So what do we do about it???

[Chris H]

I’d say @reanswolf has been right for about 3 years (and I initially disagreed with him to be fair), we need more from midfield.

Neves and Moutinho are brilliant, I love the pair of them, I also don’t think Dendoncker is anywhere near as bad as is made out, however none of them offer anything different, none are powerful or pacey.

If the opposition play in a way that suits us we can dominate anyone, but we get done by pace and/or power in the middle every time. We regularly come up against midfielders that aren’t anywhere near as good technically as Neves and Moutinho and get overrun, because no matter how good they are, without a player who can break up play and/or carry the ball next to them they can’t play to their own strengths as well.

Having said all that, I don’t think a different midfielder suddenly solved everything because we have similar issues through the spine of the team.

If I was the recruitment team I’d be filtering players by pace and signing the best quick ones I could get at CB, CM and a forward (not necessarily CF, but another pacey forward option).

Pace down the spine of this team would transform it, even if it’s only 2 / 3 starters.

 

[Stafford]

Our budget is nowhere near the top 8. So we'd have to have some really Astute transfer windows.

Salary wise Jiminez would have to go to bring in another striker of even semi-decent Premierleague quality.

 

[TheConcourse]

The biggest challenge that I see here is recruitment and style.

Ultimately, the Head Coach can’t dictate the style because we can’t run through a cycle of new players every 18 months if things go wrong.

We need to find that identity again. Real foundational stuff that comes long before we even talk about signing players.

Has our Director of Football - or whatever his title is - been through that process? Does he have the credibility in the game to steer a Head Coach in that direction.

I said at the time of Nuno being sacked that the ideal move for him, given how intense football management is, would maybe be to move upstairs and transition between DoF/Head Coach when the need develops.

I’d like to see Wolves create a model where the DoF is responsible for the structure and the style, and they don’t rely on a Head Coach to bring in new backroom staff every four seconds, because all of the hires align with what we’re trying to create.

The current structure makes no sense to me, as a challenger club.

 

[Contrarian]

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.

Everything apart from our league position. And we've already scored as many goals as last season - with 2 matches to go. Fair enough, not much of a difference, but definitely not worse.

I'm not convinced by Bruno. But I am convinced that there is nothing significantly different anybody can get from *this* group of players.

 

[JOSWolf]

Our pace and strength through the spine of the team is very poor and was shown up brutally last night. I'd argue they will need to bring in at least 6 new signings this summer if all of the out of contract players are going and Neves is sold. The midfield and defence badly lack pace and need new signings and too me we need another proper central attacking midfield player to compete with MGW, who has to stay and a new striker with both strength and pace. Fosun have let this squad stagnate for too long now and action is needed this summer.

 

[waveney wolf]

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?).

Maybe that d be coadys best position,in front of the back 4 , rather than 5 yards behind SA,,but that won't improve our lack of goals.....

 

[WolfLing]

Maybe that d be coadys best position,in front of the back 4 , rather than 5 yards behind SA,,but that won't improve our lack of goals.....

If it means he gets in the box more, he will probably end up as our top scorer!

 

[Parkfieldswolf]

I’m not particularly impressed with Lage but he’s kept us up and a top half finish so it’s now up to the board. Either back him or sack him.

 

[Contrarian]

I’d say @reanswolf has been right for about 3 years (and I initially disagreed with him to be fair), we need more from midfield.

Neves and Moutinho are brilliant, I love the pair of them, I also don’t think Dendoncker is anywhere near as bad as is made out, however none of them offer anything different, none are powerful or pacey.

If the opposition play in a way that suits us we can dominate anyone, but we get done by pace and/or power in the middle every time. We regularly come up against midfielders that aren’t anywhere near as good technically as Neves and Moutinho and get overrun, because no matter how good they are, without a player who can break up play and/or carry the ball next to them they can’t play to their own strengths as well.

Having said all that, I don’t think a different midfielder suddenly solved everything because we have similar issues through the spine of the team.

If I was the recruitment team I’d be filtering players by pace and signing the best quick ones I could get at CB, CM and a forward (not necessarily CF, but another pacey forward option).

Pace down the spine of this team would transform it, even if it’s only 2 / 3 starters.

There's a lot of truth in that. Takes me right back to that 0-2 defeat by Watford soon after promotion. We'd been playing well, got some good results, then that. Got ripped apart by a powerful/pacey midfield. It triggered a worrying run where similar was happening. Thankfully Nuno solved it by scrapping the 3-4-3 and going 3-5-2. Also helped by Raul and Jota excelling in a 2, which doesn't look possible with any of our current forwards.

Our pace is all out wide. These days, top teams just aren't that worried about pace out wide. It's down the centre that causes the panics.

What you say about the opposition playing in a way that suits us - it's taken time to figure it out, but that's where I'm at, too. There are patterns in those matches where we don't turn up and the ones we look a league ahead. Something like the Everton 2-1 earlier this season, we even saw it in the same match. Totally dominant because Everton gave us space in the middle. Once Everton changed and blocked that, the match was even..arguably they had the better of it. It's not about "our" formation, it's about the type of players our opponents have and how they approach it. It's not that the players say "can't be bothered today". It's down to type of opponent.

It is the spine. Seems to me , every window, a set of tricky wide players turns up (and an inexperienced CH or two), like we are collecting them. And it isn't really what we need. Again, agree that no one player is going to fix it.

 

[Macman]

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

Of course thats not so bad at all! My point is if we keep expecting the same group of players to keep performing, without an injection of quality new players and bringing quality youth through to keep consistent top half finishes then we will eventually be stuck in the championship or battling relegation.

 

[Ponty]

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?

Broadly we had a team where everyone knew their role, especially when the opposition had the ball. Things might have gone a bit stale under Nuno but the loss of Raul and replacing him with Jose the Statue certainly had a huge impact.

Similar happened at Everton when Moyes left and Martinez came in. Initially they were fine defensively but gradually as players weren’t getting trained in the same way that defensive solidity was lost and they were no longer hard to beat.

Now I watch us and we no longer look like a team greater than the sum of its parts, we look a team that increasingly has no recognisable pattern of play and rarely looks like scoring.

 

[Ponty]

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!

I fully accept our league position is far higher than I expected but look a little deeper and there are huge structural problems with the team.

Lage hasn’t been helped by our transfer dealings but since January we’ve been very poor. Since the first three games I don’t think there’s been one match where we’ve got less than we deserved based on how we’ve played but there have been quite a few where we’ve got more. A run of 33 games of that happening is unlikely to continue and whilst we’ve done well to get the points we gave this year I see little evidence in recent performances to suggest the same will happen next year. Teams have learnt that we struggle to cope with a high press and we struggle to create chances let alone score goals. We no longer look solid defensively and if Jonny’s recent performances are anything to go by the team spirit is not the same.

 

[Bill McCai]

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.

100%

 

[Zico]

Broadly we had a team where everyone knew their role, especially when the opposition had the ball. Things might have gone a bit stale under Nuno but the loss of Raul and replacing him with Jose the Statue certainly had a huge impact.

Similar happened at Everton when Moyes keft and Martinez came in. Initially they were fine defensively but gradually as players weren’t getting trained in the same way that defensive solidity was lost and they were no longer hard to beat.

Now I watch us and we no longer look like a team greater than the sun of its parts, we look a team that increasingly has no recognisable pattern of play and rarely looks like scoring.

Thanks, I understand what you're saying now. The way I see it is that Bruno wanted to do something different with these players, but it hasn't worked out, and at least part of that is because the players aren't good enough defensively to deal with a more open style of play.

I'm not sure it's fair to say that losing the defensive solidity has been due to the way they've been trained. We have been much better all season defending set pieces, for example. I do think that the players and manager have lost belief in each other as to their direction of travel. I think that too many of the players have either gone stale, lost their edge, in one or two cases are past their best, and won't be capable of adapting.

So I don't think that the main blame lies at Bruno's door. Whilst I respect the view that Bruno isn't the man to take us forward, I think that whoever does, we need a squad overhaul. Personally I would give Bruno the chance to do that.

 

[MasWolf]

Surely we should be aiming higher than the likes of Pukki.

 

[Warrington_Wolf]

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.

Superb post - great summary of how we now find ourselves at a bit of a crossroads.

 

[thommo1984]

Surely we should be aiming higher than the likes of Pukki.

Yeah his legs have gone, pretty much. If that's who we're going for we've got bigger problems than I thought!

 

[Krispy Kreme]

Questions on why Saiss doesn't want to renew, is it Lage?

Similarly Moutinho although his is less obvious due to his age, I'd of thought Saiss would of wanted to renew if offered a contract.

He's been a regular at Wolves, maybe it's just the rumours of an Al Rayyan contract that we can't compete with.

Ultimately we need strengthening with 4 players minimum that can come in and improve the first 11 if we want to progress beyond where we have been for a few seasons now.

 

[SuperGran]

Questions on why Saiss doesn't want to renew, is it Lage?

Similarly Moutinho although his is less obvious due to his age, I'd of thought Saiss would of wanted to renew if offered a contract.

He's been a regular at Wolves, maybe it's just the rumours of an Al Rayyan contract that we can't compete with.

Ultimately we need strengthening with 4 players minimum that can come in and improve the first 11 if we want to progress beyond where we have been for a few seasons now.

Saiss wanted to be in the top earner bracket wolves weren’t offering the wages he wanted

Last that was reported on Moutinho was that wolves want him to stay and he wants to stay
Was in the e&s podcast either last week or the week before

 

[SteveBullsKnee]

Questions on why Saiss doesn't want to renew, is it Lage?

Similarly Moutinho although his is less obvious due to his age, I'd of thought Saiss would of wanted to renew if offered a contract.

He's been a regular at Wolves, maybe it's just the rumours of an Al Rayyan contract that we can't compete with.

Ultimately we need strengthening with 4 players minimum that can come in and improve the first 11 if we want to progress beyond where we have been for a few seasons now.

Different points in their career in fairness. Saiss is at the point of one last big contract especially as a free transfer. We have probably offered him similar terms to now, a club looking at him on a free will see a saving on a purchase price and pay him accordingly. He’ll either get a decent 2-3 year deal with a newly promoted club or (if the rumours are right) go to La Liga with Seville and get a decent contract and prolong his career as the game is much slower.

Moutinho will be purely a financial thing. No one is ever paying him what he’s on now. He’s probably been offered a one year deal on 50% less and has to decide if he does that or go home to Portugal and see out the last breaths of his career.

 

[Krispy Kreme]

Different points in their career in fairness. Saiss is at the point of one last big contract especially as a free transfer. We have probably offered him similar terms to now, a club looking at him on a free will see a saving on a purchase price and pay him accordingly. He’ll either get a decent 2-3 year deal with a newly promoted club or (if the rumours are right) go to La Liga with Seville and get a decent contract and prolong his career as the game is much slower.

Moutinho will be purely a financial thing. No one is ever paying him what he’s on now. He’s probably been offered a one year deal on 50% less and has to decide if he does that or go home to Portugal and see out the last breaths of his career.

Isn't that what I said when I said maybe it's the Al Rayyan contract we can't compete with?

And Moutinho being less obvious you saying 50/50? Lol.

But yes I'm glad you agree, I agree with most your points too mate haha

 

[Krispy Kreme]

Saiss wanted to be in the top earner bracket wolves weren’t offering the wages he wanted

Last that was reported on Moutinho was that wolves want him to stay and he wants to stay
Was in the e&s podcast either last week or the week before

Yes I saw the bit about Moutinho, hadn't read that about Saiss.

He's obviously planning to earn more wherever he goes and who can blame him.

 

[Deleted member 8455jwf]

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.

They've said years ago we won't get any more money from Fosun

 

[Deleted member 8455jwf]

Club will keep Moutinho, it's easy PR for them and means they don't need to sign another CM

 

[Deleted member 8455jwf]

Won't happen as he'd have no interest and will get job offers from every massive club who needs a DOF but I'd throw a squad players wages at Michael Edwards as a consultant for us for a season to set us up a proper, data and analytics driven recruitment structure.

Obviously Mendes rolodex being only pool to pick from another massive turn off

 

[Andywolf74]

We need to build from the back. City are an exceptional team but plenty of others have sussed our lack of pace and mobility at the back. I think we should go 4 at the back, with the centre of defence comprising Kilman and a new mobile central defender. If Neves stays, we desperately need a central midfielder with different attributes alongside him. For me the jury’s out on our forward line, as they’ve been starved of any decent service for the majority of the season. Wouldn’t mind Pukki though as a proven goal scorer and realistic option for us.

 

[Deleted member 8455jwf]

With Origi in his last year you'd think Liverpool's price might drop into a region were it might be worth. Been against him in the past but he is a decent player

 

[NewarkWolf]

Our budget is nowhere near the top 8. So we'd have to have some really Astute transfer windows.

Salary wise Jiminez would have to go to bring in another striker of even semi-decent Premierleague quality.

By recent standards he went a while ago I think

 

[AlexWolvesHD]

With Origi in his last year you'd think Liverpool's price might drop into a region were it might be worth. Been against him in the past but he is a decent player

He is a free agent in the summer but he is going to Dortmund

 

[Deleted member 8455jwf]

He is a free agent in the summer but he is going to Dortmund

Ah thought he had one left, yeah I'd heard Dortmund but they signed another forward yesterday

 

[AlexWolvesHD]

Ah thought he had one left, yeah I'd heard Dortmund but they signed another forward yesterday

The kid from Salzburg he will be a star there, suggesting Moukoko may be leaving though so possibly they want both. AC Milan are also supposedly very interested so he has some options.

 

[Ercall Wolves]

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.

Jeez here we go again Doom and gloom for next season before a ball is kicked
For me give Bruno some money let him clear the players out he doesn’t want bring his players in and judge him in 12 months time
A little reminder we are likely to finish 8th in the premier league in his first season without any real financial backing

 

[inaglasshouse]

I think Ruben, Joao and Raul are pratically irreplacable with our budget. Sadly I can see a revolution on the cards when a little evolution is all that is required.
I suspect Lage, his brother and Roberts have already left, just keeping it quiet until ST's renewed.
One can only hope we get loopydo and a string of top signings, not a Zenga and more U-21's with little pro experience.

 

[waveney wolf]

Yeah his legs have gone, pretty much. If that's who we're going for we've got bigger problems than I thought!

His legs didn't look gone last night in the highlights, and even in the bottom club ,with sod all possession, hrs scored much more than Silva and Jimenez added together

 

[RMNottm]

Isnt that the same for other billionaire owners though?

No CCP dictates what cash they spend

 

[Deleted member 8455jwf]

No CCP dictates what cash they spend

CCP certainly have an impact but moreso they are just running us how an investment firm would, minimum investment to maintain the majority of value of the asset. If we were in trouble in a January I think they'd spend.

 

[Cookyssweetleftfoot]

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.

I would argue that lack of movement up top makes those through balls very difficult.
When Jota was here Neves played some fantastic through balls so to suggest he isn’t capable of this is not correct.
The fact that we have consistently played 5 at the back and no-one in the number 10 role hasn’t helped, but we have consistently played wide players who prefer the ball played to feet.
It is incredibly difficult for Neves, Moutinho or anyone to play through balls when no-one is making those runs.
That said of course neither of them are the most athletic so we do miss a midfield runner too.

 

[Deleted member 8455jwf]

I would argue that lack of movement up top makes those through balls very difficult.
When Jota was here Neves played some fantastic through balls so to suggest he isn’t capable of this is not correct.
The fact that we have consistently played 5 at the back and no-one in the number 10 role hasn’t helped, but we have consistently played wide players who prefer the ball played to feet.
It is incredibly difficult for Neves, Moutinho or anyone to play through balls when no-one is making those runs.

Opposite true for me, midfield won't play balls forward there are still enough runs made.

Not that Neves isn't capable he absolutely is, just a safety first player.

 

[Cookyssweetleftfoot]

Opposite true for me, midfield won't play balls forward there are still enough runs made.

Not that Neves isn't capable he absolutely is, just a safety first player.

We have nobody with anything like the movement Jota gave us. Doc was probably the next best at making late runs into the box.
Another midfielder with pace making those runs would of course help the team massively, but while Podence is probably the best we have at finding pockets of space at the moment he is still more of a provider than natural finisher.

 

[Deleted member 8455jwf]

We have nobody with anything like the movement Jota gave us. Doc was probably the next best at making late runs into the box.
Another midfielder with pace making those runs would of course help the team massively, but while Podence is probably the best we have at finding pockets of space at the moment he is still more of a provider than natural finisher.

I mean Neves' numbers in terms of passes into box and into final 3rd are slightly higher now than when Jota was here