The Guardian: How Wolves became Championship favourites

[Alex Rae The Substitute]

First time starting a thread! Hope this is not a duplicate, article today in the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...onship-jota-nuno-neves?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

 

[Andy]

Good piece, thanks for sharing

 

[BN1Wolves]

Decent read !

 

[1312]

Good read but how the hell did Jota not get in the team of the week???

 

[Alex Rae The Substitute]

Good read but how the hell did Jota not get in the team of the week???

Thought the same!

 

[Alex Rae The Substitute]

In general a good read, and nice that some quality press is picking up on our good football.

The flip side of this is I'd rather get to January with Jota on fire but under the radar, somewhat like Costa last season who only seemed to grab national headlines after signing for a big fee, and we can then sign him permanently!

You can't help but feel though once Boro click with their side they'll go through the gears to the top of the league by January. Think it will then be a shootout for second if we can stay the course.

 

[Andy]

In general a good read, and nice that some quality press is picking up on our good football.

The flip side of this is I'd rather get to January with Jota on fire but under the radar, somewhat like Costa last season who only seemed to grab national headlines after signing for a big fee, and we can then sign him permanently!

You can't help but feel though once Boro click with their side they'll go through the gears to the top of the league by January. Think it will then be a shootout for second if we can stay the course.

Boro will improve, but I completely disagree everyone will be shooting for second spot at best once that happens.

 

[Deleted member 5910]

A fair and balanced piece on Wolves is rarer than hen's teeth at the moment, so thank you Mr. Laurence!

 

[Alex Rae The Substitute]

Boro will improve, but I completely disagree everyone will be shooting for second spot at best once that happens.

Hope you are right!

Think I have an irrational fear of Boro for two reasons:

i) the mid-90s hoodoo they seemed to have over us
ii) a good mate of mine is a Boro fan, lovely guy, but bit of an **** when it comes to reasoned football debates. It's all: 'we'll walk this league' in pre-season, loses first game: 'we're doomed', get promoted: 'told you we were far too good to be in the Championship'.

 

[paddy2929]

Good piece

 

[Andy]

Hope you are right!

Think I have an irrational fear of Boro for two reasons:

i) the mid-90s hoodoo they seemed to have over us
ii) a good mate of mine is a Boro fan, lovely guy, but bit of an **** when it comes to reasoned football debates. It's all: 'we'll walk this league' in pre-season, loses first game: 'we're doomed', get promoted: 'told you we were far too good to be in the Championship'.

My cousins are Boro fans, so it's important to me too. We were all growing up together in the 90s, so that was fun!

One of them went to the opening game and said how good Wolves were.

Like I say, I think they'll get better, but we have a clear and effective playing style, strong backing, talented players, and more to return.

 

[Highwayman]

Was hoping to stay under the radar a bit longer - till end of April.

I think if we take seven from next nine likely be top come international break then our cover will be blown. SkySports might even start showing our games and you never know, Channel 5 may even have us as the game of the day.

Good article, but still managed to get Uncle in there.

 

[WolfLing]

Good article, but still managed to get Uncle in there.

To be fair, it would be very difficult to discuss our player recruitment without mentioning him! At least now he's getting better coverage than everyone mentioning how concerning his involvement is.

 

[GY Wolf]

Some very bitter comments at the bottom!

 

[Highwayman]

Agreed.

 

[Sussex Wolf]

‘

My cousins are Boro fans, so it's important to me too. We were all growing up together in the 90s, so that was fun!

One of them went to the opening game and said how good Wolves were.

Like I say, I think they'll get better, but we have a clear and effective playing style, strong backing, talented players, and more to return.

My wife and daughter are Boro fans, so I have experienced the Teeside hoodoo for the near 30years I’ve known my wife. Looks like they are beginning to gel, and are starting to score freely with their abundance of striking talent, which is something they missed under IK. However, we beat them at the Mol, and we were unfortunate to concede three and not take all the points, against top scorers, Bristol City. We have a healthy number of clean sheets despite playing some top teams, we are scoring steadily, and playing attractive football which appears to reflect the confidence in the team. I think the Guardian article is good, and I hope it proves to be an inspired insight into how this season plays out!

 

[Alex Rae The Substitute]

Some very bitter comments at the bottom!

It's nice to see the 'cold Tuesday' cliche.

Interestingly one has picked up on the zonal marking issue, which is a fair point, but I seem to recall us scoring more from set pieces than I'd have anticipated already.

If I'm honest I'm sure I'd look on at another team if the shoe was on the other foot and criticize the advantage we seem to have. But, we might as well enjoy the ride. As long as we don't do a Portsmouth!

 

[cannockwolf]

Good article, but still managed to get Uncle in there.

it was factual which makes a good start! George was mentioned in factual way as well without any 'angle' or snidey remark to it, at last

 

[MolineuxMixer]

Good read but how the hell did Jota not get in the team of the week???

Because the so called football pundits don't know anything about football

They only turn up for the free lunch!

 

[kaohsiungwolf]

A fair and balanced piece on Wolves is rarer than hen's teeth at the moment, so thank you Mr. Laurence!

Sorry but that just isn't true, there's been plenty of positive press from the big media outlets.

 

[Stoichkov]

It's not actually a Guardian article... it's a website which contributes to a Guardian network. Great for quality bloggers (like this bloke)

Would be great if likes of David Conn could follow suit instead of rehashing Mendes diatribe

 

[xbomber]

Talking about how well we're doing then showing a championship team of the week directly underneath with zero wolves players in it

 

[Deleted member 3751]

Boro will improve, but I completely disagree everyone will be shooting for second spot at best once that happens.

Exactly. They'll all be going for play offs because even Boro if they click won't get close to our three figure points haul!

 

[NorthWestWolf]

Exactly. They'll all be going for play offs because even Boro if they click won't get close to our three figure points haul!

This. Of course Boro will improve, but so will we. Our potential for improvement is exponentially greater than theirs.

 

[sillytuna]

I honestly think it's going to come down to injuries. We really need Costa back as we'd struggle without Jota right now.

 

[The Professional]

A good article, positive to read. It is still very early days still- and teams are finding their best teams and formations gradually. I really couldn't say who will be in the top two at the end of the season- bookies have their thoughts, but that could change after a few results, injuries or after the January transfer window. I am hoping we will be there or there abouts- as will Boro, Leeds, Derby, possibly Cardiff and Bristol City.

 

[Henry Palfrey]

I honestly think it's going to come down to injuries. We really need Costa back as we'd struggle without Jota right now.

And last night illustrated how we'd struggle without Bonnatini as well to an extent

 

[Stafford]

Yeh and Neves and Saiss and our wing backs... But if we do lose all these players.. we should replace them with the ones who played Southampton 2nd half. that's what i think I've learned

 

[astraltrader]

I honestly think it's going to come down to injuries. We really need Costa back as we'd struggle without Jota right now.

As well as Boly!

 

[justanotherwolf]

It's a regular guardian article/ advert for whoscored.com that shows a team-of-the-week for various leagues based on their ratings with a talking point usually from elsewhere (in this case, us!) hence the stats-heavy analysis.

In some ways I'm glad our players are starting to get the credit they deserve but tbh I don't mind if the pundits continue to call Jota "someone no-one had heard of in the summer from some obscure league" (as Mark Clemmitt did on 5live on Saturday) until May if we get promoted!

 

[TurboTaco91]

As well as Boly!

As big a loss as Boly is at least we have good cover for the CB position. Imagine if Doherty got injured! We have no one else to play there.

 

[astraltrader]

As big a loss as Boly is at least we have good cover for the CB position. Imagine if Doherty got injured! We have no one else to play there.

I agree with you that losing Doherty would be a huge set back but our defence has certainly suffered since Boly got injured and the sooner we get him back the stronger we shall be.

 

[CzechWolf]

I agree with you that losing Doherty would be a huge set back

I'm most worried about right wing back. Does anyone think Nuno will ever see Marshall there? He had the opportunity to play him there yesterday and didn't. Maybe he didn't because he knows it won't be an issue?

 

[SingYourHeartsOut]

I'm most worried about right wing back. Does anyone think Nuno will ever see Marshall there? He had the opportunity to play him there yesterday and didn't. Maybe he didn't because he knows it won't be an issue?

Odd one for me, I thought Marshall would be the obvious choice, probably better than Doc when fully fit and we'll certainly need two as it is such a demanding role. However he played Graham there almost to just give him a chance to fail and now Burr who with the greatest respect to the kid looked totally out of his depth against a L1 team while Marshall was fit to at least play an hour I'd have thought.