Wolves at the Door

So tomorrow we play Wolverhampton Wanderers, who currently grace the bottom of the table. Looks like we have them at home. I don't hate many teams in the Premiership, but Mick McCarthy's brand of soccer is about the most odious thing going. Now that Big Sam and his anti-football are out at Blackburn, Mick McCarthy and a couple of others are the last remaining remnant of a group that cheer at bonebreaking and rash tackling. McCarthy just calls it a hard fought match, but it's more a fight than a match. So, tomorrow Mick and his merry band of hooligans will come to bring the pain, sort of. It would be all right if all I were concerned about with the win, but it's not. If we don't win, Hodgson should be fired on the airplane, as it were- Wolves have no away wins and only one draw in 8 matches. Surely we can grind it out. I'm more worried about what happens during the match.

(More after the jump, including my best guess at a lineup)

To be fair, Wolves' brand of physical intimidation and set piece skill kept them up last year, and saw them steal some tough wins on the road. However, they gained a bit of a reputation as headhunters- you don't get out of a game with Wolves without losing a few along the way. There's a streak of this in the Premiership, and a bit of glorification in the teams that take a soccer match and turn it into a bar brawl (look up "English Captain's Headband"). It's like an ugly, awful match is somehow ideologically pure, more English, if blood, 4-4-2, and Route 1 are involved. This is a dead letter, particularly after the summer, but some in the press still defend it. Sure, you can win matches by pouring sugar into a gas tank (Mourinho said this, by the way, but in relationship to racing your Ferrari with his Yugo), but you shouldn't try to light the car on fire at the same time. Liverpool can ill afford to lose players, especially during this stretch, and I loathe playing teams like this (and Blackburn, Stoke, and others). So, I hope we win (and we should- Wolves are going to let us come to them, especially at home), and I hope we get out unscathed.

Lineup (as it looks from liverpoolfc.tv)

Reina

Jonson-Kyrgiakos-Agger-Aurelio (right on)

Kuyt-Gerrard-Meireles-Rodriguez (still good, looks like someone got the note about squad rotation, one holding player means Kuyt and Rodriguez will have to contribute)

Cole-Torres (probably staggered)

I'm guessing a 4-4-1-1, but this could easily turn into a 4-3-1-2 (YES PLEASE!) or 4-3-2-1 (Meh)

I guess this will be the live thread- please do leave comments on the match below.