Gary O’Neil

[Bostin]

Don’t worry, everyone will be back to hating him again in a couple of weeks when we lose to Bournemouth

Funny how it’s much busier on here when we’re in a bad run of form

 

[brianm]

Lopetegui did an okay job last season. If that squad had been relegated, that would have been tragic. Let's not get carried away with his success. He mostly just solidified the defensive shape and managed to scrape together some good home form. It was not a better-done job than the job at Bournemouth.

By no means was it enough to throw his toys from the pram like he did, in my opinion. Good luck to him in his next position, wherever that is. I think he's having a laugh if he thinks Prem clubs are lining up for him.

Jury is still out on O'Neil, as it is with any manager in his first season with a club. By no means do I think this start to the season has been a disaster. Wolves are getting increasingly hard to play against, and that's a good thing. Also scoring some goals, which is also a good thing. I think the midfield is really looking like it's posing a problem for the opposition in most matches.

Win at Bournemouth and start ticking the points per game number over 1. If he lands on 50+ points for the season, then surely that's a success. 45-50 is borderline. If he just scrapes over 40 then to be honest I think that's a disappointment. The opening fixtures have been fairly rough in my opinion, and the table is still okay, so let's just see what the rest of the first half of the season looks like.

 

[Adrian_Monk]

Interesting comments about Lemina's second yellow. "We had unnecessarily pressed, which put Lemina in a position he shouldn't have been in"

It actually came from a decent attacking position and Semedo trying to put Neto in, but the ball rebounding to Zaniolo. I suppose Lemina had maybe strayed a bit too far up the pitch, so was caught the wrong side of Zaniolo when the move broke down.

The comment shows where O'Neill's mindset when it comes to pressing is. Loads of people around me giving Sasa and Cunha some stick at times for not chasing balls into the corner, or pressing the centre backs more aggressively. But they'd clearly been instructed not to do that and to get back in position around the centre circle, similarly to what we did against City.

The only player that reacted to the crowd geers when not pressing was Fabio, which I don't see as a positive. Don't play to the crowd, play your role and do the job you've been told to do.

Spot on. Even against Man City I was really surprised at people around me shouting 'Gerrintwowum' when it was abundantly clear our game plan was the polar opposite - you do wonder at times what people are watching

 

[WolfLing]

Spot on. Even against Man City I was really surprised at people around me shouting 'Gerrintwowum' when it was abundantly clear our game plan was the polar opposite - you do wonder at times what people are watching

Probably the same people complaining how we were blowing out our arses and dropping off massively late into games. Can't have everything!!

 

[WickedWolfie]

Lopetegui did an okay job last season. If that squad had been relegated, that would have been tragic. Let's not get carried away with his success. He mostly just solidified the defensive shape and managed to scrape together some good home form. It was not a better-done job than the job at Bournemouth.

By no means was it enough to throw his toys from the pram like he did, in my opinion. Good luck to him in his next position, wherever that is. I think he's having a laugh if he thinks Prem clubs are lining up for him.

Jury is still out on O'Neil, as it is with any manager in his first season with a club. By no means do I think this start to the season has been a disaster. Wolves are getting increasingly hard to play against, and that's a good thing. Also scoring some goals, which is also a good thing. I think the midfield is really looking like it's posing a problem for the opposition in most matches.

Win at Bournemouth and start ticking the points per game number over 1. If he lands on 50+ points for the season, then surely that's a success. 45-50 is borderline. If he just scrapes over 40 then to be honest I think that's a disappointment. The opening fixtures have been fairly rough in my opinion, and the table is still okay, so let's just see what the rest of the first half of the season looks like.

A significant rewriting of history methinks. By the time JL came in last season most neutrals and indeed many posters on here already had us down. Try looking at what was posted by the pundits when our survival was assured....

Just one example....

Inside Lopetegui's Wolves revival as Premier League survival officially secured

After being bottom at Christmas, Wolves have secured their survival with Julen Lopetegui masterminding their journey following his appointment before the World Cup break

www.mirror.co.uk

 

[brianm]

A significant rewriting of history methinks. By the time JL came in last season most neutrals and indeed many posters on here already had us down. Try looking at was posted by the pundits when our survival was assured....

Just one example....

Inside Lopetegui's Wolves revival as Premier League survival officially secured

After being bottom at Christmas, Wolves have secured their survival with Julen Lopetegui masterminding their journey following his appointment before the World Cup break

www.mirror.co.uk

People here jump to DOOOM with a quickness. The club also had the PR push on overdrive for Lopetegui, who was their guy.

Bottom line is the results got scraped and that was good, but I don't think it was something totally heroic.

He did a better job than Rodgers, mind.

 

[Plovdiv Wolf]

Should we get 40 points, it will be a success for Wolves and the manager

 

[SteveBullsKnee]

Don’t worry, everyone will be back to hating him again in a couple of weeks when we lose to Bournemouth

Funny how it’s much busier on here when we’re in a bad run of form

I’ve noticed the “usual suspects” who seem to bathe in negativity seem to have all gone on holiday at the same time, probably together (I bet that’s a bundle of laughs, up there with a colonoscopy) as you say they’ll be back when we lose to Bournemouth

 

[Zico]

A significant rewriting of history methinks. By the time JL came in last season most neutrals and indeed many posters on here already had us down. Try looking at what was posted by the pundits when our survival was assured....

Just one example....

Inside Lopetegui's Wolves revival as Premier League survival officially secured

After being bottom at Christmas, Wolves have secured their survival with Julen Lopetegui masterminding their journey following his appointment before the World Cup break

www.mirror.co.uk

He did well, but he did have the best part of £100 million to spend.

 

[WickedWolfie]

He did well, but he did have the best part of £100 million to spend.

True enough

 

[Zico]

Spot on. Even against Man City I was really surprised at people around me shouting 'Gerrintwowum' when it was abundantly clear our game plan was the polar opposite - you do wonder at times what people are watching

You were really surprised? Was it your first match?

 

[SteveBullsKnee]

Spot on. Even against Man City I was really surprised at people around me shouting 'Gerrintwowum' when it was abundantly clear our game plan was the polar opposite - you do wonder at times what people are watching

That and “Gerrit forward” whenever anyone gets the ball anywhere on the pitch. I have a theory on those that use either phrase. They’re normally of a certain vintage and I’m convinced barring watching wolves they haven’t watched any other football in decades.

 

[WolfLing]

A significant rewriting of history methinks. By the time JL came in last season most neutrals and indeed many posters on here already had us down. Try looking at what was posted by the pundits when our survival was assured....

Just one example....

Inside Lopetegui's Wolves revival as Premier League survival officially secured

After being bottom at Christmas, Wolves have secured their survival with Julen Lopetegui masterminding their journey following his appointment before the World Cup break

www.mirror.co.uk

We were 4 points adrift when he came in having spent over £100m in the summer.

We clearly needed a change after Lage and Davis had messed us up, but the biggest thing that needed changing was getting a tune out of the existing players.

Lopetegui then added another £65m of talent in January.

Compare that to Villa, who were in a similar situation. Over the two windows, they spent about £60m less than we did, but Emery achieved 40 points in the same period Lopetegui achieved 31.

Yes, his starting base might have been better, but fewer new players means Emery arguably got more of a tune out of the existing players over the same period.

I'd argue that most decent managers (i.e. a better standard then Lage) could have come in, spent the money Lopetegui spent and kept us up. Might not have been as comfortable, but we probably would've achieved the just over a point a game we needed to not be in the bottom 3.

Look at what Dyche did with a terrible Everton squad. 21 points from the last 18 games having come in when they had 15 from 20.

I'd agree that while Lopetegui did a great job, it maybe wasn't so good as to justify throwing his toys out quite as dramatically as he did this summer.

 

[loppers86]

Sums up how I feel perfectly, so tagging onto that as cannot say it as well as you have

Sums up how i feel too… but skirts around the issue of GON blaming lop every time something goes wrong. This is his worst trait IMHO and he will probably turn to blaming the players when things take a turn for the worse.

 

[Norwegian Wolf]

O'Neill has successfully set us up twice to counter attack against teams that are much better than us. Bournemouth away will be an opportunity to see if there is a plan B in his locker or whether it is simply backs to wall for the rest of the season.

 

[VancouverWolf]

As I said to IOM Wolf above who also said some posters used the word 'hate' aimed at GON, I don't believe you.

Fair enough but it was only about 10 days ago, on this thread or the other Gary thread. Won’t be to hard to find……between the Luton game and the City game.

 

[VancouverWolf]

Lopetegui did an okay job last season. If that squad had been relegated, that would have been tragic. Let's not get carried away with his success. He mostly just solidified the defensive shape and managed to scrape together some good home form. It was not a better-done job than the job at Bournemouth.

By no means was it enough to throw his toys from the pram like he did, in my opinion. Good luck to him in his next position, wherever that is. I think he's having a laugh if he thinks Prem clubs are lining up for him.

Jury is still out on O'Neil, as it is with any manager in his first season with a club. By no means do I think this start to the season has been a disaster. Wolves are getting increasingly hard to play against, and that's a good thing. Also scoring some goals, which is also a good thing. I think the midfield is really looking like it's posing a problem for the opposition in most matches.

Win at Bournemouth and start ticking the points per game number over 1. If he lands on 50+ points for the season, then surely that's a success. 45-50 is borderline. If he just scrapes over 40 then to be honest I think that's a disappointment. The opening fixtures have been fairly rough in my opinion, and the table is still okay, so let's just see what the rest of the first half of the season looks like.

Great post.

 

[SteveBullsKnee]

Sums up how i feel too… but skirts around the issue of GON blaming lop every time something goes wrong. This is his worst trait IMHO and he will probably turn to blaming the players when things take a turn for the worse.

There’s a bit of poetic licence there. All he’s actually said was the players weren’t as fit as he’d like for the style he wants. The stats are showing ALL the players are running further a game so that would suggest he’s correct. He said we’d lost a lot of talent in the summer which is again correct as that’s exactly why JL went and that the players needed “picking up” which again I wouldn’t argue as they probably were on the floor when their managers walks out 3 days before the season starts after 3 months of speculation.

There’s a difference between “reasoning” and “blaming”, for me GON has done the former, not the latter

 

[WickedWolfie]

There’s a bit of poetic licence there. All he’s actually said was the players weren’t as fit as he’d like for the style he wants. The stats are showing ALL the players are running further a game so that would suggest he’s correct. He said we’d lost a lot of talent in the summer which is again correct as that’s exactly why JL went and that the players needed “picking up” which again I wouldn’t argue as they probably were on the floor when their managers walks out 3 days before the season starts after 3 months of speculation.

There’s a difference between “reasoning” and “blaming”, for me GON has done the former, not the latter

That's a reasonable perspective.

 

[Jefe]

Don’t worry, everyone will be back to hating him again in a couple of weeks when we lose to Bournemouth

Funny how it’s much busier on here when we’re in a bad run of form

I think that's an inevitability of Internet sports forums. If things aren't going well, or there's division about whether it's going well or not, there is bound to be debate and comments ranging from constructive criticism, to frustrated venting, to pure unbridled fury and plain negativity about what's going on. When things are going well, what is there to say? "Good job, keep it going lads." Social media and Internet forum aren't fueled by positive vibes, I am afraid.

 

[Sussex Wolf]

There’s a bit of poetic licence there. All he’s actually said was the players weren’t as fit as he’d like for the style he wants. The stats are showing ALL the players are running further a game so that would suggest he’s correct. He said we’d lost a lot of talent in the summer which is again correct as that’s exactly why JL went and that the players needed “picking up” which again I wouldn’t argue as they probably were on the floor when their managers walks out 3 days before the season starts after 3 months of speculation.

There’s a difference between “reasoning” and “blaming”, for me GON has done the former, not the latter

Yeah, I think that’s a fair post. Think the last line is for debate - whether he was “explaining” or “blaming”, but I think you are right to say that it may not be blaming as many of us (inc me) accused him of.

 

[northnorfolkwolf]

Fair enough but it was only about 10 days ago, on this thread or the other Gary thread. Won’t be to hard to find……between the Luton game and the City game.

You're the one that accused posters of saying they hated GON; if that's true what are their names?

 

[northnorfolkwolf]

That's a reasonable perspective.

Blimey, perspective on here; well there's a thing!

 

[Sheffield Wolf]

He talks a lot about things that need to improve. I like that, it reminds me of prime Nuno, who never got carried away when we won. He would talk about performance over result and the need to improve.

 

[Oh When the Wolves]

He’s improved a lot in the last two games, not just the results , but the way we have been playing and moving the ball.

One thing that is a massive issue though is throw ins. We have been terrible at them for years.

We very rarely keep the ball from them due to basic Stuff - taking them too slowly, only one player showing for them, no second runners after the first runner, closing down our own thrower when showing as an option

Basic basic stuff which make it so much harder to control a game when you give the ball away constantly

 

[VancouverWolf]

You're the one that accused posters of saying they hated GON; if that's true what are their names?

I told you in good faith what I read very recently but I‘m not going to bother trying to find their posts.
Why can’t you do it? You’re more interested than I am.
9.15 am here, enjoying my second coffee and I do not want to read all the extremely negative and vitriolic posts ……not a nice way to start my day.

If I remember correctly, I read one post where the poster said that Gary makes him physically sick. There was a lot of this kind of chat before the City win.

 

[GoldenHorseshoe]

He’s improved a lot in the last two games, not just the results , but the way we have been playing and moving the ball.

One thing that is a massive issue though is throw ins. We have been terrible at them for years.

We very rarely keep the ball from them due to basic Stuff - taking them too slowly, only one player showing for them, no second runners after the first runner, closing down our own thrower when showing as an option

Basic basic stuff which make it so much harder to control a game when you give the ball away constantly

Throw ins have been an irritatent of mine for a long time, we more often than not lose possession from a throw in.
The common tactic is to play it to someone who immediately sends the ball back to the thrower who of course is immediately closed down with virtually no playable options.
I'm convinced that every team in the league knows our preferred tactic and knows how to counteract it.

 

[VancouverWolf]

He’s improved a lot in the last two games, not just the results , but the way we have been playing and moving the ball.

One thing that is a massive issue though is throw ins. We have been terrible at them for years.

We very rarely keep the ball from them due to basic Stuff - taking them too slowly, only one player showing for them, no second runners after the first runner, closing down our own thrower when showing as an option

Basic basic stuff which make it so much harder to control a game when you give the ball away constantly

I agree…..drives me nuts.

 

[waveney wolf]

Both games after we were mathematically safe and the players were on the beach. So if the two situations aren’t comparable, but to get a big loss/losses conceeding a lot of goals early season (GO has a few of those) when all is to play for us worse than taking a battering when the players had achieved their goal of keeping us up and really in their minds had nothing else to play for.

FYI mate, GO in less than 1/4 of the games has the same number of loses conceeding 3 or more than JL did in HALF a season…… that isn’t a good sign or even a sign that his reign so far can be deemed close to a success.

Oh..you think it's ok for the manager to tell his players not to give a **** cos they can't get relegated??? Don't be ridiculous

 

[Skrilla]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1711342736643706993

Actually love that Gary has told him to **** off after petulant Emery started walking off

 

[Darvo]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1711342736643706993

Actually love that Gary has told him to **** off after petulant Emery started walking off

What was the fall out over?

 

[Lupo Italiano]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1711342736643706993

Actually love that Gary has told him to **** off after petulant Emery started walking off

Notice Emery beats a hasty retreat as Dezza comes to Gazza's aid!

 

[SmiffyWolf]

The issue for me is Gary isn't managing us it is Fosun . And they want a yes man . So we are not going to progress under this until that approach changes .

Just **** poor imo but we will see . As Jeff said we are not hampered by FFP now so expecting Mbbape in January

 

[DanishWolf]

O'Neill has successfully set us up twice to counter attack against teams that are much better than us. Bournemouth away will be an opportunity to see if there is a plan B in his locker or whether it is simply backs to wall for the rest of the season.

Agree..
Its noticeable though that our style wasn't exactly the same in the 2 games. We did move our press higher up the pitch a bit more often vs Villa than vs City. Also were as City was clearly going for it and had the majority of possession, Villa while a better team; aren't unlike us in that they prefer to be a bit more passive, in that they'd often prepare to wait for the opponent to make a mistake. That's also why we'd almost an equal amount of possession.

 

[loppers86]

That's a reasonable perspective.

I can certainly see how people might think that. There’s probably a pinkish hue from that perspective too.

 

[wolfslair]

Oh..you think it's ok for the manager to tell his players not to give a **** cos they can't get relegated??? Don't be ridiculous

Where did I say the manager told them “not to give a toss”

You are the ridiculous one for creating an argument and statement that wasn’t even close to implied…….

The players in elite football often go “on the beach” in the last few games in the season, I am sure the manager does everything to stop it, but it happens in many teams every season.

 

[Leominster_Wolf]

I’ve noticed the “usual suspects” who seem to bathe in negativity seem to have all gone on holiday at the same time, probably together (I bet that’s a bundle of laughs, up there with a colonoscopy) as you say they’ll be back when we lose to Bournemouth

Agree - halfbakedjizz or whatever his name is, has been very quiet the last couple of weeks. Really odd how he had been quite prolific in his vitriol of the club and GON for a few weeks previous?

Maybe just on holiday, but pound to a piece of **** he‘ll be back after the next loss

 

[Kebab Warrior]

That and “Gerrit forward” whenever anyone gets the ball anywhere on the pitch. I have a theory on those that use either phrase. They’re normally of a certain vintage and I’m convinced barring watching wolves they haven’t watched any other football in decades.

IMO the only sport where fans understand less about how it really works is boxing.

‘****ing hit him’

 

[TheConcourse]

Don’t worry, everyone will be back to hating him again in a couple of weeks when we lose to Bournemouth

Funny how it’s much busier on here when we’re in a bad run of form

There seems to have been a bit of a shift here.

Do you think GON has secured his position and the majority of people were wrong about his perceived flaws?

If he’s turned a corner, great, but let’s also add to nuance to the conversation. One of the reasons people were on his back is because we were leaking goals - I and many others were advocating a back 3/5 before it happened.

Shock: he’s done it and we’ve become more solid.

I certainly wouldn’t be sat playing the smug card. His stint at Bournemouth was littered with long-runs of patchy results and a few good ones thrown in too. The next 5 games are massive for him, and he’s still got a lot to prove.

Let’s hope he does it!

 

[Golden Oldie]

Notice Emery beats a hasty retreat as Dezza comes to Gazza's aid!

I always find it amusing, yet sad, when grown men flounce. I don't dislike Colin but I still recall his foul-mouthed flouncing when Nuno went to shake hands with him. It's a tough old world and acting like a child before the old-age version strikes is to be avoided, surely?