Wolves vs Liverpool. The verdict.

[Derbywolf85]

Thought our overall performance last night was vastly improved - largely because we showed some intent and caused Liverpool some real problems.

Thought Jonny, Coady, Boly Semedo and Moutinho were excellent. Thought Willian Jose and Neves were decent. Adama had flashes. Neto had an off night unfortunately.

We created some decent half chances and should've had 2 penalties were it not for complete incompetency from Craig Pawson and a lack of any sort of VAR on both situations. I think we all know that had those incidents been Rui on Salah and Boly shoving Mane then there would've been 2 penalties given to the team in Red.

As I've said all along, I can cope with losing games, particularly against better teams (and they are a better team, even though they're having a 'mare) AS LONG AS WE HAVE A GO.

And last night, we did.

We go in to games against the average teams in the league and the lesser teams and we probably put another 9-10 points on the board this season.

Truth is - I really can't wait for 20/21 to be over!

And also - Goes without saying - Wishing a save and speedy recovery to Rui Patricio, the victim of another ridiculous rule change in the PL - Hope his injury isn't at all serious.

 

[SteveBullsKnee]

A few suggest this was an okay performance but, if so, it shows how low the bar is now set. Liverpool are in their worst ever run of form and did not play well, yet we never looked like beating them. We have scored only 14 goals from open play and whilst it is suggested that the injury to Jiminez is the reason, the truth is the poor recruitment which left us with no acceptable back up. And that is not even mentioning our overly cautious approach (last night excluded).

We are nowhere near good enough and looking at our squad no chance that this will change any time soon. Significant change is required but don’t see that happening. More of the same seems to be on the horizon.

Liverpool won their previous game

 

[Fenrir_]

I thought Jose had his best game so far for us.

Boly does look better on the left.

Actually thought MGW did well when he got on the pitch too.

MGW did do well when he came on, he's much more comfortable through the middle

 

[clivewolves]

Neto had an off night with the ball, but without it I thought he did what was asked of him. He was given the task of stopping Fabinho dictating the play and I thought he did well. It's not something he's been asked to do before from what I've seen and he showed great discipline in doing the job for the whole game.

 

[peter&thewolf]

Played well last night, robbed by 2 penalty decisions

 

[BN1Wolves]

Oh, and Silva still managed to find time to miss his weekly six yard box sitter.

You have to laugh or you would cry.

I literally can not stand this kid . Worst 35m EVER SPENT . Lightweight , no first touch , dives all over the place . Jose 100000 times better , stronger .

 

[Black Country Wanderer]

Overall a much better performance
Showed some fight and intent
Ok it leaves us open and we were fortunate on a couple of occasions, but its so much better to watch
Rui should have saved the goal,we should have had at least one penalty, probably two,the only way we would have scored btw
Thought Mouts was superb,Semedo,Boly,Coady very good
Jose decent with his hold up and passing must get into the box more and when he does not get ignored
Traore and Neto were poor,i dont know whats happened with Neto lately just seems a petulant child most games,needs a kick up the backside
If you cant score you dont win,story of our season really

 

[Ernie the Wolf]

I literally can not stand this kid . Worst 35m EVER SPENT . Lightweight , no first touch , dives all over the place . Jose 100000 times better , stronger .

I think fairly soon he will prove you wrong.

 

[peter&thewolf]

Great flick for MGW to put him through, but for some reason, MGW never had the legs to get clear, despite only just coming on, strange that

 

[Vtrpres]

Best general performance for months. When is Nuno going to do something other than play for a goal less draw.
Jose is just not good enough as a striker in the Premiership. Sadly for me Silva will never be the second Ronaldo.
Needs a good half season on loan down division. Coming up against some of the Chumps Neanderthal halfbacks will kill him or cure him.
Man of the match?
By a country mile Liverpool player, Pawson. Never put a foot wrong all night . So consistent in his play.
Definitely up for the Specsavers Man of the Season award.

 

[Darvo]

I can’t help but think that the beautiful game is now corrupt. For the referee to miss 2 fairly clear penalties is one thing, but for VAR to not even bat an eyelid on them is just astounding.
It’s left a sour taste.

 

[5150]

Anyone else see the Semedo "handball" that would have ruled out the pen decision if VAR had looked ?
SSN football show reckon so !

Oh and a shove in the back is not deemed a pen this morning.... has on other mornings,but not today.

 

[goldeneyed]

Ok we played well. Special mentions to Moutinho especially, Boly, Coady, Semedo, Jonny and Traore. MGW did well when he came on in last 10 minutes. Rui perhaps should have saved Jota's shot but it's tiny margins. Definitely thought that early challenge on Semedo by Allison was a penalty. But to be fair Liverpool played well too and Mane was electric on the ball. We deserved a draw. The ref seemed biased against us most of the night.

BUT neither Jose nor Silva are up to it as central strikers and that is the major weakness for now. Feel sorry for Neto and Traore because often they look up to cross into the penalty area and there is virtually no PRESENCE. Coady, Neves and inevitably SIlva missed very good chances and you can't do that against a team like Liverpool.

Jose was marginally better in the first half but still not convincing as the striker we desperately need. Every time Silva comes on I despair. He is just not ready. A long way from being ready and that £35m fee seems utterly ridiculous. He needs a season with another Midlands Championship team like Derby or Forest to toughen him up and prepare him for harder challenges ahead. We so badly need another striker in the squad to complement Jimenez. Plus an attacking midfielder to offer a different type of threat.

A lack of a proper replacement for Jimenez has cost us perhaps 12 points this season. We are still not clear of the relegation quicksand but at least we started well last night and did not collapse as per usual in the first half. The fact we stood toe to toe with a very good team is something to be proud of.

The big gap between us and Liverpool is the depth in the respective squads. We need to strengthen greatly in the summer. New CB, new attacking midfielder, new striker, are the absolute minimum requirements without losing any of our crown jewels.

 

[maws]

If salah had been pushed like Moutinho the arms would have opened up and the diving swan routine come out!

 

[Elvis Wolf]

I can’t help but think that the beautiful game is now corrupt. For the referee to miss 2 fairly clear penalties is one thing, but for VAR to not even bat an eyelid on them is just astounding.
It’s left a sour taste.

We were robbed, BIG TIME!!

 

[AndyY]

The big gap between us and Liverpool is the depth in the respective squads. We need to strengthen greatly in the summer. New CB, new attacking midfielder, new striker, are the absolute minimum requirements without losing any of our crown jewels.

I think that we would all agree with this paragraph but fear we are all going to be disappointed. Imagine this season if we had kept Jota and Doc, in addition to our recruitment, and even with our injuries?
I think it is clear that Fosun’s strategy is now to buy talent, develop and sell, and then buy the next young players with potential. Sadly, I don’t see us buying the 3 players you identified without selling at least one of the crowd jewels.

 

[Flump]

I literally can not stand this kid

I find it very strange that someone would write this about an 18 year old Wolves player who is clearly putting in a lot of effort.

 

[maws]

I find it very strange that someone would write this about an 18 year old Wolves player who is clearly putting in a lot of effort.

Sometimes on here I just read all the posts by a particular poster and realise it’s not worth the effort with them, and I’m not on about you

 

[Beastier]

Aside from the officiating debacle (most notably being robbed as a clear penalty), this wasn't a bad performance and much easier on the eye that most of what we've been served up this season.

However it does highlight the reasoning behind our lowly league position - we just don't have enough goal threat, despite playing quite well. Indeed in a lot of our indifferent performances we could have picked up a lot more points had we had more cutting edge going forward or been clinical enough to take advantage of key moments.

Unfortunately if we can't score we won't win games.

 

[Sketchead]

Rui - should've saved their goal, big let down that from such a good keeper. Especially someone that knows first hand Jota always goes near post from that position on his left foot. Suppose easier to say watching on tele than for him in the moment. Good save from Salah second half, glad he's seemingly OK after his horrible-looking injury.

Thought our defence was largely good. Massive improvement with Boly back, and he's literally different class playing as left centre half than he is on the right. Shame he'll likely move back over next game and only played there last night because of Salah's pace. Semedo the other standout.

Midfield two were largely very good.

Neto pretty rubbish, didn't look interested, lost the ball a lot, couple of times he went on runs he seemed to give it up far too easily. As a young lad he'll have many games like that but it's frustrating to watch.

Adama showed desire and did a lot of good stuff but final delivery let him down a lot, as it can do often.

Jose - thought he did really well on some occasions holding the ball up and keeping it in tricky situations, but that's another league game he's started and not had one chance. Given Fabio came on and once again, had two chances for himself inside the box in a limited amount of time, you have to say Jose's positioning is to blame rather than our creativity from out wide.

Fabio did OK. That flick to MGW was glorious, just a shame MGW isn't the type of player to beat a man for pace from the half way line. Neto or Adama running onto that would've led to a clear chance. That closer header he shouldered towards the end... got to be doing better. But frankly I'm quite glad when he comes on these days because you know a chance or two are coming his way, when it doesn't really feel like that with Jose.

Thought MGW did pretty well, some good turns and fast balls out wide to start attacks. Much better than his last appearance when he must've given the ball away more than he kept it and looked well off it.

Overall, thought we played well, shame we conceded a sloppy goal.

Too much football for me at the moment. I personally and I think our club staff will benefit from three weeks away from domestic fixtures. West Ham then we couldn't really ask for five better fixtures in a row on paper. Hopefully we can finish the season strong and have a good push for... 11th.

Bring on the summer.

 

[Highlandwolf2]

Liverpool won their previous game

Albeit in some European competition or other.......Think they have lost 6 of their last 8 PL games. We have been largely poor over the last 12 months or so and can see no prospect of improvement in the future, although accepting that Covid-19 has put football into stasis. Our poor transfer activity during this period is now biting us in the bum.

As our income is circa 30% of Man U, as an example, perhaps my expectations should be tempered accordingly.

 

[whitnash wolf ex.dewsbury]

More worrying for Brighton, Newcastle, Burnley and Southamton, though.

What's that saying "When you are in a bunch of people being chased by a lion, you only need to be faster than one other person, not the lion.

It will take not just Fulham, but each of those others catching us up for us to be in trouble.

still got to play brighton and burnley,where`s the next goal coming from let alone a win

 

[JOSWolf]

I literally can not stand this kid . Worst 35m EVER SPENT . Lightweight , no first touch , dives all over the place . Jose 100000 times better , stronger .

Cant stand him? Wow. That is really harsh. I think he looked good when he came on last night. Talking of first touches. What about his first touch/ flick to put MGW through?

 

[JOSWolf]

Anyone else see the Semedo "handball" that would have ruled out the pen decision if VAR had looked ?
SSN football show reckon so !

Oh and a shove in the back is not deemed a pen this morning.... has on other mornings,but not today.

Doesnt fit their big six agenda. All becoming too obvious now with the media and refs etc.

 

[Deleted member 8913]

I think that we would all agree with this paragraph but fear we are all going to be disappointed. Imagine this season if we had kept Jota and Doc, in addition to our recruitment, and even with our injuries?
I think it is clear that Fosun’s strategy is now to buy talent, develop and sell, and then buy the next young players with potential. Sadly, I don’t see us buying the 3 players you identified without selling at least one of the crowd jewels.

i think you all miss the point...the big six have revenues more than double wolves and can afford to play double for the squad....that’s a huge difference...it is just not possible for wolves to build a comparable squad without the comparable income...in fact the big three have revenues more than triple Wolves

 

[Greeno]

I literally can not stand this kid . Worst 35m EVER SPENT . Lightweight , no first touch , dives all over the place . Jose 100000 times better , stronger .

Should have gone to....

Wait, what?

100000x?

 

[wulfie88]

 

[Ian C]

Thought Boly was mighty last night, nice to see him bringing the ball out of defence too, he's very good at that in the main. We look SO much better with him in the squad, Dendonker is a liability in defence.

Semedo and Jonny also very good.

Deserved a draw but for the fact the front three don't seem to know who each other are.

 

[Oh When the Wolves]

Liverpool won their previous game

Won 3 out of last 4 away

 

[Contrarian]

still got to play brighton and burnley,where`s the next goal coming from let alone a win

35 points may already be enough to stay up so we might need another point, let alone a win!

35 points would have kept you up in 4 out of the last 5 seasons. A couple of 0-0's and we will be safe as houses.

 

[whitnash wolf ex.dewsbury]

35 points may already be enough to stay up so we might need another point, let alone a win!

35 points would have kept you up in 4 out of the last 5 seasons. A couple of 0-0's and we will be safe as houses.

think o-o is the best we can hope for!

 

[Frank Lincoln]

A game we should have won, but again our lack of fire power cost us dear. We need to find a way to score a few more goals. Liverpool were there fort me he taking, but we let them off the hook. Still a lot of positives to take forward, and carry on like that and we will win more than we lose.

 

[Highlandwolf2]

35 points may already be enough to stay up so we might need another point, let alone a win!

35 points would have kept you up in 4 out of the last 5 seasons. A couple of 0-0's and we will be safe as houses.

Crystal Palace were relegated with 49 points over 42 games; Birmingham City were relegated with 39 points over 38 games (guess who had a one goal better goal difference?). Are Fulham likely to get say 14 points from the remaining 9 games, giving them 40 points? Unlikely but not impossible. If 40+ points becomes our target (currently on 35) not sure how we will get them with our shocking goals from open play record.

 

[Highlandwolf2]

I literally can not stand this kid . Worst 35m EVER SPENT . Lightweight , no first touch , dives all over the place . Jose 100000 times better , stronger .

Heh - don't have a go at Oscar Wilde Rag Doll. Not his fault that Wolves scouts (i.e. Mendes) was bit short of cash the week that we signed him. Skill certainly but with all the aggression of Bonny Langford (who might actually be a better header of the ball).

 

[maws]

Anyone else see the Semedo "handball" that would have ruled out the pen decision if VAR had looked ?
SSN football show reckon so !

Oh and a shove in the back is not deemed a pen this morning.... has on other mornings,but not today.

But as it was accidental and didn’t lead directly to a goal is that even correct? I think that’s a cover up story to help out poorson

 

[Vtrpres]

Who was on VAR last night? I see Baldrick as 4th on the touch line. I suppose we should have heard the alarm bells then.

 

[OLDGOLD]

I literally can not stand this kid . Worst 35m EVER SPENT . Lightweight , no first touch , dives all over the place . Jose 100000 times better , stronger .

Jose may be stronger, but Willy Wonka is the better player by far. Missing the final product, but he at least gets into dangerous positions,something Jose fails to do

 

[goldeneyed]

Re Silva we are all dying for him to show something substantial. One good flick and 'getting into good positions' and failing to make anything out of them is not enough for £35m. He has missed at least five good penalty box chances this season which could have made a huge difference.

He is for now simply too lightweight, easily brushed off the ball, feeble in the air. Link play improving. He is not good enough to be the complementary/back up striker for Raul next season even assuming Raul comes back as good as new. Of course noone in their right mind wants to talk Silva down but we can't deny what we see with our own eyes again and again. At 18, he needs to develop on loan somewhere for a season and get many more games under his belt to get up his confidence and harden him up. Floppy Oscar Wilde needs to become a brilliant young Shakespeare. He is lucky in a way that he hasn't been playing in front of crowds this season. Patience would have snapped by now.

 

[Fenrir_]

Re Silva we are all dying for him to show something substantial. One good flick and 'getting into good positions' and failing to make anything out of them is not enough for £35m. He has missed at least five good penalty box chances this season which could have made a huge difference.

He is for now simply too lightweight, easily brushed off the ball, feeble in the air. Link play improving. He is not good enough to be the complementary/back up striker for Raul next season even assuming Raul comes back as good as new. Of course noone in their right mind wants to talk Silva down but we can't deny what we see with our own eyes again and again. At 18, he needs to develop on loan somewhere for a season and get many more games under his belt to get up his confidence and harden him up. Floppy Oscar Wilde needs to become a brilliant young Shakespeare. He is lucky in a way that he hasn't been playing in front of crowds this season. Patience would have snapped by now.

Not a chance Silva will go out on loan, at the start of next season he'll also be six months further down the line in his development. He'll be a more adequate back up

 

[Contrarian]

Not a chance Silva will go out on loan, at the start of next season he'll also be six months further down the line in his development. He'll be a more adequate back up

Can't see it happening in 6 months. I'd say check back when he's at least 22. That's another 4 years, minimum.

Still, 4 years to become just-about-acceptable as backup striker is better than for Jose. He hasn't got there yet, I doubt he ever will.