Arsenal Verdict.

[Manic88]

Death by a hundred cuts.
I think the loss of Troare may change a lot of low scoring wins and draws in to low scoring losses.

That 1 goal in 50 games could only be worth a maximum of 3 points…

 

[Ercall Wolves]

One final word from me before I go to bed
**** OFF DENDOCKER

 

[Manic88]

I can only assume Dendonker didn't understand his role again today.

I'd say let's see if he understands a sub role, but he'd probably think Bruno was offering him lunch.

Always looks like he’s trying to start a conga line behind whichever opposition player has the ball

 

[Ches78]

Awful performance. Slow, ponderous, no cutting edge, and balls into the box (when they finally arrived) were terrible. Did anyone in the stadium actually think we'd score? I didn't - crowd seemed bored and flat. Arsenal were poor too, although looked more dangerous around our box. Really disappointed we didn't raise our game.

If we end up doing a straight swap of Trincão for Traore then we've been robbed (based upon performances to date).

 

[WWFC4EVA]

No creativity in midfield plain as the nose on your face, someone who can carry the ball and we win that game easily.
Never mind, it will only cost £600 minimum to get in next season

**** that!!!

 

[Deleted member 9202LYK]

the last transfer window was the best chance we have in my long lifetime and we blew it because Jeff decided to be obtuse and give Adama away for ‘balance sheet reasons’.

Even a moron can see that keeping Adama would ultimately have resulted in more profit than giving him away. Unfortunately we don’t have anyone as clever as a moron at the helm.

We can’t go on like this - Jeff and Scott are living off Nuno and Jorge’s legacy and it’s degrading by the hour. Not long now until Donck is our best player.

 

[JOSWolf]

Would love to know the stats from tonights game for Trincao and Dendoncker.

 

[lostwolf]

We weren't that bad even before red but absolutely no threat.

Sa bit of a mistake for the goal but not a massive rick

Trincao made some nice runs but his final ball is woeful and overall he offers very little.

Podence created a bit first half but not much in second.

Neves barely created anything with absolutely **** loads of ball. Donk did nothing.

Semedo was very good as usual. Marcal was an idiotic selection although RAN was poor when he came on.

Saiss/Kilman looked very shaky before the red card.

Raul was atrocious most of game. Has absolutely no confidence anymore. Ball came all the way through to him and he froze and sort of chested it.

We don't move the ball quick enough in the midfield and our attackers are not good enough to link up and create. We are also a painfully slow side.

New lad looked bright when he came on. Would start him next game

I'd agree with all of this except on Raul. Thought his touch, link up, and hold up play was all really good, as good as ever, but he never threatened to score. I was in the pub with a knowledgable Spurs fan who kept complimenting him (I had to work late so couldn't make it tonight).

Our lack of threat in the box is starting to worry me. Like I say, I disagree about Raul being atrocious, but where is he (or anyone else) in the box looking like scoring? Dendonker gets in there but he's got a 50p head, Raul looks scared to shoot, Silva needs loaning out, Trincao is frankly null in terms of goal threat, and Pod does well outside the box (although sometimes you just need to hold the ball rather than play a blind flick lad) but is never going to score!

We are seriously lacking in CM, where we need a more dynamic player (Neves is absolute class at breaking up play, pinging balls around etc but not really creating much), but it's increasingly looking like we have no link between midfield and attack - it all goes wide but we're **** at doing anything with them.

We're pretty good, and it's great to be in a position where we're bemoaning missed transfer opportunities after running Arsenal pretty close. But it's SOOO frustrating!

 

[Me Babbies]

The amount of celebration from the Ars players at full time, combined with the time waisting and general Sh-housery during the game from their players felt like when a small team comes to a big team in the cup.

If traditional big 6 teams are treating us like this it shows how far we've come.

Irrespective of how frustrating tonight's result is

 

[Fenrir_]

Would love to know the stats from tonights game for Trincao and Dendoncker.

Between them they played 51 passes, below Semedo (52), Saiss (55), Kilman (70) and Neves (81)

Just a random stat, like!

 

[JOSWolf]

Between them they played 51 passes, below Semedo (52), Saiss (55), Kilman (70) and Neves (81)

Just a random stat, like!

Really? If correct that sums it up.

 

[Fenrir_]

Really? If correct that sums it up.

Shows that we had a one man midfield if nothing else

 

[WeAreTheWolvesII]

The amount of celebration from the Ars players at full time, combined with the time waisting and general Sh-housery during the game from their players felt like when a small team comes to a big team in the cup.

If traditional big 6 teams are treating us like this it shows how far we've come.

Irrespective of how frustrating tonight's result is

Those celebrations were remarkable.

They strike me as the sort who do it for Instagram. Try to look like warriors and as though they love it. Ramsdale, White and Gabriel in particular.

Yet we've seen them fold at Liverpool when they riled up the crowd and Forest & Burnley last month.

Fair play to them, it was a good win and I do think they deserved it. I usually think it's sour grapes moaning about stuff like this but yep those celebrations were mad. Better than us but got no bottle when it matters in relation to expectations for a club their size.

 

[JOSWolf]

Shows that we had a one man midfield if nothing else

Without a doubt. Dendoncker was largely a passenger and looks totally off the pace and has done for a while.

 

[Contrarian]

An exercise in futility. Doing the same thing over and over and over and over and over. Not working? Keep doing it. Red card and sudden advantage? Keep doing it, just a bit quicker. Still not working? Well... keep doing it... because... um?

Because they can't do anything else? This is still a squad built over 4 years to contain and hit on the break. We've lost the players who can hit on the break. So now we just contain. And hope for a miracle or a mistake to snatch a goal.

Heading through January we had belief, momentum, team spirit. Nowhere near perfect, but there was purpose there.

We loaned out Traore and made no effort to add something new to the team. Less a pin in the balloon and more of a kitchen knife. Pop. Momentum wiped out.

That game tonight was there for the taking, we had possession and crowd swell and Arsenal were on their ****ing knees, but we had NO way of changing the game, no guile, no options.

What a bloody waste.

Yes, pretty much agree. It is frustrating. But I can't expect anything else from those specific players out there. For something different, it's going to require different players. Surely we all know by know Trincao is never going to beat a player and smash the ball into the net? Podence does it once every visitation of Halley's comet, so scrap that idea. Neves has scored his long shot this season. Donk doesn't drive forward quickly because he can't. And so on for every player.

 

[VAR OUT]

The atmosphere at home has been poor all season considering what Bruno has achieved. We can do more , a lot more.
We are still in dreamland and should give Bruno the electric support Nuno enjoyed. He deserves it and we’re limiting our capabilities if Molineux only gets going when 1-0 down. Just an observation.

 

[Fifty Niner]

Awful performance. Slow, ponderous, no cutting edge, and balls into the box (when they finally arrived) were terrible. Did anyone in the stadium actually think we'd score? I didn't - crowd seemed bored and flat. Arsenal were poor too, although looked more dangerous around our box. Really disappointed we didn't raise our game.

If we end up doing a straight swap of Trincão for Traore then we've been robbed (based upon performances to date).

Said this a few times now, just like under Nuno, as soon as we were in touching distance of top four or five and the media bigged us up we start a poor run. Or it’s Bruno’s MOTM curse! We’ve gone dreary again sort of reflecting Bruno’s mood after the Jan window and Norwich defeat.

Biggest concern is that we are back to zero goals and not even looking close to scoring.

Oh well, start again next match.

 

[Contrarian]

Age old problem once a team sits back we struggle to break them down.

We struggle to score goals whatever the other team does! They could stand on the half way line and promise not to tackle us and Donk would turn and pass the ball back, then Neves would play a through ball to Trincao who would be muscled off it by a blade of grass. The only two things we seem able to score against are mediocre Championship teams and Villa when they are 2 up with 10 minutes to go.

Note for those who say the service to the forwards is so bad "Lewandoski wouldn't score": Trincao was played through with ball at his with clear sight of goal twice in the first half, but didn't shoot, instead opted to ... TBH I don't know what he was doing but he had no intention of shooting, that's for sure. And Lewandoski would have scored either, probably both. He wasn't the only one guilty of not shooting when it was on, too. There were enough chances from balls into the box, any top striker on his game would have made more of them. Ours never looked like getting near anything, which is not a surprise as it's been like this from the first match of the season. A top striker, on his game, and we get at least a goal from that, maybe two, despite the painfully slow buildups. Raul at pre-injury level would have scored one tonight, I reckon. COuple of times played in but just looked woefully off it, plenty of crosses, mostly bad, but for Raul back then, it only took one.

I was a bit disappointed Hwang never came on - though that may "missing man will save us syndrome" - he is still our top scorer. Admitedly not a world beater, but then neither is Chiquinho and I thought we looked a lot more "likely" once he was on. Just not being bullied off the ball continually made us look better.

 

[Ian]

This game sums up my opinion of wolves in a whole (fans, inflated expectation, jeff, etc.)

Conceding one goal against a genuine top 4 contender. Think we have a right to beat them at home despite missing hwang and neto who lets face it both offer more goals than trincao for sure and probably podence. Cant we just be happy finishing top 10? Every team around us leicester west ham think they will get top 4 but neither will.. if we finish 8th above leicester that is achievement because we are a team that should be between 8th and 12th and that is best case.. Europe? Give up! We dont have the squad, revenue, stadium or any of it.

I'm not whinging as I am happy we are not in bottom half but top 4 will never happen.. and it's not a problem. We have gone from league one to top half prem in a decade, there are massive teams Sunderland, etc that will not achieve that.

Accept what we have and stop dreaming.

What a defeatist attitude! Whats the point of playing if we think we've got no chance of winning anything and just go through the motions because this is as good as its gonna get?.

As for the verdict, same old story ... lack of goalscoring players in our team is always going to cost us, plenty of huff and puff but we dont get bodies in the box and its often a cross into a sole attacker against 2 or 3 defenders on him with our other players ball watching from 25 yards out.
Thought Neves, Semedo and Podence were the best for us...... Jimenez the worst ( the shot from the free kick and flying scissor kick sums up his current form/ frame of mind)

Chiquinho nice cameo again, Id bring him in for Trincao next game, if Fabio is worth 35m then in comparison Chiquinho must be close to 100m.

 

[Mile End Wanderer]

Sa: 7 Made a good save keep it 0-1 not much to do

Kilman: 7 probably our best player solid
Coady: 5 poor looked off the pace
Saiss: 5 tried but looked off his game too
Semedo: 6 did ok solid nothing special going forward
Marcal: 4 looked lost

Neves: 5 tried but wasn’t at it
Donk: 2 pathetic performance please get rid!!

Podence: 6 tried but got fouled a lot
Jimenez: 4 looked lost keeps coming too deep
Trincao: 6 did ok but his crossing is poor

Arsenal did a job on us, nicked the goal sat back. We wasn’t a threat until it was 11v10 and even then we couldn’t really create much. We got out fought.

Our midfield and creativity is so poor especially when Dedoncker plays. We missed Moutinho. Time to give Cundle a chance!!

 

[CelebrityWolf]

Hwang will be brought back in when fit, with Raul and Podence. Neto will jump ahead of Trincao when ready as well, just don't see the logic in the Trincao move at the moment.

 

[molineux man]

That 1 goal in 50 games could only be worth a maximum of 3 points…

It’s not that simple though is it? How do you quantify the psychological impact to the opposition when they see Traore about to come on with twenty minutes left? Do you think Arsenal would have enjoyed playing against him with ten men?

And of course he always had three men near him, freeing up space for everyone else. Losing Traore is a bigger deal than people realise.

 

[CelebrityWolf]

Neves touched the ball 101 times, Donk 45 times. That is pretty horrible isn't it. That is bordering on the days we had the worthless Dave Edwards running around aimlessly but at least he was a threat in the penalty box.

 

[Barnet Wolves]

"He's got to go for goal!" when Fabio squared it instead of shooting, that sums up the match.

Super fun game to watch, blood pressure at dangerous levels in the second half. We obviously need to be braver in front of goal. I think one fo the commentators said we're looking for the perfect goal and it rings a little true at times. In order for us to score, a lot of little things have to go perfectly to plan, it takes a lot of input to get a little bit of upfront action, the type we like.

Sitting pretty in the league right now, games in hand and we do look a force at times let's not beat around the bush and Bruno went with 2 CHs for 15 minutes of the game, which is a glimpse. We have players coming back from injury and lots to look forward to. can you imagine when Neto comes back!!

We lost to a goal today. Not ideal. This is fine.
7 Sa: odd performance, punched when he would have caught. Weird goal, looked legit but slow motion makes you wonder
6 Marcel: He was ok. Had a decent cross in the second half, didn't hit their first defender
7 Saiss: Clearly does not suffer from jet lag. Captain material.
6 Kilman: Got done in the first half a couple of times, great learning experience. So good with the ball at his feet. 4-4-2 coming up!
7 Coady: Bloody nose
7 Semedo: Did ok. He's hit a new level and is sticking to it. Can't shoot on target but is trying. More confident than 2020/1.
4 Trincao: He needs to commit. Got bounced around by some lightweight defenders. Commit or let someone else do it. **** me off.
6 Podence: He could become the engine of the team, almost a really good game for him. Everything was almost, but not good enough.
8 Neves: Engine.
4 Dendonker: A poor man's vagrant's version of a Moutinho. He feels like the odd one out of the team, every time.
5 Raul: Needs to work on his movement off the ball, a couple of time he made poor choices. Not the 'solution', currently.

Subs:
Lovely to see RAN. Chiquinho looks well up for it, fearless. Excited for him. Fabio looked nice too.

 

[Andywolf74]

I can’t recall one chance we created that didn’t come from a ball out wide. The lack of the right blend in central midfield is resulting in our approach play being very one dimensional and Raul aside, a lack of physical presence up front means the balls from out wide into the box are either cleared or miss everyone and trickle out of play. Bruno has worked wonders to have us in the top half in February but without significant investment, sadly I don’t think we have a strong enough squad to potentially cope with the demands of European football next season.

 

[SA Wolf]

Drove home from a few days away specifically for that! What an absolute ****-shower and difficult to know where to start. Not one performance was acceptable and the 1 goal margin flattered Arsenal who, up until the sending-off looked miles more threatening every time they broke. Not sure where we go from here, with Spurs, Leicester, Arsenal and Wet Sham our next 4, we could still be sitting on 34 points by the end of February.

Rating;

Sa - 5 - His mistake for the goal as when he came, he had to collect. Shame as he's been excellent this season, but this was the kind of mistake he always seems capable of.
Kilman - 5 - A nervy start and didn't really get better.
Coady - 6 - Best of the back 4. Subbed to change the system when Arsenal went a man down.
Saiss - 5 - Personally, I would have kept Toti in.
Marcal - 5 - Offered little defensively or offensively.
Semedo - 6 - Tried and often succeeded in getting forwards, but never looks like scoring.
Neves - 6 - Worked tirelessly, mostly alone in midfield.
Dendoncker - 4 - A couple of headers waaay off target, can't remember his application, otherwise.
Podence - 6 - Bit of a curate's egg. Good in parts. A lot of misplaced passes, but everything good came through him.
Jimenez - 4 - The fear was that he wouldn't return ' the same player'. Well, half a season plus suggests that's true.
Trincao - 5 - Lightweight who offers very little. I could use this remark for every match I've seen him play!

Subs;

Chiquitito - 5 - Gangly and that header!
RAN - 5 - Forgot he had come on until he put in a decent cross late on.
Silva - N/A - Had an opportunity to shoot when inside the box late on and he decided to pass. Striker's instinct - laughable.

Bruno was tearing his hair out on the sidelines long before the sending-off. Clearly the team were not doing what he expected. After the Norwich debacle, February is proving a difficult month for the January MotM and it could get a lot worse.

A word for Michael Oliver, who I thought had been lenient up until he gave two yellows and sent Martinelli off. It was a brave and imo correct decisions as I said to my wife that Martinelli should get two yellows in that situation. I've never seen that happen before, but good on the ref. Ultimately, made no difference, of course as we could still be playing now and the scoreline wouldn't have changed.

 

[Shergar]

Just watched the game back again to try and understand the Dendoncker sentiments.
So many times he was out of position running trying to play catch up after their player with the ball, that running style of his….looked like a butch lesbian chasing a handbag thief through the market.

 

[Mile End Wanderer]

Just watched the game back again to try and understand the Dendoncker sentiments.
So many times he was out of position running trying to play catch up after their player with the ball, that running style of his….looked like a butch lesbian chasing a handbag thief through the market.

The performance last night was very end days of nuno I thought. Really struggled to create much. I don’t want to keep slagging Dendoncker off but he really shouldn’t be playing in a midfield 2 he’s far too slow

 

[CelebrityWolf]

Seen a lot of posts asking why Saiss came in for Toti? Is that because Saiss should have had another rest after just coming back from AFCON? Surely nobody actually thinks Toti is better do they?

 

[Deleted member 8455jwf]

Seen a lot of posts asking why Saiss came in for Toti? Is that because Saiss should have had another rest after just coming back from AFCON? Surely nobody actually thinks Toti is better do they?

Saiss was abysmal but it's fair the senior player went back in.

 

[Mile End Wanderer]

Saiss was abysmal but it's fair the senior player went back in.

He looked knackered I was surprised he put Saiss back in. I just think the entire set up was wrong. I know we’re low on squad numbers but we have to be more adventurous the midfield was non existent

 

[CelebrityWolf]

Saiss was abysmal but it's fair the senior player went back in.

Oh yeah he was poor today for sure, no doubting that.

 

[jonesy]

can we just dump the 5-2-3 for **** sake. If we get run over a few times this year the so be it at least we are trying out the new set up.

Semedo
Kilman
Saiss
Ran

Neves
Anyone other than dendonker

Hwang
Podence
Chic/Neto

God only knows


4-2-3-1

or

4-4-2

Oh and **** off fosun !!

 

[Big Saft Kid]

The whole team looked fragile. Easily knocked off the ball, ponderously slow of thought, and playing with zero movement or tempo. You felt we wouldn't have scored in a month of Sundays even if Arsenal had had three sent off. Worrying. If FOSUN really have given up investing in the team there's only result and that is treading water, which ultimately means.... DOWN.

 

[Macman]

The whole team looked fragile. Easily knocked off the ball, ponderously slow of thought, and playing with zero movement or tempo. You felt we wouldn't have scored in a month of Sundays even if Arsenal had had three sent off. Worrying. If FOSUN really have given up investing in the team there's only result and that is treading water, which ultimately means.... DOWN.

I said this last night after the game. Bruno has worked miracles to get us top half, but with no proper investment, we are literally treading water constantly which, worryingly, means we cannot sustain our position every season.

 

[hollo]

The atmosphere at home has been poor all season considering what Bruno has achieved. We can do more , a lot more.
We are still in dreamland and should give Bruno the electric support Nuno enjoyed. He deserves it and we’re limiting our capabilities if Molineux only gets going when 1-0 down. Just an observation.

Fosun need to give him the money to bring in the players he want. Either the money for botman and sanches was there or it wasn't. No excuses support him.

 

[KBWWFC]

Did anyone in the stadium actually think we'd score?

Strangely enough I thought Sa would burst the net when he went up front for that corner.

 

[reanswolf]

What the **** does Bruno see in Donck?

Maybe the same what many fans thought when they used to argue he was responsible for a higher % win rate .

 

[DPE]

This game sums up my opinion of wolves in a whole (fans, inflated expectation, jeff, etc.)

Conceding one goal against a genuine top 4 contender. Think we have a right to beat them at home despite missing hwang and neto who lets face it both offer more goals than trincao for sure and probably podence. Cant we just be happy finishing top 10? Every team around us leicester west ham think they will get top 4 but neither will.. if we finish 8th above leicester that is achievement because we are a team that should be between 8th and 12th and that is best case.. Europe? Give up! We dont have the squad, revenue, stadium or any of it.

I'm not whinging as I am happy we are not in bottom half but top 4 will never happen.. and it's not a problem. We have gone from league one to top half prem in a decade, there are massive teams Sunderland, etc that will not achieve that.

Accept what we have and stop dreaming.

If we were playing City I would agree but they were poor. Can’t keep saying oh we are missing X and X that just does not cut it. Hwang is not that good anyway. I don’t think many believe we should win but when we are poor against a poor opponent, which they were then it stings.

 

[DPE]

That 1 goal in 50 games could only be worth a maximum of 3 points…

That’s what you believe was his contribution? Interesting.