GON wheels come off?!

[VancouverWolf]

At least Lopetegui got our players fired up for games. What we are watching now is utter **** going through the motions. Really frustrating to watch

I don’t remember JL getting the lads fired up…….it might have been once in a while.
His games were absolute dire.
I have them all recorded …..if I was a masochist I could watch them again.

Now Gary has us attacking much more, scoring more goals, coming back from a goal or two down and drawing or winning.

 

[wolfgar]

A few more results/performances like yesterday and he’ll be freed up to spend a lot more time on Monday Night Football. Embarrassing stuff really? Really expected some sort of response after stinking out the place against Burnley and Forest. Should have known better

 

[Frank Lincoln]

Don’t get coming out with common sense on here with all the dummies getting flung out the prams, I’m not happy today as I’m sure everyone else isn’t, but let’s stick with our manager and see what unfolds over the next few games.
Sometimes it’s like listening to a classroom full of silly five year old girls when we lose.
We’re not dining at the top table, deal with it.
Just to clarify I agree with you I’m just fed up with the hysterical moaning little babies on here

Well said Sir Ron, you deserve your knighthood.

 

[lets all have a disco]

Not sure on that. Going through the motions describes a decent chunk of games under Lopetegui, especially towards the end. He did a great job to keep us up, but getting the players fired up would be nowhere near my list of good things he did.

I'm not a O'Neil fan but the one thing you can't fault him for is the players are giving 100% as such ...O'Neil being pally with em and calling em channy etc will do that ....it's what he did at Bournemouth.....some of the players ain't good enough but are definitely motivated in a way ...there I just isn't a cohesive plan or set up, style...Bournemouth seen through that and thought this isn't going to be enough going forward...

It's the other side we are missing a cohesive plan , whether we could execute one with these players is also up for debate...

 

[Ponty]

GO has got us more points than most, if not all, of us expected at this stage of the season. He’s actually done himself no favours as he’s raised expectations massively and many are judging him unfairly now. When everyone is fit and in form we have a decent starting XI but beyond that we are desperately short of PL quality and that’s showing in recent games. We are fortunate that the promoted sides are poor so there’s no need to panic and we can add some players in January and see how things progress. So long as home form stays good we should be fine and no need to scream and shout after every defeat as with the players we have I’m not convinced anyone else would be doing much better.

 

[Fenrir_]

GO has got us more points than most, if not all, of us expected at this stage of the season. He’s actually done himself no favours as he’s raised expectations massively and many are judging him unfairly now. When everyone is fit and in form we have a decent starting XI but beyond that we are desperately short of PL quality and that’s showing in recent games. We are fortunate that the promoted sides are poor so there’s no need to panic and we can add some players in January and see how things progress. So long as home form stays good we should be fine and no need to scream and shout after every defeat as with the players we have I’m not convinced anyone else would be doing much better.

He's on course for 42 points and 65 goals conceded. He has in no way raised expectations massively as he takes us towards our worst season since promotion

 

[WolfLing]

We’re a mid-low table side. We’re going to have great days and awful days at the moment.

Absolutely.

Look at the current top 10. They are all better than us when they play as well as they can do.

We are in that group competing for 11th to 17th.

 

[Ponty]

He's on course for 42 points and 65 goals conceded. He has in no way raised expectations massively as he takes us towards our worst season since promotion

With a squad that is far, far weaker! At the start of the season where did you think we’d finish?

 

[John Wolves Fan]

Absolutely.

Look at the current top 10. They are all better than us when they play as well as they can do.

We are in that group competing for 11th to 17th.

Spot on - and no shame in that.

 

[Northampton_wolf]

Dont think wheels have come off 4 points from 9, should have been 6.

Just think we are hitting a period of bad form need to turn it around for chelsea

 

[Fenrir_]

With a squad that is far, far weaker! At the start of the season where did you think we’d finish?

Easily safe with a half decent head coach. Squad is mid table, we're conceding goals like a relegation team

 

[Ponty]

Easily safe with a half decent head coach. Squad is mid table, we're conceding goals like a relegation team

The first XI when everyone is fit and in form is fine but the drop off in quality after that is cliff-like.

 

[lets all have a disco]

Even if I have me doubts, he has done more than enough to warrant the full season..There has been some good signs and some not so good signs....

For me we look at the situation again in April /May time....

Seems mad to suggest it but if Burnley go down would Kompany be available....... Burnley seemed to have a plan but haven't got the players to do it.... although we beat them narrowly they was a bit more adventurous than us at home and looked well coached . Very short on quality agreed.

 

[Ned]

Dont think wheels have come off 4 points from 9, should have been 6.

Just think we are hitting a period of bad form need to turn it around for chelsea

Yea I’d agree with this. In some ways Chelsea might be a decent game for us if they play into our counter attacking hands.

 

[Corporate Wolf]

They've more than come off, our recent performances have largely been absolute gash.

Can't disagree with this at all.

Burnley and Forest were absolutely uninspiring and boring performances and if anything should have been the time to "test" 4 at the back.

Yesterday was just a day to forget. Weak, weak weak in every department - cant even be bothered to pick out the worst performance because they were all an embarrassment.

 

[SteveBullsKnee]

He’s starting to creak a bit, that much is obvious. His inexperience means he’s “stretching” to get points and probably overthinking things (the formation switch points to that, it should have been the week before not away at West Ham).

Suppose the next 6-8 games will give a wider picture of his abilities.

 

[fleck1]

We are roughly around where we think the squad and team are on paper, after the sales and needing to make a transfer profit. Most agreed a solid midtable finish would be a good season, a couple of games to the half way point and we are sat on 19 points, 10 points off the bottom three and VAR doing its best to relegate us. Some of the more pessimistic members on here had us bottom three at best by this point and certain for relegation. We have an inexperienced manager who will make mistakes and is still learning, a midtable squad, the a transfer and wage budget at the bottom end of this and performances reflect that. Some great performances and moments with a mix of the terrible and hard to watch.
Personally a solid first half of the season, some disappointing games but hopefully we can shuffle a few out and get a couple more fresh faces in January to push on.

 

[Mugwump]

Dont think wheels have come off 4 points from 9, should have been 6.

Just think we are hitting a period of bad form need to turn it around for chelsea

I dont think the wheels have come off results wise, but the performances are a bit of a worry. I'm always relatively happy if i can see some positive signs. Right now, we are in a period where i'm not seeing much.

 

[sillytuna]

I think he's a poor manager who blames everyone else in public. However, he's still sufficiently in the black to have our backing. We'll scrape through I expect but I wouldn't want him next season unless things change massively.

His weaknesses have been obvious since day 1 and he isn't learning.

 

[TelfordWolf]

Can't disagree with this at all.

Burnley and Forest were absolutely uninspiring and boring performances and if anything should have been the time to "test" 4 at the back.

Yesterday was just a day to forget. Weak, weak weak in every department - cant even be bothered to pick out the worst performance because they were all an embarrassment.

I think he’s damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t on the back four topic.

There’s been loads of comments saying five is the best, don’t change etc. In hindsight he got it wrong to play it against West Ham away from home.

 

[clivewolves]

He's an inexperienced manager and as a result I don't know what the team will look like with all the wheels on. I'm sure he'll still be here in 12 months. Will he prosper with a preseason? Will Hobbs and O'Neil sign the correct players? I don't know. He could be another Eddie Howe or another Garry Monk. Funnily enough Monk did well in his first full season at Swansea, but there was always something there that I thought didn't fit right with how Swansea had operated in previous season and he eventually got found out.

 

[Jefe]

Not sure on that. Going through the motions describes a decent chunk of games under Lopetegui, especially towards the end. He did a great job to keep us up, but getting the players fired up would be nowhere near my list of good things he did.

Our away form takes a massive nosedive around the time we realistically assure survival in the 2-0 Palace home win, that is undeniable, but OTOH we were still strong at home. For instance, we followed the trouncing at Brighton with a gutsy win over Villa. We finished 5 unbeaten at home and kept 4 clean sheets. For all the chatter about how bad things were on the road with Lopetegui, he got 0.75 PPG from 12 away games, compared with 0.77 PPG for Gary after 9, and the performances haven't particularly improved either.

 

[Norway Wolves]

A club of our size with the lack of sensible investment over the past few years can't really expect to be challenging for Europe every year.

The best we can hope for is build, challenge hopefully for a couple of years and then re-set, and go again. That is hopefully what we are doing.

Recent poor recruitment has set us back as has the appointment of Lage which was a big mistake that we are still recovering from. I see progress this year in that I don't dread watching games and actually apart from a couple of games I've enjoyed watching them.

As long as we are not involved in the relegation mix at this moment I can live with it.

This is our longest run of consecutive seasons in the top division for 50 years, we shouldn't forget that.

 

[Mile End Wanderer]

I don’t remember JL getting the lads fired up…….it might have been once in a while.
His games were absolute dire.
I have them all recorded …..if I was a masochist I could watch them again.

Now Gary has us attacking much more, scoring more goals, coming back from a goal or two down and drawing or winning.

Villa, home, chelsea home, spurs home, Brentford home, Everton away villa away we was fired up alright

Yesterday we showed no fight

How can people say Lopetegui did not get us fired up? Pretty laughable

Oneil showing yesterday well sorry that was pathetic no fight no urgency been the same since we beat spurs

Totally unacceptable if we want to play at this level

 

[North West Wanderer]

Other than City, Spurs, Bournemouth away I think the performances all season been pretty uninspiring! Luton, Everton, Burnley, Forest, and today remarkably poor!

I mean to concede 3 away to a team around us in West Ham after they have played in Europe mid week too is unforgivable!

Do we back GON next summer? Do we put more time into him? He's not pulling any trees up for me, I feel he should be getting more from this squad.

Thoughts gents???

It’s not unforgivable. he got it wrong yesterday.

Not panicking, more an observation.

I mean, FOSUN could always sell up and **** off in the meantime, which would be the best outcome for all involved. Be nice to have some owners that are actually interested, tbh.

you can accuse Fosun of lots of things, but not being interested is not one.
this comes across as petulant and spoilt.
Take a step back and look at what they HAVE achieved.
sometimes it’s also better the devil you do know. i’ve said repeatedly there’s very few owners id swap for.

Is this the FOSUN who got us promoted and have retained our place in the PL ever since?
It was SO much better before!!!!

you’re absolutely right. it doesn’t absolve them from criticism, far from it, but our average league position over 40 years or so is certainly not top 20!

I was one of O'Neil's biggest detractors and even I didn't think we were in a relegation battle. As poor as we are/were, O'Neil should be getting this squad to at least 15th, probably higher. Which he is, thus far.

I should add, as much as I have doubts about his suitability for the job, the players don't seem to have downed tools. Yet.

absolutely. i wasn’t sure and have swayed both ways with him. he’s talented and inexperienced and i thing we’ve seen both sides of this.

A bit of balance needed. We’ve done well in some games and bad in others. Some we have just been average.

We have a mid table team with a middling manager and the results/table reflects that.

If we were holding up the relegation places l would agree that we are in trouble. We’re doing exactly as expected and there will be more bad results but a few surprises by the end of the season.

Knee jerk reactions are for when the doctor thinks there’s no response. The team are not there yet.

Get to the end of the season then re assess. We will be fine. It won’t be pretty but it will be OK

good post and agree completely. the summer set us up for a season like you’ve described.

At least Lopetegui got our players fired up for games. What we are watching now is utter **** going through the motions. Really frustrating to watch

did you watch a different season last year?
did you forget the 11 goal without reply v Arsenal and Brighton with a much stronger squad available?? Revisionism at its finest.

Even if I have me doubts, he has done more than enough to warrant the full season..There has been some good signs and some not so good signs....

For me we look at the situation again in April /May time....

Seems mad to suggest it but if Burnley go down would Kompany be available....... Burnley seemed to have a plan but haven't got the players to do it.... although we beat them narrowly they was a bit more adventurous than us at home and looked well coached . Very short on quality agreed.

i think he’s excellent, again limited by a way squad with no money.

He’s starting to creak a bit, that much is obvious. His inexperience means he’s “stretching” to get points and probably overthinking things (the formation switch points to that, it should have been the week before not away at West Ham).

Suppose the next 6-8 games will give a wider picture of his abilities.

yep agree. when i saw the team, my heart sank. Toti and Dawson v Kudus and Bowen…

He's an inexperienced manager and as a result I don't know what the team will look like with all the wheels on. I'm sure he'll still be here in 12 months. Will he prosper with a preseason? Will Hobbs and O'Neil sign the correct players? I don't know. He could be another Eddie Howe or another Garry Monk. Funnily enough Monk did well in his first full season at Swansea, but there was always something there that I thought didn't fit right with how Swansea had operated in previous season and he eventually got found out.

i don’t think we will look back in 40 years and look on this as halcyon days. Similarly considering the pre season we had it’s kind of inevitable.

 

[North West Wanderer]

Villa, home, chelsea home, spurs home, Brentford home, Everton away villa away we was fired up alright

Yesterday we showed no fight

How can people say Lopetegui did not get us fired up? Pretty laughable

Oneil showing yesterday well sorry that was pathetic no fight no urgency been the same since we beat spurs

Totally unacceptable if we want to play at this level

how well did Lopetegiu fire a much better squad and team up v brighton and arsenal last year?

 

[Contrarian]

Did he? I think that's been questionable long before Julen or GON.

Runs deep then whose in the dug out, poor recruitment, confusion of which direction to take in regards to profile of player and some odd buys have caught us up and lack of immediate upgrades.

I agree with that. Some comments on the West Ham match were repeats of exactly the same thing said regularly since the Covid days. I don't really understand why we can't escape that certain style, because every player has changed since then (other than Kilman... he can't make our attackers too often mess up the final pass, can he?). Yet still the same problems are there. Starting poorly, empty first halves, goes back to Nunos days, for example.

Raising our game against the top 6, playing at snails pace and giving the bottom 6 confidence etc has been there for 4 managers now. While the West Ham match wasn't more typical of how we've been for a long time, rather than some strange exception. The difference was we got punished by opponents sharp in attack, where we've been let off a few times before.

 

[Timberwolf]

Everyone thought we were nailed on for relegation at the beginning of the season with this squad and GON. Now we are 10 points above the relegation zone, people think he should be getting more from them.

This place is nuts.

Not everyone, just those with jelly for a spine.

 

[Timberwolf]

Even if I have me doubts, he has done more than enough to warrant the full season..There has been some good signs and some not so good signs....

For me we look at the situation again in April /May time....

Seems mad to suggest it but if Burnley go down would Kompany be available....... Burnley seemed to have a plan but haven't got the players to do it.... although we beat them narrowly they was a bit more adventurous than us at home and looked well coached . Very short on quality agreed.

You’d employ a coach who had been relegated from the Premier League, rather than keep a coach who has kept two sides IN the Premier League?
I’m no psychologist but that there is some sure ****ed up thinking.
If we’re going to replace GON, then the excercise needs to be worth it. As much as he’s done well with Burnley, Kompany is far from ‘worth it’.

 

[waveney wolf]

God you have a short memory.
After last season we lost Neves , Mouthinio,traiore, Jimenez , Collins , , , , the guy came in 4 days before the season started , inherited Silva and sasa , 2 average keepers and an average squad ...scores goals most games ..and you think the wheels have come off??
Manager of the season more like under the circumstances

 

[Rhyl Wolf]

Boxing Day, just 10 years ago, Wolves beat Crewe at Molineux. Having drawn 3-3 at Rotherham and losing at home to MK in the previous two fixtures. We've come a long way in a decade.

Not justifying that woeful performance at Upton Park (or wherever) but offers a little bit of perspective. I no happy clapper either.

 

[Mile End Wanderer]

how well did Lopetegiu fire a much better squad and team up v brighton and arsenal last year?

2 dead rubber games…. We was firmly on the beach at this point and the players didn’t give a monkeys

 

[lets all have a disco]

You’d employ a coach who had been relegated from the Premier League, rather than keep a coach who has kept two sides IN the Premier League?
I’m no psychologist but that there is some sure ****ed up thinking.
If we’re going to replace GON, then the excercise needs to be worth it. As much as he’s done well with Burnley, Kompany is far from ‘worth it’.

Yes I agree to a point......but we ain't in the market for a decent, top(ish) head coach.....we shown that in the summer, we had one who was probably good for our level and we couldn't provide the necessary backing ....

So you would be looking at up and coming . .so it will all depend on shopping at that level....Has Kompany shown more than say O'Neil has so far in
in his managerial career , probably JUST..... Remember Spurs wanted him...they wouldn't want O'Neil...would he be a bigger attraction going forward....Maybe ..

It's the ok saying why employ a manager who got a team relegated and not keep one who kept you up....but give Kompany our squad and O'Neil Burnley squad , it would be O'Neil in the bottom 3...

If ya think just staying up is enough to carry on, nothing else matters and it won't come back to bite ya ...ya might as well just get Mick Mcarthy back....

 

[Jefe]

Now Gary has us attacking much more, scoring more goals, coming back from a goal or two down and drawing or winning.

Hardly. We've scored 8 goals in the last 7 (against some of the worst the league has to offer, mind), and have had an average of 3.8 shots on target in that time. In only four games this season has our xG been better than that of our opponent.

We've taken 8 points from 11 games where we conceded first (0.7 PPG), which is a little better than Lopetegui's rate of (0.6 PPG). To wit, we've dropped 7 points in the 6 games we scored first, taking 61% of all points available. Lop's boys took 72% of all points available when scoring the opener, dropping only 9 points from a possible 33.

 

[Bill S Preston Esq.]

We're being sucked into a relegation battle. It's a fair question.

Lol. FFS when you make claims like this it renders your argument as nonsensical.

There has been just one week this season where we've been further from the drop zone - a whopping one point further!

If the bottom three continue to pick up points at the same rate then one more win will secure Wolves PL status.

I know results and performances are not what anyone wants but it doesn't take much for the "end is nigh lunatics" to get going on here.

 

[Golden Arrow]

Absolutely.

Look at the current top 10. They are all better than us when they play as well as they can do.

We are in that group competing for 11th to 17th.

Totally agree with your comments, however I just want to see a little more fight and cohesion tbh (we don't help ourselves when we keeping giving the ball back to the opposition).
We did have a purple patch during the second half, but their third totally knocked the Christmas stuffing out of us.

Somebody said before yesterdays game that we'd gone 14 in London without a win. I'd be interested to know if that is the case as perhaps we need Palace, Fulham and Brentford to drop so as to increase our odds next time around.

Our next destination outside WV1 is in West London. Maybe this away travel is starting to grind me down, but personally I'd take a point right now if it was offered.

 

[Bostin]

Why are expectations so high?

We're a bang average mid table Premier League team - just like Fulham, Palace & Brentford - who, believe it or not, have a very similar pattern of results to us.

We will lose games against **** teams, and we will also win games against the big 6 because that's football.

Why has there got to be this level of panic every time we lose? Suddenly it's fact that Neto was papering over the cracks and we're only stopping up because there's 3 worse teams than us.

We've had a couple of uninspiring games whilst playing without some of our best players. So what? We've also scored a load more goals than last year and had a run of good home form.

You've got to enjoy the wins and not get too down when we lose, because guess what - it's football. It happens.

 

[SakosRightFoot]

Everyone thought we were nailed on for relegation at the beginning of the season with this squad and GON. Now we are 10 points above the relegation zone, people think he should be getting more from them.

This place is nuts.

This, absolutely this. Take out the 2 dodgy last minute pens and yesterday would only have been our 2nd defeat in 12, it's only the 2nd time we've not scored all season, we're still missing our best player, arguably our 2nd best was only fit enough to play a few mins and we had others who were ill. Yeah it wasn't great overall but the panic on here is nonsense.

To go down one of the bottom 3 teams are going to have win at least 4 more games than us in the 2nd half of the season, so far they've all won 2 compared to our 5, we're just not in relegation trouble, but we won't be challenging the top 8 either despite what some believe we should be doing

 

[North West Wanderer]

2 dead rubber games…. We was firmly on the beach at this point and the players didn’t give a monkeys

so that’s acceptable to lose to far wider margins with a far stronger squad? But Lopetegiu had the players playing for him so why would that happen if they were??

Truth is this obsession we all have with Lopetegiu one way or the other isn’t helping anyone.

 

[thommo1984]

and have had an average of 3.8 shots on target in that time

Jesus, that's appalling.