Wolves may as well go to 'have a go'
Wolves blogger Tim Spiers is not holding out much hope for much other than 'having a go' at Manchester City as the teams prepare to meet for the second time this week.
Wolves blogger Tim Spiers is not holding out much hope for much other than 'having a go' at Manchester City as the teams prepare to meet for the second time this week.
On the back of six miserable results, the last thing Wolves needed was two games against one of the in-form teams in European football.
The ruthless fashion in which Manchester City annihilated Manchester United on their own patch last weekend was breath-taking. Results like that just aren't meant to happen.
It was a clear indication that Robert Mancini's group of individuals are finally becoming a team, which spells bad news for the rest of the league as City could dominate for years to come if they keep this up.
In the short-term, it also spells bad news for former City youth keeper Wayne Hennessey, whose task it is to keep Sergio Aguero, David Silva, Mario Balotelli et al at bay tomorrow afternoon.
Of course, we got a taste of City's current mood on Wednesday when they repeated their Old Trafford trick of three blink-and-you'll-miss-them goals.
All in all, the game wasn't as bad as it could have been from a Wolves perspective, we weren't embarrassed and we played some decent football.
The movement of the front players was far better than it was against Swansea and they were willing to try different things.
As in, not just lob it to the front man to try and hold up, or not just work the ball to the wingers and see what they can do with it.
Let's be honest, it takes someone with the grey matter of Kerry Katona, not Albert Einstein, to work out our game plan at times.
But, in players like Nenad Milijas and Adlene Guedioura, we had unpredictability on Wednesday and that's an important asset to have against such tough opposition – hard work will only get you so far.
For the first 20 minutes they took the game to City, threw things at them and caused their defenders a few problems, even at 5-2 down they kept going.
After the Swansea debacle, it was nice to see some positive strides being made. Defensively though it was the same old story, with naïve mistakes contributing to City's five goals.
The visitors may have fielded a glorified reserve team worth more than £100million, but our defenders were still not getting the basics right and looked worrying permeable.
Still, it was nice to see Jody Craddock get 90 minutes and I would love to see him and young Matt Doherty brought into the first team.
Craddock may be getting on a bit but his experience, positional sense and calmness under pressure are attributes badly missing at the moment.
And Doherty has barely put a foot wrong since making his first team debut in the FA Cup last season.
The way he handled Stewart Downing at Anfield last month hinted that he has a maturity about him and I think he's worthy of a chance ahead of the out-of-form Richard Stearman, with Craddock in for Christophe Berra.
With Steven Fletcher still injured, it's got to be 4-5-1 for me, with Guedioura and Stephen Hunt in for Sylvan Ebanks-Blake and Matt Jarvis, another who is way off his best form.
If we thought Wednesday was bad, then Saturday has an ominous feel about it, and not just because of the world-class stars that City will bring into their side.
Any opposition would prove difficult this weekend, such is our desperate lack of form at the moment.
As someone said to me this week, forget the reserve team, City could beat us with their office staff.
Personally, the masochist in me is quite looking forward to a day out in Manchester, visiting a magnificent stadium and watching the likes of Aguero and Silva strut their stuff.
Although the players will no doubt approach the game in nothing less than a professional manner, they too will surely benefit from expectations being so low, as opposed to the black cloud on the horizon that is the Wigan game a week later.
In fact, prospects for a win tomorrow are so low that one bookie has us at 18-1 to pick up three points.
The last time I can recall such long odds for a Wolves win would probably be way back at the start of the 2003-04 season, when we went to Old Trafford on the back of 5-1 and 4-0 reverses to Blackburn and Charlton.
Absolutely no one, myself included, gave us a chance that day bu,t if it wasn't for the profligacy of a certain Mr Camara, we could have nicked an unlikely point.
A battling performance and a narrow 1-0 defeat was what we did get and a repeat of that tomorrow would do us some good ahead of the Wigan six-pointer.
It's sad to say but you've got to be realistic, we are competing in a different league to City, such is their sickening wealth.
You can never say never but, realistically, forget three points, a draw or even a goal – just a corner would be nice.
