Wolves-Albion verdict - Why are we so soft? Men against boys

[jonesy]

1) So what is now clearly a one man team we have decided not to replace that one man, oh wait but we have recalled someone who's scored 8 times in his last 78 games !! Genius management

2) Patricio can you just 'kin stand still mate - as you go 20 minutes early we know the result before they've kicked it!

3) Morgan Gibbs-White - has he got a video of Nuno or something ? - the most overrated Wolves player since Andy Keogh. Doesn't score, doesn't assist, came on today, launched two massively overhit passes when we needed possession, got caught in possession like a schoolboy and did what ? Waste of a shirt !

This isn't pant wetting - it is blindingly obvious observations and you cannot see that side involved in anything other than a relegation battle - 3 goals at home to West Brom ffs !

A club without leadership. This won’t get better unless we bring in 2 or 3 to freshen it up. If we aren’t signing anyone after today I give up and championship **** awaits us next year. Jeff is gone missing and so has nunos heart for this job.

 

[CelebrityWolf]

Totally agree, go back to what worked in the past 2 seasons and tick over until our fans return. It's hard for everyone mentally, and it wouldn't surprise me if the season was voided.

They didn't void last season so why on earth would anyone think they will void this season?

 

[SE10 Wolf]

Gibbs for slip or gully?

 

[jonesy]

This is just ****. The silence is deafening from fosun.

 

[whitnash wolf ex.dewsbury]

2 very dubious pens and a clear foul on Neves for the other one.

No excuses for how poor we were at 2-3.

Back to a 343 and what we do best.

Oh and sign a striker (not that Silva let us down today)

what was neves doing marking one of those apes in the first place?

 

[Bostin]

what was neves doing marking one of those apes in the first place?

Zonal marking? And you may want to change your words there!

 

[whitnash wolf ex.dewsbury]

First of all, I’m completely behind Nuno, it would be a massive mistake to let him go.

That ****ing hurts though. So much wrong. We had it exactly where we wanted it, real lack of balls to concede that equaliser.

Coady coming off worries me.

if we are going to play a back 4 correct decision but would go to a back 5

 

[Andy]

if we are going to play a back 4 correct decision but would go to a back 5

I would reluctantly go to a back five now, just to get some ugly points on the board.

I hope four at the back is our future, but the transition is tough with so many key players out.

 

[reanswolf]

P*** poor minus. I choose my words carefully, but unfortunately i saw two evenly matched teams out there today, and we were just beaten to it by a team that played with more passion. We are lacking quality players in all areas of the pitch. Nuno looked worried continually in the second half and the team were really devoid of ideas. Too lightweight all round. The defense were terrible in a four and a simple set piece undid us again. Rui sometimes looks like he's playing with divers boots on and up front we lack cohesion. We're like a tank that rumbles into the battleground only to realize that we've forgot the ammo. I think we're in a massive fight now in every single game. Lets hope we have the heart for the fight. Plus point - we scored 2 goals and Silva got one of them. COYW.

Great assessment Dave.

I think tody just confirmed what weknow in that Coady isnt strong enough in a back 4, Saiss aint no left back, Mouts is sadly past it and Donk has limitations in quality, whilst up front is just lightweight.

Thats a lot of problems but at minimum we need a quality centre back, one or two quality CMs, and a striker.
Its the 1st team that needs strengthening NOT the Under23s so any money should go to that.

What a shame we have just allowed things to drift so badly.
So much of this, injuries aside, is totally self-inflicted

 

[North Bank]

Going to the shop just for beer after that classes as an essential journey, right?

 

[lobodelsur]

Semedo was jumping before the contact, was an obvious dive ffs

TV slo-mo showed clear, solid contact, but Oliver deemed that he'd not have reached the ball... !

 

[Wolf316]

Boly laughing his way off the pitch has really ****ed me off

Me too mate I think Bully needs to be having a word with him about that.

 

[Deleted member 11332]

WBA first goal - no penalty - definitely outside box
WBA 2nd goal - elbow on Neves?
WBA 3rd goal - questionable penalty?

3 questionable decisions.

But that aside, they looked capable on the ball (I said they were).

First goal. On the line penalty.
Second goal. Neves is a pussy.
3rd goal I agree.

 

[Leamwolf]

But it was still like men against boys when it counted.
Big physical players who win challenges when it counted.

But the smaller lads didn’t turn up to be counted.

even the smallest plates on a rugby pitch can smash a 6ft 6inch 18 stone second row..... you just have to want it!!!

this team lacks the fight that is needed

 

[whitnash wolf ex.dewsbury]

Well, that was ****.

A lack of urgency from most of the team during the match. Silva and Traore are the only ones for me who come out with any credit.

Defensively we were all over the place. Coady was subbed for Ait-Nouri, but to be honest it could have been him, Boly, or Saiss.

Neves and Moutinho were both very poor.

What's happening with our throw-ins? We take forever, no movement, then give the ball away immediately.

And what happened to Santo? Every time the camera went to him he was sat down looking lost. Usually, he's on the touchline giving orders and encouragement. This is our biggest derby. Fine words before the game, but you've got to lead the team during the battle. Maybe he was on the touchline and the camera just happened to go on him when he sat down and I'm being harsh. It didn't look good.

Get back to 3-4-3. We might still struggle to score but at least we might concede fewer goals. The commentator asked what's missing and Hoddle said Jimenez. Well, even if he was in the team we would still be 12 games without a clean sheet. We've conceded three goals against Brighton and now three to the ****. That's rubbish.

And for any fans who say we shouldn't overact on here, if you can't overreact after that performance then I don't know what to say. Fans need a place to vent their frustration. I just glad there weren't fans in the stadium at the final whistle.

Man of the match I'll go for Silva, with Traore a close second. A well-taken goal, he worked hard and linked up well. A bright spot on a dark and miserable day.

would go with traore as silva couldn`t even fake a dive

 

[JOSWolf]

Is that what you want?

Was thinking more players who can defend and score.

Trouble is Nuno probably wouldnt play them for 6 months anyway.

 

[Jay Jay de Wolf]

Lost to our two nearest and arch rivals (Vile & ****) by basically 3 unnecessary penalties given away

 

[Royal wolf]

Boly laughing his way off the pitch has really ****ed me off

Football isn’t what it was. This is just a job for them

 

[Bossworld]

I’ve not been this annoyed and had my day ruined with a Wolves result in a way like this for years. I guess that’s a sign of how far we’ve come.

On another day and with a proven striker we’d have put 4 or past them. Post taken from westbrom.com shows how one sided the stats were (I know the only important stat is goals)

Wolves had 20 shots to our 11 and the corner count was 11-0 to them. We had two penalties awarded; the first was arguable if it was inside the box or not and the second could have gone either way - although as an Albion fan I will defend both decisions. We scrapped through; with real resilience and just about fell over the right side of the line.

for me the most upsetting part is the crushing inevitability of it all. We actually played some very good balls into the box at times, some of which were actually reaching our players as we didn’t seem to be playing against giants as we did Everton/Brighton. But the most damning thing was that stat that flashed up, 12 second half attempts, 0 on target.

for now I’m just thankful we’ve got a decent points buffer but all of the bottom sides are showing signs of improvement, which is bad news for us.

 

[JOSWolf]

I think we are paying the price for not investing in centre backs and central midfielders in the last few years. With the decline of Moutinho and drop in form of players like Coady and Boly; we are arguably worse in those positions than we have been during our time in the Premier League.

We've gone soft through the middle of the park and forgotten how to win, with no real options to change anything.

Totally agree. Two **** summer transfer windows in a row have led us to the situation we now find ourselves in. Still the same central defenders and central midfielders mainly starting who were starting in our first season back in the prem. No decent back up/ competition for Raul. Tells the story of our last two summer transfer windows.

 

[wolfgar]

Waited 9 years to avenge that 5-1 and of course this is what gets served up. Defensively we are just abysmal.

 

[SmokeyGB]

Just pulled up. Got a face like thunder

Just pulled up where ?

 

[Woburn Wolf]

The 2 penalties were stupid challenges to make and not the 1st time (Semedo v Villa / Coady v Newcastle come to mind) but should be straight forward to drill into the players not to repeat.

Biggest disappointment was that after going 3-2 down we had 35 mins to come back but posed very little threat at all. This sits with the bulk of the team and Nuno collectively as the players are good enough ability-wise to carry more of a threat but didn't.

Not forgetting Moutinho's pen at Brighton.

 

[xbomber]

We had a full team out at West ham and lost 4-0

Yes and like I say we need to get back to our tactics, style and energy of the previous 3 seasons. The bad injuries are only part of the equation.

 

[CelebrityWolf]

David webb said:
Just pulled up. Got a face like thunder

Just pulled up where ?

That was supposed to be a text to his brother. His missus just got home and he hasn't vacuumed.

 

[Wolf in Wednesbury]

I’m just glad we’re in lockdown.... the texts/images have been coming through thick and fast ... and who can blame them ... gotta laugh ay ya

 

[xbomber]

Aren’t we now on a run of 1 win in 8 or 9 league games? Going a quarter of the season with 1 league win under your belt is knee jerk?

No, some of the normally moderate supporters wildly joining the 'nuno out' brigade due the fact we lost to them lot down the road is though.

It's also what did for Mick and did us no ****ing favours.

So like I say, strap on a **** and give them time to sort it out.

 

[xbomber]

I’m just glad we’re in lockdown.... the texts/images have been coming through thick and fast ... and who can blame them ... gotta laugh ay ya

Water off a duck's back mate. They're ahead at half time this season. I want a win at the whorethorns.

 

[Golden_Wolf]

Lost to our two nearest and arch rivals (Vile & ****) by basically 3 unnecessary penalties given away

Yup. Take into account Mountinhos against Brighton too, we're not learning our lessons.

Worse bit is, they're being made by experienced players.

 

[Wolf in Wednesbury]

Water off a duck's back mate. They're ahead at half time this season. I want a win at the whorethorns.

Not like we aren’t used to it ...

 

[Sheriff Woody]

Another tepid performance by a team that you can visibly see the confidence ebbing away with every misplaced pass, with every over hit cross, with every defensive mistake punished.

I could accept the Burnley loss, they bullied us and I put it down to us having a bad day. I was bereft after the United game and throwing away a point. Brighton was Watford/Braga all over again. Everton highlighted our frailties. Today was a shambles.

Another Brighton but infinitely more disappointing (which says a lot because Brighton nearly earned me a divorce!). A proper knife wound to the heart and a reminder of how insignificant hundreds of international caps and how little future potential means if the opposition have more desire and will to win. Genuinely I wouldn't choose to swap a single Albion player for any of ours, not one.

Today we saw our defence of which all of them are full internationals players being given the run around by players I've never heard of. We had a midfield comprising of full internationals being overrun by Jake Livermore and a bloke from Walsall.

Fabio got a goal and for a while looked more than up for it. The give it to Traore and Neto to win a corner tactic worked a treat, unfortunately when they didn't win a corner they had absolutely no idea what to do and invariably smashed it across the box to nobody.

Patricio - Getting fed up of watching him grasping at thin air as the ball loops into the net. Made one decent save to prevent them from going 2 up. Dived the wrong way for both penalties.

Semedo - Ran forward a lot with the ball before either disappearing down a blind alley or finding himself with absolutely no options. Defensively he makes Jamie Smith look like Paolo Maldini.

Saiss - Our most consistent defender in recent weeks, seems reasonable to stick him at left back then. Didn't really do much wrong but rarely tried to overlap Neto.

Boly - The footballing equivalent of Lennie Small from Of Mice and Men. Big, strong but thick as ****. Gave away a penalty in the opening minutes by making a rash challenge that didn't need to be made. Redeemed himself with a goal to put us 2-1 up but then was part of a second half defensive performance that Paul and Barry Chuckle would have been embarrassed about. Just when you couldn't love him any more he was caught on camera grinning from ear to ear whilst talking to Big Fat Sam at full time.

Coady - How quickly the mighty have fallen. It's not too long ago he was looking at home playing for England. Today he defended like he was playing for the England blind team and somebody had forgotten to put the bell in the ball. Stupidly gave away a penalty, despite trying to convince Oliver he didn't touch his opponent. Subbed, rightfully so.

Neves - Neves translated from Portuguese means the wonderkid who sits an inch infront of the defence. His performances recently have been the one glimmer of light but today he was off the pace by a mile. There were times he was far too deep, WBA quickly worked out that they just need to press him and give him little time to influence the game. They did it well to be fair, he gave the ball away cheaply, got caught in possession too often for my liking and when he did venture far enough up field not to be able to smell Coady and Bolt's armpits he did **** all.

Moutinho - Trotted about like the secret lovechild of Steve Corica and Steve Sedgley. Often found pointing in front of himself before spinning 180 degrees and passing it back to somebody else. I love Moutinho, genuinely the best player I've ever seen play for us but I can't remember the last time I saw him have a decent game. Today he was crap.

Dendoncker - Early on he looked our only threat and then after seeing the incredible influence that Neves and Moutinho were having decided to play the false midfielder position too. Where have those runs into the box gone? Tried to decapitate Knobgrass but couldn't even do that right.

Traore - Won many corners by running like a freight train beyond the Albion defence. Whacked a fair few Tony Daley-esque crosses as high and wide as he could too. Enjoyed shouting at the telly every time he fell over and then sat on his **** for about 30 seconds before getting to his feet. Has the tactical sense of Donald Trump on Mogadon. 9 times out of 10 when Semedo broke forward Traore found the most innovative way to stand as close to an Albion player as possible. Lost the ball by being a greedy ****er and thinking he was Maradona before Boly hoofed the nondescript Albion player up in the air for their first penalty.

Neto - At times looked like he was going to have to do it on his own. Other times he adopted the Traore approach of getting to the by-line and kicking the crap out of the ball. He's going to be a fabulous footballer, I look forward to reminiscing about when he played for Wolves.

Little Annie Silva - He actually put himself about and scored a very very decent goal. One run in the second half opened up the Albion defence but he couldn't quite cut it back for Neto. Other than that he had a thankless job.

Subs.

Gibbs-White - Offered more than our Portuguese wonderkid did but not enough to actually influence the result.

Ait-Nouri - At least offered some support for Neto and helped give us a bit of width.

Cutrone - Had the chance to salvage a draw for us when all alone in the box but sadly for us he showed far too much faith in his own ability and shinned a volley into the ground harder than a Barnes-Wallace bomb. A definite case of ambition outweighing talent.

All in all it was a nice reminder of the kind of disappointment I usually reserve for reminiscing about mid 90's derby games and the look on my wife's face after sexual intercourse.

West Bromwich Albion can continue to go and **** themselves.

 

[Royal wolf]

The ‘Mind the gap’ shouters and the ‘Pride of the midlands’ crap I’ve read on social media for the last 3 years looks silly now doesn’t it. Why can’t fans be humble! Look very stupid now and was always going to happen eventually

 

[Big Saft Kid]

I think there's a lot happening behind the scenes we simply don't know about. My guess, fwiw, is that FOSUN have turned the taps off. If so, they are risking their whole investment. In an injury crisis you need players. Nuno seems to have been told he can't have any. The perfect storm is that he is also trying to change the way we play, and it isn't working. The worrying thing is that Nuno looks like a man at the end of his tether, for whatever reason(s), probably not solely to do with football. If FOSUN have a grain of sense, they will support, not undermine. At this stage of the season, TINA, or I think we could actually go down.

 

[manchesterwolf17]

Boly laughing with Allardyce and Gibbs-****e posting moronic Instagram posts less than half hour after the match sums it up.

Characterless. Couldn't care less.

 

[JOSWolf]

Something feels not right at all at Wolves at the moment. Hasnt felt right for a while in my opinion.

 

[Incognito]

No matter how good the last few years have been, one defeat like that against THEM has wiped out most of those good memories, I'm afraid. No need to write war and peace about today's performance and how I feel. Instead, I'll look forward. Nuno keeps on about solutions but aint finding any. So I'll give you problems and solutions. Coady, Dendoncker and Moutinho are not performing and so need to be relegated to the bench for a while. Then we try Boly and Saiss as the central defenders and VITINHA into midfield to give us more zip (not MGW who was deemed below Vitinha in the pecking order but comes on in front of him today - nonsense). Donk does not score so what's the point of him? Try OO instead. Then there's Semedo, who for all his best endeavours going forward just is not clicking with Adama and is dodgy in defence. So I give you Hoever instead. 5 problems and 5 solutions, that have not really been tried out.

 

[Kford]

I don’t care what anyone says we was cheated out of a clear pen when Gibbs handled the ball with both hands . Only person that can handle the ball in the box with both hands is the goalkeeper.

 

[Deleted member 4152]

Just pulled up where ?

He’s my neighbour mate

 

[Denmark Wolf]

Defensively frail against any height with the slightest occasional pressure, midfield hmmm (Joao past it), attack just so lightweight.

Not beaten by skill, but you wouldn't expect them to be with the money we have spent, but by a few moments of sillyness.
Its no surprise to me we lose to these, actually expected to lose.

Thank **** no fans there see this. Relegation struggle for us too, maybe in all honesty. Just too suspect & lightweight all round
Coady no good in back 4 I'm afraid, Moutinho too weak now, up front we all know - ****e.
Ok it took 2 very dodgy penalty decisions but no excuses, we were dire. ALL self-inflicted this is. Apart from injuries.

Thank **** for lockdown. 2 wins in 20 years continues. We are just so ****** soft.
Oh well onto the next one.

Literally baffled by the negative outlook. Horrible result today, yes. Worst under Nuno because of the s***. But absurd refereeing and penalties....

This team beat Arsenal and Chelsea....now we have Boly back. Game in the Cup to get everyone settled...if it goes well....not prepared to go dark just yet.....

 

[JOSWolf]

Just pulled up. Got a face like thunder

Have a word with him would you mate as it is looking a complete shambles.