So what do we do about it???

[waveney wolf]

Debruyne scored as many goals in half an hour last night as our toothless duo have scored all season...that's pathetic..
So , as we ve just missed out on Haaland ( only a few quid more than Fabio Silva ) ,what do we do about it???
Me...I'd sign Pukki from Norwich, a natural finisher.....

 

[Wednesbury Wolf]

Debruyne scored as many goals in half an hour last night as our toothless duo have scored all season...that's pathetic..
So , as we ve just missed out on Haaland ( only a few quid more than Fabio Silva ) ,what do we do about it???
Me...I'd sign Pukki from Norwich, a natural finisher.....

We can have all the natural finishers in the world but it won't help much as the major problem is not having midfielders who are capable of what they're being paid for and operating to a system that's rubbish.

 

[Ned]

We can have all the natural finishers in the world but it won't help much as the major problem is not having midfielders who are capable of what they're being paid for and operating to a system that's rubbish.

I also don’t think it helps when we have a centre forward who doesn’t look to get into goalscoring areas.

 

[KBWWFC]

Is this satire?

 

[Ponty]

Lage has been here for all but two games of a season and everything has gradually got worse. The starting point for improving all over the pitch is get rid of him. If he stays the only thing to look forward to next season is a relegation battle.

 

[sc91]

Take Bruno out back, give him a pat on the head, his favourite chew toy, his favourite pedigree biscuit, pat him on the head and say on you go boy.

 

[JH1902]

Back Bruno in a huge summer, that's what we do.

 

[Matt]

We need a bit of an overhaul, no doubt about it. It's been a brilliant 5 years or so, but this group of players has now run its course and needs shaking up. The main issue for me over the last couple of seasons has been the clear lack of physicality and athleticism in the side. Coady, Saiss, Boly, Kilman, Neves, Moutinho, Dendoncker, Raul, and Fabio are all pretty slow - pretty much all of our players who play in the middle. Even elsewhere - Jonny, RAN, Marcal, and Trincao aren't articularly quick either. So an overhaul of the spine in summer is needed as a minimum - it should have happened last summer, but didn't. We can't make that mistake again. We're ending the final third of the season in relegation form and without the significant changes I don't see any reason why that would change next season.

 

[Flump]

Lage has been here for all but two games of a season and everything has gradually got worse. The starting point for improving all over the pitch is get rid of him. If he stays the only thing to look forward to next season is a relegation battle.

I'm old enough to remember when people said we'd be in for a relegation battle this season.

I’d be delighted and surprised if we get a top half finish but expect we’ll be lower. If awe don’t get a couple of new players in that hit the ground running it could be a lot lower. Appointing Lage is a massive gamble we didn’t need to take and long shots rarely win. Relegation is more likely than a top 7 finish.

 

[Ponty]

I'm old enough to remember when people said we'd be in for a relegation battle this season.

Lage benefited from the structure Nuno put into place. Now he’s been here a year and it’s unraveling. Just taken a bit longer than expected.

 

[Flump]

Lage benefited from the structure Nuno put into place. Now he’s been here a year and it’s unraveling. Just taken a bit longer than expected.

A bit weird to look at something that's turned out very different from what you expected, and simply think that it proves you were right all along - but you're probably not thinking straight because you're so delighted and surprised!

 

[Wolf in Kenilworth]

We can have all the natural finishers in the world but it won't help much as the major problem is not having midfielders who are capable of what they're being paid for and operating to a system that's rubbish.

Boom shake shake shake the room!

 

[reanswolf]

Raul looked pretty sharp last 2 games , but no midfield support at all.

 

[old wittonian]

Debruyne scored as many goals in half an hour last night as our toothless duo have scored all season...that's pathetic..
So , as we ve just missed out on Haaland ( only a few quid more than Fabio Silva ) ,what do we do about it???
Me...I'd sign Pukki from Norwich, a natural finisher.....

I think Pukki would be a good shout. Didn't realise he was now 32 so probably a no then.

 

[WolfLing]

This squad is crying out for a couple of different midfield players, has been for a while.

Most of City's joy last night came in that pocket of space just in front of our defence. We need a midfielder focussed on defending (a Fabinho/Rodri type).

Dendoncker also found himself further forward than Jimenez at times last night. Yes, he managed to score, but we've seen from previous evidence that he's not the answer to that problem. A more progressive, goal-scoring midfielder is also needed (could be Gibbs-White?).

 

[YouGottaRaulWithIt]

Let's be honest. We all love Raul. One of the nicest blokes to pull on a Wolves shirt. I cried when he got head butted by that thug from Arsenal. Really happy when he recovered. A bonus when he started playing again. I didn't care that he was wasn't scoring, it was enough to see him back.

But it's obvious now that he will never be close to the player he was. He doesn't attack the box and we look impotent without a goalscorer.

We need an upgrade, a proper no.9, and I can't see how he can get in the team. Time for him to go.

 

[Alex Rae The Substitute]

I have to say Lage has done better than I’d expected, with a talented but albeit limited squad at his disposal. The fact we’ll finish 8-9th is commendable really.

I do have my doubts though that Lage is the man to lead the mini-overhaul this squad requires. Not sure he really has any experience there? And his second season at Benfica doesn’t fill me with too much confidence.

Having said that, I’m not sure who we could realistically get that could do it?

 

[Mugwump]

Lage was doing better than i expected, but the last 12 games stats are terrible. 10 points from 36. Eight defeats. We are leaking goals and barely scoring. Its relegation battle material and Lage has shown no signs he can turn it around and at least make us hard to beat like the first half of the season.

I've never, ever been one for knee jerk sackings, but something doesnt seem right. I also dont think the players are really taking to him despite the snippets you hear from Coady. We have no identity in our playing style and with Bruno having no answers to this form slump, as much as i think we should back him, sacking him is a very logical decision if we can get somebody in like Lopetegui. If we cant, then i think we will give him the start of next season to impress but i reckon if things havent kicked on he will be gone pretty quickly.

 

[Hoganstolemywife]

Either back or sack the manager. Done well but we seem to be on a downwards trend now

 

[Perton Wolf]

Lage was doing better than i expected, but the last 12 games stats are terrible. 10 points from 36. Eight defeats. We are leaking goals and barely scoring. Its relegation battle material and Lage has shown no signs he can turn it around and at least make us hard to beat like the first half of the season.

I've never, ever been one for knee jerk sackings, but something doesnt seem right. I also dont think the players are really taking to him despite the snippets you hear from Coady. We have no identity in our playing style and with Bruno having no answers to this form slump. As much as i think we should back him, sacking him is a very logical decision if we can get somebody in like Lopetegui. If we cant, then i think we will give him the start of next season to impress but i reckon if things havent kicked on he will be gone pretty quickly.

One thing to note is that once the rot set in at Benfica after a good start to his managerial career there, Bruno was unable to turn it around. Not to mention that was in a league where he was managing one of the top three sides.

 

[marrs-guitar]

Debruyne scored as many goals in half an hour last night as our toothless duo have scored all season...that's pathetic..
So , as we ve just missed out on Haaland ( only a few quid more than Fabio Silva ) ,what do we do about it???
Me...I'd sign Pukki from Norwich, a natural finisher.....

We could sign Haaland and he wouldn't get a sniff of a goal most weeks with the chances served up by the rest of the team.

We have no routes to goal and haven't had any since we got rid of the Doherty waltz into the box and Jota being able to run forward with the ball. The central midfield have never been capable of playing through-balls, which is precisely what a player like Pukki (or Haaland) is entirely reliant upon, or carrying it forward and neither of Semedo or RAN have been capable of overlapping and delivering the right pass. They go a certain way forward then get nervous and check back.

Podence has been the only player who has any semblance of being able to unbalance an opposition defence with his movement and ideas, but he is physically not the right fit for a full PL season and his own goalscoring statistics have been average all career long, even playing in a weak Greek league.

Raul could still be a force with a competent team behind him, and even at Brighton, I reckon that he'd probably have got 10 this season. Silva could actually manage a few goals in a better team as well, but Wolves' set-up, both squad wise since 2020 and tactically, is absolute poison for any forward.

 

[Matt]

Lage was doing better than i expected, but the last 12 games stats are terrible. 10 points from 36. Eight defeats. We are leaking goals and barely scoring. Its relegation battle material and Lage has shown no signs he can turn it around and at least make us hard to beat like the first half of the season.

I've never, ever been one for knee jerk sackings, but something doesnt seem right. I also dont think the players are really taking to him despite the snippets you hear from Coady. We have no identity in our playing style and with Bruno having no answers to this form slump, as much as i think we should back him, sacking him is a very logical decision if we can get somebody in like Lopetegui. If we cant, then i think we will give him the start of next season to impress but i reckon if things havent kicked on he will be gone pretty quickly.

I agree. If we can get someone like Lopetegui, then sacking Bruno is an absolute no brainer imo.

 

[Rangiora Wolf]

What really rips my shorts is that we are owned by billionaires with the budget of morgan.

 

[Halesowen wwfc]

Let's be honest. We all love Raul. One of the nicest blokes to pull on a Wolves shirt. I cried when he got head butted by that thug from Arsenal. Really happy when he recovered. A bonus when he started playing again. I didn't care that he was wasn't scoring, it was enough to see him back.

But it's obvious now that he will never be close to the player he was. He doesn't attack the box and we look impotent without a goalscorer.

We need an upgrade, a proper no.9, and I can't see how he can get in the team. Time for him to go.

It always sounds so horrible when a case is put forward for raul to go, but sadly i have to agree with your sentiment. We have no focal point in attack. He tries to do too much with the ball when he has it, trying to dribble past all of the defenders, then loses the ball clumsily. Whether this is an ongoing result of his head injury with poor decision making, or just that he isnt as good as he used to be, or he has no support from other team members so feels he has to try and do it all himself (probably a bit of all 3) so we cant be relying on him up front anymore.

I would liked to have seen him undertake a different role in the team, maybe as a number 10, with fabio in front of him, but then our attack is still pretty mute with fabio. Lots of effort, impresses when plays but still cant score.

I think the case for raul going is going to be replicated among a lot of our mainstay players these coming weeks. The same conversations will be had around coady, moutinho, donk, boly, jonny, podence, hwang.

 

[Oh Robbie Robie]

Apparently we are still the 8th best team in the country. #NeverSatisfied

 

[Mugwump]

What really rips my shorts is that we are owned by billionaires with the budget of morgan.

The thing is though, their wealth is spread over multiple business ventures. Its not like everything is focused on Wolves.

 

[Rangiora Wolf]

The thing is though, their wealth is spread over multiple business ventures. Its not like everything is focused on Wolves.

Isnt that the same for other billionaire owners though?

 

[Halesowen wwfc]

What really rips my shorts is that we are owned by billionaires with the budget of morgan.

They have bought a classic car back to life with an expensive full restoration, but dont keep up to date with the annual maintenance. The car will slowly start falling apart again.

 

[Rangiora Wolf]

They have bought a classic car back to life with an expensive full restoration, but dont keep up to date with the annual maintenance. The car will slowly start falling apart again.

A good analogy.

 

[Sedgers]

We could sign Haaland and he wouldn't get a sniff of a goal most weeks with the chances served up by the rest of the team.

We have no routes to goal and haven't had any since we got rid of the Doherty waltz into the box and Jota being able to run forward with the ball. The central midfield have never been capable of playing through-balls, which is precisely what a player like Pukki (or Haaland) is entirely reliant upon, or carrying it forward and neither of Semedo or RAN have been capable of overlapping and delivering the right pass. They go a certain way forward then get nervous and check back.

Podence has been the only player who has any semblance of being able to unbalance an opposition defence with his movement and ideas, but he is physically not the right fit for a full PL season and his own goalscoring statistics have been average all career long, even playing in a weak Greek league.

Raul could still be a force with a competent team behind him, and even at Brighton, I reckon that he'd probably have got 10 this season. Silva could actually manage a few goals in a better team as well, but Wolves' set-up, both squad wise since 2020 and tactically, is absolute poison for any forward.

Absolutely spot on.

 

[Zico]

Lage benefited from the structure Nuno put into place. Now he’s been here a year and it’s unraveling. Just taken a bit longer than expected.

Could you expand, as I genuinely don't understand what you mean? Lage took the side that finished 13th, wasn't given the chance to improve the squad, and is finishing 8th. What "structure" do you mean that was in place and is unravelling?

 

[Mugwump]

Isnt that the same for other billionaire owners though?

I'm not sure, i dont pay that much attention to other clubs.

It still all depends as well on how much they prioritise one area over another. I dont think Wolves are the number 1 priority for Fosun.

 

[Macman]

We need a bit of an overhaul, no doubt about it. It's been a brilliant 5 years or so, but this group of players has now run its course and needs shaking up. The main issue for me over the last couple of seasons has been the clear lack of physicality and athleticism in the side. Coady, Saiss, Boly, Kilman, Neves, Moutinho, Dendoncker, Raul, and Fabio are all pretty slow - pretty much all of our players who play in the middle. Even elsewhere - Jonny, RAN, Marcal, and Trincao aren't articularly quick either. So an overhaul of the spine in summer is needed as a minimum - it should have happened last summer, but didn't. We can't make that mistake again. We're ending the final third of the season in relegation form and without the significant changes I don't see any reason why that would change next season.

I think you are right Matt. My concern in an overhaul is it runs a massive risk of backfiring and we become even worse with new payers not gelling or not adapting to our system. This current bunch of players have served us well but simply cannot keep playing week in week out next year as we will be in a relegation battle. They have done great getting is to top half finishes for most of our seasons back, but we cannot keep relying on them, it will backfire soon. They look tired, jaded, and a lot just need moving on. Just hope we get the funds to do it.

 

[marrs-guitar]

The key point with the ownership is that it is an investment company. We're not a plaything to indulge, which was true under Hayward and even Morgan.

I think you can easily see that the sums don't add up when it comes to any greater ambition than simply staying in the Premier League and hoping to play the transfer market well.

The TV revenue makes turning over a profit **** easy as long as you don't go OTT on wages and fees for players. Shi has also recruited a commercial genius to aid the cause in Vinny Clark, who has the brilliant strategy of increasing the prices on everything forevermore, just to keep the ticket and merchandising income ticking along nicely.

Trying to genuinely build a top 6 club - i.e. not just finish occasionally 6th, but genuinely be among the 6 most successful teams almost every year - costs too much in player purchases and wages, and we will never have the off field income through a stadium as ours is too small and the costs of renovating it are too high for what it would bring (filling a 45,000 stadium in Wolverhampton would require discounted tickets to those at present, and not bring much added revenue). This is why nothing will happen to the stadium until the SB is simply too unsafe to use.

We're actually just reverting into the reality for pretty much every non-"big 6" club or non-plaything club (Newcastle, Everton) after the momentum of the big influx of money to fund promotion and ensure top flight stability and the gradual loss of the components that rode that wave (head coach gone, key players slowly leaving, age catching up on many others).

The real error in the whole Fosun takeover was Shi, in his naivety about the football world, shooting off his mouth about us winning league titles and being around the elite within x years when the company was never prepared to invest the huge sums required to achieve that. It's that heightened sense of expectation that we will always go further, always get more points year on year that is largely creating the unrest among the fanbase.

And there was actually never any need to crow about big plans after the takeover: after the aimless wandering and disinterest at the end of the Morgan-era it would simply have been enough to pledge to try and drive the club forward to better times (at most, to commit to a real tilt at promotion and being a regular member of the PL).

Shi tried to pin as much of last season's drop in points on Nuno by booting him and the subsequent smear campaign via Spiers, just 6 months after they gave him a new contract, but if they can't rinse and repeat that year-in year-out without ending up with a Watford-esque mess of a disjointed squad full of potential transfer "gains" and an endless list of head coaches.

There really needs to be some form of honesty and balance coming into play now about "this is where we are, this is what we think is realistic in our situation and how we plan to achieve it", but the hierarchy have gone into hiding. At most we get their own pre-vetted PR presentation "Ask Wolves (as long as the question isn't too uncomfortable)" video once a year nowadays. Aside from that it's radio silence, even when it comes to openly publishing the season ticket prices for everyone to see.

 

[Macman]

I just worry that Fosun will see their Wolves ‘product’ as finishing 8th/9th in the Premier League, so they just keep it ticking over and expect the same again next season. ‘Carry on Bruno, carry on Jeff, heres some pocket money for a couple more Portuguese potentials, that should keep us top half again.’

 

[Ewok vs Wolf]

The form has nosedived
When everyone is fit we are a solid team we are 8th for a reason. We don't need a mass overhaul but the team does need refreshing

 

[Ewok vs Wolf]

I just worry that Fosun will see their Wolves ‘product’ as finishing 8th/9th in the Premier League, so they just keep it ticking over and expect the same again next season. ‘Carry on Bruno, carry on Jeff, heres some pocket money for a couple more Portuguese potentials, that should keep us top half again.’

Is that really so bad
I'd settle for consistent top half finishes. Better than being stuck in the championship for yea4s or battling relegation

 

[thommo1984]

Don't think we need to worry too much, we only need a new spine, new centre forwards, a new midfield, new defence, new manager, new ideas, a new transfer structure, new identity, and big changes behind the scenes.

 

[Mugwump]

Don't think we need to worry too much, we only need a new spine, new centre forwards, a new midfield, new defence, new manager, new ideas, a new transfer structure, new identity, and big changes behind the scenes.

Dont forget a new Steve Bull stand

 

[northnorfolkwolf]

Fosun have allowed the club to stagnate over 2 seasons. Further investment in the the team should have gone in over summer 2020 after a 2nd 7th place finish. Fosun have allowed a sizeable group of players to move past their sell by date all at the same time. Rather than bring in 2 or 3 decent players in 2020 and in 2021 so as to keep the team fresh and on its toes they have allowed a situation to develop where wholesale changes are now needed. The team as a whole is stale and needs a thorough overhaul. Whether Fosun have the determination or the funds do this is debateable. Imv old hands like Saiss, Boly, Dendonker, Moutinho, Marcal, Jimenez should all be moved on. Not sure about Coady tbh? I think Neves will go. The team could then be developed around Sa, Kilman, MGW, Neto and possibly Silva. We have good youngsters in RAN, Chiquinho and let's not forget Podence. Fosun need to purchase Prem quality and Prem ready players to augment the youngsters we already have. Not so sure Lage is the man to move us forward but he perhaps deserves a chance to put a team out in his image. I don't think any of us could face another season like the last 2?!