What's gone wrong

[peter&thewolf]

In the 4 games at the start of the season, we were playing fantastic football creating all these chances and against top teams, but it's all gone pear shaped now, we look awful at times, what's gone wrong

 

[RosehillWolf]

In the 4 games at the start of the season, we were playing fantastic football creating all these chances and against top teams, but it's all gone pear shaped now, we look awful at times, what's gone wrong

Self belief, confidence, Coady and Traore

 

[ricki herberts moustache]

In the 4 games at the start of the season, we were playing fantastic football creating all these chances and against top teams, but it's all gone pear shaped now, we look awful at times, what's gone wrong

It's gonna be a long season...

 

[JOSWolf]

In the 4 games at the start of the season, we were playing fantastic football creating all these chances and against top teams, but it's all gone pear shaped now, we look awful at times, what's gone wrong

Confidence looks shot amongst some. If you go back to last season the lack of wins is massively concerning. These players seem to have forgotten or are incapable of putting together any sort of winning run. This coupled with the fact that a few look to be on the decline along with lack of investment in the first team in crucial positions leaves us with what on paper is a very poor start to the season so far.

 

[TheConcourse]

The answer in most businesses is usually recruitment and strategy. Get recruitment wrong and your weaknesses are exposed.

We’ve seen a pretty steady decline in performances for 2 seasons now, and if we do end up surviving this year - which I think we will - but it’ll be close - then there’s nothing to suggest that our problems will disappear next year.

I’m a huge advocate of the additional brand building activity at Wolves: eSports, Wolves Records, fashion - love it all - but it cannot be taking a Chairman away from leading the football side. He has to make sure his senior leaders in the business are ready for the small (transfer) windows of opportunity. They are not.

It’s pretty clear that Jeff is trying to create a business where senior leaders own their space - huge fan of that too. But when senior leaders are fairly inexperienced (Bruno, Sellars) then it’s not enough to push that strategy and expect us to just do things differently.

Brentford: started hiring players based on metrics that they felt were more interesting than the standard and built data models to validate their argument.

Wolves: hired one agent, created a flat management structure and started trying to drive player value down in a market where other clubs pay.

It doesn’t feel very strategic from a football perspective right now, and I think that’s going to cost Jeff his job ultimately.

 

[peter&thewolf]

I don't think it's down to one or two players, the whole system looks shot,we look awful as a team

 

[reanswolf]

First half was worryingly bad, plyers looked to lack belief. 2nd half when Traore came on started opening things up for others, and we looked better. But Bruno has been stitched up - this squad is not capable of high press week in week out. That is not their fault, the players were constructed for a Nuno type counter-attacking team . Its not Bruno's fault as he has had to take on the same players. Tehclub have to take a lot of blame for not strengthening - he wanted 3 new players and I fear that it could become chaotic as a result. Nevertheless, the jury is still out regards Bruno, but his hand dealt is a bad one.

This combination could lead to relegation, I hope not but I think we might be there or thereabouts.

So disappointing, but as fas we need to realise this and get behind them.

 

[Deleted member 8455jwf]

I think the team are being asked to handle the ball more and they are technically far more limited than i realised. Thinking back, under Nuno we were always dreadful with lots of possession.

 

[sc91]

It just feels like history repeating itself to me. Wolves had the golden opportunity and now have fallen over themselves to blow it.

 

[Deleted member yltz11841]

The same as in most businesses that go tits up, bad recruitment and strategy.

 

[Deleted member 7041]

Never mind Ryan Giles will fit right in next season with Sanderson too. It wasn't broken but the public wanted to fix it unfortunately.

 

[Flump]

I'd say as usual it's the law of small numbers and people over-reacting from a small sample size.

We weren't seeing as sudden complete improvement in the first three good performances as people said, and then since then we've beaten Watford, played badly in one game, and had a mixed game with half our 2nd team against half of Spurs.

So people shouldn't have been as excited as they were initially, and they shouldn't be as panicky as they are now. But people have short memories and are reactionary.

 

[sc91]

Thing is for me, apathy has set in early, dipped out of a ticket for Southampton because I'm just not in the mood. Don't get me wrong, other factors are involved, costs outside of football are rising quicker than my wage can cover, and I've a young family but it's kinda concerning how easily I've just gone 'yeah, can't actually be bothered.'

I think it part as we've been here before multiple times, the false dawn, the great hope being inevitably crushed as Wolves flail around doing their best to blow every chance of something significant that I finally understand a few elder friends who called it a day years back and generally have moved onto other passions.

 

[Corporate Wolf]

First half was worryingly bad, plyers looked to lack belief. 2nd half when Traore came on started opening things up for others, and we looked better. But Bruno has been stitched up - this squad is not capable of high press week in week out. That is not their fault, the players were constructed for a Nuno type counter-attacking team . Its not Bruno's fault as he has had to take on the same players. Tehclub have to take a lot of blame for not strengthening - he wanted 3 new players and I fear that it could become chaotic as a result. Nevertheless, the jury is still out regards Bruno, but his hand dealt is a bad one.

This combination could lead to relegation, I hope not but I think we might be there or thereabouts.

So disappointing, but as fas we need to realise this and get behind them.

To be fair reans, it seems he was hoping to have exchanged a couple of cards in that bad hand. It appears he's been sold down the river by Jeff & Co.

 

[Bill McCai]

Wait there - we had a thread on here last week claiming this was our best squad ever?

 

[Hoganstolemywife]

We looked alright yesterday after the first 30. Finished level against spurs best xi (minus 3) with our second eleven (minus 2)

 

[wwbug]

Self belief, confidence, Coady and Traore

Confidence is king
Look at the Sheffield situation in last 3 years. And even our situation.
We didn’t score goals . That means the guys who are playing well lose confidence. They did their best , expended energy but lost. That makes it so hard to go back on the pitch.
That is probably where we are now , it was a clear danger .
This was all a bit obvious that Silva and Jimenez were not likely to score for a while, and then we go and buy the nonscoring Hwang. It may work out but by luck rather than judgement.

 

[peter&thewolf]

Wait there - we had a thread on here last week claiming this was our best squad ever?

This is the point, what's gone wrong since then, same players same manager,who took Utd, spurs and Leicester apart. This is why everybody we're so positive about this season, we we're playing some superb football, 2 games later, people are worried that we might not even stay up. I know we lost those games, but only through bad finishing, it was bound to change and we start taking those chances, but Saturday we barely had even one chance. Has he changed the tactics, I just don't know

 

[1972 i began]

Bruno told shi that he wanted 4 top players...4 top players that BRUNO wanted not what the recruitment team wanted.In the end he day get any.Don't think at the moment we have the players to play how Bruno wants them to play.If anyone watched him on the side lines last night.He was clearly telling them to get forward every time we had the ball.Then turned around as if to say..why am I bothering when I dow happen..

 

[Sedgers]

Confidence is king
Look at the Sheffield situation in last 3 years. And even our situation.
We didn’t score goals . That means the guys who are playing well lose confidence. They did their best , expended energy but lost. That makes it so hard to go back on the pitch.
That is probably where we are now , it was a clear danger .
This was all a bit obvious that Silva and Jimenez were not likely to score for a while, and then we go and buy the nonscoring Hwang. It may work out but by luck rather than judgement.

Absolutely this. We've lacked goals in volume since we got promoted and that was acutely obvious after Raul's injury. It was clear Fabio wasn't good enough so we needed a top, top striker. Instead we've gambled on Raul returning to what he was, on Fabio coming good and supplemented it with a hardly prolific Hwang. Pretty short sighted really.

 

[John de Wolf's hairdryer]

Absolutely this. We've lacked goals in volume since we got promoted and that was acutely obvious after Raul's injury. It was clear Fabio wasn't good enough so we needed a top, top striker. Instead we've gambled on Raul returning to what he was, on Fabio coming good and supplemented it with a hardly prolific Hwang. Pretty short sighted really.

Short-sighted? Suicidal I'd say. But our non-football CEO is so immersed in creating brand-value (away from first-team affairs) that he doesn't see the elephant trap he has created for the club through penny-pinching with playing personnel recruitment since the over-inflated purchases of Semedo and Silva.

 

[TheConcourse]

Short-sighted? Suicidal I'd say. But our non-football CEO is so immersed in creating brand-value (away from first-team affairs) that he doesn't see the elephant trap he has created for the club through penny-pinching with playing personnel recruitment since the over-inflated purchases of Semedo and Silva.

Exactly this.. if the funds aren’t there right now because of his self-sufficient vision then he needs to upwardly manage the expectations at Fosun and ask for some more capital until the playing side has stabilised. Players are desperately needed.

 

[KBWWFC]

In the 4 games at the start of the season, we were playing fantastic football creating all these chances and against top teams, but it's all gone pear shaped now, we look awful at times, what's gone wrong

The transfer window has completely ****ed us.

We can't play a 3 in midfield, because we just don't have the numbers, so the two CMs are very easily pressed and harassed.

We're making an enormous amount of individual errors that are costing us - out of the 5 goals conceded this season.
Alli penalty - Sa error
Greenwood - Sa error + Neves error (or Dean error)
Toney - Marcal error
Mbeumo - Kilman error + Saiss / Marcal error

Playing a high line to aid the press and support the midfield with numbers, but this leads to the centre backs being more exposed - Kane's goal Vs us last night was from Coady running headlessly into midfield.

The defensive frailties were less exposed with Nuno as we tended to pack the penalty area so shooting opportunities were limited.

We tend to be quite a negative fan base anyway, and that's expected seeing as though we always manage to snatch failure from the jaws of victory, so firing a relatively popular manager like Nuno just has the crowd on edge and I'm sure the players can feel it.

"It's all gone pear shaped now" - we played pretty much our second string last night, Spurs played their first team, this doesn't seem to be being factored in at all.

 

[Wonder Boyo]

In the 4 games at the start of the season, we were playing fantastic football creating all these chances and against top teams, but it's all gone pear shaped now, we look awful at times, what's gone wrong

Same thing crossed my mind at the Brentford game. We'd dominated the first 4 games in terms of possession and chances, and our pressing was exceptional. I thought Brentford might be a one off but we started badly last night too. From completely wiping the floor with Spurs in the league, when they played a similar line up, to looking ineffective and porous last night and a pressing game that just didn't work. That said, there were a lot of changes last night so not comparing with the same team. We looked a lot more at it in the second half as the team reflected the team that started the first 4 games.

I think they've lost a bit of confidence after not scoring again against Brentford and the fact that the Bees tactics completely nullified our tactics.

Waiting to see which team we'll see on Sunday against Southampton. Hope we're back at it and our pressing game is back to what it was. Seen Southampton quite a few times this season on the TV and their play has been a lot better than their results suggest, a bit like us after our first 3 games. It's a difficult game to call.

 

[JOSWolf]

We looked alright yesterday after the first 30. Finished level against spurs best xi (minus 3) with our second eleven (minus 2)

Spurs left out 6 yesterday.

 

[Sussex Wolf]

In the 4 games at the start of the season, we were playing fantastic football creating all these chances and against top teams, but it's all gone pear shaped now, we look awful at times, what's gone wrong

Confidence cannot last forever when faced with good performances but poor results. Worrying given what happened to Bruno in his last job. Can he turn things around? The comeback against Spurs was positive, but the penalties defeat after it, may have set the players back.

 

[Polish Wolf]

Football team is a very fragile entity when it comes to self belief and confidence. Without them a team will struggle at any level, from friendly kick about with friends to the very top.

I'm afraid we've entered a stage where we are at a very low level of confidence. We need a good win and need it now.

 

[Wonder Boyo]

On reflection, if that was a league game last night I think we would have all been relatively satisfied with the result and the performance, coming back from two goals down for a draw at home against Spurs. The penalties really skewed everyone's views on the 90 minute performance.

 

[Hoganstolemywife]

Spurs left out 6 yesterday.

The side they played yesterday is, in my eyes, better than the team they fielded earlier in the season. Gil, Ndombele, Lo celso and Romero will/should be in the side as the season progresses.

 

[Oh When the Wolves]

What’s gone wrong is the role of the full backs .

Early season, they play as wingers . Then it doesn’t take long for us to form a back 5.

How many times do our full backs cut back inside to pass to the centr backs? Probably 90% of the time.

For the system to work, they have to be brave and move the ball forwards - that’s when the space opens up, and that’s when someone like the wide player can play it back to neves to switch it to someone in space.

The tempo of passing has reduced massively, until the second half yesterday when Bruno had clearly had strong worlds and air nouri showed bravery.

We also have such a pedestrian midfield, and during games we don’t respond to throw a extra man in their to win the challenges. Even coady as a cdm for 5 mins just to gain some control of the ball for a period would be useful.

 

[Hoganstolemywife]

What’s gone wrong is the role of the full backs .

Early season, they play as wingers . Then it doesn’t take long for us to form a back 5.

How many times do our full backs cut back inside to pass to the centr backs? Probably 90% of the time.

For the system to work, they have to be brave and move the ball forwards - that’s when the space opens up, and that’s when someone like the wide player can play it back to neves to switch it to someone in space.

The tempo of passing has reduced massively, until the second half yesterday when Bruno had clearly had strong worlds and air nouri showed bravery.

We also have such a pedestrian midfield, and during games we don’t respond to throw a extra man in their to win the challenges. Even coady as a cdm for 5 mins just to gain some control of the ball for a period would be useful.

Astute observations. I was in the BW yesterday and could count on one hand the number of times Hooever got forward (interestingly, the one time he did go forward, we almost scored). I like RAN a lot and he shows real willingness to attack, but the transition from Jonny/Doherty - who knew their roles and the system perfectly - to the current crop has been stark.

 

[reanswolf]

Strategically it is all wrong, we have great wingers but no striker who can win the ball aerially, instead we have small fast forwards but no attacking midfielders to connect with them.

 

[kentish wolf]

Doom and gloom,understandably so.
I am afraid that we will have to play the hand we have dealt ourselves.
Is this squad good enough to keep us in the Premier?
Personally I have my doubts.
I love my club but I won' t lie ,I am worried that if we get involved in a relegation scrap will we be up to it?

 

[WeAreTheWolvesII]

It went wrong as soon as the deadline passed.

Posters have already said that we’ve averaged less than a point a game over a 30+ game period, so it’s no fluke.

We all knew the areas that needed strengthening yet Bruno is working with essentially the same group.

Yes, certain things can help, such as trying a four, but at the end of the day we’re in the position we are because Bruno wasn’t backed.

We have players like Coady & Saiss who are not even top-end Championship in their position, Moutinho who is ineffective and a striker who could’ve died 9 months ago that we’re relying on.

The worst thing is, unlike 12 months ago, there’s no excuses. They saw how bad we were, they knew where we needed to strengthen yet in a market where Newcastle can spend £25m, we have a positive net spend.

 

[Big Saft Kid]

We massively miss Jota, whose goal scoring has not been replaced, as well as Doc, who was much underrated but a vital cog in the wheel, plus Raul, who is a shadow of the player he was before injury. Neto and Jonny are also very big misses. The replacements have all been expensive lightweights. On top of that Moutinho is showing his age. In other words, it's a perfect storm, but one which the club should have seen coming and done something about in the summer. Instead they twiddled their thumbs. Yes, we started enthusiastically enough, but we flattered to deceive in those first few games. The league and results do not lie. We are a bottom third side. We will finish roughly where we are now (if we are lucky)

 

[SA Wolf]

As I said on another thread, better teams than us have been relegated. I've not watched every match this season, but I've seen us play well and lose as well as play badly and lose - not a great combination.
When the coach calls for replacements, publicly and is not supported, then things aren't right, behind the scenes.
We struggle to score goals with a striker that had a career-threatening injury, a striker whose reputation far exceeds his ability and a striker that has just come into the club but has hardly been prolific elsewhere. Some of us suspected that Raul might not come back as good as before his injury!
We struggle not to concede goals with set pieces being a particularly weak point as well as having mistake-prone defenders.
Our midfielders don't score many and our wide forwards are equally 'jaffa-like', to quote from a different thread. They're basically shooting blanks!
In our first two seasons back, Nuno developed us into a team with a style and purpose. We were lauded for it and it was successful. Last season, we 'progressed' from that style and the results were seen, with a flirt with relegation and a change of coach. Bruno may turn out to be a good manager in time, but he is inexperienced and doesn't particularly inspire confidence.
All-in-all, a perfect storm of difficulty that could so easily slide into a relegation battle.

 

[YouGottaRaulWithIt]

The side they played yesterday is, in my eyes, better than the team they fielded earlier in the season. Gil, Ndombele, Lo celso and Romero will/should be in the side as the season progresses.

I agree, Nuno put a strong side out, with the likes of Son, Reguilon and Hojbjerg coming on as subs, but we did give them a run for their money.

Our problem is the squad is so thin. Our bench includes the likes of Cundle, Saiss and Silva.

i think most of us agree that it's not Bruno's fault. We can't play the way he wants to with the players we have. It's poor management. Shi has January to fix this or we could well go down.

 

[Pintandkebab]

The problem for me is we have players that can pass a ball but when we get in the final third we still have one or two at most in the box. The wide players Traore and Trincao need to be busting their ass to get in the box in case Traore over hits a cross . Also it is obvious to me the Neves and Moutinho are great short pass players but where is the late run into the boxes driving from midfield . They are not these types of player unfortunately but Dendoncker is more of that type of player but not quality at it.

This is why Shi messed up big time in the summer .

You can't go and fix a leak with just a bucket you need the tools to fix it. You can't change the way we play overnight if the players are not fit for the formation the manager ideally wants to play . That being said though Bruno can't wheel out the old guard when for me it is obvious that Dendoncker is a better option in the middle at present . RAN is better option on the Left , Boly is better at the back and Hwang and Podence for me must start .

Yes that probably means No Raul , Moutinho, Coady, Marcal , Trincao, but sorry at the moment they look off the pace. Raul needs 30 minutes here and there though but the others might need to speak to their agents in December IMO.

 

[IrchyWolf]

Am I the only person getting a Ståle Solbakken vibe at the moment?

 

[Darvo]

The answer in most businesses is usually recruitment and strategy. Get recruitment wrong and your weaknesses are exposed.

We’ve seen a pretty steady decline in performances for 2 seasons now, and if we do end up surviving this year - which I think we will - but it’ll be close - then there’s nothing to suggest that our problems will disappear next year.

I’m a huge advocate of the additional brand building activity at Wolves: eSports, Wolves Records, fashion - love it all - but it cannot be taking a Chairman away from leading the football side. He has to make sure his senior leaders in the business are ready for the small (transfer) windows of opportunity. They are not.

It’s pretty clear that Jeff is trying to create a business where senior leaders own their space - huge fan of that too. But when senior leaders are fairly inexperienced (Bruno, Sellars) then it’s not enough to push that strategy and expect us to just do things differently.

Brentford: started hiring players based on metrics that they felt were more interesting than the standard and built data models to validate their argument.

Wolves: hired one agent, created a flat management structure and started trying to drive player value down in a market where other clubs pay.

It doesn’t feel very strategic from a football perspective right now, and I think that’s going to cost Jeff his job ultimately.

How is it clear that Jeff wants leaders to ‘own their own space’?

I think it’s the opposite… I bet there ain’t one significant decision taken that he doesn’t rubber stamp.