No Clean Sheet Since MARCH 13TH

[Kashmire Hawker]

IF THAT stat doesn't make your nerves jingle, I don't know what else will.

I know this is a tough League and a game like tonight always had the option of a City fireshow as turned out to be. BUT: our defence has many an answer to give, with tightness being completely burnt out!

No clean sheet since March 13th which is 7 games, is simply not acceptable for this level.

 

[marrs-guitar]

In all honesty, I was blasé about watching us ship goal after goal until I notice that the date is written in caps lock and my nerves really started to jingle, if not outright JANGLE.

Seriously, though, it's no surprise that once that peak of form from Kilman, Sa and (pre-AFCON) Saiss dropped back to average levels that we have come apart at the seams.

 

[WickedWolfie]

IF THAT stat doesn't make your nerves jingle, I don't know what else will.

I know this is a tough League and a game like tonight always had the option of a City fireshow as turned out to be. BUT: our defence has many an answer to give, with tightness being completely burnt out!

No clean sheet since March 13th which is 7 games, is simply not acceptable for this level.

Heaviest defeat since we came back up (worse than with 10 men under Nuno against Citeh). De Bruyne now joint leading goal scorer at Molineux this season.... Two more wonderful stats....

 

[Fenrir_]

But but but... the brilliant tactician had sorted out our defence not so long ago...

If you look at a lot of the games we kept clean sheets in, we had plenty of spells of riding our luck or Sa making great saves, it was never down to being brilliantly organised and shutting teams down. This little run of not keeping clean sheets was always going to happen

 

[Fifty Niner]

Defence played a massive part in getting us near those top places. Many a Mixer commented that if the defence dropped off we would be in trouble because our goal scoring abilities were really poor. And so it has proved.

 

[StefanWolves]

Ohh capitals in the title, you mean business Darren

God help you if you were here in the hard old days of losing to Crawley and scraping past Notts County.

 

[Kashmire Hawker]

Ohh capitals in the title, you mean business Darren

God help you if you were here in the hard old days of losing to Crawley and scraping past Notts County.

This is a forum you know and I am making an important and quite valid point, which many will fully share there alarm about.

Either like it or lump it.

 

[Contrarian]

Missing Max.

 

[StefanWolves]

This is a forum you know and I am making an important and quite valid point, which many will fully share there alarm about.

Either like it or lump it.

I liked your post. Does that suffice?

Who on earth do you think you are telling people to lump it. Hilarious

 

[BlahBlah]

IF THAT stat doesn't make your nerves jingle, I don't know what else will.

I know this is a tough League and a game like tonight always had the option of a City fireshow as turned out to be. BUT: our defence has many an answer to give, with tightness being completely burnt out!

No clean sheet since March 13th which is 7 games, is simply not acceptable for this level.

City hadn't conceded an away goal for 5 games...our attack is fabulous.

 

[sc91]

ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED

 

[sc91]

Ohh capitals in the title, you mean business Darren

God help you if you were here in the hard old days of losing to Crawley and scraping past Notts County.

Oh, I refer to them as the fun times.

 

[StefanWolves]

Oh, I refer to them as the fun times.

Best season in my lifetime to be fair. But you know what i meant

 

[sc91]

Best season in my lifetime to be fair. But you know what i meant

Oh yeah, loved it, but I do.

 

[Hoganstolemywife]

Oh yeah, loved it, but I do.

Got me.thinking what the best season in my life was.

Probably the Nuno promotion season. Played out like a film.

After that....Mick's first season maybe. The manner in which he got us playing and the exciting new players completely rekindled my love after Hoddleball.

I remember L1 being more of a slog than the final table suggests

 

[StefanWolves]

Got me.thinking what the best season in my life was.

Probably the Nuno promotion season. Played out like a film.

After that....Mick's first season maybe. The manner in which he got us playing and the exciting new players completely rekindled my love after Hoddleball.

I remember L1 being more of a slog than the final table suggests

L1 was hard work. But going to grounds and actually being able to get away tickets before all the glory hunters piled in on the away tickets was the highlight. Taking over some ****hole like Burslem will stick in the memory, for many reasons

 

[jwolfie91]

Defence played a massive part in getting us near those top places. Many a Mixer commented that if the defence dropped off we would be in trouble because our goal scoring abilities were really poor. And so it has proved.

The defenders didn't really as much as Sa did

 

[StefanWolves]

Sa was at fault for the second goal imo, should be doing better

 

[jwolfie91]

Sa was at fault for the second goal imo, should be doing better

I mean he saved it just deflected top bin

 

[StefanWolves]

I mean he saved it just deflected top bin

I’m talking about the first save. Should be doing better in my view

 

[jwolfie91]

I’m talking about the first save. Should be doing better in my view

Yeah good call actually, goes back into a bad area.

All came from Neves leaving KDB though in midfield. Downgrading his rating to a 2

 

[StefanWolves]

Yeah good call actually, goes back into a bad area.

All came from Neves leaving KDB though in midfield. Downgrading his rating to a 2

Cant really criticise Sa after his season tho so i’ll give him a pass

 

[those were the days]

The XG league table makes worrying reading

EPL xG Table and Scorers for the 2022/2023 season | Understat.com

xG table of EPL standings and top scorers for the 2022/2023 season, also tables from past seasons and other European football leagues.

understat.com

Filter by the last 3 months and we're third worst for both expected goals scored and expected goals conceded. The only teams arguably worse than us are Norwich, Watford and Leeds who might all be going down.

Our top scorer for the last 2 seasons has half a dozen goals and no player consistently provides a reliable stream of assists. If you sum the historical goals / 90 min rates of any of our starting lineups this season, it's rarely much higher than 1 and, surprise-surprise, that's around what we've been averaging. There just aren't enough goals in the team and it's been like that for awhile.

Defensively, we're getting worse too. We've starting to get regularly beaten by 2+ goal margins whereas in the past this was a rarity. Teams are pressing us aggressively when we play a deep defensive line and we no longer have the same threat on the counter since Traore departed and so are now often conceding that all important first goal

We may beat Norwich and scrape 8th but FOSUN can't afford to be complacent otherwise they could be staring at a relegation battle next season.

 

[jwolfie91]

The XG league table makes worrying reading

EPL xG Table and Scorers for the 2022/2023 season | Understat.com

xG table of EPL standings and top scorers for the 2022/2023 season, also tables from past seasons and other European football leagues.

understat.com

Filter by the last 3 months and we're third worst for both expected goals scored and expected goals conceded. The only teams arguably worse than us are Norwich, Watford and Leeds who might all be going down.

Our top scorer for the last 2 seasons has half a dozen goals and no player consistently provides a reliable stream of assists. If you sum the historical goals / 90 min rates of any of our starting lineups this season, it's rarely much higher than 1 and, surprise-surprise, that's around what we've been averaging. There just aren't enough goals in the team and it's been like that for awhile.

Defensively, we're getting worse too. We've starting to get regularly beaten by 2+ goal margins whereas in the past this was a rarity. Teams are pressing us aggressively when we play a deep defensive line and we no longer have the same threat on the counter since Traore departed and so are now often conceding that all important first goal

We may beat Norwich and scrape 8th but FOSUN can't afford to be complacent otherwise they could be staring at a relegation battle next season.

Yep, massive clear out needed in summer. I'm rarely a fan of massive playing staff change but Boly, Saiss, Moutinho, Trincão, Donk I'd all move and Neves as well for the right fee. He isn't anywhere near the player people on here think he is

 

[those were the days]

Yep, massive clear out needed in summer. I'm rarely a fan of massive playing staff change but Boly, Saiss, Moutinho, Trincão, Donk I'd all move and Neves as well for the right fee. He isn't anywhere near the player people on here think he is

A Cundle - Shi midfield it is next season then

The recruitment needs to be absolutely spot on over the summer just to tread water, especially if Moutinho doesn't get a new contract and Neves gets sold. Neves isn't a 70m player that's true but he's still comfortably one of our best players and we'll miss him hugely when he moves on, as we will when Joao departs.

 

[jwolfie91]

A Cundle - Shi midfield it is next season then

The recruitment needs to be absolutely spot on over the summer just to tread water, especially if Moutinho doesn't get a new contract and Neves gets sold. Neves isn't a 70m player that's true but he's still comfortably one of our best players and we'll miss him hugely when he moves on, as we will when Joao departs.

Yeah very true Neves is a massive hole to fill, but if we get £50M you can do it for about half that I reckon. A defensive shield who recycles the ball

 

[Manic88]

We have got one more year out of this squad than we probably should, the fight is definitely gone now though. Very sad.

Rebuild this summer or in the championship in summer 2023 or 2024

 

[Manic88]

A Cundle - Shi midfield it is next season then

The recruitment needs to be absolutely spot on over the summer just to tread water, especially if Moutinho doesn't get a new contract and Neves gets sold. Neves isn't a 70m player that's true but he's still comfortably one of our best players and we'll miss him hugely when he moves on, as we will when Joao departs.

I think Shi has already put in more tackles than Dendonker at Compton this season

 

[Mutchy]

This is a forum you know and I am making an important and quite valid point, which many will fully share there alarm about.

Either like it or lump it.

Your point may well be valid, but for forum etiquette CAPSLOCK is shouting, and not a great thing to make use of on a very frequent basis.

 

[WickedWolfie]

I’m talking about the first save. Should be doing better in my view

I said that last night. Keepers are taught to push the ball sideways, not straight back into the danger zone.

 

[Cornwall Wolf]

We were not shipping goals when we had our rock solid back 5 .. injuries have had an affect Saiss Semedo Kilman out.. also maybe just me but we have seemed more open at the back with Boly playing ..

 

[Wolves Heathen]

Worrying times, but Semedo out, Kilman out, Saiss off form is part of the reason. but conceding and not scoring is a big big worry for next season.

 

[jwolfie91]

Worrying times, but Semedo out, Kilman out, Saiss off form is part of the reason. but conceding and not scoring is a big big worry for next season.

Semedo out has definitely made a difference. Jonny does not look comfortable at right back, body position wrong a lot

 

[Contrarian]

Of clubs above us, Arsenal's last clean sheet was March 19th. West Ham had one against Norwich the other day, but before that, their previous was February 27th (against us). Is the sky falling for them, too?

We had an excellent run of clean sheets earlier this season and what happened? "We're not scoring enough goals, it's boring, we would rather win 3-2 than 1-0".

 

[Contrarian]

The XG league table makes worrying reading

EPL xG Table and Scorers for the 2022/2023 season | Understat.com

xG table of EPL standings and top scorers for the 2022/2023 season, also tables from past seasons and other European football leagues.

understat.com

Filter by the last 3 months and we're third worst for both expected goals scored and expected goals conceded. The only teams arguably worse than us are Norwich, Watford and Leeds who might all be going down.

Our top scorer for the last 2 seasons has half a dozen goals and no player consistently provides a reliable stream of assists. If you sum the historical goals / 90 min rates of any of our starting lineups this season, it's rarely much higher than 1 and, surprise-surprise, that's around what we've been averaging. There just aren't enough goals in the team and it's been like that for awhile.

Defensively, we're getting worse too. We've starting to get regularly beaten by 2+ goal margins whereas in the past this was a rarity. Teams are pressing us aggressively when we play a deep defensive line and we no longer have the same threat on the counter since Traore departed and so are now often conceding that all important first goal

We may beat Norwich and scrape 8th but FOSUN can't afford to be complacent otherwise they could be staring at a relegation battle next season.

That's true and it is concerning. Though we had a similar run last season, too. Can't remember exactly, but something like 8 or 9 without a win. Around the time of the Albion defeat and the Chorley shambles, and perhaps into February, we were similarly only above the bottom 3 on form for 2 or 3 months. Last seasons bottom 3 were uniquely bad and adrift the whole season, which made us safer than on a typical season.

Anyway, it feels to me like we're falling back to that level. It's like changing managers just gave us a "new manager bounce" in slow motion. The effect has worn off and the problems back then have not been addressed, so here we are again. We've hit the bad form later, but same as last season, it's the points we gained earlier in the season that are holding our position up.

The owners could try the same thing again this summer - new manager, with a performance improvement due to the novelty. Get a few points on the board, then start to fade when the novelty wears off and hope it's enough. Or they could try and address the root causes, which would probably cost a lot more.

 

[Hot Fuss]

Heaviest defeat since we came back up (worse than with 10 men under Nuno against Citeh). De Bruyne now joint leading goal scorer at Molineux this season.... Two more wonderful stats....

Thank God Cutrone popped that one in the 5-2 defeat to Chelsea or youd have had one less chance to slate Bruno!

Also is 5-1 a heavier defeat than the several 4-0s we had under the greatest manager in the world??

 

[JOSWolf]

Kilman has been a big player for us this season. Bigger than many of us realised in a way. He is now our best centre back by a country mile in my opinion.

 

[WolfLing]

Don't worry, these things happen.

Have you tried cutting out caffeine and citrus from your diet? They can irritate the bladder and make it harder to get through the night.

 

[JadeWolf]

Kilman has been a big player for us this season. Bigger than many of us realised in a way. He is now our best centre back by a country mile in my opinion.

Yep, when we were keeping all those clean sheets we had Kilman, Coady, Saiss, Semedo and Ait-Nouri as our back 5, currently 3 of those are out for the season. No wonder the defence has struggled when you take out 60% of the players who have been successful.

 

[Fenrir_]

I said that last night. Keepers are taught to push the ball sideways, not straight back into the danger zone.

Something else Patricio was very good at. Sa has been brilliant and a big upgrade on last season's Patricio, but you do look at it with the penalties he's given away and things like not pushing the ball to a safe area, Patricio was safe as houses in those regards, stand to be corrected but I don't think he gave a penalty away at all in his time here, and he was brilliant at one on ones, especially when a player tried to go around him