In which our intrepid heroes find themselves in the bottom three after a weekend in which all the other stragglers forgot to be shite.
Today’s game against Birmingham City was a good summation of many of the struggles Wolves face this season. Wolves matched Blues in all areas of the pitch for most of the game and, until a series of substitutions late on in the game, looked to take all three points. The difference ultimately was that Blues can bring on a player like Kevin Phillips. They are -and have been for a number of years now- a team comfortable enough that they can keep a player on the bench who is earning 30k a week.
Wolves, in contrast, are not in that position. The first teamer’s don’t even rake in that.
In fact, the centre back pairing that has been so important for Blues were both initially targeted by Wolves in the summer. Scott Dann was undergoing a medical with Wolves when McLeish called him to offer higher wages. And therein lies the bind; money.
It’s no secret that the premier league is run in a stupid way, where the clubs at the top end of the table are in billions of pounds worth of debt, whilst the clubs lower down are acting responsibly and stuttering along. At some point, you would hope, this will see some reward. But money is not the only problem. Image plays a huge part. The premier league era has seen a rewriting of history, where the attractive clubs have been reduced to only four or five. Wolves outbid Manchester City in January for a player, but he preferred to go an risk sitting on the bench at a massive club to coming into the first team at a smaller one. Similar bids went in to other players who just didn’t see the attraction of moving to the midlands.
But against all of this, how are the team themselves doing? Well, it’s a damned-if-you do scenario. They still work hard. They’re still covering every blade of grass, but they still lack penetration. Earlier in the season they played 4-4-2, and showed remarkable naive bravery, they attacked the opposition, created a number of chances, but had nobody to put them away. Meanwhile at the other end the defence was too intent on attacking, and the goals leaked. More recently, the manager has sought to solidify the team into a 4-5-1. In theory, it’s great, but in practice that formation relies on having midfielders who can run past the striker into goalscoring positions…and the club don’t really have those.
They’ve not quite looked the same since Anfield. That was the last time the players looked to really attack a team and try to get a win, it didn’t go well, and since then they’ve looked more to cover up and not expose themselves. And it terms of solidity, it worked. They matched Liverpool at home and took a point. They traded blows with Hull away and took a point. Problem is, and again it comes back to money, the club couldn’t bring in the two or three players to add the experience and bite that would raise them from battlers to winners.
But my song sheet still hasn’t changed. They have the abillity to stay up, and a good manager. Add to that a balanced bank account and the club are in a better position than many. But the other key to survival for any team in any season is luck. And so far, there has been none. And in a really unfair ask of any team, the key to survival could come down to a fluke result; their next few fixtures find them playing the likes of Tottenham, Chelsea and Man United. A fluke buried in amongst those would lift the team into a good position for the run in, but if those games go the way that common sense would dictate, things get difficult.
Still, as the song goes, i’d rather be a dingle than a cunt.
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