Leicester verdict

[Adrian_Monk]

Good overall performance. Comfortably the better side and can’t recall Leicester creating anything. Denied a victory by another VAR fiasco and wasteful finishing from Raul (he has to score that last header).

If only Diogo could come to the party this season. Would make a massive difference.

MoM: Saiss. Magnificent throughout. Thought Jonny played well too.

Patricio 6
Boly 7
Coady 6
Saiss 8
Doherty 7
Neves 7
Dendoncker 7
Jonny 7
Neto 6
Raul 6
Diogo 5

Traore 7

Decent performance but ultimately another missed opportunity at home against those chasing the Top 4 (or 5).

Agree with Saïss man of the match. Patricio a 6 was harsh though, he did all that was asked of him.

Not a terrible display by any means against a good team. Never looked in great danger, but without Traore and Neto on the field we look limp. Podence is clearly going to take time to settle. Jota looks way off the pace, Johnny Evans had him on toast.

 

[sc91]

Some of you are the most miserable ****s out and I maintain to the powers above that the fans I detest the most are a few of our own.

 

[WonderfulWolves]

Saiss, Neves, Jonny and Boly were excellent. The others were average. Overall it was a decent performance and VAR robbed us again

 

[Aimless Balls]

It was a game which should have finished 1-0 with us lamenting the poor goal differential. Leicester was beaten several times but let off the hook by Jimenez and the goal-prevention system- never in the history of football would the conceding team have cried foul of that goal. They were torn apart by a brilliant set piece, not anyone’s heel, and this year there have been far too many such goals taken from Wolves. Things will change next season and the offside-is-offside! crowd won’t say a peep when the goals count on identical plays, they’ll go back to their caves because their fantastic point will no longer be fantastic.

 

[Andywolf74]

Two clean sheets in a row and creating plenty of chances are big positives. Easy to forget that it’s only our second season back in the Prem and we are on course for a second successive top half finish and are still in the Europa League. We have drawn more games than we’d have liked this season but a lot of these have been due to conceding first. Beat Espanyol and Norwich and push on from there. COYW.

 

[Rangiora Wolf]

So if VAR wasn’t there we would have drawn that game?
Edit. I am not saying we didn’t miss chances. Raul had a shocker

VAR robbed us of a goal for sure

 

[Stingray II]

Now that I'm over my disappointment; 2 positives:
Boly's back. We will gain more points in the remaining games, than if he had not returned. Mostly from fewer goals conceded, but he may also get a headed goal or two.
Neto. What confidence and courage. Just a kid, with abundant improvement ahead of him.

 

[Wolves in Bucharest]

Just read the first page and haven’t seen any reference to an incident in the first half, clearly evident on TV, it was behind the play. Wolves are attacking and Raúl and some other players are moving into the box to get to the end of a cross. One of the Leicester defenders cynically elbows Raul in the throat. As I say plainly evident on TV and apart from the cynicism highly dangerous. No need for VAR officials to stop the game but I would have thought LC player should have walked.

 

[steve vena]

Jota is working hard but on a couple of occasions he broke through the middle tonight and lost the ball or messed up the pass.

he’s working hard but little is coming off for him.

Said the same mate.... Its bouncing off him or off a defender etc. Nothing is going for him. He's ran over a black cat or something. Very tight margins.

 

[Wolfyyy]

Can someone explain to me why the disallowed goal was considered offside?

 

[North West Wanderer]

Var decision aside not good enough
Our finishing is dog****
No urgency
Opposition down to 10 men but keep 3 at the back.
No urgency
We need to transition to a back 4 in games like this

Four at the back, why?

 

[North West Wanderer]

Hugely frustrating. saiss impeccable, Coady and Boly not far behind.

finishing terrible.

Should have won by three

atmosphere subdued. **** var.

 

[A3wolf]

Player rating wise this match I think is fairly consistent with my feeling on the season as a whole:so far compared with last season.

1. Jota, Raul and to a lesser extent Doc, are noticeably below the very high standards they set last season. I think Doc is impacted though by his change of role behind Traore
2. The rest of the team are playing just as well if not better as last season with Traore the biggest improver.
3. Neto has been a great find.

 

[Vicious Sid]

Amazes me that after all he's done this season that Raul is criticised tonight while Jota is not mentioned,
in an attacking goalscoring sense Jota does not even deserve a place in the team.

 

[reanswolf]

Rui, Johnny, Willy, Romain, Connor, Ruben I thought were all excellent, and the rest were not far behind.
Really pleased with the general performance.
Felt like a defeat not to get the 3 points we so richly deserved.
But you have to see the wider picture and things are so so positive overall.
God bless Nuno.

 

[Cookyssweetleftfoot]

Ah yes- I forgot we get points now for what players did last season. Do you still believe "there's a player" in Helder Costa? No place for resting on laurels in this league- Jota has been mediocre this season, and young Neto already is breathing hard down his starting position. Assuming Podence does well, and Traore carries on as is- what do you think will happen to Jota if he doesn't improve?

You claimed that Jimenez cannot score without Traore being on the pitch which is quite some statement. My reference to last season was not solely about Jota’s contribution in a front two, but that Jimenez scored plenty without Traore then or are you suggesting everyone has been mediocre this season other than Traore?

 

[Vicious Sid]

while a disappointing result a bit of perspective is called for, it can never be poor to get a draw against the team third in the premier league

 

[Big Saft Kid]

Wolves need to put together their own video analytics to show these discrepancies. No good will come of turning the other cheek continually.

Absolutely. Robot Riley is invisible and needs to be held accountable. He is single-handedly ruining the game. I have been going down the Wolves since the 50s but for two pins I would have walked out last night after the latest fiasco.

 

[yateleywolf]

Not a game that will live long in the memory apart from that VAR decision i suppose.Real shame as the first goal would of opened up the game and made it much more entertaining.VAR=goal-killer.
Defence looked great.Midfield ok.Upfront Jota still trying to hard at times.Simple lay offs better.Raul just had to score at the end.
Podence looked well off the pace.
Another home draw which is frustrating but beat Norwich and it could be a good point in the end.

 

[Flea]

Amazes me that after all he's done this season that Raul is criticised tonight while Jota is not mentioned,
in an attacking goalscoring sense Jota does not even deserve a place in the team.

I agree.
Can´t we play Neto over Jota?
I am sorry,but Diogo isn´t doing enough for him to hold down a starting place.
It is an ongoing thing that has been present for most part of this season.

 

[Oh When the Wolves]

I thought neves and dendoncker did well - didn’t notice the difference of moutinho not playing - which says a lot .

in fact our set pieces were much better from neto than they have been from moutinho

 

[NottsWolves]

I thought neves and dendoncker did well - didn’t notice the difference of moutinho not playing - which says a lot .

in fact our set pieces were much better from neto than they have been from moutinho

Agree on the set pieces, I said at the game that they were good. Seemed to find his man at every one.

 

[JadeWolf]

My morning after verdict!

that was so frustrating! Regardless of Var we should have won. Countless chances missed against such a poor team. Just shows you what a poor League it is this year when they’re third.

thought we were the better tram. I only remember them having one good chance when Patricio saved the shot which deflected, otherwise we kept them ridiculously quiet. We created a few good chances, but the big frustration was we also had great positions but wasted the pass or lost the ball. They defended well tbf but we still cut them open on a couple of times, no excuses for Raul missing three free headers, at least one should be going in.

I actually said before the game that this is probably our toughest fixture left, so a draw ain’t a disaster but if we added up all the points we’ve not got this year we deserved we could easily be where Leicester are. Don’t think we missed a Moutinho too much but we did miss Traore a lot. You could literally see the moment their defence bricked it when he came on. I was actually annoyed that Chowdhury got sent off thought he was awful and going down to ten just made them time waste.

Onto Espanyol!

Ratings:

- Saiss, Boly, Neves
- Jonny, Dendoncker
- Patricio, Coady, Neto, Doherty
- Jota, Jimenez

 

[Tring Wolf]

Agree with Saïss man of the match. Patricio a 6 was harsh though, he did all that was asked of him.

Not a terrible display by any means against a good team. Never looked in great danger, but without Traore and Neto on the field we look limp. Podence is clearly going to take time to settle. Jota looks way off the pace, Johnny Evans had him on toast.

You’re probably right. I gave Rui 6 purely on how little he had to do. But everything he did do was up to his usual impeccable standard. Watching the game again, probably should have given Coady a 7 too.

Saiss has been great all season. Would love to see the stats of when our back three has been Boly, Coady, Saiss. Reckon it’s probably something like 5 clean sheets in 8 games.

He’s actually an outside contender for Player of the Year for me (would probably be 5th after Adama, Rui, Raul and Neves).

 

[RobB]

Bravo. It’s exactly what Nuno says.
If we finish better tonight, we win the game. We were never in danger of losing it though, with that quality of performance.

Or would some rather we got the odd 1-0 fluke win that we didn’t deserve a la Mick’s era? Playing **** hoofball, riding luck, and bundling one over the line?

Only one of those methods makes a sustainable, looking up not down top half premier league side.
I see more solid performances and clean sheets in our future. I don’t honestly expect too many games with that profligacy in front of goal. Had a good few, but not all.

Mick's era we used to have a good go at teams, and score goals from all over the pitch. It was a lot more exciting.

 

[rincewind]

2nd season back, reality check please, Leicester are years in front of us.

Possibly but they didn't look it last night.

 

[Ian C]

Absolute dog ****e in front of goal, we just can’t convert our chances. It’s all too pretty, we need to be more route one and ruthless. Jiménez ain’t worth a fiver on the back of that.

So any points dropped this season from games we ‘should’ have won, incredible.

 

[WonderWolf]

Possibly but they didn't look it last night.

+1. Looked nothing special at all last night.

Fact is but for ****ty VAR repeatedly impacting on us along with our inability to score with ‘regulation’ opportunities we’d be right up there challenging well for a CL spot.

So close, it hurts.

 

[S G Wolves]

Neves was great and I just love Saiss (footballing sense)..

If Neto' s boot is one size smaller and Raul got his GPS **** together we walked that game.

 

[DDPPwolf313]

As mentioned by others, Saiss was superb, great to see Neves in good form. Dendonker erratic. We were the better team at the end of the day against a very good Leicester team.

Love this team

But questioning my love of the game

Roll on Thursday with no ****ing VAR

 

[Peszkywolf]

And half of last season until he was played in a front 2. Love a scrapper but don't think he's as good as we rate him??

 

[JOSWolf]

Saiss has to be one of the most underrated players around. What a signing he has been for us. £4.5 million wasnt it?

 

[JadeWolf]

Saiss has to be one of the most underrated players around. What a signing he has been for us. £4.5 million wasnt it?

£3m

 

[Pagey]

Boly, I can't believe he's just returned from a long term injury, he oozes class. Coady looks a different player when he's alongside him.

Time to think about a new contract, will cost us a fortune to replace him, despite his age.

 

[freezin]

Saiss has to be one of the most underrated players around. What a signing he has been for us. £4.5 million wasnt it?

I think he's one of those guys that isn't naturally talented but will play anywhere on the pitch and give 100%. I think he probably loves the game and loves the opportunities that Wolves have presented him with.

There's been a couple of times when I was convinced he was close to the exit but he's come out fighting.

The lad is so versatile, reliable and has that touch of devil about him. You need these types in your team, especially in a small squad.

 

[Wolves Heathen]

Firsty the scores on the doors.

Rui; Did what he needed to do without fuss, distribution pretty much faultless. 8
Doc; Seemed to get forward more without Adama in the team. 7.5
Willy; Barely put a foot wrong, scored a good goal. 9
Coady; Similarly to Rui, except Connor never had a hair out pf place. 8
Romain; I thought this was possibly Romains best ever game for Wolves, the one clearance in the second half where he came across to make a perfectly timed tackle on the right summed up his evening, how much did we pay for him ?. 9
Johnny; A constant thorn in Leicesters side as he broke forward time after time. 8
Donk; I thought Donk had a half decent game, but still needs be more dominant. 7.5
Neves; Ruben imperious with his passing in his more forward role, but OHHHHh whats happened to the free kicks we used to see and await with anticipation ?. 8.5
Diogo; For whatever reason its just not happening for him at the moment, one shot early on where Raul let him get the shot off should have burst the back of the net. 7
Raul; What can one say ?, had 3/4 chances to score but missed them all, chose the wrong option a couple of times. 7
Pedro; Excellent corners, unluckily involved in the good goal ruled out for offside, Had one miss hit shot which i would have put money on him scoring from, but he is some prospect at just 19. 8

Subs;
Adama; does what Adama does scares the living daylight out of opposing defenders. 8.5
Poddy; Barely touched the ball when he came on, but when he did lost it.. 7
Joao; Came on to give Ruben a rest for the last few minutes. 7

Var; Is fast ruining the game as we know it for Fans and players alike, as Nuno said players are afraid to have an instant celebration now, because the goal might be ruled out, the same goes for the fans.. 0.

Another game we could have, should have, would have won without Var, but we have to find different ways to break down opposing defences, all of our front three had chances to score, but Raul was the biggest culprit for missing chances, Nuno and his staff need to find a way to break down a packed defence, such as moving Diogo alongside Raul, then if that doesnt work, move Adama alongside Raul or Diogo, I suspect Espanyol may well play the familiar European way on Thursday of sitting back so we have to find a way to break them down.

I actually thought we played pretty well until it came to the final third, defensively we were faultless, Big Willy imperious, Connor hardly broke sweat, but Romain! what can i say, i have always liked him as squad player that always gives 110% wherever/whenever he has been asked to play, early on in our 1st season back in the Premier League he struggled to get picked even at times to get on the bench, but he never moaned just got on with his game, as someone else said a few weeks ago, when big Willy got injured we all thought he was impossible to cover, the biggest compliment i can pay to Romain is that we barely missed him defensively, and now it seems Romain has found his place in Wolves starting Premier League 11 , well done Romain couldnt have happened to a nicer guy..

 

[Chris H]

As mentioned by others, Saiss was superb, great to see Neves in good form. Dendonker erratic. We were the better team at the end of the day against a very good Leicester team.

Live this team

Questioning my love of the game

Roll on Thursday with no ****ing VAR

It’ll be just our luck that a hugely contentious decision will go against us on Thursday that VAR would have over turned.

 

[MrwulfAndrew]

Thought we played pretty well apart from the finishing which was awful. This lack of a killer finish is in danger of killing our season. More dropped points.

Oh and VAR, VAR can just **** off. We should all be looking forward to watching some football this weekend with a win under our belt but last night has killed it for me. I dont care about football for at least the rest of this wekend now.

 

[Oh When the Wolves]

Nullified them and outplayed them 4 times now but only have 5 points to show for it instead of 12

we have to be more clinical

 

[Deleted member 4436]

Surprised at some of the low scores for Rui. I thought his handling and distribution was excellent.

Neves absolutely bossed it. He looks like he’s developed physically since the start of this season; much more mobile.

Jota is bang out of form, a couple of moments in 90 minutes isn’t enough, and Nuno has enough options to rotate now. I’d like to see Neto/Podence, Raul and Traore v Espanyol.