Last night, Wolves defeated Walsall 3-2, with goals from Leigh Griffiths, Michael Kightly and Christophe Berra.
- This time last season,
I was not looking forward to the start of the season. I pretty much had football burn out following the festival of football, the World Cup. Yesterday though, I was looking forward to it. I enjoyed the tournaments through the summer; the Gold Cup, Copa America, Under-21s and Under 17s. Hell, I even found myself watching the Women’s' World Cup. But none of these matches had any emotional pull. I was watching the sake of watching, but I didn't feel like I belonged. Today was different. Proper football is back.
- This won't surprise anyone, but the first touch of a ball I saw from George Elokobi in the 2011/12 season went straight out of play. However, watching his game closely later on, I realised that the biggest fault Karl Henry has is his reluctance to take the ball from his defenders. I lost count of the amount of times he gave the ball to a defender and then TURNED HIS BACK ON THE BALL. (It should be noted that at no point was I ever actually counting the amount of times this happened.) Compare Henry's off the ball movement with that of Nenad Milijaš and you'll see a world of difference.
- Talking of the difference between Milijaš and Henry, it was nice to see a change in our corner routine when Michael Kightly pinged the ball out to Henry on the edge of the area for a volleyed attempt at goal. It wasn't the best of efforts, it sort of skewed off his foot and would probably have gone 10 yards wide had a defender not intercepted it, but the attempt was there.
- Ah, Michael Kightly. It's good to see him back in a Wolves shirt, getting a pre-season under his belt. He looked fit in his body, but I'm not sure about in his head. He had his defender on toast if he wanted, but seemed hesitant to properly let loose. Hopefully this will come as he learns to trust his body more, and I can't wait to see him flying down that wing again.
- A number of changes came at halftime, with arguably the strongest team playing latterly. The Irish contingent was introduced, including Andy Keogh. Annoyingly, I had just told my friend about his lack of aerial prowess, when he won his first header, a decent flick on down the line. I spent a while wiping the egg from my face.
- I'm sure it's a relief to for Christophe Berra to finally get on the score sheet. Maybe it was embarrassment that fellow Scot Leigh Griffiths had managed it in the first half. Berra has always threatened to score, without ever actually managing it. Maybe a strange and troubling new haircut is key to his new found goal scoring ability.
- Is it worth noting that the majority of Roger Johnson's minutes in a Wolves shirt have been alongside Berra? That would give us a right/left combination at the back, although I'm never sure of how useful this is; most of the best partnerships I can think of in recent years have been two right-footed players, although this could be due to a lack of left-footed centre-backs, and a predilection to shove them to leftback.
- While we're on the subject of the defence, Danny Batth did ok in the first half. He looks a big lad but may need another season of regular first team football at a lower level before he's Premier League ready. However, he was more impressive than his partner, Jody Craddock. Craddock is a long way from his best, which in my opinion was the 2004/05 season, and I argued that
he should not have been awarded a new contract.
- I always had a feeling Craddock was in the team due to his experience and ability to organise the defence, although I'm not 100% sure of his ability to do that; he's never struck me as the loudest of players. One player who is though, is Roger Johnson. He wasn't tested a huge amount defensively, but his leadership qualities were apparent, constantly in charge of the defensive line. I'm sure there wasn't a Wolves fan in the world who didn't have their heart in their mouth when he picked up a knock late on, but like the proper man that he is, he picked himself up and got on with it.
- Interestingly, we were given the joy of viewing five different wingers today; Kightly and Stephen Hunt in the second half, Matt Jarvis and Stephen Ward in the second, and latterly Adam Hammill. Of those, Jarvis looked a cut above the rest, although Hammill was lively. He definitely needs to work hard on his decision making though, at one point he dillied and dallied before shooting straight at a defender's legs with Kevin Doyle in a good position.
- Finally we come to the strikers. Sylvan Ebanks-Blake looked a little chunky, although that could be the tight fit of the shirts. Griffiths looked lively and tenacious; I could well see why he has been compared to Paul Dichov. In the second half, Doyle and Keogh were introduced, and the gulf in class between them was never more apparent. Both may be blond Irish strikers, but one is the future of Wolves, while the other is very much the past.
- Overall, the result matters not a jot. It was a decent workout for the team, although I would have liked to have seen something other than 4-4-2. At times, especially in the first half the midfield struggled to get to grip with the tempo of the match, and left the forwards isolated. It improved slightly in the second half, but I would like to see a little more innovation here, especially finding a role for Milijaš to sit deep and dictate the
tempo of the match in the way he did at times last season.
