Posted by Football Manager Guru in 
Why Wolves?
After formatting my com recently, I lost all my game data including the save game where I took Leeds United to the Premiership, shuddering at the thought of grinding my way up League One and Championship again, I decided to take one of the newly promoted teams to the Premier League for the 09/10 season as it should provide a similar challenge to my old saved game where I bring newly promoted Leeds to the EPL.
Hence, my third team to manage in Football Manager 2010, will be the Wolverhampton Wanderers aka Wolves.
A First-Look At Wolves
As expected, the board expects Wolves to avoid relegation as they are a newly promoted side. A wage budget of 5.75 million isn’t really that bad for a club that just got promoted, that means I had some room for buying of players.
My assistant manager Terry Connor prepared the above squad report for me. Now, I don’t exactly trust the accuracy of his report a 100% well, Terry Connor is a pretty crappy Assistant Manager to be honest. Take a look at his stats. Guess I will have to do the team assessment on my own, sigh.
Don’t you think Terry Connor looks more like a rugby player than an assistant manager? But anyway, if you take a look at his stats, you can see why I don’t really trust his words exactly. Tough luck.
Wolves’ Current Squad
Well, my initial reaction when I opened the squad list, was “That’s a pretty long squad list”. Wolves seem to have a pretty in-depth squad, but as for how well the players really are I have no idea. 6 forwards. Now I am sure some of them can be sold for a larger transfer fund. I had 2 good wingers in the form of Matt Jarvis and Michael Kightly. Now, from my Leeds United game, I knew that Kightly was a pretty good AMR/winger for a team that just got promoted. Straight off the bat, he was already wanted by Aston Villa and Everton.
If there’s anything I learnt from my Leeds game, it is that, if you have a small squad, try avoid tactics that involve heavy wing-play. This is because if you go for a narrow diamond tactic, you can easily rotate your midfielders to cover the DM, CM and AMC role should anyone of them get injured. And over the years, I have gotten pretty good at playing a diamond formation. It is highly likely, I will do the same for Wolves.
Hence, it did not take me long to decide to sell my two pretty decent wingers, Kightly and Jarvis. I am sure many would argue Kightly is probably the better ones in the squad, but I am pretty confident with the money from his transfer I could buy one or two decent midfielders.
Also having 3 GKs seem a bit of an overkill and one of them will probably be off-loaded to make room for a higher wage budget.
The Star Players aka Untouchables
Nenad Mijas is obviously the star player in the midfield, he has 20 for long shots with translates into many goals from outsite the penalty box, and I will be looking to exploit this talent of his. Pretty decent set piece taker as well. Other than dribbling, his technical attributes are around the 14-15 mark in addition to his creativity rating of 16, he probably will be the one to open up defences. A must keep.
Kevin Doyle is obviously the best striker in my team. In my previous Football Manager 2010 games, I have noticed that Doyle tends to score quite a significant number of goals per season. While he might not be top scorer he might usually be among the top 10. Another must keep. Worth 6.5 million.
The To-Be-Sold
The first forward to be sold is Andrew Keogh, with abysmal technical attributes (most importantly finishing of 8), I have no frigging idea why is he worth 2.6 million dollars. Dead-weight, must be sold at all costs.
My second forward that I aim to sell, is Chris Iwelumo who is currently 30 year old and has terrible technical attributes. Looking to get rid of him before his value deflates with age.
The goalkeeper I chose to offload is Hahnemann, largely due to his old age. Better sell before he is worth nothing.
Promising Players
Sam Vokes seems the most promising young talent in my current squad, and his attributes look pretty decent for a 19 year-old. Probably will be aiming to give him a loan spell to some other club to help with his development.
Areas To Be Strengthened
At my first glance through all the Wolves player, that was one very glaring weakness in the Wolves squad and that is all my LB are terrible. Even the best out of the 3 who can play LB is mediocre by Premier League standards.
Stephen Ward is currently my best LB and even then, his stats aren’t exactly good for a LB. Will definitely be looking to buy a LB for the squad and make Stephen Ward a backup LB.
Also, Wayne Hennessey, who is my best keeper at the club, looks not too reliable, although if I cannot find a decent GK on the market without breaking the bank I will probably make do with him.
Another glaring weakness is the lack of a DM to play in my diamond formation. Castillo is a pretty decent DM, but one DM is not enough, if he is injured, the base of the diamond formation crumbles.
In addition although I have pretty decent strikers in Kevin Doyle, Ebanks-Blake and Maierhofer ( decent targetman. taller than Peter Crouch ) , I will probably seek to buy a good striker to replace the two forwards I plan to offload.
So there, you have it, my first take on the Wolves squad. I shall reveal all my signings for Wolves in the next post and also how Wolves have faired in the pre-season. Stay tuned.
Do drop comments if you think you have an excellent player to recommend for purchase for a team like Wolves.
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