Sasa, formation switch, super Sarabia - Wolves talking points from Blackpool
Latest Wolves news from BirminghamLive as Mike Baggaley looks at five talking points from a productive night at Molineux
Wolves are through to the third round of the Carabao Cup but there were more positives from their 5-0 win at home to Blackpool than simply a place in the draw. Our Wolves reporter Mike Baggaley looks at five talking points from a productive night at Molineux.
Making an impression at home. Gary O’Neil had got his first win as Wolves boss with that 1-0 win at Everton on Saturday but it was important to make a statement at home after the 4-1 defeat against Brighton last week. Okay, there was a difference in class in the opposition but Wolves didn’t just see off Blackpool, they did it in style despite nine changes to the starting line up.
O’Neil said: “I was pleased of course with the result and the lads’ approach to the game. You pick up your phone and look at that score in the morning and people that weren’t here will say, ‘comfortable, of course Wolves beat Blackpool’. But there will be teams around the country that have suffered in games this evening so the lads' approach to it and how well prepared they were and how seriously we took the game was the reason we managed to win it so comfortably.
“Fair play to them. It is not easy to come in with so many changes made from the team at the weekend, and then also a lot of changes I have put on them in the last few weeks. A lot for that group to take on board. They carried out a lot of it very well.”
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Sasa Kalajdzic, Nathan Fraser and striking options: After netting his first goal for the club with the late winner at Everton, Sasa Kalajdzic he only took ten minutes of the Blackpool game to add another. Talk about making up for lost time after missing nearly a year with an ACL injury.
The Austrian’s emergence is a bonus for Gary O’Neil as, perhaps for the longer term, is Nathan Fraser. The 18 year old local lad has been with the club for a decade and showed his ability when he came off the bench to set up the fourth goal and then score the fifth.
Over to O’Neil who, talking about target man Kalajdzic, said: “It might have been a tough one. Game wise, the way Blackpool went about it maybe didn’t suit what he had to offer a bit so he had to adapt and try to find his way into the game. He worked very hard, scored a good goal. That’s two in two, a lovely knack to have.
“I felt when Nathan Fraser came on at the end then, with the way Blackpool were going about it, we needed someone who could run in behind and punish Blackpool for some of the space because they were aggressive. So, punish them for some of the spaces they were leaving. I felt Nathan really helped us with that and made us a little bit more productive in that late phase and managed to create a few more opportunities. So, Sasa did well and then Nathan coming on, it was a nice combo to have both of them available.”
Pablo Sarabia : The Spanish forward couldn’t have done much more on his return to the starting line up having started on the bench at Everton. He had a hand in the first three goals and tormented Blackpool all evening.
O’Neil said: “Pablo is a great guy, really good. He has lots of quality, is intelligent, a super professional and his approach to the game was absolutely spot on. He was desperate to play all 90, didn’t want to come off, not that we were considering taking him off. But he was very vocal about not wanting to come off, he wanted to get his 90 minutes in and keep working with the group.
“He has been excellent since I came in, his approach to everything every day. I am pleased for him because you could tell he had some real quality about him this evening.”
Matt Doherty and defensive options : Having started with a back four for all three of his first games, O’Neil switched to a back three in a 3-4-3 against Blackpool. That meant Matt Doherty slotting in on the right of the back three, a change from his usual right back or wing back role.
He looked comfortable there, then cashed in with two goals when given the chance to go to wing back in the second half.
O’Neil said: “Doc’ was an interesting one. I know he can do the wing back role and, as we saw at the end, he is a real threat arriving in dangerous areas from there. I just wanted to have a look at him as well because we are a little bit short centre back wise at the moment and I do like to try to be flexible when needed with the formation.
“So, I wanted to have a look at Doc in the lower one in the three. He was fine. You don’t get to see his athleticism and his dynamic runs bursting forward from there but he understood the role well and I thought he did it well,
“Then we always had it in our mind that Jonny might tire as he hasn’t played too much. So, we are able to give Doc a go in his preferred role and let him fly up and down and score goals for the last bit.”
The opposition view: Blackpool manager Neil Critchley said there was no lack of effort from his League One side but the result highlighted the difference in quality between the teams.
He said: “I said to the players, I find I very hard straight after the game to summarise that. Because after a 5-0 you obviously feel awful…losing to anybody 5-0. We are all competitive, we all want to win and do well.
“But you also have to have a sense of perspective on the game. So, in lots of areas of the pitch we did some very good things and I have to appreciate the level of quality on show. There is a difference, that’s obvious.
“It wasn’t spirit, it wasn’t effort on the pitch. It is a different type of game than we face in our league because of the way they pass the ball and keep and move the ball. So, physically it is very demanding because you are playing against physical athletes who can handle the ball, move the ball.
“It means you are making more decisions defensively and if you get those decisions wrong….you press or stand off at the wrong time….then good players will play around you or run behind you.
“When players with good athleticism run behind you then you ain’t catching them. In our league you might catch them or they might fail when they get to those vital moments. In this stadium, they don’t fail.”