.

Stearman, who also had been attracting plenty of clubs’ attention recently, justified the interest of other clubs as he put in a total of 13 tackles 11 of which are successful, one of which is key. This is the highest in the whole team and he is only a right back. Great performance.

After the game, the writeup from the media summed up how I feel, Man United was lucky to escape with all 3 points and it was a really close match. “Wolves must have wondered what they had to do to break down their opponents, as time and again they were met by a committed fender eager to block a shot” summed up my frustrations for the night. Still, great game against a big club.

As I finish writing this post, I do feel a lot better about Wolves, although we stand at 11th position in the table now (still far from relegation zone and we already played Man City, Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea). We might not have more wins in the recent 7 games, but we demonstrated a lot of grit particularly in the 4-4 comeback against Fulham and the good effort against the Red Devils. The cleansheet we kept against Tottenham was also probably the rare few cleansheets we are going to have this season. Things are looking to pick up for Wolves, and I am certain after a few more games, I could acquire a few good defenders to shore up the defence. See you at the top half of the table.