McCarthy Sends Wolves to the Slaughter at Old Trafford

With ten minutes remaining in the Manchester United vs Wolves game at Old Trafford and the visitors 3-0 down, supporters in the away end could take no more. The chant murmured, then hummed before growing to a full and vocal crescendo. “We want our money back, we want our money back, we want our money back, we want our money back,” cried the Wolves fans. And so it continued.

There was reason for the resentment. Just days ago a well-organised Wolverhampton Wanderers outfit went to White Hart Lane and beat high-flying Tottenham 1-0 in their own backyard. This was Wolves’ first win in London since 1976, a superb result against a team supposedly with top four aspirations. The feeling amongst Wolves fans who had waited so long for victory in the capital was one of euphoria and they headed for Manchester on a high – if not expectant then at least hopeful and quietly confident that the players who had performed so well at Spurs would put up a similar fight against the champions.

But Mick McCarthy had other ideas. All ten outfield players who starred in the win over Tottenham were dropped, a team of fringe players drafted in their place. With United coasting to a comfortable 3-0 victory on the night, question marks are now inevitably going to be raised about team selection.

The debate surrounding Wolves and McCarthy’s decision to effectively play a reserve team centres around three main issues:

1, Does the conscious decision to play a hugely under-strength side in any way damage the competitive integrity of the league?

2, Could it be argued that the eleven who played for Wolves against United was in fact McCarthy’s strongest lineup on the day? Bearing in mind Wolves had little over 72 hours to prepare for and travel to Manchester, and because of the resulting tiredness of those who played against Spurs.

3, Are the Wolves supporters who travelled to the game and payed £42 for a ticket right to feel aggrieved at McCarthy’s team selection? And are we as fans entitled to see the best available players at any given game?

There was a semi-comedic moment in the post-match press conference at Old Trafford when, in front of a press corps clearly baying for blood, Mick McCarthy slowly slipped on a pair of glasses, pulled out a sheet of paper Rafa Benitez style and starting quoting facts from sports scientists at AC Milan:

“All the player effort-ratings that our fitness coach works out were 9.5s or 10. We need to play at that level to get results against top teams and we can’t do it on a Saturday and then also on a Tuesday,” said McCarthy. “The risk of injury rises from 10% after one game to 30 or 40% if another game follows within three or four days. What you saw tonight was the best team we had available.”

Personally I do not see McCarthy’s choice of team against United as worthy of reproach as no doubt many others are going to find it in the coming days. The Times have already published an indignant article calling the Wolves boss “the villain of the football year” and I’m sure there will be more to follow. Though Premier League rules do dictate that teams must “field a full-strength team,” who is anyone but the manager to dictate what constitutes a full-strength team on any given matchday?

Can anyone really say with any authority that the team that beat Spurs 1-0 on Saturday would have managed a better result than the fresher fringe players McCarthy called upon on Tuesday? With the wind in their sails the team of Kevin Doyle, Sylvan Ebanks-Blake and co may have gone to Old Trafford and continued their heady form with another shock result. But then again they might easily have run out of puff and lost by even more than 3 goals. Who can really say? Not to mention that the Wolves ‘reserve team’ conceded fewer goals at Old Trafford than the ‘first team’ at home to Arsenal.

For me the issue of supporters is a thornier bush. To go to Old Trafford full of hope and confidence on the back of such a stellar performance at White Hart Lane only to see the entire team effectively dropped must have been pretty demoralising for Wolves fans, particularly at such a cost. Unfortunately though, the only way around that would be for managers planning such sweeping changes to announce them in advance, avoiding the inevitable surprise and allowing disheartened supporters to make alternative arrangements. But of course, for both tactical and financial reasons, that would never happen.

For Wolves and Mick McCarthy now, the importance of their next game against Burnley has just been ratcheted up a big notch. That now takes on far greater significance, because the gamble will appear to have backfired massively should Wolves fail to register anything other than three points against their fellow relegation strugglers. Last season it took a private dinner at Villa Park to placate angry Aston Villa fans after Martin O’Neill deliberately fielded a weakened side in a defeat to CSKA Moscow that saw Villa knocked out of the UEFA Cup.

To avoid similar discontent Wolves must now ensure they beat Burnley this weekend. If they don’t, the Molineux Christmas dinner might just need a few thousand extra forks and plates.

Was Mick McCarthy wrong to field a weakened side? Or are managers entitled to pick whatever team they damn well like? I’d love to hear what you think.

English Premier League, Manchester United, Mick McCarthy, Wolverhampton Wanderers