Dendonker going?

[Mugwump]

Who's head will roll exactly?

Gestifute's? Shi's? Saint Nuno?
The only thing rolling would be my eyes at the sad and grudging acceptance of an inconvenient truth. Fosun bought wolves as part of business, and there is more money to be made in player trading, TV, and merchandise BS than the actual football and supporters.

Of course, none of this is going to happen, they're all rumours by jealous other clubs and their nasty fans, and kumbaya will always be the best song ever.

Yep, all of them.

 

[BlahBlah]

One of my issues with Nuno is the fact he seems allergic to bringing substitutes on before the 65th minute, unless there’s an injury, never understood it

There's two things here, tactics and performance.
Nuno has a system, and sometimes that means retaining faith in the expectation that it will start to bear fruit at the end of a game.
It's usually the attackers that get swapped around, occasionally a midfielder, rarely a defender.
Was it only last season where we were the strongest team in the league over the last 15 minutes?

Even though we've had very few dreadful matches, we've also had games where we have had scant ball possession for the first 45 minutes, become progressively stronger as a team, and then overpowered teams in the last quarter and looked a very strong outfit far more in control at the end of a game, than we were at the beginning.
And we've done this against City, Man U, Chelsea, Arsenal, Tottenham, Leciester. Liverpool are the only one we haven't cracked?

It's pretty obvious that a lot of Wolves' strategy revolves around the sports science and the use of sensors to know when a player's alertness and performance levels are dropping, and that is obviously around 60-69 minutes.
If we're chasing a game, that's when you make changes to make a difference. If we're winning, we can leave them out there longer because the risk of losing is less, and make subs at the very end to waste time and see the game out.

 

[Axle]

Have we sold him yet?

 

[Deleted member 5635]

There's two things here, tactics and performance.
Nuno has a system, and sometimes that means retaining faith in the expectation that it will start to bear fruit at the end of a game.
It's usually the attackers that get swapped around, occasionally a midfielder, rarely a defender.
Was it only last season where we were the strongest team in the league over the last 15 minutes?

Even though we've had very few dreadful matches, we've also had games where we have had scant ball possession for the first 45 minutes, become progressively stronger as a team, and then overpowered teams in the last quarter and looked a very strong outfit far more in control at the end of a game, than we were at the beginning.
And we've done this against City, Man U, Chelsea, Arsenal, Tottenham, Leciester. Liverpool are the only one we haven't cracked?

It's pretty obvious that a lot of Wolves' strategy revolves around the sports science and the use of sensors to know when a player's alertness and performance levels are dropping, and that is obviously around 60-69 minutes.
If we're chasing a game, that's when you make changes to make a difference. If we're winning, we can leave them out there longer because the risk of losing is less, and make subs at the very end to waste time and see the game out.

Let’s face it that might be our tactic but if your a so called lower placed team playing us, all you do is let us have the ball and sit deep and don’t allow an out ball to our wingbacks as the midfield won’t push forward.

 

[BlahBlah]

I can’t help but feel the Fabio Silva deal is essentially us ‘loaning’ €35m to Porto at a time they needed a cash injection... Time will tell.

Maybe that was the IOU for the Neves deal, which was underpriced for Porto?
That is the system is it not? Leverage your financial cap limits and project them into the future if you can. Buying and selling clubs can agree whatever fee they like for individuals, the big picture is the overall trading figure for the books and next years accounts.

If you're at your cap you need to sell a player. This actually is the complaint about the system that Mendes employs, in that when clubs go down this route they are absolutely forced to trade, both ways.
Some players you get for far less than they're "worth", some you "overpay" for...the overall intention is to balance the books for the entire business.

Wolflings posts about player contract lengths is pretty valid, you can use this to predict who are the players who must be traded to add numbers to the accounts.

 

[NewarkWolf]

Have we sold him yet?

No, cos he's not going

 

[BlahBlah]

Let’s face it that might be our tactic but if your a so called lower placed team playing us, all you do is let us have the ball and sit deep and don’t allow an out ball to our wingbacks as the midfield won’t push forward.

So that's probably the reason we need to change tactics as we evolve the squad. Better players, more options, more ball possession to apply pressure.
When teams respect you more, playing on the break doesn't work as well, expecially at home, when they sit back.
How we are treated now by opponents is very very different to how they lined up against us 2 seasons ago. They are really thinking about us, and all tactics have a shelf life of a few seasons before you get worked out.

 

[Deleted member 5635]

So that's probably the reason we need to change tactics as we evolve the squad. Better players, more options, more ball possession to apply pressure.
When teams respect you more, playing on the break doesn't work as well, expecially at home, when they sit back.
How we are treated now by opponents is very very different to how they lined up against us 2 seasons ago. They are really thinking about us, and all tactics have a shelf life of a few seasons before you get worked out.

We seem to be gambling on these better players being ready in about 3-4 years time though.

 

[Contrarian]

Was it only last season where we were the strongest team in the league over the last 15 minutes?

Even though we've had very few dreadful matches, we've also had games where we have had scant ball possession for the first 45 minutes, become progressively stronger as a team, and then overpowered teams in the last quarter and looked a very strong outfit far more in control at the end of a game, than we were at the beginning.
And we've done this against City, Man U, Chelsea, Arsenal, Tottenham, Leciester. Liverpool are the only one we haven't cracked?

That's right, that's how we *used* to be. We haven't done anything like this Spurs on March 1st, 7 months ago, though.

Something has changed since then. We used to be the team famous for ending matches strong and getting goals in the last 10 minutes. Haven't we now let in a goal in the last 5 minutes in 8 of our last 12 matches or something? Another sign that something has changed. Physical, mental or both, I don't know why but we seem to be noticeably below the levels we were performing at for most of the past 3 years. I just hope we beat Fulham 5-0 or something, to put the worries to rest!

 

[BlahBlah]

That's right, that's how we *used* to be. We haven't done anything like this Spurs on March 1st, 7 months ago, though.

Something has changed since then. We used to be the team famous for ending matches strong and getting goals in the last 10 minutes. Haven't we now let in a goal in the last 5 minutes in 8 of our last 12 matches or something? Another sign that something has changed. Physical, mental or both, I don't know why but we seem to be noticeably below the levels we were performing at for most of the past 3 years. I just hope we beat Fulham 5-0 or something, to put the worries to rest!

I think the mental and physical toll is not understood by anybody yet, nobody has ever been in this situation before.
We are a special case with a mammoth season ended with a disappointment, hardly a break, no pre-season, and a need to transition players into a team that's evolving under a public health emergency when people's lives have been wrecked.
It's not a surprise to see weird happenings.

The Spurs match was 7 months ago, but in that 7 months our world has changed in ways that were impossible to imagine.
And if it's also true that Nuno decided to sell Jota well before this season started, maybe that Spurs match was the last time it worked, and the Seville defeat, and the disappointing manner of it with a huge quality gulf in pure football terms, was the high water mark that convinced Nuno that the ceiling had been reached with this squad and tactics. We then blew Europe with a weak finish to the season, not helped by VAR.

It's difficult. Did they used to call it 3rd season syndrome? You've made your mark, established yourself in the league, you're banking more money but you're also paying a lot more out...and you can feel inertia coming on. You've reached your peak with performance and tactics, players are due to be moved on.
Now what do you do?
Do you try and establish yourself in the top 6, which needs a whole new level of investment, changed tactics and a need to dominate games to get higher. Transition is not easy, and the stakes are higher.
It's almost like starting again because breaking into the top 6 is a different level altogether.....you will not do it with a squad of 18 players. Taking a squad to 23 might mean 12 in and 7 out, rather than just adding 5 to what you've already got. Big risks involved.
Maybe it will take a season for this team to actually look good, and there will need to be more transfers both ways.

 

[Movementz]

The day he signed there was general euphoria and disbelief he'd signed, how soon attitudes change.

Think you’ve misunderstood my sentiment. I’m by no means knocking the signing, far from it... I hope he’s an absolutely cracking player for us. I’m just hypothesising that all may not be quite as it seems, financially speaking with this signing. Especially as Porto are in so-called financial trouble, and we just readily come to the rescue. Again. That’s all.

 

[WolfClaw]

The day he signed there was general euphoria and disbelief he'd signed, how soon attitudes change.

The biggest disbelief was related to the price paid for a relatively unknown kid with only a sporadic first eleven experience in a less than elite league. All most of us know is this great potential that the sales and PR people have pushed. Some sceptics think it might just be a smokescreen hiding the Porto bail out. They'll only be proved wrong by the lad himself. Not by empty rhetoric.
The Euphoria will come when goldilocks proves himself in real life, not paper transactions.

 

[SoCal_Wolf]

The biggest disbelief was related to the price paid for a kid with no first team experience. All most of us know is this great potential that the sales and PR people have pushed. Some sceptics think it might just be a smokescreen hiding the Porto bail out.

I’ve seen several posters write that Silva has no first team experience and that’s simply not true. In Ligue Nos last year, he was in the squad for 25/34 games; he started once and came off the bench in 11 other games. Not bad for a 17/18 year old. While he only played 182’ in league matches, he also saw action in their cup games as well as a few of their Europa group stage games. This means he was training with the first team pretty regularly and should not be considered as a U23-type player...

 

[Deleted member 9202LYK]

The £6m won't be for Gestifute's work on getting the deal over the line, it'll be reflecting the shared ownership of the player no doubt

very true.

 

[BarryM]

Hopefully Dendonker is going no where!

4 league goals and 6 in total last year.

If he does these goals need replacing.

 

[WolfClaw]

I’ve seen several posters write that Silva has no first team experience and that’s simply not true. In Ligue Nos last year, he was in the squad for 25/34 games; he started once and came off the bench in 11 other games. Not bad for a 17/18 year old. While he only played 182’ in league matches, he also saw action in their cup games as well as a few of their Europa group stage games. This means he was training with the first team pretty regularly and should not be considered as a U23-type player...

OK then. I'll correct my post to reflect this.

 

[Deleted member 5635]

Hope not, wouldn’t blame him though despite him being the only midfielder we have that can run forwards

 

[Mighty Thor]

Hope not, wouldn’t blame him though despite him being the only midfielder we have that can run forwards

this. For me it’s not that he is especially amazing and if replaced I would not be especially bothered. But in the here and now he is literally the only midfielder we have that does not just sit deep playing square passes.

 

[Perton Wolf]

So what happened to Rangnick who supposedly was on his way to Milan as manager/sporting director?

Pioli had a great run of results post-lockdown which made them the form team in the division. They ended up beating Juventus, Lazio and Roma on that run to name a few, so they decided to stick with him.

 

[Sketchead]

A new day and the thread title has still not been corrected, ffs.

 

[Sketchead]

Hope not, wouldn’t blame him though despite him being the only midfielder we have that can run forwards

Aye, add to that the only one who scores now and again too. Averages about one goal every nine games I think. Moutinho about one in 35, Neves about one in 25 at the moment?

 

[WickedWolfie]

Pioli had a great run of results post-lockdown which made them the form team in the division. They ended up beating Juventus, Lazio and Roma on that run to name a few, so they decided to stick with him.

TY... I did a bit more digging...

The true reasons why AC Milan pulled the plug on Ralf Rangnick - AC Milan News

After months of talks AC Milan made a sensational U-turn ditching Ral Rangnick to renew Stefano Pioli's contract until 2022.

www.google.com

Ralf Rangnick's move to AC Milan off – DW – 07/22/2020

In a surprising turn of events, Ralf Rangnick will no longer be involved at AC Milan next season. Current head coach Stefano Pioli has earned the chance to be in charge next season.

www.google.com