Gary O’Neil

[RMNottm]

We need high performance levels and appropriate tactics every game. Yesterday did not set a bar neither will Villa . The bar is results against none sky six week in week out and the bar is the table.

Credit and thanks to GON, his coaching staff and especially the players for yesterday Believe in yourselves.

 

[Northampton_wolf]

Saw passion from him yesterday more of the same please

 

[GoldenHorseshoe]

I can see a pattern developing:

We win- O’Neil was lucky/it was Lopetegui’s team.
We lose- O’Neil is to blame, it’s his team.

How many swallows do we need to see before it's become summer?
I've counted one swallow, two wings and a tail.

 

[WolfInSheep'sClothing]

I can see a pattern developing:

We win- O’Neil was lucky/it was Lopetegui’s team.
We lose- O’Neil is to blame, it’s his team.

We draw - we threw it away with his substitutions/why didn't we start xyz.
It's tiring already.
There is a part of me that is just feed the witch to the mob already and we can all move on.

 

[Torbay Wolf]

I'm holding my hands up....I thought we would get battered, but I'm very, very glad to be proved wrong!

What a performance! The difference in attitude, body language and the demeanor of our players compared to previous games was unbelievable. Full credit to Gary, he got his tactics absolutely right. Man City looked shellshocked.

More of this please lads. It was a pleasure to watch.

 

[Andywolf74]

Amazing what a completely unexpected win can do for your optimism and our league position.
Setting up more defensively and playing on the counter, leaves us less exposed at the back and also means our midfield isn’t knackered within an hour. Fair play to GON for having the ability to change tactics.
Bournemouth below us in the table and you never know there could be a bit of “be careful what you wish for” for their fans this season.
Let’s hope Villa have a bit of a Thursday night hangover next Sunday.

 

[SteveBullsKnee]

This is about it for me.

All of those people suggesting that humble pie should be eaten are pretty naive. This isn’t about a lack of pre-season.

Gaz has been outthought several times this season in-game. If he doesn’t fix that, we struggle.

I wouldn’t call that some sort of crazy witch hunt, it’s just a fact.

Yesterday was one of the easier games to figure out, but the execution was very strong. It felt like the good old days under Nuno.

Villa thrive against teams who leave a lot of space for their runners, so I’d do exactly the same next week - let’s see what he chooses. Will be an interesting indicator.

Playing Man City is “one of the easier games to figure out”?!?!?!?!? You’d think more teams would do it then especially the one who don’t have a PE teacher in charge

 

[wolvesjoe]

Oneil's press conference was quite an impressive breakdown of the game tactically, whilst properly
giving full praise to the players for executing a high energy strategy.

He came over as both knowledgeable and a pleasant personality.

Just maybe he will grow into the role, and lose the brittleness which has emerged in previous press encounters.

 

[Glow69]

We need high performance levels and appropriate tactics every game. Yesterday did not set a bar neither will Villa . The bar is results against none sky six week in week out and the bar is the table.

Credit and thanks to GON, his coaching staff and especially the players for yesterday Believe in yourselves.

That won't happen and never will in football.

 

[Jefe]

Are they European or British swallows?

Huh? I... I don't know that.

 

[TheConcourse]

I would call it a crazy witch hunt.
We will likely lose more than we will win in this league under most managers. Include draws in it we're talking 60% of games are gonna be his fault some how. The criticism he got for the first half against Luton was fair; the criticism he got for the Liverpool performance was OTT.

And let's face it, it isn't because of anything he has done as a manager so far; he is too much of a novice for his record to really come into account. No, it's because you are all still in love with lopetegui; who couldn't beat most of the relegated teams, whose best performances were all men behind the ball stuff and had a numerous amount of tankings himself.
The double standards are nigh on disgraceful.

1.5ppg would have us about European qualifying
The set of teams we've played so far is probably more difficult than average for the league.
Our last manager left because he didn't think the squad was good enough. The damning with faint praise is pathetic, from people who wrote off our worst ever performance in the premier league as players being on the beach.
Combined with the utterly pathetic ****ney PE teacher jibes it's doing my head in.

Nobody is in love with Lopetegui, but they recognise he’s a better option than GON. If you disagree, cool, have at it.

GON had a worse PPG ratio than Davis up until yesterday, got tactically beaten up against Hodgson, Klopp, De Zerbi, Dyche and Edwards.

I wouldn’t call that a witch hunt.

It’s fair to say fans didn’t want him, and so we probably overstep the mark from a bias perspective. Parts of our performances have been good, but I’m not going to suggest that GON has radically transformed us and all of the hard work is starting to come good:

A) Because I don’t see what he’s trying to do tbh. It’s changing game by game.

B) Let’s be really honest, we’ve relied on the brilliance of Neto to dig him out of a hole. The work for our first goal yesterday, and the goal against Luton, were an absolute joke. I wouldn’t call that some sort of coherent joined up genius from a squad perspective.

Massive, MASSIVE improvements needed from what we’ve seen so far, and if he manages to do it: great! We all win.

 

[TheConcourse]

Playing Man City is “one of the easier games to figure out”?!?!?!?!? You’d think more teams would do it then especially the one who don’t have a PE teacher in charge

I’m talking from a structure of a team perspective, but I shouldn’t assume that common sense is readily available to all people. My mistake.

 

[WolfInSheep'sClothing]

Nobody is in love with Lopetegui, but they recognise he’s a better option than GON. If you disagree, cool, have at it.

GON had a worse PPG ratio than Davis up until yesterday, got tactically beaten up against Hodgson, Klopp, De Zerbi, Dyche and Edwards.

I wouldn’t call that a witch hunt.

It’s fair to say fans didn’t want him, and so we probably overstep the mark from a bias perspective. Parts of our performances have been good, but I’m not going to suggest that GON has radically transformed us and all of the hard work is starting to come good:

A) Because I don’t see what he’s trying to do tbh. It’s changing game by game.

B) Let’s be really honest, we’ve relied on the brilliance of Neto to dig him out of a hole. The work for our first goal yesterday, and the goal against Luton, were an absolute joke. I wouldn’t call that some sort of coherent joined up genius from a squad perspective.

Massive, MASSIVE improvements needed from what we’ve seen so far, and if he manages to do it: great! We all win.

Tactically Luton had the first half hour. After then they didn't look like they would score from open play against 10 Ken If they were playing against 10 men. Klopp had better players than us. De zerbi had better players than us.
Massive improvements would have us in Europe, something that if the last manager believed he could do he would surely have stayed rather than peg it. You are looking for fault and minimising the clear good points. If we beat Villa it will be he lucked out again. Nothing to do with us looking pretty clinical in front of goal at the moment.

 

[TheConcourse]

Tactically Luton had the first half hour. After then they didn't look like they would score from open play against 10 Ken If they were playing against 10 men. Klopp had better players than us. De zerbi had better players than us.
Massive improvements would have us in Europe, something that if the last manager believed he could do he would surely have stayed rather than peg it. You are looking for fault and minimising the clear good points. If we beat Villa it will be he lucked out again. Nothing to do with us looking pretty clinical in front of goal at the moment.

City had better players than us? We found a way.

There’s nothing wrong with suggesting that he was outthought by managers in the league. They’ve got way more experience than him, and he’s pretty much learning in the toughest environment.

Not at all. I’ve credited him for yesterday. He set the team up in the right structure, we pressed really well and our forward players used the ball well.

I’m not the type of person who has an opinion and sticks to it. I’d love nothing more than for GON to prove me wrong, but he’s got a lot of work to do - haven’t we all?!

 

[Jefe]

I can see a pattern developing:

We win- O’Neil was lucky/it was Lopetegui’s team.
We lose- O’Neil is to blame, it’s his team.

TBF, that's not dissimilar to GON's own rhetoric when we lose, and he's the gaffer, not some Internet rando!

O'Neill deserves a ton of credit for this win, as rightly alluded to in Dawson's post match comments, and to be four points clear of the drop is big for us mentally. He set us up right, in the way that has got us a measure of success against City in the past. Most importantly, he kept his in-game management a light touch. He didn't hook players who were playing well, he largely didn't play square pegs in round holes, he didn't confuse the players with needless system tweaks, and he didn't panic when we got pegged back. Simply, he kept things simple.

However. Taking off the gold-tinted glasses for a second, that was every inch an O'Neill smash-and-grab win. I suspect the Blue Moon forum is rife with the same complaints we had here after GON's daylight robbery with Bournemouth last season. We scored twice from one shot on target, an xG closer to zero than one, and a critical piece of defending at the start changes the course of the match. If Dawson is a split second slower and Haaland taps in for 0-1, we probably go on to lose. In truth, we probably got the one game out of five where we won. We also had the good fortune of a leggy Man City side who reportedly could not adequately prepare for the match and Pep only able to watch from the stands.

It is a significant reprieve for O'Neill, but I'm keeping my powder dry until we get more of the Bournemouth and Sheffield United bread-and-butter fixtures.

 

[surreywolf]

Oneil's press conference was quite an impressive breakdown of the game tactically, whilst properly
giving full praise to the players for executing a high energy strategy.

He came over as both knowledgeable and a pleasant personality.

Just maybe he will grow into the role, and lose the brittleness which has emerged in previous press encounters.

I thought exactly this and hope more of those who haven’t been keen (which includes me), can watch

Seems he’s quite geeky and can come across a bit nerdy, or even just struggling to explain ideas if under pressure or in defeat

But if possible, and if he can relax and work on his demeanour, he obviously has a very intelligent football brain and could build a decent career. Remember he’s only been doing this a year

Not bigging him up, just think there’s some promise there - check out the bit about talking to cunha about not switching off in screening the pivot. 89mins not good enough because city will kill you in 90th etc

We have talented players but it’s about them understanding same logic applies whether you’re playing Man City or Palace

 

[WolfInSheep'sClothing]

City had better players than us? We found a way.

There’s nothing wrong with suggesting that he was outthought by managers in the league. They’ve got way more experience than him, and he’s pretty much learning in the toughest environment.

Not at all. I’ve credited him for yesterday. He set the team up in the right structure, we pressed really well and our forward players used the ball well.

I’m not the type of person who has an opinion and sticks to it. I’d love nothing more than for GON to prove me wrong, but he’s got a lot of work to do - haven’t we all?!

Quite simply I don't believe you. And what's more you are all sucking the joy out of everything. Its miserable reading a whole load of **** about him every week. We've got a good young squad that actually look like we might some goals for a change and every ****ing week it's why didn't he bring on Bueno, oh he must hate Sasa he's definitely not injured Neto on the right what a ****.
It's boring mindless drivel after boring mindless drivel. I'm sick of fearing the worst before games cos of some the **** that you guys want to post. We're supposed only have 2 points now according to some of the predictions on here. Supposed to have lost 15-0 over 2 games against Man City and Liverpool.
It has been none stop catastrophising and nit picking; meanwhile for the first time in almost three years we are averaging over a goal a game. It's ****ing **** supporting wolves at the moment. And it's mostly **** because of all the ****ing whinging.

 

[WolfInSheep'sClothing]

There is also a lot of praise on here that looks not like praise, but **** sandwich criticism.

 

[wolvesaywe]

TBF, that's not dissimilar to GON's own rhetoric when we lose, and he's the gaffer, not some Internet rando!

O'Neill deserves a ton of credit for this win, as rightly alluded to in Dawson's post match comments, and to be four points clear of the drop is big for us mentally. He set us up right, in the way that has got us a measure of success against City in the past. Most importantly, he kept his in-game management a light touch. He didn't hook players who were playing well, he largely didn't play square pegs in round holes, he didn't confuse the players with needless system tweaks, and he didn't panic when we got pegged back. Simply, he kept things simple.

However. Taking off the gold-tinted glasses for a second, that was every inch an O'Neill smash-and-grab win. I suspect the Blue Moon forum is rife with the same complaints we had here after GON's daylight robbery with Bournemouth last season. We scored twice from one shot on target, an xG closer to zero than one, and a critical piece of defending at the start changes the course of the match. If Dawson is a split second slower and Haaland taps in for 0-1, we probably go on to lose. In truth, we probably got the one game out of five where we won. We also had the good fortune of a leggy Man City side who reportedly could not adequately prepare for the match and Pep only able to watch from the stands.

It is a significant reprieve for O'Neill, but I'm keeping my powder dry until we get more of the Bournemouth and Sheffield United bread-and-butter fixtures.

Smash and grab? You don't even need to see the xG stats to know that City had naff all in the game. And if your only argument is what might have happened if a defender hadn't done his job then you really are struggling

If Pep has the humility to admit Wolves deserved to win why haven't some of our fans

 

[Jefe]

Smash and grab? You don't even need to see the xG stats to know that City had naff all in the game. And if your only argument is what might have happened if a defender hadn't done his job then you really are struggling

If Pep has the humility to admit Wolves deserved to win why haven't some of our fans

Guessing you missed the first paragraph of my post then.

 

[Wolf316]

TBF, that's not dissimilar to GON's own rhetoric when we lose, and he's the gaffer, not some Internet rando!

O'Neill deserves a ton of credit for this win, as rightly alluded to in Dawson's post match comments, and to be four points clear of the drop is big for us mentally. He set us up right, in the way that has got us a measure of success against City in the past. Most importantly, he kept his in-game management a light touch. He didn't hook players who were playing well, he largely didn't play square pegs in round holes, he didn't confuse the players with needless system tweaks, and he didn't panic when we got pegged back. Simply, he kept things simple.

However. Taking off the gold-tinted glasses for a second, that was every inch an O'Neill smash-and-grab win. I suspect the Blue Moon forum is rife with the same complaints we had here after GON's daylight robbery with Bournemouth last season. We scored twice from one shot on target, an xG closer to zero than one, and a critical piece of defending at the start changes the course of the match. If Dawson is a split second slower and Haaland taps in for 0-1, we probably go on to lose. In truth, we probably got the one game out of five where we won. We also had the good fortune of a leggy Man City side who reportedly could not adequately prepare for the match and Pep only able to watch from the stands.

It is a significant reprieve for O'Neill, but I'm keeping my powder dry until we get more of the Bournemouth and Sheffield United bread-and-butter fixtures.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with a smash and grab win when you’re playing City.

 

[wolvesjoe]

Smash and grab? You don't even need to see the xG stats to know that City had naff all in the game. And if your only argument is what might have happened if a defender hadn't done his job then you really are struggling

If Pep has the humility to admit Wolves deserved to win why haven't some of our fans

Guardiola is a pleasant change from world's worst loser in Klopp.

 

[Urko]

I can see a pattern developing:

We win- O’Neil was lucky/it was Lopetegui’s team.
We lose- O’Neil is to blame, it’s his team.

Noting how he takes full credit, when he gets a good result, but blames others when it goes wrong.

 

[SuperGran]

Ninth in the league for goals scored so far

 

[Jefe]

There is also a lot of praise on here that looks not like praise, but **** sandwich criticism.

An odd way to phrase a more nuanced view of the game. To repeat, O'Neill deserves a lot of credit for how he set us up, and his in-game management helped us control the match, but let's not pretend City were remotely close to their best. They were as lethargic as I've ever seen them, shockingly so, and their manager was in the stands so he could not communicate with them directly. Dawson puts in a magnificent goal line clearance and seven minutes later, Dias deflects a cross into his own net. Razor thin moments like these change the course of games. All I'm saying is don't get carried away, whether or not we are turning a corner remains to be seen.

 

[Mutchy]

An odd way to phrase a more nuanced view of the game. To repeat, O'Neill deserves a lot of credit for how he set us up, and his in-game management helped us control the match, but let's not pretend City were remotely close to their best. They were as lethargic as I've ever seen them, shockingly so, and their manager was in the stands so he could not communicate with them directly. Dawson puts in a magnificent goal line clearance and seven minutes later, Dias deflects a cross into his own net. Razor thin moments like these change the course of games. All I'm saying is don't get carried away, whether or not we are turning a corner remains to be seen.

You could also say the same about games we've lost though.

 

[Glow69]

Ninth in the league for goals scored so far

Doing well on the goals front so far this season.

 

[AndyY]

Ninth in the league for goals scored so far

So hopefully tightening up at the back by playing a back 3/5 will help us get to that sort of position by the end of the season.

 

[Jefe]

You could also say the same about games we've lost though.

I can't think of any besides the obvious example of Yanited on opening day (and the Luton handball decision arguably cost us two points). When we've lost, we've usually been well beaten in the end. We also benefitted from one of these razor thin moments in our other win at Everton. Sa pulls of a once in a lifetime save, then at the other end we pinch one off Sasa's shoulder (great ball in from Pedro though).

 

[Mutchy]

I can't think of any besides the obvious example of Yanited on opening day (and the Luton handball decision arguably cost us two points). When we've lost, we've usually been well beaten in the end. We also benefitted from one of these razor thin moments in our other win at Everton. Sa pulls of a once in a lifetime save, then at the other end we pinch one off Sasa's shoulder (great ball in from Pedro though).

Not going further ahead against Liverpool.
Being more lethargic in games ourselves.
If you are including those for City, they also count in relation to us.

 

[Jefe]

Not going further ahead against Liverpool. Being more lethargic in games ourselves. If you are including those for City, they also count in relation to us.

Not entirely sure you can count blatant profligacy in front of goal as an example of these game-changing razor thin moments of which I speak. That's very much been an "us" problem since day dot it seems. City's lethargy was an exception not the rule, owing to unusual circumstances with their preparation for this game. With us, it's been commonplace this season.

 

[SilverstoneWolf]

Quite simply I don't believe you. And what's more you are all sucking the joy out of everything. Its miserable reading a whole load of **** about him every week. We've got a good young squad that actually look like we might some goals for a change and every ****ing week it's why didn't he bring on Bueno, oh he must hate Sasa he's definitely not injured Neto on the right what a ****.
It's boring mindless drivel after boring mindless drivel. I'm sick of fearing the worst before games cos of some the **** that you guys want to post. We're supposed only have 2 points now according to some of the predictions on here. Supposed to have lost 15-0 over 2 games against Man City and Liverpool.
It has been none stop catastrophising and nit picking; meanwhile for the first time in almost three years we are averaging over a goal a game. It's ****ing **** supporting wolves at the moment. And it's mostly **** because of all the ****ing whinging.

Love it! I ‘ignored’ him weeks ago and it is so much more enjoyable coming on here. Suggest EVERYONE ignore his ridiculous views & hopefully he’ll go away.

 

[WolfInSheep'sClothing]

An odd way to phrase a more nuanced view of the game. To repeat, O'Neill deserves a lot of credit for how he set us up, and his in-game management helped us control the match, but let's not pretend City were remotely close to their best. They were as lethargic as I've ever seen them, shockingly so, and their manager was in the stands so he could not communicate with them directly. Dawson puts in a magnificent goal line clearance and seven minutes later, Dias deflects a cross into his own net. Razor thin moments like these change the course of games. All I'm saying is don't get carried away, whether or not we are turning a corner remains to be seen.

Specifically Dawson puts in the magnificent goal line clearance because he's been told to man mark and we have an extra man in the back line. It is still relies on brilliant defending, but there is a guybthere to do it.
Neto goes and has a fantastic run down the right because he is ultimately much quicker than their left back. That wouldn't be the case if he was on the left.
The absence of details like this seem to be a case of saying he did well, without actually praising the decisions he made that he did well. I wouldn't have started like that at all. We also seem to be getting noticeably much calmer in front of goal.

One swallow doesn't make a summer and if we lose the next 5 I will want him gone. I think we'll probably win 2 draw one and lose 2. There will be 2 games with a load of "nuanced" opinions and 3 with absolute hatchet jobs.

 

[Mugwump]

Lets just see how we get on in our next 2 games to show if its a flash in the pan or not. If we have turned a corner, we should be aiming for 4 points at least.

 

[DanishWolf]

I'll also say the verdict is still very much out.
Yesterday was brillant. But nteresting thing is that when you read the Bournemouth fan forum, it's a common that he could occassionaly put on a tactical masterclass, while most other weeks, there seemed be no coherent plan and lots of confusion.
That's while I don't begrudge him giving himself much deserved selfpraise for the preparation that led to the victory yesterday, it's remembering that whatever plans he's made for most other games have been countered by the opposing manager

My hope though is that we'll get to see more of the tactical genius from yesterday and less confusion. He's a young manager and just like players gets better as they mature and learn from mistakes, I presume it's the same with managers.

Personally I'd like nothing better than for him to grow into a top manager with us

 

[Irish_Wolf]

We need minimum 6 points from the next 4 games so let's see.

 

[Hot Fuss]

I would call it a crazy witch hunt.
We will likely lose more than we will win in this league under most managers. Include draws in it we're talking 60% of games are gonna be his fault some how. The criticism he got for the first half against Luton was fair; the criticism he got for the Liverpool performance was OTT.

And let's face it, it isn't because of anything he has done as a manager so far; he is too much of a novice for his record to really come into account. No, it's because you are all still in love with lopetegui; who couldn't beat most of the relegated teams, whose best performances were all men behind the ball stuff and had a numerous amount of tankings himself.
The double standards are nigh on disgraceful.

1.5ppg would have us about European qualifying
The set of teams we've played so far is probably more difficult than average for the league.
Our last manager left because he didn't think the squad was good enough. The damning with faint praise is pathetic, from people who wrote off our worst ever performance in the premier league as players being on the beach.
Combined with the utterly pathetic ****ney PE teacher jibes it's doing my head in.

Spot on.

The campaign against the manager from some of the melons on here has been absolutely pathetic.

 

[SoCal_Wolf]

I'll also say the verdict is still very much out.

Of course it is! That’s why we shouldn’t be hammering him so early in his appointment either. Calling him a “chancer” or a “PE teacher” or heckling him for his appearance/demeanor/body language is unfair, especially when these comments were happening within about three or four games! A draw away against Luton with 10 men is not any more illustrative of his managerial ability as his win at home against ManCity. Let’s give the guy some leeway to get some games with us and figure things out—we gave it to Lopetegui and he screwed up some of his subs and in-game management too, if you recall. I would like for the fans to back off a bit and give him a fair shake at the job, that’s all.

 

[GoldenHorseshoe]

Playing Man City is “one of the easier games to figure out”?!?!?!?!? You’d think more teams would do it then especially the one who don’t have a PE teacher in charge

It's amazing how some folks can make an argument for something that is totally the opposite of reality.
Read and shake your head, that's about all you can do.

 

[loppers86]

Amazing to think that Guardiola didn't have an answer to GON's tactics.

It was perfect really and we looked so threatening on the break. Think it must have been one of lowest XG scores will have had this season which showed it worked a treat.

unfortunately that result has bought GON another month. That in turn will lead to our relegation, fosun selling, bankruptcy and being reborn in the 7th tier of the pyramid.

I hope you are pleased with yourself and know where Boldmere St Michael’s is?