August optimism has given way to a winter of despair at Molineux and Wolves are now staring down the barrel of a relegation with chairman Steve Morgan fuming and supporters turning on manager Mick McCarthy.

Overview

“A blueprint to follow,” LoftforWords proudly announced when previewing Wolves first time around this season. “Every indication that they can emulate Stoke City and push on up the Premiership.” Or perhaps not. Well, you don’t come here for the predictions do you?

Wolves can fall six points behind QPR with a defeat this weekend and are showing all the signs of a club that isn’t going to be able to escape relegation for a third season in a row. The conventional wisdom that the hardest parts of Premiership consolidation are surviving one season and then surviving a second isn’t really working for them because having done that, and spent a fair amount of money improving the team in the meantime, they’re just still not quite good enough.

Sticking strictly to numbers for a moment, Wolves are frighteningly bad. They haven’t won in nine matches, have only won twice in 21 games stretching back to August and they haven’t kept a clean sheet in the league since a 0-0 draw with Aston Villa on the August Bank Holiday weekend which is their worst defensive run since 1962. They are the only Premiership team not to have scored in the first 15 minutes of a match this season, have conceded two goals or more on 15 occasions in the league and have shipped six in their last two games. By contrast they’ve scored more than once in just one game out of the last eight, and that ended in a 3-2 defeat against Aston Villa, and have failed to score at all in three of their last six. Away from home they’ve won only once (on the first day of the season at Blackburn) and scored just nine goals in 11 games. They’re a team in free fall.

If you’re looking for a get rich quick scheme how about bed sheet salesman in the West Midlands? Villa extended their run without a win at home to six games against QPR on Wednesday night and the natives, who once famously unfurled a banner to David O’Leary saying “we’re not fickle, we just don’t like you,” are getting restless again.

The Wolves fans are traditionally even more down in the mouth, once brilliantly preparing a bedsheet with poster paint that said “You’ve let us down again” even before the team actually had, just in case it did. They were at it again on Tuesday night, ‘Mac Out’ the message this time and housewives across the Black Country are once again left wondering where items of white linen have got to.

At times this season the abuse of the Wolves players from their own fans has been completely over the top, and has actually hindered them from doing their job properly. Against Swansea a well set and organised Wolves defensive line up was antagonised and goaded into pressing the visiting team by its own supporters as the Swans passed the ball around on halfway – the result was a second goal for Danny Graham because it only served to open up the space in behind the Wolves defence that the Welsh side had been patiently waiting for. Initially they couldn’t even blame the poor form for their ire because they actually started the season quite well, with two wins and a draw, but when QPR then turned up and took them apart the vitriol was worthy of a group of fans who hadn’t seen their side win for six months or more.

Saying the Wolves fans aren’t particularly tolerant is like saying Fred and Rose West weren’t particularly great parents but of late it’s been hard not to sympathise with them. Even chairman Steve Morgan, whose running of the club was held up as an example for others last summer, lost his rag and went down to the dressing room to berate his payroll for their efforts after a midweek surrender to Liverpool.

Defeat at Loftus Road this Saturday would mean Wolves have to win at least three of their remaining matches to overtake QPR, and having won only two games since August it would be a brave man to bet on them doing so. It would seem that manager Mick McCarthy is on borrowed time. A man with two promotions from the second tier but two relegations from the Premiership to his name is looking more and more like a manager not quite good enough for the highest level. His basic 4-4-2 set up is being picked apart week after week by teams who rejoice in the space afforded to them between the rigid straight lines of his trademark set up. McCarthy has always been a motivator rather than a tactician, and motivators have a shorter shelf life in general because sooner or later people just get bored of the same old voice. Even his close resemblance to Bert from Sesame Street is only going to hold your attention for so long.

Morgan may decide on Monday that the only way Wolves are going to climb out of this is with the bounce that new managers tend to get immediately after their appointment. I’d agree with him. In my opinion if things stay as they are Wolves will be very fortunate to avoid the bottom three come May.

Interview

LoftforWords weren’t the only ones caught out by Wolves this season. Molineux regular Tom ‘Trev’ Johnson, with whom I shared goalkeeping responsibilities in Sheffield for many years, was also reasonably optimistic when last we spoke and has since watched with horror as another relegation battle has been played out. For the second time this season, we spoke to him ahead of a meeting between our two sides.

Trev, such optimism when we spoke in August but now another relegation scrap. Why has this season not gone as planned for Wolves?

Well, myself like all Wolves fans expected much more this season. Many fans will cite the lack of quality signings and blame the chairman, Steve Morgan for not investing in big name, proven Premier League players. I feel, however, that more blame should lie with McCarthy. In the Championship, he spent very shrewdly in quality young lower league players. In the Premier League, he's spent a lot of money and failed to sign players who are up to scratch, namely Milijas (£2.5m), Hunt (£2m), Van Damme (£2.5m), Mouyokolo (£2.5m) Guedioura (£2m), Halford (£2.5m), Maierhoffer (£1.5) and several others. Of the team that started against Spurs and Villa, only three of those weren't in our Championship team, and one of those, Frimpong, has only just signed on loan from Arsenal. Mick seems to have a particular blind spot for defenders (despite being one himself) and for players with technical ability.

Roger Johnson was the big summer acquisition and started well, then suddenly his form disintegrated. What happened?

Johnson, having been brought in and made captain instantly, was supposed to be the answer to our defensive woes of last season. He has had an awful first half to the season. His lack of pace has been horribly exposed and he was rightly dropped by McCarthy for the game vs Sunderland in December. However, since that game, he seems to have started hitting some form and looking more like the player we paid £4.5m for. It's not stopped us leaking goals left, right and centre, mind.

Are people still behind Mick McCarthy? What's the general opinion of him?

It's an interesting time to be commenting upon this, as Mick has recently been made the on-odds favourite to be the next Premier League manager to be sacked. It's safe to say, the majority of Wolves fans are now against him. In addition to answer one, Mick has been heavily criticised for our style of play. I briefly mentioned something on LFW before the first QPR meeting that Mick's teams lacked creativity and ideas and this is certainly becoming even more apparent. Our tactics are very basic - hit it long, try and win second balls, pass it to the wing, smack a cross in the box and play off the scraps. We rarely score a well worked goal and we often rely on set pieces and never seem to have a plan B. The terms "putting in a shift" and "graft" have become synonymous with Mick's reign and illustrate the complete lack of tactical sophistication required to compete in a modern Premier League.

Can Wolves realistically hope for anything better than this annual battle against the drop?

Definitely not. The transfer window has passed with the late surprise signing of Seb Bassong from Spurs, but there's very left in our armoury. Again, the promoted teams have surpassed expectations, left us lagging behind and further frustrated the fans. Can you think of three poorer sides than Wolves this season? Last season we stayed up thanks to a Stephen Hunt goal seven minutes from time. This season, I have a bad feeling it could be the end.

The Wolves fans got a lot of grief earlier in the team for their slating of their own team. What did you make of that?

I can completely understand the fans' frustrations. We should have improved on last season, we should have made better signings and other teams that are of a similar stature to ourselves (Stoke, West Brom, Norwich, Swansea) are showing us up. However, I think that slating a team and manager whilst they're on the pitch is completely counterproductive. It creates an atmosphere of nerves amongst the players and you can feel the tension and anxiety as soon as the game kicks off.

What's your prediction for the bottom three at the end of the season?

20: Wigan, 19: Wolves, 18: Blackburn.

Who are the star men and weak links in the team this year?

Star men - that is a very difficult question this season. Probably have to go for Steven Fletcher so far. Nine goals in a struggling side and one of the highest goals to shots ratios and headed goals in the league. We'd be bottom without him. Recent loan signing, central midfielder Emmanuel Frimpong from Arsenal, has had a great impact in his first four games and he looks likely to be crucial to our survival. His strong tackling, powerful running and comfortable ball skills have made him an instant fans' favourite.

As for weak links, there have been many disappointments this season. Roger Johnson, as mentioned above has been a big one, Kevin Doyle has recently been dropped (a £6.5m striker who has no confidence in front of goal), the right back position has not been held down well by either Kevin Foley or Richard Stearman and Stephen Hunt has seemingly lost all two ounces of skill he once had.

What are your medium term aspirations for Wolves?

Well, if we manage to survive this season then next season's aspirations will to be stay up again. At the start of the season, however, we publicly stated our mid-table target. We must push on and we should be setting our target at a twelfth placed finish, buying proven Premier League players and trying to emulate Stoke City. Whether Mick is actually capable of doing that is even more strongly under question now.

Poor old Trev, get that man a drink.

Manager

My abiding memory of Mick McCarthy is a bit of an odd one. I mean there are certainly plenty to choose from – the whole Roy Keane thing, the strange dance down the touchline after Robbie Keane scored for Ireland against Germany, any one of his post match interviews, that time he seemed to be startled by a ghost on the touchline at Ewood Park . But no, the incident I remember him most for came in 2000 at the World Club Cup in Brazil.

McCarthy was employed by the BBC as a commentator for that tournament, the corporation's interest pricked by the rare presence of a British team. You may recall that Man Utd were corralled into going, and pulling out of the FA Cup, because of some perceived benefit we may or may not have been promised in our bid to stage the actual World Cup in Britain. One wonders just how many times we're going to have to be promised these benefits, not receive them, and then continue to believe the promises going forward? Anyway, a debate for another time.

Real Madrid , hotly tipped and underperforming as always, were playing a group game against Brazilian side Corinthians. Nicholas Anelka was upfront for the Spaniards and had belied his previous poor form for them by scoring two goals. However he ruined all his previous hard work by missing a late match deciding penalty – Dida, the keeper who saved it, moved on to AC Milan a short time later.

So far so unremarkable, but McCarthy was fuming up on the gantry. He was adamant that Anelka was not the designated penalty taker and had been the beneficiary (or victim as it turned out) of a charitable sympathy vote to try and get him a morale boosting hat trick. Now let's be fair, it's not the first time a player with a brace has been handed the penalty taking duties to seal a personal milestone – I will on occasions wake up sweating thinking about Fitz Hall's pathetic effort against Barnsley in 2009. And it must be said that even the organisers barely gave a fuck about the World Club Cup. And the World Club Cup, Real Madrid, Corinthians and Nicholas Anelka all had nothing to do with Mick McCarthy. To summarise – it didn't matter that he wasn't the designated penalty taker, and it didn't matter that he'd missed.

There was no telling McCarthy that though. On and on he went, at increasing volume and with growing fury in his tone, about how the decision to let Anelka take the kick had devalued the sport itself. In the end he seemed to be taking it as a personal affront that he’d been asked to attend and comment on a game where such nonsense took place.

And that's Mick. Mick is a man's man. Mick tells it exactly like it is, straight down the line, in a Yorkshire accent.

He's been a figure of fun for many down the years, not least post match interviewers who seem to rejoice in asking him whether he is planning on resigning and giving up. But he also has a very decent record. The question now is whether, perhaps like our own Neil Warnock, he’s a good First Division manager but not quite up to the Premiership.

At Millwall, his first managerial job after a playing career that included long spells with Man City and Barnsley and shorter ones with Lyon and Celtic, he initially enjoyed great success. They became known as cup giant killers – slaying Arsenal and Chelsea and losing narrowly to QPR in the semi final in 1995 – and lost narrowly in the play offs for Premiership promotion in 1994 after finishing third. But as he upped and left for the Republic of Ireland job in 1996 the Lions side he left behind, saddled with ridiculously expensive Russian signings Sergei Yuran and Vassili Kulkov, went from the top of the First Division to relegation, blowing a 14 point cushion under his successor Jimmy Nicholl.

With Ireland , again, there were some fine achievements. They narrowly missed out on qualification for the 1998 World Cup and 2000 European Championships but did make the cut in 2002 – the last time they qualified for an international tournament. But having achieved that it all rather blew up in McCarthy's face. Roy Keane, the talismanic team captain from Man Utd, rebelled against the standard of the team's training facilities and preparations. In a show down with McCarthy in front of the rest of the squad Keane allegedly said: "You were a crap player, you are a crap manager. The only reason I have any dealings with you is because somehow you are the manager of my country. You're not even Irish, you English c***. You can stick it up your bollocks."

Back in club management he turned up at Sunderland and, again, started with early success. He rebuilt a team destroyed by the old fashioned management of Peter Reid and the disastrous decision to appoint Howard Wilkinson as a successor and although he couldn’t save them from a Premiership relegation in the first instance he did get them back up within two seasons. That’s not what he’s remembered for at the Stadium of Light though – no Sunderland’s embarrassing 2005/06 season spent as the Premiership whipping boys is another stick to beat him with.

Again at Wolves it’s hard to argue with his initial achievements. He took over a squad that had come to the end of its Premiership parachute payments, and had wasted two seasons of those with Glenn Hoddle in charge. He didn’t have enough senior pros to fill a team and subs bench when he arrived and yet here we are just over four years later with Wolves into a third season as a Premiership side.

There will always be criticism of McCarthy, God knows I’ve dealt out a bit on LFW over the years, but it’s hard not to like him, or not admire the work he has done at Wolves who were perennial underachievers in the Championship/First Division for years and years under a succession of managers. The problem is with two Premiership relegations under his belt already at Sunderland, and no indication that he’s able to do anything at Wolves other than narrowly escape that fate again each season, he could find himself picking a team a division lower next season whether Wolves are relegated or not.

Scout Report

It’s not just the forecast inclement weather that may keep the total football fans away from Loftus Road on Saturday, the prospect of what could be kindly called the ‘straight line derby’ out on the field probably isn’t that appetising either. QPR v Wolves, Mark Hughes against Mick McCarthy, a battle between two managers who stick steadfastly to an old fashioned, tried and tested 4-4-2 set up. Two banks of four, two old fashioned wingers, two strikers – no messing about.

For one reason or another I’ve seen a lot of Wolves this season, probably more than any other Premiership team apart from QPR and Sunderland who also seem to crop up on my work sheet at the start of the week more than most. Consequently the LFW bible is overflowing with notes about the 2011/12 Wolves side and reading back through them all it’s essentially an ever growing list of things that are wrong.

In October I saw them take on Swansea at Molineux, a game they drew 2-2 with late goals from Kevin Doyle and Jamie O’Hara and frankly how they didn’t lose that one 4-0 I’ll never understand. They came into the game on a run of five straight defeats including our 3-0 win at Molineux – the last time they lost six on the spin was 1983/84 when they were relegated from the top flight and it took them 20 years to get back. At that stage they were without a goal in the first half of a game in seven attempts and had conceded at least twice in their last six outings.

By the end of that game I’d listed the following issues with the Wolves team: a rigid 442 made them very vulnerable to a team set up in a 4-2-3-1 formation as Swansea were because it left five opponents playing in the spaces between the straight lines of defence, midfield and attack; there was a chronic lack of pace throughout the side; they played centre back Richard Stearman out of position at right back depriving them of any deep lying right sided attack; their two better players on the day Jarvis and Hammill were rarely given the ball in areas they could hurt Swansea and rather than replace the central midfield players with ones who were willing to pass the ball wide McCarthy substituted them both instead; they were incredibly narrow with the team constantly drawn onto the side of the pitch where the ball was in play leaving acres of space for Swansea’s famous switch ball from one flank to the other; in Doyle, Fletcher and Ebanks-Blake they have accumulated a collection of strikers who all like to play with their back to goal outside the area and nobody that will actually get their nose into the six yard box to score prolifically.

Much has been made of the stick given to their own team by the Wolves supporters this season and they were particularly angry during this Swansea encounter. McCarthy’s second half substitutions were crass in my view, and the boos that rang out when they were made reverberated around the stadium, but to be fair to him they did get a point from that match, and at times the Wolves fans haven’t helped their team. In this match just before half time Swansea were passing the ball around on the halfway line, as they do a lot, and not really going anywhere. Wolves were set up well, in shape, and in no danger but the supporters started to get agitated and urging them to go in and make a tackle. When they eventually did it simply left acres of space behind Stephen Ward at left back which Swansea exploited with a simple chipped pass that led to a second goal for Danny Graham. Not the only time I’ve seen a team exploit space behind Ward this season either.

Other than that they were alright.

Then against bottom of the table Wigan, a game they actually won 3-1, the list of issues grew ever longer. This time their centre backs, particularly Roger Johnson, were all at sea and lucky to concede only the one goal they did ship. Any diagonal long ball into the centre back areas caused Johnson and Christophe Berra a problem and it’s no surprise to see Mick McCarthy adding Sebastien Bassong to his backline this transfer window. In midfield Karl Henry’s limitations meant slow build up from the back was not only discouraged by an impatient crowd, but also impossible because it broke down whenever it reached him. To compensate Jamie O’Hara expended a mountain of wasted energy trying to lift his side with a headless chicken act but betrayed a lack of self confidence by constantly slowing moves down with an extra touch of the ball. I can’t say I was too shocked when McCarthy brought in Emmanuel Frimpong from Arsenal last month.

Again I noted just how narrow they were as a team, enabling Wigan to play a three man midfield that crowded tight around the ball when not in possession safe in the knowledge there was no widthways out ball to catch them out behind them. This time McCarthy sent on Jarvis and Stephen Hunt to address this and won the game 3-1.

And against Sunderland, again a game they won, lots of the same issues came to the fore. By this stage (December 4) they’d registered just one win in 11 games, losing eight of those and conceding at least two goals in nine. McCarthy took Johnson out for this game and put Jody Craddock in but Berra was again a problem, getting far too tight to his man when defending set pieces and going close to conceding a penalty for holding on several occasions as a result. In midfield they dropped Henry for David Edwards which on the positive side meant more ball in wide areas for Jarvis, but also left them very vulnerable on the counter attack. The technique of taking corners quickly before the opposition was set with defenders rushing up from the back to try and catch Sunderland unawares seemed like a decent idea, but without Henry Sunderland were able to march away on a counter attack and open the scoring.

Worth noting that goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey saved penalties against Wigan and Sunderland, diving to different sides to deny Seb Larsson and Ben Watson although Watson did stick the rebound away.

Against Norwich and Liverpool more recently it’s been a bit like groundhog day watching them play. Narrow and therefore weak defensively in wide areas (both Norwich and Liverpool scored from basic crosses), susceptible to counter attacks (both Norwich and Liverpool scored having picked up possession from a Wolves attack), vulnerable to deep lying attackers playing between their straight midfield and defensive lines – and so it goes on.

But in a straight match up between two teams in similar formations this weekend Wolves do hold one key advantage which QPR must overcome; with Ale Faurlin and Akos Buzsaky out injured Wolves probably have the better central midfield of the two teams. Henry has been sidelined in favour of the far superior Frimpong, O’Hara remains and they have David Edwards and Michael Kightly as well. QPR aren’t going to be able to match them with Shaun Derry and Joey Barton unless both significantly up their recent performance level. That’s where this one could be lost from a QPR point of view, because in every other area Rangers look a better team to me.

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qprmick added 20:52 - Feb 3 Good God no prediction. MMc sounds almost like Holloway and Warnock. Good report, this game could go either way. We should win it but this is Rangers. With the experience in our forward line now all we have to do is get the ball to them in telling positions. I hope Adel can open they up with some of his passes but I wasn't impressed with him at the African Cup. 3 shots against Villa,I hope we do better at home.

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ozranger added 22:11 - Feb 3 This should be an interesting game with the question more on who Hughes will play. Both Traore and Adel should be back from their poor ACN campaigns, and with Zamora coming in, that means a ringing of the changes. While there is fear about the gaffer choosing the tried and tested Barton/Derry lineup, I would not be surprised to see Adel starting with Barton in the middle and SWP and Traore on the wings. If he does that we could see a wide open game with a lot more attacking than at Villa. While I am a little concerned about this match, I may just get up at 2am to watch this one live.

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PlumsteadQPR added 00:13 - Feb 4 My God! I must have been smoking even more than I thought back in 1995 if I managed to miss a trip to the Cup Final having beaten Millwall in the Semis!!!
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