Musings from Molineux 25-26

Mugwump said:
Thing is with Hwang his defenders always use this " he is a good finisher " argument with him. He isnt. 23 goals and 5 assists in almost 120 games is very ordinary. He's literally had one season where he was good for half of it, in 23/24 when he scored 12 goals. His other seasons so far have seen him score 5,3,2 and 1 this season.
Click to expand...
Still joint top scorer in the league though mate ;)
 
Mugwump said:
Thing is with Hwang his defenders always use this " he is a good finisher " argument with him. He isnt. 23 goals and 5 assists in almost 120 games is very ordinary. He's literally had one season where he was good for half of it, in 23/24 when he scored 12 goals. His other seasons so far have seen him score 5,3,2 and 1 this season.
Click to expand...

But many times I read that the reason JSL isn't scoring is "the service". Why doesn't the same excuse apply to Hwang? This seeason, at least. Does the service somehow improve when Hwang is on, such that he should score lots more? While deteriorating for poor old JSL so he has no chances served to him? Is Hwang perhaps expected to make his own goals, while JSL is allowed to have them delivered on a plate?

At this point JSL has also had one season when he was good.
 
Contrarian said:
But many times I read that the reason JSL isn't scoring is "the service". Why doesn't the same excuse apply to Hwang? This seeason, at least. Does the service somehow improve when Hwang is on, such that he should score lots more? While deteriorating for poor old JSL so he has no chances served to him? Is Hwang perhaps expected to make his own goals, while JSL is allowed to have them delivered on a plate?

At this point JSL has also had one season when he was good.
Click to expand...
Simple solution play neither of them
 
Contrarian said:
But many times I read that the reason JSL isn't scoring is "the service". Why doesn't the same excuse apply to Hwang? This seeason, at least. Does the service somehow improve when Hwang is on, such that he should score lots more? While deteriorating for poor old JSL so he has no chances served to him? Is Hwang perhaps expected to make his own goals, while JSL is allowed to have them delivered on a plate?

At this point JSL has also had one season when he was good.
Click to expand...
They have both been absolutely God awful this season, but they are both at their xG in terms of goals with 1 from 1.1 xG.

This team creates almost nothing.
 
brianm said:
They have both been absolutely God awful this season, but they are both at their xG in terms of goals with 1 from 1.1 xG.

This team creates almost nothing.
Click to expand...

In interesting table on Open Play xG. Our open play XG is higher than Burnley,Villa(!!!) and Sunderland. And 1 goal behind Everton. So that's 5 teams that create almosts nothing. Only one of them on all time record low points, though. Villa and Everton compensate with set pieces. Sunderland are performing well above their XG - though they do create more from set pieces than us, they could have a fall waiting to happen.

I think the point is that we are very uncreative, though not exceptionally uncreative. Other teams compensate by being better at set pieces - something we are also abysmal at, having nobody who can take a reliably good corner, for example. This is often how poor quality teams get by - stay well organised and work on your set pieces. See at least 1 team stay up this way every season.

How much Larsens xG is reduced by him being so slow and disinterested, he is often a yard behind where he should be, I don't know. But I've definitely seen balls in to him, that he doesn't get too, that other strikers (or even him himself, when he cared) are getting to.

www.statmuse.com

Open Play Xg By Team In Premier League | StatMuse

Arsenal have 32.74 open-play expected goals in the Premier League this season.
www.statmuse.com www.statmuse.com
 
Contrarian said:
In interesting table on Open Play xG. Our open play XG is higher than Burnley,Villa(!!!) and Sunderland. And 1 goal behind Everton. So that's 5 teams that create almosts nothing. Only one of them on all time record low points, though. Villa and Everton compensate with set pieces. Sunderland are performing well above their XG - though they do create more from set pieces than us, they could have a fall waiting to happen.

I think the point is that we are very uncreative, though not exceptionally uncreative. Other teams compensate by being better at set pieces - something we are also abysmal at, having nobody who can take a reliably good corner, for example. This is often how poor quality teams get by - stay well organised and work on your set pieces. See at least 1 team stay up this way every season.

How much Larsens xG is reduced by him being so slow and disinterested, he is often a yard behind where he should be, I don't know. But I've definitely seen balls in to him, that he doesn't get too, that other strikers (or even him himself, when he cared) are getting to.

www.statmuse.com

Open Play Xg By Team In Premier League | StatMuse

Arsenal have 32.74 open-play expected goals in the Premier League this season.
www.statmuse.com www.statmuse.com
Click to expand...
It is crazy how far below xG the team have been. Speaks to a lack of players who can make a goal from a low xG situation (like Cunha last year). Villa have a lot of those guys. Sunderland are just very good from set pieces.

All that said, I don't think a small team can rely on that. The successful smaller teams are very much making more xG from their system and then basically matching it. Bournemouth and Palace are the best examples this season I think.
 
Contrarian said:
But many times I read that the reason JSL isn't scoring is "the service". Why doesn't the same excuse apply to Hwang? This seeason, at least. Does the service somehow improve when Hwang is on, such that he should score lots more? While deteriorating for poor old JSL so he has no chances served to him? Is Hwang perhaps expected to make his own goals, while JSL is allowed to have them delivered on a plate?

At this point JSL has also had one season when he was good.
Click to expand...

Hwang hasnt even had one good season. JSL has been **** in general, just like Hwang. People would accept the lack of goals in this side if the individual performance levels were better. Thats why people are so critical of the them, they just dont perform and JSL especially looks like he cant be bothered.
 
SingYourHeartsOut said:
Thanks, nicely put. Just to show my ignorance, what is an 'angle bias'?
Click to expand...
Someone like Arjen Robben would be accused of having an angle bias ie. he continually plays in one direction. Mane doesn't, he's happy to take his man on either way, whilst being able to play in 360 degrees. It's incredibly useful when paired with his physical profile too.
 
gullykular said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/2008169745082966521
Click to expand...
Totally agree with this. I did try to persuade people on the Hwang thread, people can eulogise to their hearts contents over how good Mane was (and he was), but it's the combination with Hwang that made it work so well. It does feel like we shoehorned an attacking player into a defensive role and got lucky with the dynamic, but it's certainly worked well in those two games.
 
gullykular said:
buymeacoffee.com

5 Targets for Wolves' January Transfer Window 2026 — Musings from Molineux

Post by Musings from Molineux
buymeacoffee.com buymeacoffee.com

Some targets I thought may be of interest to us in this rather awkward window we're navigating.
Click to expand...
Thanks for those thoughts. I've really struggled with the profile of player that we want to bring in. I just can't see what sort of player comes in at this point, even though (depending on outgoings) we clearly should be trying.

To take your examples, let me sit across the table and counter them (while acknowledging that I'm sure you know them all much better than I do, especially Maswanhise!)

We sign Tryrique George, play him instead of Hwang for half a season, he does brilliantly, he goes back to Chelsea. We got a few extra points. Hwang's summer sale price goes down. What did we gain?

Joe Willock, 18 months on his contract, Newcastle probably looking to sell him in the Summer. Are we buying him for the Champ, would he come? I'd guess he has enough in his locker to get a move to a PL club (even a promoted one).

Gus Hamer, OK he's a sensible price and experience level. We could nip in now rather than the Summer, bed him in. Is he actually in that zone though? For me he's a talented, but not very fit player, currently not shining in a struggling team.

Maswanhise, OK no idea about him, but shining in the Scottish league and looking quick there as someone who went on a free there seems no more than a Champ version of getting Forbs.

Lawal, unless we are clearing out CH, which is surely our strongest area of the pitch, he isn't getting near the team this season. Then you're saying, come to us and play in the Champ, when Stoke are saying to him, stay here and you might play PL next season. Maybe he'd see us as a move up even in the Champ in the Summer assuming Stoke don't make it.

None of that is to try to argue for the sake of it or call any of these ideas daft, it's just I genuinely don't see the profile of a player who comes.

Oh, and surely we need youngsters like you to move us on from Huckerby, isn't the Bamford zone more like it now?
 
SingYourHeartsOut said:
Thanks for those thoughts. I've really struggled with the profile of player that we want to bring in. I just can't see what sort of player comes in at this point, even though (depending on outgoings) we clearly should be trying.

To take your examples, let me sit across the table and counter them (while acknowledging that I'm sure you know them all much better than I do, especially Maswanhise!)

We sign Tryrique George, play him instead of Hwang for half a season, he does brilliantly, he goes back to Chelsea. We got a few extra points. Hwang's summer sale price goes down. What did we gain?

Joe Willock, 18 months on his contract, Newcastle probably looking to sell him in the Summer. Are we buying him for the Champ, would he come? I'd guess he has enough in his locker to get a move to a PL club (even a promoted one).

Gus Hamer, OK he's a sensible price and experience level. We could nip in now rather than the Summer, bed him in. Is he actually in that zone though? For me he's a talented, but not very fit player, currently not shining in a struggling team.

Maswanhise, OK no idea about him, but shining in the Scottish league and looking quick there as someone who went on a free there seems no more than a Champ version of getting Forbs.

Lawal, unless we are clearing out CH, which is surely our strongest area of the pitch, he isn't getting near the team this season. Then you're saying, come to us and play in the Champ, when Stoke are saying to him, stay here and you might play PL next season. Maybe he'd see us as a move up even in the Champ in the Summer assuming Stoke don't make it.

None of that is to try to argue for the sake of it or call any of these ideas daft, it's just I genuinely don't see the profile of a player who comes.

Oh, and surely we need youngsters like you to move us on from Huckerby, isn't the Bamford zone more like it now?
Click to expand...
This is why it's such a strange window for us to navigate. I don't envy anyone who actually has to sit across the table and lay out our position because it's so tenuous. I've tried to look at all angles for each of the options I've advised, but all clearly have their drawbacks.

On George, I don't see him necessarily ousting Hwang immediately - but we absolutely need an alternative option at the very least and it buys us some time to figure out how that position looks in the summer. Maswanhise could also cover that need from what I've seen.

Lawal I would bring in as sitting midfielder for the rest of this season. I'd be quite comfortable with dispensing with Andre in this window (although again desperately short on numbers in that position particularly).
 
gullykular said:
buymeacoffee.com

Serving Our Notice — Musings from Molineux

Post by Musings from Molineux
buymeacoffee.com buymeacoffee.com
Click to expand...
so what you said in 1000 words is:

“This team will be remembered for a meek PL relegation after a disastrous first half. Survival is gone; the run-in is about assessing players, fixing past recruitment mistakes, and finding scraps of hope in new signings, defensive stability, and who’s accountable when the drop is confirmed”?

You could have tweeted it.
 
Don Gloomshroud said:
so what you said in 1000 words is:

“This team will be remembered for a meek PL relegation after a disastrous first half. Survival is gone; the run-in is about assessing players, fixing past recruitment mistakes, and finding scraps of hope in new signings, defensive stability, and who’s accountable when the drop is confirmed”?

You could have tweeted it.
Click to expand...
You don't have to read it. You don't have to comment on it. Apologies for wasting your time, but thanks for the click all the same.
 
Don Gloomshroud said:
so what you said in 1000 words is:

“This team will be remembered for a meek PL relegation after a disastrous first half. Survival is gone; the run-in is about assessing players, fixing past recruitment mistakes, and finding scraps of hope in new signings, defensive stability, and who’s accountable when the drop is confirmed”?

You could have tweeted it.
Click to expand...
Brace yourself, there are going to be many thousands of pointless words written about why we've lost (or even won - I'm sure that could happen) games in the rest of this season. Which player who won't be here next season anyway takes the blame or the credit. Whether Armstrong looking out of his depth matters when we know he can do it in the Champ, whether Angel Gomes looking like a world-beater matters when he'll be off in the Summer anyway. Whether Nathan is a new broom or the same brush on a new handle. Whether Edwards opening the parachute on our freefall means he has the skills to actually make us start moving upwards.
 
gullykular said:
You don't have to read it. You don't have to comment on it. Apologies for wasting your time, but thanks for the click all the same.
Click to expand...
I had to read to realise it was a waste of time (I wont have to next time though).
 
SingYourHeartsOut said:
Brace yourself, there are going to be many thousands of pointless words written about why we've lost (or even won - I'm sure that could happen) games in the rest of this season. Which player who won't be here next season anyway takes the blame or the credit. Whether Armstrong looking out of his depth matters when we know he can do it in the Champ, whether Angel Gomes looking like a world-beater matters when he'll be off in the Summer anyway. Whether Nathan is a new broom or the same brush on a new handle. Whether Edwards opening the parachute on our freefall means he has the skills to actually make us start moving upwards.
Click to expand...
You say pointless, I don't think anything is pointless right now. Even if it is a rant that bears out how damaging and nonsensical this season has been. It really needs drumming home to the powers that be that it must not ever happen again. And we know they're paying attention.
 
gullykular said:
You say pointless, I don't think anything is pointless right now. Even if it is a rant that bears out how damaging and nonsensical this season has been. It really needs drumming home to the powers that be that it must not ever happen again. And we know they're paying attention.
Click to expand...
I wasn't having a go, to my mind it's always pointless anyway, we just chat about stuff from our own entertainment, nobody in the club is reading blogs or listening to podcasts to influence their footballing decisions (at least I sincerely hope they aren't!).

What makes you think they are paying attention? A meeting with podcasters just seems like letting people with some influence over the fanbase feel important.
 
SingYourHeartsOut said:
I wasn't having a go, to my mind it's always pointless anyway, we just chat about stuff from our own entertainment, nobody in the club is reading blogs or listening to podcasts to influence their footballing decisions (at least I sincerely hope they aren't!).

What makes you think they are paying attention? A meeting with podcasters just seems like letting people with some influence over the fanbase feel important.
Click to expand...
They are and they do. From what I know Nathan Shi made a joke about the fact he isn't actually AI, which is clearly something he'd have picked up from Social media. I saw Tolu Arokodare respond to a blog written by a friend of mine only the other day. A member of Gary O'Neil's coaching staff follows me on X. And that's before you get to the ones that are clearly hiding in the shadows and observing from afar. They're inherently egotistical and I can imagine most players, managers, execs keep themselves abreast in one way or another.
 
SingYourHeartsOut said:
I wasn't having a go, to my mind it's always pointless anyway, we just chat about stuff from our own entertainment, nobody in the club is reading blogs or listening to podcasts to influence their footballing decisions (at least I sincerely hope they aren't!).

What makes you think they are paying attention? A meeting with podcasters just seems like letting people with some influence over the fanbase feel important.
Click to expand...
It's all about the narcissists.
 
gullykular said:
They are and they do. From what I know Nathan Shi made a joke about the fact he isn't actually AI, which is clearly something he'd have picked up from Social media. I saw Tolu Arokodare respond to a blog written by a friend of mine only the other day. A member of Gary O'Neil's coaching staff follows me on X. And that's before you get to the ones that are clearly hiding in the shadows and observing from afar. They're inherently egotistical and I can imagine most players, managers, execs keep themselves abreast in one way or another.
Click to expand...
Sorry, maybe we're at cross purposes. I'm not saying they don't listen to fan opinion, I'm sure they're aware of the anger in the fan base. I'm sure that they realise that keeping fans on board is part of the job. Even Jeff realised that even though he was really, really bad at it. All of this for me is just about managing this. Look how positive those people have been about the meeting (while admittedly having some caveats), but what did they get - absolutely nothing but some warm words.

What I'm saying is that none of that influences their footballing decisions. In terms of non-footballing decisions gauging sentiment is important, but in the end I suspect the cost of a ST next season will be as high as they think they can get away with. Anyone imagining some sort of 50% discount for existing STHs to acknowledge the absolute disaster of this season is living in dreamland for me.
 
SingYourHeartsOut said:
Sorry, maybe we're at cross purposes. I'm not saying they don't listen to fan opinion, I'm sure they're aware of the anger in the fan base. I'm sure that they realise that keeping fans on board is part of the job. Even Jeff realised that even though he was really, really bad at it. All of this for me is just about managing this. Look how positive those people have been about the meeting (while admittedly having some caveats), but what did they get - absolutely nothing but some warm words.

What I'm saying is that none of that influences their footballing decisions. In terms of non-footballing decisions gauging sentiment is important, but in the end I suspect the cost of a ST next season will be as high as they think they can get away with. Anyone imagining some sort of 50% discount for existing STHs to acknowledge the absolute disaster of this season is living in dreamland for me.
Click to expand...
Yeah that's up for debate, but I'd not dismiss the idea that words aren't being read and feelings aren't being seen. Obviously it is still up in the air but you have to give them a smidgen of the benefit of the doubt.
 
Don Gloomshroud said:
I had to read to realise it was a waste of time (I wont have to next time though).
Click to expand...
Considering Gullykular doesn’t post very often, and many times his posts are thoughtful, rational, insightful, mature, and respectful of his fellow Mixers, etc you might rethink your description of his post “as a waste of time”.
Some might think that’s a bit dismissive because some of us might enjoy reading it.
He doesn’t constantly moan like a teen, constantly use profanity, find fault with everything, and generally responds and engages in a nice way like many others do.

He seems like like a guy you’d want to have a beer with now and then and talk about Wolves.
 
SingYourHeartsOut said:
I wasn't having a go, to my mind it's always pointless anyway, we just chat about stuff from our own entertainment, nobody in the club is reading blogs or listening to podcasts to influence their footballing decisions (at least I sincerely hope they aren't!).

What makes you think they are paying attention? A meeting with podcasters just seems like letting people with some influence over the fanbase feel important.
Click to expand...
I think all big companies/corporations keep an eye on social media these days…..more so the ones close to public judgement, etc. They keep an eye out for defamation and other pertinent info.
 
VancouverWolf said:
Considering Gullykular doesn’t post very often, and many times his posts are thoughtful, rational, insightful, mature, and respectful of his fellow Mixers, etc you might rethink your description of his post “as a waste of time”.
Some might think that’s a bit dismissive because some of us might enjoy reading it.
He doesn’t constantly moan like a teen, constantly use profanity, find fault with everything, and generally responds and engages in a nice way like many others do.

He seems like like a guy you’d want to have a beer with now and then and talk about Wolves.
Click to expand...
I wasn't the first to use the phrase “as a waste of time” - he was.

I just kept reading waiting for a nugget of insight and there wasn't one, so I thought the article was too long and I said so.
I don't think that's so bad in the global schema of things?
 
VancouverWolf said:
I think all big companies/corporations keep an eye on social media these days…..more so the ones close to public judgement, etc. They keep an eye out for defamation and other pertinent info.
Click to expand...
I'm sure they do, my question is to what extent they do change their decisions because of what they hear.
 
SingYourHeartsOut said:
I'm sure they do, my question is to what extent they do change their decisions because of what they hear.
Click to expand...
Interesting post.
I guess every company will decide how good or bad publicity will affect them now and in the future. Off the top of my head I think the Coca Cola 180 on their drink taste is probably one of the biggest private reaction to the public.

But, imo, social media or protests at a soccer club’s owners or CEO, coach etc is small fry. And again I guess it depends on perceived gains or losses.
After all, every club owner knows very well that soccer fans are extremely fickle, black or white and their actions hardly make any ripples in the real world for long.

Companies are unlikely to change financial course over a minor hiccup from the fans…….they’ll always be swayed by the bottom line.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

What's new

Online statistics

Members online
63
Guests online
2,048
Total visitors
2,111
Totals may include hidden visitors.

Forum statistics

Threads
308,743
Messages
5,729,579
Members
3,406
Latest member
EKD2901

Share this page

Community platform by XenForo® © 2010-2026 XenForo Ltd. Design by: Pixel Exit
Back
Top Bottom