Wolves

[c3blu]

Wolves manager Mick Macarthy changed his entire team for the trip to Old Trafford last night because they have a big relegation 6 pointer at the weekend with Burnley.

His attitude being we cant win at Utd so why bother. Having just beaten Spurs away i find this astounding, considering the next match is Burnley who have already beaten Utd and the fact that there are still 22 games of the season remaining Wolves fans who paid good money to travel midweek before Christmas must be asking whats the bloody point of even being in this league.

Is Macarthy going to do the same at our gaff i wonder, and where does he draw the line because he obviously thought they could give Spurs a game so is it just the traditional top 4 he is surrendering to?

I wonder if they stay up will it be the top 6or 8 next year or even the top half?

If they had 2 games left at the end of the season, 1 away at Utd and 1 at home to another team in the bottom 3 and they needed 1 win to stay up i might then understand why they would put all their eggs in the 1 basket.......no forget that i would'nt understan it even then. Stranger things have happened in football than Wolves winning away at Utd which is why we love it so much.

If football was that predictable we'd all win the pool's everyweek would'nt we?

A blatent flouting of premier league rules especially at this stage of the season is an absolute joke, no wonder the away fans are demanding a refund.

Edited December 16, 2009 by c3blu

[sleepy_gonzalez]

i see your point, it would be great if all teams put out full strength line ups for every game, and it's a massive shame for the fans who travelled and paid to see their team. but to be honest it is and always should be a manager's perogative to rotate his squad and prioritise which players he wants to play for which games, even if it looks a bit cynical. he's been employed to manage the team, and that's what he's doing. How many of those fans genuinely would have done it differently in McCarthy's shoes?

[coco]

I feel sorry for the 5'000 Wolves fans that travelled to OT last night, each paying £42 for their seats, a 3 hour round trip, on a cold December night.

What would Macarthy say if this scenario happened:

Chelsea win the league with 1 game of the season left, and were in the semi final of the chumps league. Wolves are level in 18th place with Burnley with 1 game to play, Chelsea v Burnley and Wolves v Hull, (if you offered Macarthy that scenario at the start of the season, he would of snatched your hands off).

What would Macarthy say if Ancellotti picked an obvious 2nd XI for the Burnley game, with the chumps league final in mind, and Ancellotti rests the entire first team.

I cant ever remember hearing of any team fielding a weakend team for a premiership game, maybe at the end of the season with nothing to play for, but not 18 games into the season. It just doesnt seem right at all to me.

[Cam]

I do it a lot on football manager hahahahahaha

But seriously, it's a disgrace in real life, especially when the team came off such a good win. Most players should be able to get through a couple of games a week...not just one player.

[Sasserfrazz]

He wasn't just rotating his squad though, he put out a team of reserves that he knew didn't have a hope in hell. If Man U were unbeatable this season I could maybe understand it but they're obviously not. Remember they lost their last home game to Villa who hadn't won at Old trafford for 30 years or something. It's ok resting players but what McCarthy did was totally different. I bet if he'd done it against us there'd be people calling for us to be dropped points!

[Cam]

Yeah, Fergie, Arsene and Rafa would have combined to form one huge mega rant.

[Tim W]

Get a grip, Wolves could have played with 15 men and still not beat Utd. Wolves are the same as any other PL side with a first team squad and he is entitled to pick any of those players. We should concentrate on our games, our performance if we win the other results are insignificant. I said credit to McCarthy he's trying to do his job by keeping Wolves up.

[cooke]

Listened to mc Carthy on the radio .He should have told it as it is and not stuttered and seemed so caggie in his answers.Only debt he has though is to the travelling fans

[rahul]

What about the confidence of the players who won at White Hart Lane? They would be buoyed by that result and would have been looking forward to the trip to OT. That is one of the biggest games a player, not involved in Europe, can get. I doubt they will get anything from the Burnley game as well.

Remember Villa throwing away UEFA Cup last year to concentrate on the league and after the defeat in that game their season went astray?

[loz]

Like Tim I can understand why McCarthy did it and don't really blame him for it. However what it does do is highlight how weak the Premier League are. Whether or not you agree with what Wolves did it is a clear breach of the rule which states that a team must field their strongest available team in all competitive matches. If Wolves are allowed to rest the entire first team bar the keeper and not be punished for it then what is the point of having the rule in the first place?

[coco]

Like Tim I can understand why McCarthy did it and don't really blame him for it. However what it does do is highlight how weak the Premier League are. Whether or not you agree with what Wolves did it is a clear breach of the rule which states that a team must field their strongest available team in all competitive matches. If Wolves are allowed to rest the entire first team bar the keeper and not be punished for it then what is the point of having the rule in the first place?

I didnt watch the game, but by all accounts it was a very bland and uncompetitive game, if all the premiership managers follow Macarthys example we could end up spoiling the league all together and taking away something that is vital to the English game, every club must be 100% commited to competing in every game.

e2a: The way Wolves held out against Spuds last week, I see no reason why they couldnt go to OT with the same team and hold manure to a 0-0.

Edited December 16, 2009 by coco

[dkw]

Get a grip, Wolves could have played with 15 men and still not beat Utd. Wolves are the same as any other PL side with a first team squad and he is entitled to pick any of those players. We should concentrate on our games, our performance if we win the other results are insignificant. I said credit to McCarthy he's trying to do his job by keeping Wolves up.

your right, and theres no way wolves could win somewhere like spurs either i suppose.....oh hang on. utd are very vulnerable at the moment and wolves could have got a draw. these kind of things do happen. and i doubt many of the wolves fans who travelled and paid a lot of money to watch their team play at old trafford will be saying credit to McCarthy, do you? would you be happy to see this become the norm then? managers of teams picking wether to bother trying in certain games, picking and choosing where they feel they can get points. the league would become a complete farce.

[Nibs]

your right, and theres no way wolves could win somewhere like spurs either i suppose.....oh hang on. utd are very vulnerable at the moment and wolves could have got a draw. these kind of things do happen. and i doubt many of the wolves fans who travelled and paid a lot of money to watch their team play at old trafford will be saying credit to McCarthy, do you? would you be happy to see this become the norm then? managers of teams picking wether to bother trying in certain games, picking and choosing where they feel they can get points. the league would become a complete farce.

I agree, although to a certain extent the league is already a bit of a farce and has been for some time.

I know we get the occassional surprise result (us losing to Wigan - Utd to Burnley etc etc), but even before a ball is kicked in August, we know who is likely to win the league and who is likely to get relegated. How long ago is it that the league was won by a club other than us, Utd or Arsenal? How many times do the promoted clubs go straight back down the following season?

No, I really can't blame McCarthy. It might go against principals and the spirit of the game, but he IS the manager and will keep or lose his job on the strength of his decisions. I do feel for the Wolves fans who put in the effort and spent their money, but no doubt it will be forgotten IF Wolves manage to stay up this season.

Huge pressure on McCarthy now to get all three points against Burnley. If they don't he'll be crucified.

Edited December 16, 2009 by Nibs

[dkw]

I agree, although to a certain extent the league is already a bit of a farce and has been for some time.

I know we get the occassional surprise result (us losing to Wigan - Utd to Burnley etc etc), but even before a ball is kicked in August, we know who is likely to win the league and who is likely to get relegated. How long ago is it that the league was won by a club other than us, Utd or Arsenal? How many times do the promoted clubs go straight back down the following season?

No, I really can't blame McCarthy. It might go against principals and the spirit of the game, but he IS the manager and will keep or lose his job on the strength of his decisions. I do feel for the Wolves fans who put in the effort and spent their money, but no doubt it will be forgotten IF Wolves manage to stay up this season.

Huge pressure on McCarthy now to get all three points against Burnley. If they don't he'll be crucified.

occasional surprise? thats understating it a lot in my opinion. theres always plenty of so called "surprise" results in a season, and utd were vulnerable to one last night too. coming of a defeat, playing pretty poorly, plenty of injuries and pressure. if this does become the norm then football in this country will go rapidly downhill with many games becoming non-events. just imagine at the start of a season a manager picking which games to bother in and which to send the reserves. how ridiculous would that be.

[The Brit]

get the feeling this will really backfire on wolves...now they're under fire from all quarters, the prem league, their own fans, for what they did last night...instead of their being positive vibe post white hart lane, mccarthy is going to get bombarded with criticism...this is going to be a massive distraction...i hope they lose against burnley now to be honest...

for those people sticking up for him, would you have accepted Chelsea going to Old trafford and fielding a bunch of reserves when we were sh*t?

[The Moos]

I actually think what McCarthy did was wrong, even though I understand the reason behind his decision.

First of all, Wolves might not be a great team, but that doesn't mean they can't beat anyone on a good day. And ManU still has some injury problems, right? So what better time to try and defeat them? Besides, Wolves has played really well in some games and they just came back from a win against Spurs. Why not try and make it two wins in a row?

Also, surely the players in Wolves can play two games in one week. It's not like they're in four different competitions and have loads of games. Every now and then they should be able to take two games in one week.

It's games like the one against ManU that the players must be looking forward to. They are one of the biggest clubs in the world and it must be a dream for any player to either play for them or against them.

Besides, what McCarthy did might send the wrong signals to his players. "Well you're not good enough to beat ManU so why even bother".

Biggest load of bollocks ever.

We rest players as well, I know that, but in the league we have never rested the entire first eleven (okay, first ten since they kept the keeper). And we have the luxury to be a strong team and we can rest a key player and replace him with another player who could probably be a key player for most of the other teams in the league. And we would never ever rest them in a game against the likes of ManU.

I sincerely hope that Wolves lose the next game. I might feel sorry for the players, but it would serve McCarthy right.

Also, in the last game of the season we will play Wigan and Wolves will face Sunderland. I really hope that our last game will be a pointless one so we can field a team consisting of youngsters and reserves. Let's see how McCarthy will react then.

[Englishman]

This has happened before. A couple of years ago West Brom fielded their second string at the Bridge and got thumped.

I can see why McCarthy did it. If their rested side go and beat Burnley on Saturday then he'll be justified. But it does kind of make the whole thing a farce. Sheffield Utd did the same against United and then Warnock had the gall to complain about Fat Rafa fielding his reserves against Fulham, which ultimately helped Fulham stay up.

[coco]

Fair play to the Wolves fans I heard on the radio last night (some on the way back from OT) they all stuck up for mad mick, but you could tell they were not at all happy, and who would be?

[PloKoon13]

If Wolves do beat Burnley at the weekend, the press will be hailing it as a tactical masterstroke...

[BLUENUT]

If Wolves do beat Burnley at the weekend, the press will be hailing it as a tactical masterstroke...

I can understand why he did it, but rules state that you can't!!!!! - They broke the rules but will they be punished? No!!! He complain about the fixtures over Xmas and get away with it.......

Lets hope Pompey play their reserves tonight, or hope they do worse than Evertons reserves did at the weekend. ;)

[Chippy]

What surprises me about what Mick did was the lack of ambition and belief that must surely put doubts in his players heads,

If I was a Manager and sent a team out that was obviously not as good as the opposition but had managed to play good enough football to get itself up into the best league and on the back of a very credible result I would be excited at pitting my wits against the best and trying evrything I had ever learned to get a result,

I would make sure I picked my best side and I would be talking up theire last performance hoping to give them the confidence they could do it again,

I would mention they had beaten a team who had hammered a team who had beaten this years likely Champions.

I can't see the thinking of striving to be in the top division just to play your best side against the teams that are not much different to they had been meeting in the Championship.

I doubt Wolves would have got anything from the game but I remember the days when I doubted we would..but watching our best players get up for the big games was one of the best things about it.

Imagine being a Wolves player and playing quite well just to be dropped for a game where you could be playing against some of the best?

I wonder if the shirt sponsors would have been happy,

I think it might do more harm than good.

Edited December 16, 2009 by Chippy

[cooke]

what is most annoying about this carry on is ,i understand why mcCarthy did it but they layed down and handed man u 3 points without a fight

[ElNino2]

;) So Wolves rolled over and just gifted them 3 points so they go top?

Wake up guys, the festive season seems to be affecting your judgement in some way.

[Maksimov]

;) So Wolves rolled over and just gifted them 3 points so they go top?

Wolves isn't the sort of team that has enough width to play their second choice lineup against the likes of ManU, so although the players didn't willingly gift points to ManU, but the starting lineup clearly indicates just how seriously the manager took the game and I'm sure some of the players must have noticed this. I don't know if the players let it affect their game, but I wouldn't be surprised if it did. The manager might as well have said to his players: "it doesn't matter if we lose, just go have fun", because that's basically the message he sent out with his starting lineup.

[WV2 Blue]

A statement issued by the Premier League this afternoon read: "The Premier League Board have written to Wolverhampton Wanderers to request their observations in relation to the team fielded in their League fixture against Manchester United.

"Once the observations are received the Board will decide whether any further action is warranted

I for one hope the PL throw the book at McCarthy....no-one gave Wolves a prayer against the Spuds last weekend...they came away with a 1-0 win...with a "full" strength side...

McCarthy the moron makes 10 changes against Man Ure...rolls over and lets his belly be tickled because its a "bigger" game against Burnley at the weekend!!!

what a tosser!!! THIS STINKS!!!!

Wolves are my "local" club....after this i hope they go down!!!