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Coventry 1-1 Wolves


By Tom Bason
April 26 2014

Wolves lost the opportunity to have beaten every side in League One at least once this season with another 1-1 draw with Coventry. In front of a watching Jody Craddock and Sir Jack Hayward, Dave Edwards gave Wolves the lead, but Coventry hit back almost immediately through Nathan Delfouneso.

- With the League One title all wrapped up, Kenny Jackett finally made a couple of changes, with a couple of players given an opportunity. This season, Liam McAlinden has been an unused substitute 18 times, while Matt Doherty has started just two games since picking up an injury against Oldham back in October. The lack of action for these two has been a particular frustration for me; if McAlinden wasn't going to play then I'd have rather he'd have stayed at Shrewsbury, playing regularly and scoring goals. I'm not sure how much spending half a season on the bench will have benefitted him. And Doherty's exclusion was frustrating as well considering he was arguably our most consistent player in the early parts of the season. I could understand Jackett wanting to keep a successful back-4 together, but I did have felt that we were a little too reliant on Sam Ricketts, Danny Batth, Richard Stearman and Scott Golbourne especially during the nine games we played in four weeks back in March. Elsewhere, Jackett reverted to his ‘other’ plan in midfield, with Kevin McDonald playing behind two box-to-box midfielders in Welsh duo Dave Edwards and Lee Evans.

 - The entire game was pretty dire, with Wolves lacking any direction or real ideas as to how we would score. Nouha Dicko does not convince me yet, but his directness, especially when coupled with Bakary Sako can put opposition defences under pressure from the start. Today we seemed pretty reliant on a Michael Jacobs piece of magic to create something. Neither goalkeeper had a huge amount to do aside from a couple of long range efforts; Liam McAlinden and former Villa prodigy Nathan Delfouneso put low drives wide while Jacobs actually forced Joe Murphy into a save. Apart from these pop shots, neither team really looked like breaking down defences for much of the game. 

 - With the alternative being watching a poor match,  I decided to try and pay a little more close attention to both sides' number 20s. From the moment I saw the starting line-up, I thought it would be a tough game for McAlinden to come back in for. Personally, I thought he and Leon Clarke did reasonably well in their short time in tandem away at MK Dons and I'd have played the two of them together. But with Clarke apparently suffering a knock, preventing him from playing against one of his former clubs, it left McAlinden to plough a lone furrow upfront. He probably wasn't helped by the midfield Jackett selected; when Jacobs plays as the attacking midfielder, he gets far close to the single striker than either Evans or Edwards manage, who both tend to make late runs into the box rather than supporting the striker in the first phase. It was noticeable that McAlinden seemed to have an understanding with Evans, presumably forged in the Under-21s. Early on, McAlinden dropped off his marker, before spinning and making a darting run in the inside left channel. Evans aimed to ping a long right-footed ball for him but massively over hit it. Moments later, a very similar ball from Evans, albeit from closer to the penalty area saw McAlinden's header go to close to goalkeeper Murphy. Coventry's number 20 was alleged Wolves target Callum Wilson. I was quite surprised that both Wilson and Delfouneso placed similar positions with neither dropping off. As a result, there wasn't and huge amount of link play between them and the midfield and they tended to be a little isolated. But what Wilson did, he did well. There were no real goal opportunities, but he held the ball up well when it was fed into him and appears to have a decent turn of pace. 

 - Matt Doherty was the other recall from Kenny Jackett and perhaps gave an insight into washy he hasn't been used too often in recent weeks. I wouldn't say he was poor, but he looked rusty (unsurprising given his lack of game time) and Coventry's left-winger Mark Marshall gave him a tough game with his pace. Twice early on Marshall beat him, only to horribly slice efforts high and wide, and on a third occasion Doherty let Marshall cross a ball far too easily without even attempting to block it. Doherty did interest me going forward, and I wonder whether he's spent his time off watching Pep Guardiola's Bayern Munich side. When most fullbacks attack, they offer the overlap, but Doherty drove inside almost exclusively. I've only really known one Wolves fullback do it to this extent; as Stephen Ward and Matt Jarvis's relationship developed, Ward would often move to inside channels leave Jarvis 1v1 with the full back. Every time Doherty got the ball today, he was moving inside as James Henry held his position wide. I like this idea, it gives opposing defenders something new to think about that they wouldn't necessarily be expecting. But Doherty was often slow to regain his position when possession was lost, with Henry looking more like a wingback at times. I actually noticed how alert Lee Evans was at noticing when Doherty was our of position and often dropped back to cover. 

 - Kenny Jackett made and double substitution twenty minutes into the second half, introducing Sako and Dicko for McAlinden and Jacobs. Sako almost made an instant impact, as he ran down the left to win a corner. His out swinging corner was met by Danny Batth, whose header was too close to the keeper. Sako did set up the opening goal, as his cut little cross played diagonally into the area was nicely turned home by Dave Edwards for his sixth goal in the last ten games, a remarkable return when you consider previously he'd scored 15 in 170 games for the club. But within a few minutes Coventry were level, as a free-kick swung in from the touchline was flicked home by Delfouneso. From having the best defence in the Football League, we've now conceded six in the last three. 

 

 

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Coventry 1-1 Wolves
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