Verdict: Wolves Vs Fulham

[Contrarian]

No wins in 9. Sackable performance levels surely?

Are Southampton any better? Everton and Villa are barely any better over the last 10. Not sure if any of them are sacking their managers just yet.

 

[Fenrir_]

after they signed Guedes who played under bruno , don't make sense

Guedes only knows him from Benfica youth when he was 15 years old

 

[Krispy Kreme]

Worst performance at Molineux today was…….,…
The South Bank
Shocking support, barely sang absolutely useless
South bankers been banging on for years saying they are the noise of Molineux
They have loved saying that for years
Today south bank hold your head in shame you was absolutely crap

Got to agree.

Enjoyed being back for about 5 minutes then all you heard was the moaning *******s who are desperate to abuse their own players.

He's ****.
We're ****.
This is ****.

The attitude and the vocabulary is awful.

 

[DarloWolf]

A bit eatrly but don't kid yourself, Bruno is under pressure at this stage. We slip up against Bournemouth or Saints in a couple fo weeks and he is probably gone.

how? he is choosing his team n building that's why coady has gone doubt he has 2 matches

 

[wolfslair]

How can 5 subs be used to delay the game more? Absolute text book case of moan arsing without the facts

It think he might mean the constant stoppages to allow the extra subs will disrupt play and kill some of the flow or momentum that exists in the match at that time.

 

[sillytuna]

Weird seeing people laughing-react to this when we haven’t won in NINE games, against mostly dross.

Genuinely don’t get the devotion some people have to him, when I feel absolutely nothing at all.

Because as much as some of us have concerns over tactics and subs, he did get us good points last year and has always had an unbalanced squad.

We should judge him properly when he has a centre forward at least.

I am surprised we still seem to a real shape to our play though.

 

[Jd132]

On a positive note, I thought Kilman, Collins and Sa really gave us the result today. For all the talk about Mitrovic he got very little change out of us, our centre backs headed everything and our goalie thwarted his penalty which is a rare occurrence. We couldn't have done any better than our clean sheet even if we did have another body in there.

On a negative note, I checked whoscored and Podence had a 50% pass success rate. He was shocking and looked completely lost in the number 10 role. He offers nothing defensively either so can't even put himself about to look like he's trying hard. How he was not pulled for Adama is beyond me. It really was an abject performance.

 

[Contrarian]

This isn’t meant to sound harsh but it may come across that way, to some.

We definitely need the attacking mid and a natural goal scorer (minimum), we have known that for ages.

My main concern is that the team/squad isn’t well balanced, imo. That will perhaps be aided, IF we bring in the right type of players. As much as I love and admire our Portuguese players, I can’t help but think, too much of one thing is never a good idea.

Neves and Semedo aside, they are all a bit like for like and a bit lightweight in the challenge. We have too many players that have the same attributes. I am not saying they aren’t great players to have in the squad but we can’t fit them all into the first 11.

We need players that have other attributes, strong in the tackle, driving forward with ball, high energy and being able to hit that thing that’s 24’ by 8’ would help.

I think we will struggle to take many points off of any of the top sides this season so then you look at best of the rest. My concern is that technically our players are as good if not better than most of those sides but only in certain areas and teams like Palace. Brighton, Brentford, etc will get results against us because they are physically stronger. We will get bullied out of so many games, is my fear.

I think it's a good point. Also, seem to remember it being raised at least 2 years ago. There was an "Are we too Lightweight?" thread, or something very similar, based around much the same points you mention. As I recall, it was mostly rejected at the time, however I think there's something in it.

Related to that, we lack urgency - and also this goes back ages. Hence the "Jekyll and Hyde" performances where we'd do nothing for an hour, be a goal or 2 down, then suddenly wake up and start playing with some energy at last.

There was a lethargy about today, that I didn't really understand. Yes, it was hot, but plenty of other teams were getting stuck in. After 15 - 20 mins, we'd settled, had the better chances and Fulham were pretty much camped in their own half. But we just lacked urgency. Taken control, then let our foot off the gas instead of upping the tempo. Knocking the ball around the back to no effect. Again, I know opinions differ, but we've played like that for years, it seems ingrained. It's fine when playing the Sky 6 (though not Man U this season!) , what's unfuriating is that we did it against lower teams, at home (and Huddersfield! Some of us don't forget...) .

At least MGW had some energy. I know it's not the good thing to risk a red by squaring up to professional idiots trying to rile you up - but at least he showed some fight. Did anybody else? I suppose Sa's regular attempt at flooring an opponent while jumping for a cross he could never get counts for something. But the rest of them? Looked like highly paid professionals just turning up and wanting to get an uncomfortable 90 minutes in baking heat over with.

 

[WeAreTheWolvesII]

Weird seeing people laughing-react to this when we haven’t won in NINE games, against mostly dross.

Genuinely don’t get the devotion some people have to him, when I feel absolutely nothing at all.

The reaction is because he's not got his players.

Asking him to try and create an attacking team without a striker is ludicrous. They are key to everything you do. You need them to hold the ball, link play, be in the box, drag defenders and so on. Instead, we have Hwang who has the first touch of a trampoline. In fairness, he showed last week at Leeds he can be okay if there's space in behind. Today, useless.

He's bringing on one sub who is ready, although even that's debatable. And, then he's rolling the dice on two players who haven't played a minute of pre-season.

I'm not actually saying you're wrong about Lage, it's quite sad that he's been in charge over a year and we can't judge him properly.

However, whilst he may be a problem, the major issue with Wolves right now is the squad - which is all on Shi and Sellars.

 

[CelebrityWolf]

how? he is choosing his team n building that's why coady has gone doubt he has 2 matches

I have said elsewhere it wouldn't surprise me to see Bruno gone pre world cup. Unlikely we get anything against Spurs, followed by a much better Newcastle. Then its Bmth and Saints, if somehow we don't beat either of those it is probably over. And even if we beat one of them it might be as we follow those two with City, Liverpool, West Ham and Chelsea.

A very real possibility we have one win from 17 games, hard to survive a run like that.

 

[Rhoswolf]

Worst performance at Molineux today was…….,…
The South Bank
Shocking support, barely sang absolutely useless
South bankers been banging on for years saying they are the noise of Molineux
They have loved saying that for years
Today south bank hold your head in shame you was absolutely crap

Whereas you led the vocals in the North Bank and pumped up the volume?

 

[Contrarian]

Has to be Podence OR Gibbs-White, but not both.

Podence then. MGW will turn out much the better player, soon enough.

 

[Wonder Boyo]

Thought we missed Coady's passing ability and his balls out from the back today. Not complaining about leaving him out and moving to a back 4, I'm glad we did. Just appreciated how good his balls out of defence are and how confident he is with his passing.

Kilman and Collins look good defensively and both had good defensive games. However, they couldn't really play the ball out of defence today, there was no space (and little movement in front of them) and they both don't seem confident enough to play any passes that involve a bit of risk. Probably more to do with the lack of movement in front of them, but this is often where Coady excels. There was a lot of pass, pass, pass, pass along the defence today with very little penetration. Hopefully it'll come together if we stick with the formation.

 

[Bryce]

Man United

Now there’s a team in trouble . Playing like kids

 

[Sevenwolves]

I went today with the new season optimism (harder than normal this year). Really hoped that 4 at the back would lead to a bit more attacking/entertaining football. But not, just more of the same. Perhaps what concerned me the most was that we looked far from a team. It was just a group of individuals. I don’t think I saw a single partnership on the whole pitch. Name me two players that consistently combined well. All a bit worrying

 

[thommo1984]

The reaction is because he's not got his players.

Asking him to try and create an attacking team without a striker is ludicrous. They are key to everything you do. You need them to hold the ball, link play, be in the box, drag defenders and so on. Instead, we have Hwang who has the first touch of a trampoline. In fairness, he showed last week at Leeds he can be okay if there's space in behind. Today, useless.

He's bringing on one sub who is ready, although even that's debatable. And, then he's rolling the dice on two players who haven't played a minute of pre-season.

I'm not actually saying you're wrong about Lage, it's quite sad that he's been in charge over a year and we can't judge him properly.

However, whilst he may be a problem, the major issue with Wolves right now is the squad - which is all on Shi and Sellars.

Don’t disagree with any of the tactical stuff there but it still doesn’t endear him to me in the slightest and still think he should be doing more with what he’s got. His subs are almost always weird. He’s got an odd personality and he doesn’t seem to care about building any kind of relationship with the fans, home or away. Just seems like an absolute shrug of a manager to me.

 

[Bryce]

how? he is choosing his team n building that's why coady has gone doubt he has 2 matches

I am not saying that’s the right decision but by backing him and not binning him in May shows Fosuns loyalty to him. Besides who would be the next Mendes cab off the manager rank? Would they be any better with this squad?
I think Bruno has to the World Cup . If we are 7 to 14th then I guess he is safe for the season. If we are bottom three then he will probably be binned .

As for today it was unearthly hot.

 

[Timberwolf]

Crazy that people are having a go at Bruno. Absolutely no patience despite a promising start in performances to this season

Another game with fosun have cost us. No striker and it just doesn’t work. If we had mitrovic we win by 3/4 goals.

Final ball / shot was so poor today. Either delayed pass , or mis hit pass, or stupid flick. Neto should have scored and Mgw missed an open goal. These chances have to be taken. No excuses from them.

We need to go 4-3-3 to dominate more games but as we know don’t even have that third midfielder.

Main downfall today was collins and kilman being SO SLOW in possession. Whole tempo of passing was far too slow and too many opportunities to get in behind were missed.

Promising on the whole, but fosun are costing us games here. Not entirely sure what Bruno is meant to do other than get the cbs to pass quicker, but we are two games in Ffs . Get a grip

Moment for the ref - shouldn’t referee again. The timewastinf is a disgrace and mitrovic 2 yellow card incidents to not get a red was honestly outrageous .

You said ‘Neto should have scored and Mgw missed an open goal’, yet that’s Fosun’s fault?
Yer a daft bugger!

 

[manchesterwolf17]

I went today with the new season optimism (harder than normal this year). Really hoped that 4 at the back would lead to a bit more attacking/entertaining football. But not, just more of the same. Perhaps what concerned me the most was that we looked far from a team. It was just a group of individuals. I don’t think I saw a single partnership on the whole pitch. Name me two players that consistently combined well. All a bit worrying

This will always be the case until we finally address the screamingly obvious issue with the midfield.

Honestly, we could sign Harry Kane and we'd still look **** in an attacking sense so long as the CM remains the same.

 

[nomadwolf]

 

[Moira Stewart]

I have said elsewhere it wouldn't surprise me to see Bruno gone pre world cup. Unlikely we get anything against Spurs, followed by a much better Newcastle. Then its Bmth and Saints, if somehow we don't beat either of those it is probably over. And even if we beat one of them it might be as we follow those two with City, Liverpool, West Ham and Chelsea.

A very real possibility we have one win from 17 games, hard to survive a run like that.

Given how they treated Nuno and all he had achieved before and the standard of football wouldn't at all be surprised if Fosun weren't already looking at potential replacements in the background. I'd guess rightly or wrongly he has the next 4 to get a couple of wins or he's toast as you wouldn't see us getting more than a solitary win max from the following 4.

On the game - I think we all have to bear in mind we were playing in conditions we won't play in again this season and given we are trying to play more front foot high tempo football it was far from ideal so no need to be overly negative or use that as too much of a yardstick of what is to come. Noticeable how the latter periods of either half tailed off so much, particularly the 2nd half. All that said it's so obvious we miss a focal point up top and a quality midfielder to help control the game (particularly in these games we should be identifying as very winnable). Beyond that thought the biggest disappointment was the two full backs. I fear Johnny may be finished, he was swept past at ease on a couple of occasions and after 2 major operations it must have caught up with him. Ait Nouri could have cost us with another sloppy error and his distribution was poor when he did get into attacking positions (one in the 2nd half where Neto pulled it back and he just wafted it high into the box with no pace on the ball got me particularly irate).

I said on the transfer window thread I thought the lack of recruitment could inadvertently work to our advantage in this favourable early run, the players already know their games inside out and that should stand us in good stead against sides who have made more significant changes or facing the step up after promotion so only one point so far is dissapointing if not yet concerning.

 

[sillytuna]

I went today with the new season optimism (harder than normal this year). Really hoped that 4 at the back would lead to a bit more attacking/entertaining football. But not, just more of the same. Perhaps what concerned me the most was that we looked far from a team. It was just a group of individuals. I don’t think I saw a single partnership on the whole pitch. Name me two players that consistently combined well. All a bit worrying

This this this. And I don't care what formation or who the players are, this has been consistent with Lage.

First 3 games apart, we've been dreadful. We got points for a good while then injuries/sales/form ended that. We still seen to do nothing other than send it wide and... yep that's it.

We should be able to see what he's trying to do but I still have absolutely no idea.

 

[Timberwolf]

Weird seeing people laughing-react to this when we haven’t won in NINE games, against mostly dross.

Genuinely don’t get the devotion some people have to him, when I feel absolutely nothing at all.

Yep, complete indifference to him.
I wanted him gone at the end of last season but unfortunately, he’s still here. I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt for now but, I’ve a feeling he’ll be gone before September is out.

 

[Bill McCai]

I thoght Podence stank the place out today. I would much rather have MGW behind a (new) striker and Adama on the right.

 

[Sussex Wolf]

I thoght Podence stank the place out today. I would much rather have MGW behind a (new) striker and Adama on the right.

Adama should be nowhere near the team. Just doesn’t interplay with the other forwards. Nothing against him personally, just don’t think he fits our team anymore. Neto would play right, and Guedes left, MGW behind the striker as you say.

 

[JOSWolf]

When you don’t have a striker or central midfield player that can really attack games today will happen again and again. I have my doubts over lage as well but I am getting tired of our non scoring attackers and midfielders and full backs who hardly ever score. Four new players needed and striker in before spurs please Shi.

 

[Bondi Wolf]

Are we really doing “sack the manager” after two games?

 

[OLDGOLD]

I think for all our trickery and fancy schmancyness we need some steel. Steel in centre midfield and a put it about number nine

 

[OLDGOLD]

Are we really doing “sack the manager” after two games?

But it's not 2 games. The last half of last season happened as well...

 

[MelbourneWolf]

Well I stayed up to near 2 in the morning to watch that dross. I don't feel sorry for Lage at all. On paper our side vs theirs and we should win comfortably. One shot on target and that was nothing more than a powder puff effort. Players look out of sorts. Did Traore actually come on? Not sighted. Podence stank the place up and Neto gets dragged? RAN just continues to make stupid mistakes. I have awoken cranky but they are not playing for the shirt or the manager. Lage looked clueless last season and he continues to look clueless now. i don't remember a worse manager for substitutions. No idea

 

[BridgnorthWolf Inc]

Where are the goals going to come from? It's alright having nice technical players in the frontline but the likes of Neto, Hwang, MGW and Podence just aren't going to get us the goal contributions that we need over the course of a 38 game season.

Would take 17th now to be honest, Bruno's time may be numbered when you consider our overall PL form.

It's because we have NO players who take the responsibility to score. No bottle or desire.

Another season of uninspirational crap incoming.

 

[BridgnorthWolf Inc]

Where's the people like wolvesaywe who love piling into the fans for their concerns?

No striker is a disgrace at this level. A disgrace. We've got one point from a possible six from two winnable games. It's simply not acceptable that the arrogance and incompetence from the board has put us in this situation.

Let's not forget that Fulham are only playing these players because they did well last week. Realistically 5/6 are not involved when Silva makes the changes he wants.

No midfield creativity. No striker.

The only positives were Kilman and Collins. They did well. Also Sa obviously deserves credit for saving the point.

The front four very poor. Jonny is not up to it unfortunately.

I thought Neves did well, Dendoncker was okay but we lacked quality in building up.

Reluctant to go in on MGW, Podence, Guedes, Neto as they would all be so much better playing off a focal point.

Let's hope we can stay up from our 36-game season.

Bang on.
No strikers of the first two games of the season is an absolute abomination.


Sort it Fosun or sell up.

 

[Adrian_Monk]

Absolute borefest, so slow at moving the ball around the pitch. Absolute zero movement far too often. A real lack of identity to our play. How can we have so much attacking quality on the pitch all looking absolutely clueless.

I really hoped Bruno would turn it around with a pre-season. But it was awful, really really poor today. We could have played for another 270 minutes and not scored.

I was thinking the same. When the 7 minutes got shown my first thought was that it could have been 27 and we still wouldn't have looked like scoring.

Bruno hasn't been helped by the transfer window but I suspect given the poor run last season and the alleged tension over his presser comments (prior to behaving himself this season) may mean he's on thin ice. There was little to be positive about today, especially in the second half.

 

[Netherton Wolf]

Right , I've had far too much to drink, still sitting in me garden, was a very hot one, played some nice football at times but no end product, no creativity, no clinical finishing, onto Spurs

 

[CelebrityWolf]

Random thought from today to me was that it feels like we almost play a weird lop sided system as RAN is advanced a lot more than Jonny and it almost looks like a 3-3-3-1 often times

X X X
....X X X
X X X
....X

I dunno, maybe i am talking ****

 

[manchesterwolf17]

Disappointing, but still an improvement on much of the end of last season. The heat crippled both teams, made it slow and fractured, and I think that diminished pace suited Fulham more - at least, they dealt with it better by sitting in rank and expending less energy.

Collins and Kilman solid, and Sa needed that penalty save. Ait-Nouri did good forward things and typical, rash young defender things, and part of his development will be cutting those out. Jonny looked laboured and is a shadow of the player he once was - thank goodness Semedo is back.

Neves was good in flashes, but that free kick was selfish and embarrassing, and was followed twenty seconds later by a stroppy, sheepish foul for a booking. Our best player, our best passer, and always first name on the team sheet, but he's not going to win games, that needs to come from elsewhere.

Donk had one of his best games for us (and yes, I know the bar on that one isn't exactly high). MGW was lively, and to be honest I forgive him his hot-headedness (we need a touch of that) and his silly flicks, because he at least gives a **** and tried from start to finish. Neto is a weapon that someone needs to work out how to use effectively, the way he ****ed up that lovely chance was migraine-inducing, but he's just so dangerous. Podence was at his most Podence, if his pass success rate was above 40% I'd be astonished, and was thoroughly ineffective. Hwang flittered between actually looking like a footballer and then having familiar moments of the touch of a scarecrow wearing rubber gloves, but he held the ball up well in the first half before fading.

No one passed to Traore. So what was the point. Guedes is basically Neto, sharp pace and turn - not a striker, but will get goals, eventually. Not sure we needed another Neto, but it is what it is. We need a ****ing striker is what we need.

Lage? Well, he's not a top level manager. Let's be honest. He's just who we have. Whatever scenario he finds himself facing, he doesn't have the answers, and if anyone thinks he's going to unlock the potential of players like Neto, MGW, Ait-Nouri and Guedes, let alone Traore, they're going to be brutally disillusioned. Marco Silva was a fool for getting Fulham to time waste, they probably could have won that, but I think his players play for him more than ours do for Lage. If he went tomorrow, I don't think anyone on that pitch would bat an eyelid, and ultimately that lack of respect and belief will be costly if we're in for a long, hard season (and we are).

Brilliant post. Spot on throughout. It particularly struck a chord for me when you said that were Lage to go how any of the players would bat an eyelid. I think that's really true.

 

[Contrarian]

This will always be the case until we finally address the screamingly obvious issue with the midfield.

Honestly, we could sign Harry Kane and we'd still look **** in an attacking sense so long as the CM remains the same.

We've got forwards who could play for Man City and hardly ever score. They've never scored much elsewhere at this level, so why should they here? All those teams in all those leagues who score more than us (i.e. almost everybody) , are their midfields better than ours?

Maybe it's getting to be a psychological problem with this team? We've had two seasons of being as goal shy as you can get without getting dumped in the Championship. New season brings hope, but then after that 20 minute burst against Leeds where we were camped in their half, passing and movement was good. Still couldn't score. Bright start today, then miss a one on one (theoretically two, because Neto didn't know he was offside yet still didn't score) then a double open goal miss. That might get to them?

For it to be this bad, it can't be just one factor. Probably lots of things not quite right, all adding up. I reckon if we had one of those top goal scorers, Kane etc., we'd score more, because the creators, Neto , Podence, would have someone to aim at. Someone who stretches defences more than what we have. Not saying they;s score as many as at the big clubs, but they would easily add 10 - 15 a season to what we have. Real strikers don't need an endless chain of tap ins, they work to create goals, too. Notice how many partnerships there are where they score and assist for each other - Son and Kane, Sala/Mane, Aubameyang/Lacazette. The only partnership we have on the pitch is Neves/Moutinho and they mostly go sideways! Whether the manager is at fault, maybe he is because we should have something forming by now.

 

[Mile End Wanderer]

We had enough chances to win the game. Failing to score against Fulham is worrying though. I don’t want to be down beat but I don’t feel optimistic

 

[Mugwump]

Are we really doing “sack the manager” after two games?

Its not just two games though is it. We got worse and worse over the second half of last season, and we have picked up 1 point from 6 in two games we really should have won, or got at least a minimum of 4 points from. Our record and performances have been poor for a long, long time now

 

[CelebrityWolf]

Are we really doing “sack the manager” after two games?

Well it is 9 games without a win and 3 wins in 16 isn't it?

Slightly premature maybe but you don't honestly think these conversations are not being discussed behind the scenes at this point.