Brentford verdict

[WickedWolfie]

Even without Cunha we were the better side offensively but gave 2 goals away. Neto unlucky to hit the post and Dawson unlucky to be fractionally offside, the linesman didn't flag.
Ait Nouri was brilliant today and Gomes worked hard as they all did but unfortunately we got done making silly mistakes under the press. Sa did make a few good stops in amongst the costly errors. Bellegarde looks a little lost, shame I thought he looked great in France, maybe he just doesn't fit with what Gary is asking him to do.
We have done much better without Hwang than I expected but will be happy to see him return when he is fully fit.

That first para is, to put it politely, optimistic. Brentford could have been three or four goals ahead in the first 30 minutes.

 

[Tired&Emotional]

It's a poor result in a game in which we played into the hands of a limited opponent.

Disappointing but not the end of the world.

Many (if not all of us) would say we are in a good position compared to where we expected to be in August.

However, we lose a game and the "told you so", negative posters are out again.

Fortunately, just like in the pub, ignoring them is an option; let them whinge to themselves as we (generally) enjoy an attacking, committed Wolves team.

 

[wolfslair]

Oh so now I see your logic. You blame Jeff for things you think are wrong, but give credit to other people, when things go right.

When GON is over achieving this season, yes!

He hasn’t got the options he needs and said he needed up top! We went into this season with a much weaker squad in depth and quality than what finished last season.

Sometimes other people perform better than what they should despite the lack of foundation or access to adequate tools given to them by management

 

[Stourport wolf]

Is it though? Because we sent two well played players out on loan and a few others and we couldn’t bring in ANY central forwards……. Even loans!

I wouldn’t call that finances fixed…..

You seem to miss context out of your reasoning. Most teams are in the same boat as Wolves with finances.

 

[wolfslair]

You seem to miss context out of your reasoning. Most teams are in the same boat as Wolves with finances.

Not to the same extent we were in the summer!

Only Everton and Forest failed, no one else has done.

Also no one else needed or held such an aggressive sale as we did!

 

[WickedWolfie]

Not to the same extent we were in the summer!

Only Everton and Forest failed, no one else has done.

Also no one else needed or held such an aggressive sale as we did!

I am not Shi's greatest fan but l would likely qualify your last sentence with "yet"....

 

[wolfslair]

I am not Shi's greatest fan but l would likely qualify your last sentence with "yet"....

You recon anyone else will sell as many and need to raise the same revenue before the spend a penny?

We spent under £30m this year.

Sold over £100m worth of players.

And we didn’t spend a penny till Nunes was sold!!!!

Before that it was doc on a freebie!

 

[Wolves Bard]

We have played Brentford 4 times and lost once. We were safe from relegation in January and we are doing better than many thought.
We and many other teams have had their spending curtailed by FFP. We lost today, that is part of football, but in general we are doing well
With respect, losing today doesn't make anyone right or wrong. It is part of football. I don't understand how you can come to a conclusion that people got it wrong, because we lost a match 10 days after the transfer window closed. We schooled Chelsea and lost against a boring Brenford after knocking them out of the cup and beating them 1-4 at their place. We are having a decent season and have played some good football and scored more goals than we often do. Sometimes you lose in football, but it happens to most teams and today it happened to us, but it doesn't define anything.

Well said.

 

[wolfslair]

I am not Shi's greatest fan but l would likely qualify your last sentence with "yet"....

Last summer happened….. if they didn’t do it before that window closed then it can’t happen lol

As I meant, last summer no one else did what we did……

 

[inaglasshouse]

That first para is, to put it politely, optimistic. Brentford could have been three or four goals ahead in the first 30 minutes.

Yet as soon as they did score they hardly had a sniff because that's their negative **** housing game plan, they dont actually back themselves to get those goals so they go cynical. We were fractionally unlucky not to equalise and had them under pressure until another mistake allowed them the win.

 

[Stourport wolf]

Not to the same extent we were in the summer!

Only Everton and Forest failed, no one else has done.

Also no one else needed or held such an aggressive sale as we did!

So we didn't fail and we are doing better than most people thought we would and many people say that they are ilusionef with this team.
Oh and we lost a football match today.
In the General scheme of things, we are doing fine.

 

[Jefe]

We've scored 20 goals in 8 games kind sir. Me feeleth you way off the math. Or meth

You'd have to dabble in the blue sky to not accept we are light on centre forward options. Gary wanted a number 9 precisely for this situation when we lost the most suitable player to injury, and he didn't get one. He's played Neto and now Bellegarde there and who knows when Hwang and Cunha will return.

 

[wolfslair]

So we didn't fail and we are doing better than most people thought we would and many people say that they are ilusionef with this team.
Oh and we lost a football match today.
In the General scheme of things, we are doing fine.

We needed drastic rash and kneejerk major surgery to not fail something he had ample time to plan for that he signed up for himself…..

To need such drastic emergency and last ditch action to avoid penalties that you knew all about doesn’t suggest a well run business to me!

He did well to right the mistakes, but his mismanagement caused the issues with JL
And the transfer narrative and change was repeated for GON in Jan…..

We aren’t a well run club financially at all!

Well run clubs don’t need urgent and mass fire sales! Teams will sell players, but let’s compare net spends of others needing to sell to buy this summer to what we did next season before claiming we are well run by him financially

 

[Stourport wolf]

When GON is over achieving this season, yes!

He hasn’t got the options he needs and said he needed up top! We went into this season with a much weaker squad in depth and quality than what finished last season.

Sometimes other people perform better than what they should despite the lack of foundation or access to adequate tools given to them by management

He definitely is over achieving , to what you thought about him earlier in the season.

"We are literally employing the work experience boy to do the job of a top class manager."

 

[WeAreTheWolvesII]

Unfortunately due to Cunha’s injury this can all now be judged on results over a relatively lengthy period.

If we drop down the Premier League table and go out of the FA Cup, Jeff should rightly be criticised for the state he left the squad in.

If the team cope without Cunha and whoever else, stay competitive in the league and go further in the FA Cup, or at least make a game of it, then Jeff was right and the squad was strong enough.

Nobody wanted to be in this situation, and everyone hopes we will win. But the next month or so could make or break our season and they will be judged on the results.

 

[SingYourHeartsOut]

Honestly I wanted a 9 in the summer and in January, we didn't have the money to get one. We have had one all season, Cunha wasn't remotely playing as a 9 today and we were crap with him on the pitch anyway. He felt a slight hamstring apparently, he'll probably be OK in a couple of weeks at most. Hwang got a calf knock, hopefully he'll be OK for next week.

There's some proper sky falling in stuff on here

 

[Stourport wolf]

Unfortunately due to Cunha’s injury this can all now be judged on results over a relatively lengthy period.

If we drop down the Premier League table and go out of the FA Cup, Jeff should rightly be criticised for the state he left the squad in.

If the team cope without Cunha and whoever else, stay competitive in the league and go further in the FA Cup, or at least make a game of it, then Jeff was right and the squad was strong enough.

Nobody wanted to be in this situation, and everyone hopes we will win. But the next month or so could make or break our season and they will be judged on the results.

I will look at the season as a whole. And I am quite happy with the situation where we are and how we are playing.

 

[Perton Wolf]

Except for when we wi, which recently has been more often

No, it's been crap then too.

 

[goldeneyed]

It's not complicated. we have not had a decent No.9 for three years to help focus attacks and add goals.

Yes the recent goal rush has been great till yesterday but it has papered over the massive lack of depth up front , not only striker- wise but on the wing. Even wee Brentford have, beyond Toney and Maupay,, Wissa and M'Buemo in their squad as good up front options, albeit the latter is injured. Toney showed yesterday everything we are missing.

With a proper CF we would be a good nine points or more better off this season imv. In fact we need two strikers in as Fraser will be off on loan this summer. Hwang has done well but he is not an out and out striker imv and nor is the brilliant Cunha. If he is out for some time we will struggle up front. Surprise, surprise forward gets injured.....and the back up is....??. I don't care what anyone says, letting
Sasa/Silva go without a replacement in place was barmy and if Neto gets injured also at some point as well it will be hard to see where the goals will come from.
Feel sorry for Bellegarde who has to be played ridiculously out of position to try and plug the massive gap. Same goes for Fraser who, like Fabio when Jimenez was injured, is being asked to do far too much as an 18 year old learning his trade.

We have ****ed up our financials due to two disastrous purchases in Fabio and Guedes and if we lose any of Hwang, Cunha or Neto we will pay the price in lost points.. Gary has done wonders with a thin squad and we have been pretty lucky on injuries compared to many clubs. But that luck won't hold forever. We have just lost two home games in a row and face taking on Spurs away without Cunha.
It's hard not to feel that this will become another season of lost opportunity to push on as a club in the way Villa have done for instance.

 

[SA Wolf]

Tried to watch the match on a stream that stopped and buffered throughout as Supersport thought Luton Vs Sheff and Flum Vs Bournemouth would be more appealing to its viewers. They were right!
The bits I could watch were horrific first half and though we huffed and puffed from the start of the second half, we never really looked like scoring. I gave up watching when Brentford scored their second. What I could make out from Wolves was a very inconsistent side with little or no back-up quality when changes were needed.
Not one player rose to the heights they managed against Chelsea and while you might expect this inconsistency from a side in mid-table, it frustrates the hell out of me, knowing that they are better than they often show.
We won't go down (probably), but all this bull-**** talk of Europe, even the Mickey Mouse European comps is pie-in-the-sky. What we will see is more inconsistency between now and the end of the season, with Wolves exciting us one week and disappointing us the next.

 

[QB Wolf]

Last summer happened….. if they didn’t do it before that window closed then it can’t happen lol

As I meant, last summer no one else did what we did……

Because no one did what we did in Jan ‘23, we gambled to stay up and then had to balance the books.

 

[Big Saft Kid]

We have played Brentford 4 times and lost once. We were safe from relegation in January and we are doing better than many thought.
We and many other teams have had their spending curtailed by FFP. We lost today, that is part of football, but in general we are doing well
With respect, losing today doesn't make anyone right or wrong. It is part of football. I don't understand how you can come to a conclusion that people got it wrong, because we lost a match 10 days after the transfer window closed. We schooled Chelsea and lost against a boring Brenford after knocking them out of the cup and beating them 1-4 at their place. We are having a decent season and have played some good football and scored more goals than we often do. Sometimes you lose in football, but it happens to most teams and today it happened to us, but it doesn't define anything.

Very true and well put. 'Define' as in 'define our season' is the latest trendy phrase, joining other meaningless *******s like 'iconic'.

 

[Norway Wolves]

Poor all round today and in my opinion only Sarabia deserves more than 5/10. We weren’t great with Cunha on the pitch but bringing on Bellegarde was utterly futile. He didn’t replace Cunha in any way shape or form and without wanting to get on his back I’m struggling to see what he offers to us? We got what we deserved but a word for VAR which had it not been in operation May have seen us mount a fight back. Whatever happened to the ‘clear and obvious’ errors it was supposedly introduced for? Was the linesman not spotting Dawsons shoelace offside a clear and obvious error? I hate it with a passion.

Clear snd obvious doesn’t apply fir offside situations.

 

[Willywolf]

I didn’t think we were that bad yesterday tbh. Some sloppiness, some individual errors and poor performances (eg. Dawson uncharacteristically poor and at fault for both goals, Bellegarde still settling but being asked to do something he’s not meant for) but there was still real attacking intent.

The sloppiness is understandable imo given how many games they’ve played in the last 2 weeks. I know some will point to the small squad being a reason for it, but we’ve got what we’ve got, so let’s show patience and tolerance - particularly as we avoided a ten point ffp penalty.

We can’t win them all and as some have said already, we played right into Brentford’s hands. It’s the wolves way atm - play the top teams and get something against expectations, but come up against limited opponents and we become charity fc.
Not the end of the world - we learn from it and move on.

 

[Henry Palfrey]

Two excellent saves to keep us init in a very poor first 20 mins???????

Fair enough. Spur of the moment comment.

 

[wolfslair]

He definitely is over achieving , to what you thought about him earlier in the season.

"We are literally employing the work experience boy to do the job of a top class manager."

Yup, very rude, harsh words and disrespectful words I cannot take back but have apologised for…..

My frustrations elsewhere, placed on the guy who didn’t deserve it…..

Enough said really

 

[wolfgar]

Random observations from yesterday

Sa needs replacing 100% for me. I’m finding watching him incredibly frustrating. Looks capable of producing a worldie or dropping an absolute ******* at any moment. His kicking is truly awful. Just gives me no confidence at all, and surely I can’t be alone?

I very much preferred the Bellagarde we signed back in Aug who debuted against Liverpool to this current one I’m watching. Being brutal, I think playing him all over the shop week after week really seems to have damaged him. I’ve zero anticipation whatsoever when the bloke gets the ball at the moment. He’s either passing it backwards or losing it.

Fraser should be out on loan. Its pretty poor that we find ourselves in a position where he’s pretty much our only actual attacking option from the bench? If Cunhas injury is a bad one, and god forbid, there are any issues with either Hwang or Neto, you could really see us struggling for goals. Given that we are hardly running a tight ship at the back, we might then find our run in to be a very long one? Would be really sad if this season were to peter out?

New GK, CB and CF needed in the Summer. There can be no fannying about, even if we must wait till after June.

 

[Wolf in the sun]

i hate Brentford and Toney....end of post

 

[Lisas Husband]

When he had more striking options in the squad by any chance?

Work it out. How many games did Hwang miss while we were scoring those goals?

 

[Lisas Husband]

You'd have to dabble in the blue sky to not accept we are light on centre forward options. Gary wanted a number 9 precisely for this situation when we lost the most suitable player to injury, and he didn't get one. He's played Neto and now Bellegarde there and who knows when Hwang and Cunha will return.

Definitely light there, agreed.

 

[Perton Wolf]

I didn’t think we were that bad yesterday tbh. Some sloppiness, some individual errors and poor performances (eg. Dawson uncharacteristically poor and at fault for both goals, Bellegarde still settling but being asked to do something he’s not meant for) but there was still real attacking intent.

The sloppiness is understandable imo given how many games they’ve played in the last 2 weeks. I know some will point to the small squad being a reason for it, but we’ve got what we’ve got, so let’s show patience and tolerance - particularly as we avoided a ten point ffp penalty.

We can’t win them all and as some have said already, we played right into Brentford’s hands. It’s the wolves way atm - play the top teams and get something against expectations, but come up against limited opponents and we become charity fc.
Not the end of the world - we learn from it and move on.

We were really poor, even GON said we were in a matter of words, and he's usually quite positive.

As said, can't play well every week but let's not dress that performance up for anything else than it was - we were crap.

 

[Perton Wolf]

Yup, very rude, harsh words and disrespectful words I cannot take back but have apologised for…..

My frustrations elsewhere, placed on the guy who didn’t deserve it…..

Enough said really

My only gripe with GON is the Bellegarde/CF stuff, you can't really knock him too much for a performance like yesterday. Picked his strongest side, the players just didn't perform. Midfield was second to everything, defence and GK played us into trouble multiple times, and with Cunha out, it was too easy to double Neto and stifle us.

Also, really think CB is an issue for us which will need to be addressed in the Summer. Dawson is aging, Toti has done OK but is up and down, and the interest in Kilman would tempt me to sell for the figures quoted in the press. We've conceded too many goals recently.

 

[Mile End Wanderer]

Yup, very rude, harsh words and disrespectful words I cannot take back but have apologised for…..

My frustrations elsewhere, placed on the guy who didn’t deserve it…..

Enough said really

This loss won’t define our season. Clear indication on who we need to upgrade on. We lost the midfield they had the extra man. Tactically we was out thought.

 

[wv3wulf]

We didn't perform and everything we tried didn't work so just putting it down to one of those days but I'm one of those fans that realistically thought Europe was a step to far and happy that we will be in the Premier league next season hopefully ffp free and GON can show us what he can do with a top number 9.
I must admit I was scratching my head when although the game was probably lost GON put Docherty on at lwb, moved RAN into a back 3 even though he was getting at their rb time and time again and don't blame Hugo Beuno for storming down the tunnel when that change was made.
Cuhna will be a massive massive loss if we don't get him back quickly and one more point ....
How do people watch Brenford every week?
With Toney leaving hopefully next season will be the last we ever see of them.

 

[JonahWolf]

One of those days to forget. Hate long journeys home after defeats, but I did have a bad feeling about today. We're a middle table team so we're inconsistent, just like all the other mid table teams. After a great performance last week though it's very disappointing.

Summed up perfectly by GON:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1756368663790195114

That’s a pretty fair assessment.
I was really angry first half, but can’t fault the effort in the second. Was always going to be a struggle to create anything with the available options.
Ugh.

 

[JonahWolf]

Tbf RAN’s crosses rarely go to our players. I said in the match comms that we are a much better team with him in and his footwork is brilliant, however his final ball and decision making in the final third is pretty awful 9 times out of 10.

At least twice he pulled off ridiculous pieces of skill, escaping from impossible situations with his silken dribbling…then gave it away, blazed that cross/shot into nowhere.
He sorts that out, he’s in the running for worlds best LB. Until then, he’s playing for us.

 

[Premier Quality]

Yup, very rude, harsh words and disrespectful words I cannot take back but have apologised for…..

My frustrations elsewhere, placed on the guy who didn’t deserve it…..

Enough said really

So you’ve moved on to the next person to hate - do you have to have someone to belittle at all times?

 

[lobodelsur]

Tbf RAN’s crosses rarely go to our players. I said in the match comms that we are a much better team with him in and his footwork is brilliant, however his final ball and decision making in the final third is pretty awful 9 times out of 10.

I love watching RAN play but your analysis is spot-on.

 

[SquaddieWolf]

My only positive is that I don't know any Brentford fans so don't have to worry about going into work

 

[maws]

I’ve not read the rest of this thread, so this is my own take on it

We were poor first half but still managed to create, we never used to under JL BL when we were poor. Second half we played some great stuff but the lack of a number nine is killing us, put Toney in our team we win that game. Neto put a ball right across the 6 yard box, no one had the instinct to be there

We will finish 10/14th and we will throw in poor halves like yesterday it’s just what it is, no point in over reacting, the board now need to get the number 9 most of us know we need, yet some told us we didn’t.

First goal though, 2 mistakes, first Semedo did brilliant to cover but then slices for a corner when Sa could’ve took it, love to know if Sa called, or Semedo didn’t get a call. Then the delivery from corner is keepers all day long. Sa made 2 great saves but was culpable for both goals