Coventry Verdict

[Contrarian]

Hmmm..... I'm sure that Pep and Klippetty never get things wrong on occasion.... Oh, wait....

That must be why their teams never get to finals and challenge for titles!

 

[steve vena]

Injuries have killed us. Disjointed team but not much we could do. Another down side is that this game marked the end of RAN as a Wolves player, he is leaving without doubt. One of the best players we have had at the club and no doubt going to the top next season.

Fabulous player , light years ahead of people like Cucurella who went for 70 ish mill was it?
That's what we should be asking .

 

[Wolfman jack]

Coventry absolutely deserved their win. Stuck to a gameplan that was attacking and effective, no parking the bus or time wasting (aside from taking the sting out of the game in the first 10 minutes, which was intelligent). They grew into it, and didn't crumble when they went 2-1 down.

Blaming the handball goal is just hand-wringing, Semedo could have seen red, it evens out.

Ait-Nouri was excellent, Sa performed well, Semedo was great in the first half. But the majority of players shrank on the occasion. Love Gomes but he was as loose as a salmon in a pipe, rarely where he needed to be; Doyle was anonymous; Lemina was shocking, his worst performance in a Wolves shirt, but that's what you get when you play your best central midfielder on the left wing for no reason. Our midfield was made of pasta. And Kilman, well, ****ing hell. Leaf in the wind, caught staring at the ball in horror like it was a severed head time and again, just shrivelled and disappeared into himself, passive to the point of catatonia.

O'Neil got this horribly, hopelessly wrong, he experimented and fudged and second guessed at the worst possible time. Every manager or player who is there to take the plaudits when things go well must also be held up like dirty linen when it goes so spectacularly wrong, and it did today.

No team, of any level, should lose a game 3-2 when 2-1 ahead after 95 minutes, especially a PL team against a Championship team, especially in a knockout game. Leaves a bitter taste after what's been an excellent few months, and this will take a while to digest.

Largely agree except Doyle was superb imho

 

[loppers86]

Re your last sentence that didn't end well for Nuno, Lage, JL.....

GON will have this missed opportunity etched in his mind.

He’ll be getting hints from his West Ham mates that he went there he will be backed…

 

[Sammy Chungs Tracksuit]

All this talk of VAR screwing us over due to this handball costing us the game, let's not forget VAR could of quite easily got Semedo sent off for us which it didn't imagine us with 10 in that game?

Its wrong to delay the play that long for VAR. Players were getting cold through standing around and could easily have picked up an injury caused by the VAR delay.

And we all know that goal had been for Coventry v Liverpool today then the goal would not have stood and thats another major issue with VAR, the "Checking Club Badge" step. All in all Coventry deserved their win though and no doubt that will be a game Coventry fans talk about for decades.

 

[DanishWolf]

XG against was 4 24 which is by far highest this season.
We talk about lack of strikers but the defence was all over the place. Absolutely disastrous..

 

[JadeWolf]

Was it handball?

 

[Sammy Chungs Tracksuit]

I did say to the lad who sits next to me today when the 3rd went in that at least we can now focus on just missing out on Europe…

I'd expect that dream to fade away quite quickly now. Let s see how we perform at Villa. Hopefully GON will be able to avoid the likes of last seasons end of season debacle at Arsenal away and Brighton away.

 

[Royal wolf]

Was it handball?

I thought so. Definitely looked below his shoulder

 

[WeAreTheWolvesII]

Was it handball?

Yes

 

[WolfLing]

Fabulous player , light years ahead of people like Cucurella who went for 70 ish mill was it?
That's what we should be asking .

Cucurella was sold for that much after having a season where he looked like the best left back in the league.

He was incredible against us that season for Brighton when they beat us 4-0 at Molineux.

Ait Nouri is getting to that level at the moment. But I don’t think his future will be as a fullback.

 

[Contrarian]

Well done Coventry. We were ****, especially Kilman and S.Bueno. Also Lemina picked the wrong game to have a bad un. Positives - great to see RAN and H. Bueno score. I do think the latter has been unlucky not to feature in more games. But congrats to Cov. They deserved that win. No doubt about that.

I've always liked Kilman, but have had doubts since he became captain. Even more so today. These kind of games, cup ties when lower level opposition are giving it 110% as you'd expect, it needs some fire and passion in return. And I think we lacked that and tend to when Dawson isnt' around and Lemina is having an off game. At 2-1, with 10 minutes left, cup tie with Wembley as the reward, you know it's going to be blood'n'thunder all hands on the pumps, but we dropped back into lethargy again. Looked like a team that thought it had done enough, so could freewheel to the end, maybe stroll another goal to slap a bit of gloss on. And other "not really up for the fight" metaphors.

Kilman is a decent centre half, but I don't think he's the captain we needed today. And not just today, but too many matches, we seem to lack some spark until going behind. Our game management when a goal up in the final few minutes is suspect in general, too. Conceding a lot of late goals.

 

[Contrarian]

Was it handball?

Depends if it's at Old Trafford or Anfield or not.

 

[WeAreTheWolvesII]

Why is Boubacar Traore hardly used?

Seems a shame. I think he's a good player and has qualities that we need. When Lemina is so off it, and Doyle/Gomes ineffective, surely he has a role to play?

Seems his face doesn't fit with O'Neil.

 

[Incognito]

From GON today:

"I knew it would be tough as it was. We have one fit senior attacker fit at the club which is Pablo Sarabia, we used Rayan and we used Mario higher but then we lose them lower."

He is a ****ed as many of us at Fosun I’m sure, but is professional enough not to show it.

@GON- then play Lemina in his usual position and play a forward, even an inexperienced one, as a forward! It's simple really.

 

[SmiffyWolf]

The problem with the handball is the on field ref has given the goal so needed convulsive evidence to overrule it . I think it might of been handball but all in all we were poor and didn't deserve to win it .

You make your own luck and today we were ****e

 

[NewarkWolf]

Some things in life happen! Congratulations to Coventry more fight and desire can't complain with that

It was their cup final. It wasn’t ours by any stretch of the imagination and it showed

 

[sedgwolf1980]

We are still paying the tab from that meal Jeff had at the mount with Silva and his entourage.

Most costly meal in Wolverhampton history.

 

[Contrarian]

Feel sorry for Hugo Bueno as he did well and his excellent composed finish didn't count for anything in the end.

 

[Contrarian]

It was their cup final. It wasn’t ours by any stretch of the imagination and it showed

Yes, it did look like that right from kick off . We never even turned up until they scored. But I question our attitude if that is the case. It should have been a cup final for us, too.

 

[Surrey Wolf]

The better team won

 

[UEAwolf]

At one point, our forward 3 was Doc,Chiwome and Sarabia.

Unacceptable really and the impact of our financial mis-management has cost us dearly in such a crucial/winnable game.

True, but why be wedded to that system. A 4-4-1-1 could have worked.

 

[watts]

What I can’t understand is, why we can’t defend for the closing minutes in games, yes we were poor today but we were 2 mins from winning, plus why didn’t GON didn’t use some more subs to disrupt the game and why oh why doesn’t Noah Lemina get a run out,

 

[Milijas]

This is on you Fosun if you had got your act together we'd still be in the cup.

How so?

 

[Bryce]

Was it handball?

Yes probs
But it’s wolves and skelator stott on VaR so not ruled out

 

[Northampton_wolf]

Probably hand ball but probably a red for semedo so equaled out. Some may say harsh but high foot and he did hit him in the face seen less given

 

[colincameron]

XG against was 4 24 which is by far highest this season.
We talk about lack of strikers but the defence was all over the place. Absolutely disastrous..

Yup and Coventry's xg versus Maidenstone?

2.47

Staggering. Truly staggering.

How were we ever going to win that game?

The fact that we *NEARLY* did was the miracle here not Cov's two at the death.

We go again. But seriously, what on Earth was that?

 

[Northampton_wolf]

If noha is on the bench why not use him, Hugo should have come on before doc but hey I see the idea

But we want pace and an option in attack use the rapid winger? Surely

 

[WickedWolfie]

Yes probs
But it’s wolves and skelator stott on VaR so not ruled out

The assistant VAR was Atwell... It gets better and better....

 

[Johnny5]

GON hasn’t got any options to change some of the ****, soft ass ****ers who just put in a gutless ‘performance’ against lower league opposition. Really was so very poor and Kilman is NOT a captain in any sense - doesn’t shout, gesture and position like Coady did, but doesn’t lead by example either.

Coventry absolutely deserved that victory - never gave up and saw the weaknesses in our back line. Created loads of chances and looked like they’d got a clue.

Grow up mate

 

[Southdownswolf]

Isn't it even worse now v vile as he's suspended.

He's not suspended

 

[Johnny5]

I had a feeling about this game all week but didn’t expect it to be so terrible. The panic and indecisiveness spread through the midfield and defence like an absolute cancer and nobody was there to stand up and be counted.

Team was wrong from the start and looked like shoehorning our best players into the starting 11 in preference of balance.

I’m probably not in the mood for a balanced opinion but it really feels like season over at the moment, if we don’t get injuries back asap then I expect us to fall apart at the seams and finish mid table.

I’m so down right now.

I had too but intrigued to see how much different or balanced you could make that team?

 

[Willywolf]

Grow up mate

Granted it was a comment born of disappointment, frustration and passion. However, there is no denying some of these players absolutely coasted to a really poor performance and defeat. The point I was making more is that GON had/has no real options to change things.

 

[JOSWolf]

XG against was 4 24 which is by far highest this season.
We talk about lack of strikers but the defence was all over the place. Absolutely disastrous..

Yep. Our defence was an embarrassment today. ONeil should our defence that game again. Non league sides would have scored against us today. Defend like that at Vile and they will destroy us.

 

[Johnny5]

Granted it was a comment born of disappointment, frustration and passion. However, there is no denying some of these players absolutely coasted to a really poor performance and defeat. The point I was making more is that GON had/has no real options to change things.

Sorry for childish response and I think we agree.
Just ****es me off how this place turns on one performance after what overall has been a far better season than expected.

Ultimately this is on Shi etc for the lack of addressing the striker issue.

 

[JOSWolf]

But if Kilman wasn't our captain, most (including me, probably) would give it Lemina.

He was arguably worse and culpable in stoppage time.

Santi Bueno was abysmal today. They targeted him and bullied him.

I thought Semedo, Bueno and Kilman were atrocious defensively. Lost count of the amount of times Semedo let Bidwell get past him and then OHare to cross it in for Coventry winner.

 

[Perton Wolf]

Yep. Our defence was an embarrassment today. ONeil should our defence that game again. Non league sides would have scored against us today. Defend like that at Vile and they will destroy us.

Kilman needs ****ing off, sick of his passive and cowardly displays.

 

[sedgwolf1980]

In fairness to the defence, as bad as they were, you defend from the front. When the opposition don’t have to worry about your frontline whatsoever, it changes the whole dynamic of the match. We basically had a team full of midfielders, and it showed.

 

[WickedWolfie]

In fairness to the defence, as bad as they were, you defend from the front. When the opposition don’t have to worry about your frontline whatsoever, it changes the whole dynamic of the match. We basically had a team full of midfielders, and it showed.

We ended the game with a team full of fullbacks/wingbacks... At least four, two of them up front!

 

[Oh When the Wolves]

In fairness to the defence, as bad as they were, you defend from the front. When the opposition don’t have to worry about your frontline whatsoever, it changes the whole dynamic of the match. We basically had a team full of midfielders, and it showed.

All Lemina has to do is kick the ball against their player and win a throw with 2 minutes to play

God knows what he was doing