Thoughts turn to next season

[Hoganstolemywife]

We sell Neto to reinvest and we end up with another season like this or worse in my opinion.

Doesn't work badly for Leicester. We need to invest with a bit more saviness

 

[WKFWolf]

We aren't mathematically safe yet

 

[Derbywolf85]

Saiss has proved himself to be not up to it in a back 3 and 4 and at left back, and hasn't played in midfield since god knows when. He'd be first on the list to go for me.

If that's the case why is Nuno picking him week in week out instead of Kilman?

We all thought Kilman was good (me included) so why is Saiss being selected instead of him?

If we're moving to a 4, Coady is not suited to it and can play nowhere else (if you think Saiss would be bad in our midfield, Coady would be worse)

 

[WolfInSheep'sClothing]

If that's the case why is Nuno picking him week in week out instead of Kilman?

We all thought Kilman was good (me included) so why is Saiss being selected instead of him?

If we're moving to a 4, Coady is not suited to it and can play nowhere else (if you think Saiss would be bad in our midfield, Coady would be worse)

On the first part I have no idea. Absolutely no idea. It seems to be pick the most experienced players at the moment.

If we're not moving to a 4(I don't see on the evidence of this season any reason why we should) them coady has his role as captain in the back 3/5.

 

[Jay Jay de Wolf]

If we're moving to a 4, Coady is not suited to it and can play nowhere else (if you think Saiss would be bad in our midfield, Coady would be worse)

What Conor Coady can't play anywhere else? In the last two games he's been 3 times closer to scoring than any other player..
Play him as a false number 9 next game lol

 

[Contrarian]

think Nuno needs to decide how he wants us to play next season, look at what players do or don't fit that system, move on those who don't and bring in ones who will

And start playing that way *now*. Teams often start one season following on from how they finished the previous one. I'd like to see us sorting out some of our problems this season - not hoping that somehow a holiday will fix them!

Defence seems to be back on it. It's the disjointed attack that I think needs working on now, not waiting till July to start.

 

[whitnash wolf ex.dewsbury]

What Conor Coady can't play anywhere else? In the last two games he's been 3 times closer to scoring than any other player..
Play him as a false number 9 next game lol

in days gone by when losing a game we used to put a big centre half up front could have least tried boly there for a few minutes

 

[WolfInSheep'sClothing]

And start playing that way *now*. Teams often start one season following on from how they finished the previous one. I'd like to see us sorting out some of our problems this season - not hoping that somehow a holiday will fix them!

Defence seems to be back on it. It's the disjointed attack that I think needs working on now, not waiting till July to start.

The disjointed attack mostly needs Raul back.

 

[QB Wolf]

If that's the case why is Nuno picking him week in week out instead of Kilman?

We all thought Kilman was good (me included) so why is Saiss being selected instead of him?

I asked myself those very questions last night before KO, and before the Villa game after City had stuffed 4 past us.

 

[Super Ted]

2 signings in a CB and CM.

Anything after that a bonus

But we've got the Donk who can cover both of those positions.

 

[Contrarian]

The disjointed attack mostly needs Raul back.

Yes, while there's always hope, I don't think we should assume it as a fact that Raul will just come back as the same superstar he was before. Might be that I'm a cautious person (hey, so is Nuno!) but I wouldn't be planning next season around Raul. I'd have his return down as a "nice to have" bonus, rather than build expectation around him being back and exactly the same as before.

 

[Deleted member 11332]

let's start with selling to buy, if we have to do this then we are going to be in trouble before the season even starts, we suddenly turn into Southampton from several years ago. selling to buy shows a lack of ambition in my opinion.

Or Leicester.

 

[BCWolf]

We aren't mathematically safe yet

Agree. Don't see where our next goal is coming from, let alone a win.

 

[oldgoldheart]

My attention turned to last season once Nuno inexcusably threw the cup game against Southampton.

We know we'll need a raft of signings and we'll need to shift some bodies out in order to increase our budget to facilitate a change.

The key thing is that we aren't sentimental, which after a year of not being (in the summer of 2018) we have been the last 2 years.

Outgoings/Changes

Fringe Players to be sold: MGW, Jordao, Campana, Vinagre, Sanderson, Cutrone and some of the kids out on loan

Current Squad players to be sold: Ruddy, Dendoncker, Adama, Marcal and *maybe* Coady (I really feel that as long as he is at Wolves the temptation will always be there to play a back 3 and we'll never move away from it. We have a ready made replacement as captain in Neves and Raul could easily be Vice Captain).

Current Squad Players to be "Squad players" - Saiss (1 year deal), Moutinho.

This should hopefully give us a more threatening budget overall. Then....

Pick up the loan option of: RAN (because Marcal is made of glass. Must do it at cheaper than £20m though).

Incomings (this is based around us moving to 4 at the back)

CB x 2 and then bring through Nigel Lonwijk as our youth option.
CM x 2. We need to play on having Ruben Neves, as we did in the championship. He needs a real midfield powerhouse alongside him.
CAM - Think we might give Shabani a chance to be the back up option here
FW - If we sell Adama, we'll need to replace. ASM would be a shout if Newcastle are relegated.

Given his scoring form in Spain it's also possible that Rafa Mir returns as an option as a 3rd striker, which would save the outlay on WIllian Jose. He's scored plenty of goals in an otherwise awful Huesca team and seems to have physically grown in stature over the last 2 years.

This would give us

Rui
Sondergaard


Semedo
Hoever

Boly
Saiss
CB 1
CB2

Jonny
RAN

Neves
Moutinho
CM1
CM2
CAM 1
Shabani

Podence
Neto
FW 1

Raul
Silva
Mir

A 22 man squad with the option to include kids as well (the likes of Sarkic, Lonwijk, Otasowie, Corbeanu etc)

I am aware this is a pipe dream, but it's what I would be aiming for.

I would definitely keep coady but i do agree we should sell traore. i would not sign jose and i would sell marcal and the other fringe players you mention.

our biggest isue is lack of goals so i think the focus should be on midfield and attack

 

[Greeno]

As probably pointed out already, the other problem with "playing the kids" is the integrity of the league aspect. We've got to play all of the bottom 5 soon, so we don't want to fall foul of the league. It's bad enough they punish us with VAR every week!

 

[Stafford]

If that's the case why is Nuno picking him week in week out instead of Kilman?

We all thought Kilman was good (me included) so why is Saiss being selected instead of him?

If we're moving to a 4, Coady is not suited to it and can play nowhere else (if you think Saiss would be bad in our midfield, Coady would be worse)

Not a popular opinion, but i think Saiss is a better player than Kilman.

 

[Black Country Wanderer]

First sort what system we are playing
Next what players suit it
For me Traore must go,as talented as he is, he takes away more than he delivers, sorry but just my opinion
Neto needs to grow up and stop sulking so often,reminding me more and more of Jota at his worst,hope he stays though
We need a new spine, striker, CM ,RCB,hopefully Raul is back and the same player ,but even that is not guaranteed
Fringe players need to go,loan players personally id keep RAN, but unless they improve immensely in whats left of this season, no one else
If Traore goes, a replacement forward will be needed
We need proven quality players,young yes, but not kids,they wont come cheap but thats the price for progression and unfortunately Traore will have to be the sacrifice needed to finance a big slice of it

 

[northnorfolkwolf]

And start playing that way *now*. Teams often start one season following on from how they finished the previous one. I'd like to see us sorting out some of our problems this season - not hoping that somehow a holiday will fix them!

Defence seems to be back on it. It's the disjointed attack that I think needs working on now, not waiting till July to start.

Spot on. Go to 4231 now. Boly and Kilman for me. Give Vitinha a run of games beside Neto and Traore and let Silva have the strikers berth through to the end of the season. These are all players that could be big for us next year so get them playing now. Sell Coady in the summer esp as we may get a decent sum for him and drop Saiss and Donc as I only see them as squad players next term. Will Nuno do anything like this? No.

 

[lets all have a disco]

I think some of you are fooling yourselves if you think mourtinho will hang around wolves to sit on the bench and play 20 or so games a season.... He won't care about the 100k a week... He isn't that type of person... He is an ultimate professional.. If he isn't an integral part of the team he will go back to Portugal and play out the remainder of his career..... I bet he is the most dedicated trainer we have got... You can't buy what blokes like him give our team..... If we signed 2 midfielders like you all want he will be off...... If sporting lisbon win the league and get champions league football I can see him being tempted with a return to where it all started.... He has got 3 or 4 season left in him playing in that league.....

 

[JOSWolf]

2 signings in a CB and CM.

Anything after that a bonus

That would leave us too light in attack in my opinion.

 

[JOSWolf]

We aren't mathematically safe yet

That is a fair point. Fulham could potentially be just six points away from us if they win on Friday night. We then dont play until the Monday against West Ham in a few weeks. The gap could be uncomfortably short in a few weeks. Lets hope it isnt.

 

[Lycaon]

Spot on. Go to 4231 now. Boly and Kilman for me. Give Vitinha a run of games beside Neto and Traore and let Silva have the strikers berth through to the end of the season. These are all players that could be big for us next year so get them playing now. Sell Coady in the summer esp as we may get a decent sum for him and drop Saiss and Donc as I only see them as squad players next term. Will Nuno do anything like this? No.

On the other hand what’s he got to lose?
Ultimately options are running out and becoming few and far between.
It’ll be somewhat disappointing when safety is/if achieved if he doesn’t mix things up a bit, win, draw or lose?

 

[SteveBullsKnee]

Spot on. Go to 4231 now. Boly and Kilman for me. Give Vitinha a run of games beside Neto and Traore and let Silva have the strikers berth through to the end of the season. These are all players that could be big for us next year so get them playing now. Sell Coady in the summer esp as we may get a decent sum for him and drop Saiss and Donc as I only see them as squad players next term. Will Nuno do anything like this? No.

Kilman is nowhere near good enough to play centrally in a back 4. He would get ripped to absolute shreds

 

[SteveBullsKnee]

Not a popular opinion, but i think Saiss is a better player than Kilman.

It might not be popular but it is the truth.

 

[SuperGran]

Not a popular opinion, but i think Saiss is a better player than Kilman.

Yes he is

 

[sedgwolf1980]

There is no reason whatsoever Raul won’t come back the same player. I’d even go as far as saying the long rest wouldn’t have done him any harm.

Sign a top quality centre back, a top quality midfielder and another option who can play across the front, pick a formation and stick to it, send back all loanees unless we can get a better deal for them and there is no reason we can’t get back to pushing it top 6 again next season.

 

[goldeneyed]

Agree with pretty much all of that except I’d probably go with signing 1 player who can play across the front 3/off the striker in place of both your CAM and CF.

In my view (and this is assuming Jimenez comes back the player he was, hopefully we’ll have the answer to that by summer) Jimenez will be first choice with Silva hopefully becoming more of an option after 12 months with us. So a player who could play off that striker, either wide or 10 that could fill in up top of required would be a good option to have.

We need Silva to be involved and progressing at the fee paid and if he became 3rd choice I don’t see him getting enough game time for that. He’s been doing well with 20-30 mins off the bench so hopefully as back up to Jimenez he can continue that next season. A versatile forward could then step in if Jimenez were to get injured, but can also be an option elsewhere when Jimenez is fit so as not to block Silva’s development.

Also, by doing that hopefully we could spend that bit extra to get the best player we can get in each of those 3 positions rather than stretching the same budget over 4 positions.

Silva as back up to Jiminez? That is crazy and it would show the club has learnt nothing this season. Silva is way, way off being ready. I would loan him out..3rd choice at best. Jose is disappointing so we need to find someone else - a vitally important signing if we are going to have any chance of progress.

 

[sedgwolf1980]

That is a fair point. Fulham could potentially be just six points away from us if they win on Friday night. We then dont play until the Monday against West Ham in a few weeks. The gap could be uncomfortably short in a few weeks. Lets hope it isnt.

They have about 5 others to catch before they even get round to us.

We will be absolutely fine.

 

[Axle]

in days gone by when losing a game we used to put a big centre half up front could have least tried boly there for a few minutes

Some even become strikers: Paul Warhurst and Dion Dublin spring to mind.

Reckon Sanderson can do the same for us?!

 

[JOSWolf]

They have about 5 others to catch before they even get round to us.

We will be absolutely fine.

Hope so but it does concern me slightly. Really dont want the West Ham and Fulham games suddenly becoming high pressure.
Really think we could do with beating West Ham and getting a much needed win after the break.

 

[sedgwolf1980]

Hope so but it does concern me slightly. Really dont want the West Ham and Fulham games suddenly becoming high pressure.
Really think we could do with beating West Ham and getting a much needed win after the break.

Yeh we need it done and dusted before the final 3 games that’s for sure. But I’m certain we will. Actually quite fancy us against West Ham. After that, the next 3-4 games are about as winnable as you can possibly get at this level. Will be done within 2-3 matches I’m sure.

 

[Huyton W88lvo]

Whilst this thread is interesting I will probably get shot down in flames but I don’t like the look of the table . Losing to West Ham and Fulham is in my opinion highly likely when you struggle to score like we do . We would then go into a home game against Sheffield United who we will be expected to beat easily which is usually a recipe for disaster . The next 3 are Burnley Tescos and Brighton !! The last 3 are Spurs Everton and Man U . If we don’t get 2 wins we deserve to go down but too many are blasé about the position we are in . I sincerely hope I am way off the mark but I am far from comfortable and looking towards next season is premature .

 

[BCWolf]

Whilst this thread is interesting I will probably get shot down in flames but I don’t like the look of the table . Losing to West Ham and Fulham is in my opinion highly likely when you struggle to score like we do . We would then go into a home game against Sheffield United who we will be expected to beat easily which is usually a recipe for disaster . The next 3 are Burnley Tescos and Brighton !! The last 3 are Spurs Everton and Man U . If we don’t get 2 wins we deserve to go down but too many are blasé about the position we are in . I sincerely hope I am way off the mark but I am far from comfortable and looking towards next season is premature .

The only game I fancy us winning is the Manure game. Every other game we have form for completely ****ing up.

 

[Contrarian]

Spot on. Go to 4231 now. Boly and Kilman for me. Give Vitinha a run of games beside Neto and Traore and let Silva have the strikers berth through to the end of the season. These are all players that could be big for us next year so get them playing now. Sell Coady in the summer esp as we may get a decent sum for him and drop Saiss and Donc as I only see them as squad players next term. Will Nuno do anything like this? No.

Agree in principle but still not sure about Vitinha. Thought he was more of a defensive midfielder in the Moutinho role. Would like to see him share more time with Moutinho and Neves.

I'd like to see more attacking from central midfield. Which means MGW. I'm happy to give him a real chance there - in his best position, though, which is centralm supporting 2 or 3 attackers.

Thing is, with trying this *now*, in both cases, if they don't work out we will know for sure that we need to transfer someone in during the summer window. Better give them a proper run now rather than find out they are not up to it in Septemeber or October when it will be too late. Similar Fabio. Though not convinced by him yet, he's definitely improved with the experience he's got since those first few matches he had. I think that's what MGW and Vitinha (Kilman, too) need, a run of 6 matches knowing they are in the side, not just 10 minutes at the end to impress or be banished for another month.

 

[Glow69]

That would leave us too light in attack in my opinion.

Just going by priority. Whatever formation we choose to persist with, upgrading those two posistion will help flourish the team.

 

[northnorfolkwolf]

I think some of you are fooling yourselves if you think mourtinho will hang around wolves to sit on the bench and play 20 or so games a season.... He won't care about the 100k a week... He isn't that type of person... He is an ultimate professional.. If he isn't an integral part of the team he will go back to Portugal and play out the remainder of his career..... I bet he is the most dedicated trainer we have got... You can't buy what blokes like him give our team..... If we signed 2 midfielders like you all want he will be off...... If sporting lisbon win the league and get champions league football I can see him being tempted with a return to where it all started.... He has got 3 or 4 season left in him playing in that league.....

How do you know this? Is he and friend of yours and told you? How do you not know Nuno is lining him up for a coaching position at Wolves in the future?

 

[JOSWolf]

Just going by priority. Whatever formation we choose to persist with, upgrading those two posistion will help flourish the team.

Agree but we need some fresh attacking reinforcements I think.

 

[northnorfolkwolf]

On the other hand what’s he got to lose?
Ultimately options are running out and becoming few and far between.
It’ll be somewhat disappointing when safety is/if achieved if he doesn’t mix things up a bit, win, draw or lose?

I'd love Nuno to show some adventure but unfortunately it's not in his DNA. Even when we're safe I still expect him to stick with a 5 and not gives the kids a go.

 

[Deleted member 9202LYK]

We need two new centre halves. With that everyone will see how good the rest can be.

 

[northnorfolkwolf]

It might not be popular but it is the truth.

Saiss is considerably more experienced. Once we're safe there would be no better time to give players like Kilman and Vitinha a run in the side.