Wolves changes not working

Thursday, 28/04/2011

by Nathan Lloyd, Shoot's Wolves blogger

Let’s be honest, a point against Fulham flattered us and the battering dished out by Stoke was a completely fair assessment of a dreadful showing at the Britannia Stadium.
 
Mick McCarthy’s biggest failing for me as Wolves boss has always been his propensity to play far too many players out of position and our recent poor run of games has seen him once again delve into the murky world of square pegged ineptitude.
 
For instance, when the defence needed a boost, he rightly brings back Jody Craddock at centre half, only to strangely move Stearman out to right back, dropping Foley in the process - a player of the season in that very position.

And Guedioura at right wing, seriously?  I know that the team are in a bit of a rut and needs mixing up, but bringing players in one game and then dropping them the next isn’t doing the morale of the team any favours.

In hindsight, mine and many others shout to bring Kightly back into the side may have been a tad foolhardy. Like many coming back from a long term injury, I really think he would be best placed to make an impact from the bench. So, in that case, why drop Adam Hammill, a young lad who has made such an impact since he came to the club in the January transfer window?

At the artist still known as Jody Craddock’s Q&A last night, the great man wouldn’t be drawn on such a question, answering in a typically diplomatic way that the young kid is simply out of favour.  I don’t think any of us believed him and we were left wondering if something has happened with Hammill behind the scenes.

Regardless, we now have four cup finals to save us from trips to Doncaster and Burnley next season, or the predictable trip to Brighton which knowing our luck will be in February.
 
Two wins from those final four games should just be enough to see us survive, something I still honestly believe will happen despite the toothless nature of the last four performances.
 
In those final fixtures are a couple of tasty local derbies, which as the old cliché goes are always great levellers. In fact, playing Birmingham and Albion should boost the team when they are at their lowest ebb.  

The mere thought of Kevin Phillips scoring a last-minute winner at St Andrews or the sight of 2,500 stripy fans going Boing Boing after a victory at Molineux is the stuff of nightmares.
 
For me, Mick is still the right man to lead this club, whatever division we find ourselves in next season. But do us a favour Mick, give the team a fighting chance for survival and put players in the positions they were bought for and leave the experimentation to Jody Craddock and his canvas.

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