Did Friday happen? Are we sure? I don't really want to say "I told you so" and I suppose I didn't technically call it- but I was very much aware of what happened tonight happening heading into the game. We were really on the back foot from the word "go", and even before the Red we were just playing into Wolves' hands with how we were set up and just the way we were playing. We were never even in the game tonight, and I think it's going to be these sort of schizophrenic performances all season. I was talking about it a bit heading into the game, but I was worried the QPR game would be this seasons Derby from the second half of the season- in that it was just a one-off complete performance. It's funny because if you swap the Stoke and QPR games around it's an almost identical run to that week we beat Derby. We beat Derby, lose narrowly to Watford and then we just can't get going for the third game of that week lose convincingly and get a Red Card in the process as we did against Bournemouth.
The game today was really weird. Before Wolves got their first goal I won't say we were looking convincing defensively, but Wolves weren't posing an obvious threat at the same time. Then Wolves got their first from a Deflection and it going in off the post and it was game over. I'm in no way saying Lonergan wasn't at fault for the second goal- because he was, and he'd be the first one to admit it. With that said I'm not exactly going to get on his back for it because we were never scoring tonight- so in that respect it's not like it cost us the game. The third goal was just quality, it was a bit of a stupid foul to give away by Ream because Afobe wasn't going anywhere - but again it's not like it cost us the game.
As I already said, I'm not getting on Lonergan's back tonight. Yes, he's made a mistake which led to a goal- but at the same time he did make two or three quality saves in the First-Half to keep us in it so we weren't dead in the water before Half-Time. His distribution was pretty awful tonight, it was just a bad day all around really.
I don't know if Stearman was finding it weird coming up against Wolves, but he just looked uncharacteristically shaky and just out of the game tonight. Everyone had an off day, but in a few cases one being Stearman I think it hit the team harder than if someone else had an off game. Ream looked shaky as well to be honest, as soon as they switched it for a bit in the First-Half where Afobe went onto Ream and Le Fondre onto Stearman there was an even more noticeable defensive fragility on show. On a more positive note, James Husband's loan has been extended- I don't think we know how long yet if I had to guess it'll be another month though. Back to the negatives, Husband had a nightmare tonight. Iorfa in particular was murdering us tonight down that side, but we all know how good Husband can be as is the case with quite a few players- so it's just a case of moving on quickly. I'm willing to trust Kit on the Fredericks front with regard to him having a bit of a niggle that stopped him really getting into the game tonight, because he was just bad tonight.
I think I saw a Tweet with the Video for the Red, either way if you haven't seen it- it's a definite Red. It's probably the most blatant straight red I've seen since the Hutchinson one against Blackburn last season. It's annoying because I think the manner of the Red means it's a 3 Match Ban for Cairney as well, and however he did tonight he's definitely one of the players in the team who can make a difference in a game. On the whole the Midfield was just completely inept tonight and I'm genuinely not sure if it's a case of our Midfield being bad tonight or Wolves' Midfield just being better.
Another player who had an off game tonight and it impacted the whole team was Tunnicliffe. He was by no means the worst player in the team tonight, but with the way Wolves were pressing us Tunnicliffe just couldn't really get into the game and the whole team suffered as a result. The same can be said for O'Hara, but I think he was particularly shown up tonight by McDonald in not the same- but similar roles. Wolves' game-plan was perfect, and as a result O'Hara (and Tunnicliffe) simply couldn't get into the game tonight and that pretty much killed us. Pringle was seeing a lot of the ball in the First-Half with not much end product. The thing for me tonight is I'm genuinely not sure if Pringle was playing badly or if Iorfa was playing quality.
McCormack was another strange one tonight, he didn't do anything I'll open with that. But, at the same time as soon as McCormack was moved to Right-Mid he was pretty much made ineffective by design. If there's one player who's come out of the game with some shine still on them it's Dembele. I'm not saying he was great tonight by any means, but I would say he was feeding off scraps after the Red- but that would imply he actually did have something to feed off of.
The Subs Kit made were, interesting. If Kit wanted to bring Mattila on I'm not sure why he didn't do it as soon as the Red Card happened. I'm not saying Mattila was going to save us tonight, nothing would have- but him sitting in front of the Back Four may have helped us out a bit. Bringing him on when we were 3-0 down did nothing for us, apart from O'Hara coming off which I suppose was fair enough- but at 3-0 down we might as well have brought on Woodrow. The Voser Sub was fair enough given what Kit's said, and if Fredericks is out as well as Jazz Richards then we're really in trouble again. Christensen coming on for Pringle was a decent sub, the game was already gone by the time he came on- and with Cairney being out I'm assuming Christensen will be coming in on the Right for Sunday.
Tonight's game didn't exactly flag up something we didn't already know. Despite Friday's game Kit is still quite naive- and that showed tonight. Tonight we barely had a Plan A, so when Cairney got Sent Off we definitely didn't have a Plan B- and it was just a case of "let's hope for the best". As I already said, I'm expecting a lot of these "up and down" sort of runs this season. This also goes back to what I was saying in my Preview yesterday, we're not in any way Playoff Contenders until we can put a run together- which we simply don't seem capable of.
Thanks for reading as always, I don't think it can get much worse than tonight's game performance and result wise- so the only way is up for Charlton on Sunday. We're of course back in-front of the Sky Cameras which seem to be our friend this season, and the Preview for that game will be up on Friday as usual. I hope you stay tuned for that one, and we can get a more positive result against Charlton to head into the International Break. Thanks again for reading, I hope you have a good rest of the week- and we can only hope that things get better than tonight. I'm not sure how it could get worse.
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