Analysis & Ratings: Wolves v Queen Park Rangers
Two goals down after ten minutes and Wolves performed the worst football I’ve seen them do for a long, long time. How come?
For me this was a test if the team are able to become a mid-team in the Premier League this season or if we will struggle to stay up like last season and the season before. I’m afraid the latter will come true.
I picked Mick McCarthy’s mind for the right starting XI in my pre-match article, but I’m not proud of it, and nor should our manager be. He picked the wrong team against QPR and today he nose it.
Wolves were outplayed in the midfield with O’Hara and Henry against three competitive inner midfielders. We should have matched them with the equal numbers of players, something I also mentioned before the game. What has Mick against Nenad Milijas, I wonder?
To play Elokobi against fast runner Wright-Phillips was the second big mistake by our manager, a mistake he rectified before the second half, but then it was to little and to late. (That was, by the way, something I also mentioned in my pre-match article.)
The scene was, in other words, set for disaster. One could see that from the first minutes of play and it only got worse. Apart from the formation and player choices the whole team looked paralysed for some reason and QPR could play out their whole register without Wolves doing anything about it, but that could also be because they did not find themselves comfortable with the set-up.
The prelude to the first goal in the back involved Elokobi failing to confront Wright-Phillips twice which resulted in an assisting cross to Barton who, from inept marking by Johnson, could shovel the ball into the net beside a wrong-footed Hennessey.
Only a couple of minutes later, with the QPR pressure continuing, Stearman headed the ball straight out from the penalty area, which resulted in the second goal for QPR, now from Faurlin. Two goals in the back are usually a death penalty in the Premier League and with the way Wolves performed today there was no points in sight. The goals were not conceded because of individual errors, the underlying reason were the errors made by McCarthy mentioned above. I have absolutely no doubts about that.
As I also mentioned in my pre-match article McCarthy was at the QPR game against Newcastle. It’s obvious he learned nothing from that. Yes. I’m very angry at him today, because of his errors I have to give the players low ratings, but everybody should know that the catastrophe yesterday was McCarthy’s wrongdoing firsthand and he has also taken some responsability for it. To the ratings then.
Hennessey – 8 – McCarthy said afterwards that he was the only player playing up to normal standard and in that he was right. A 
beating with three goals in the back and the keeper gets the highest rating of all.
Says it all about the game and how lousy the team was, really. Wayne Hennessey is Paddytheflea’s Star Man!
Stearman – 5 – The error leading to the second goal takes a point away from him. Otherwise he was one of the better in defence, but that says nothing on a day like this. At least he tried and never gave up, though.
Johnson – 4 – Having doubts about his capacity to captain the team and also on his skills as a defender after this game. I have raised some doubts after previous games when everybody else has praised him too. He was lousy in the first half, but became a little better in the second.
Berra – 5 – Another slip and he nearly caused another goal in the back. I don’t think it’s a freak accident, but due to bad technical skills from the defender, but he repaired it himself and together with Stears he was our best defender first half.
Elokobi – 1 – Mick McCarthy should never have put him on. I don’t want to say anymore. Still too angry to watch my language and if I use the words I want to this will not be published according to the rules of NewsNow. Was substituted in the second half.
Ward – 5 – Played for Elokobi at left back in the second half. I suspect we would have seen another two or three in the back if not. Upfront in the first half he could do nothing to hurt the QPR defence. Created absolutely nothing.
Henry – 4 – People close to me say that I should look more at his defensive play without ball to appreciate him more. I tried to do that yesterday but still don’t get it. But on the other hand they were one short in the inner midfield, thanks to MM. 92% correct passes according to stats, though, many of them to defenders of course.
Kightly – 4 – Nowhere to be seen and he was rightly substituted at halftime. Six accurate passes in 45 minutes (55%). What did he do the rest of the time? But the inner midfielders and the back four didn’t manage to get the ball out to our wingers, so it’s not just his fault.
Guédioura – 6 – Came on for Kights in the second half and was clearly the better player of the two. Six scoring attempts, but 
sadly five of them went far off target. With a 91% passing success he shows me and hopefully our manager that he should have a role in the team from start sooner rather than later. Adlène Guédioura gets my little Star for his fresh performance from the bench!
O’Hara – 5 – Tried to go forward but was overhanded most of the time. Created a couple of chances, though, and had one himself. Had a lot of ball but his passes was not up to par (72%).
Jarvis – 5 – A shadow of his usual self but not many balls to work on. Didn’t do his job defensively like he uses to do and didn’t possess the power to penetrate the QPR defence many times. Horrible crosses a couple of times. Was substituted by Hunt late on in the game.
Doyle – 5 – Like Jarvis he has not shown form for a long time now. Didnt manage to hold up the ball, but created a couple of half chances by coming from behind. Worked more than many others in midfield, but hes passing success was very low (62%).
Vokes – 6 – Came on in the second half when Ward took the left back position. Had a couple of headers and shots, but off target. 
I’m not ready to write him off yet, but the absence of Fletcher and Ebanks-Blake makes us much weaker up front. He is not ready for the big times yet, but as a comfort he will get the bouncy smiley thingy.
Paddytheflea
--- Paddytheflea's Blog --- 
Joey barton deserves a medal after the Slug Henry goaded him . Whats wrong with that prat he should be banned . Wolves were abysmal and Qpr were pure quality and it was such a sweet sweet win after all the abusive and negative posts i read on other sites about Qpr. Well we wont ever forget how we slaughtered you ha ha ha .
We made you look good, Ted, and Barton is a psycho who will get you lot into trouble in many games this season by getting redcarded.
seems like you can make mistakes as well as mick. check your comments, mr flea.
Yes. I had hopes that we would nick it despite the wrong formation, if that’s what you mean Richard.
“he nose it”? Seriously?
OK, now I get it. Picked. Nose. But somehow I doubt the author is that clever.
😆
Mick McCarthy is famous for his broken nose, that was my reference to it, Tim. But yours is good too.
Ward was pushed up as a striker as a result of the lack of striker options. Sadly it didn’t work out well neither defensively or in attack.
To say the game’s outcome would’ve become different if we played 4-5-1, is unfair, as most team actually field 3 central midfielders. When we play 4-5-1 people shout for 4-4-2, and when we lose they shout 4-5-1.
We’re short up front, no doubt about that. Vokes looks very strong but isn’t exactly explosive. Why not give some of our youngsters with a nose for goals a chance?
despite your stars for guedioura i thought he had abit of a mare and shot whenever he got the ball not matter where he was or what options he had. ignored ward late on for a simple overlap that we might have scored from, more to the point what does mccarthy have against hammill?
In our predicament when he came on I think he did the right thing, but his shots was not the best, I agree.
Plenty of options out wide and Hammill is a better choice than Kightly for the moment, yes, but I suppose Kights is showing things at training but doesn’t have the match fitness to play well in games yet. He’s been out for two seasons, don’t forget. Don’t write him off. And Hunt in form should be second choice after Jarvo in my opinion. His workrate is immense and when he defends he goes infield helping our inner midfielders. That’s one reason we failed in midfield today. Hunty was not there to cover up for Henry and O’Hara’s shprtcomings defensively.
We are 2 points from 4th. That’s one less bad game and we were really bad. We will pick ourselves up. Yes we will.
It was awful – I can’t remember seeing a match in which we created so little and never looked like scoring. Time for a big shake-up me thinks.
McCarthy showed some sense at Aston Villa when he changed the team around and just about rescued near certain defeat. I was utterly suprised at his earlyish changes and equally pleased but knew deep down we had been very very lucky indeed to escape that day.
Spurs at home could have been the same but the critical factor was Kightly who left us wide open in mid field and allowed Spurs free play and second strikes at will. No willingness to change this time until way too late.
So onto QPR. Absolute insanity to play Kightly again given his Spurs performance but this time the back 4 lacked Ward and had Elokobi. I thought Kightly’s positioning was abject but Elokobi bought it to new levels not helped by being so slow-Don’t other teams actively address too much upper body mass?? You could almost see the sense of resignation in Johnson who knew that no matter how hard he may have worked Elokobi would leave us wide open. Full marks to QPR for seeing the weak spots and hammering them.
No excuses they were all pretty useless and the real tragedy is that it didn’t need to happen. Ward at LB and two midfielders Milijas and Hammil in with Doyle up front would have got us at least a draw…. Ho hum.
It’s a difficult choice for the manager: playing good the players with potential or those that are best right now. Guedioura is one of my favorite players with greatest potential. MM has the chance to make changes underway, and beside Jarvis no one stands out of the wingers. Now I would consider playing Hunt as one of the inner 3 midfielders in a 4-5-1 formation.
Karl H; slowest player on the pitch as always, passes the ball backwards 90%, making freekicks, collecting cards, never scored a prem goal (?).
We can not afford to let him play for us !!!! Play Guedio.
Why you give him a 4 even my dog can not understand.
Hmm. Are you saying that your dog is smarter than me, Dag??!
Heard this? “What is the difference between fleas and dogs? Dogs can have fleas but fleas can’t have dogs!
On the other hands me and a friend were at the local Saturday and we took a dog home (itch hiking) 😆