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Wolves 1-2 Everton: Verdict Thread

I get the bigger picture/longer term idea. I really do.
But if the people in charge of the 'bigger picture' are the same people who thought spunking £70m on Silva and Semedo was a good idea then I'm worried...
 
Fuck. How many times this season have we not deserved to lose, yet we have. Every game we don't get a point the teams below gain ground. If we carry on like this it won't be long before we are drawn into that relegation fight.

I thought we played some really decent football tonight, but playing an 18 year old on his own up top is literally killing us. Is Cutrone the answer? I don't know, but Fabio isn't, and won't be for a long while. Keep playing him and it will properly fuck us.

I get the injuries. We are running on u23's, and that is hard. With the players back we will be a lot better. But they are not, and we are struggling for even a point. The only people scoring are the defense and midfield!

Tonight Neves and Donk were really good. Hoever is going to be a great player. Neto was good until he got the knock. Hopefully he won't be another injury to add to the list.

Saturdays game has a new dimension to it. Can we even get a result against the shit? With the front players we have now? I don't even know. Really disappointed with tonight. Bollocks...
In football you make your own luck. Fabio had a clear chance and was denied by a really good save from Jordan Pickford. He did not do a lot else to justify him staying on for 77 minutes though. Samedo looked great going forward and yet he cannot appear to stop a decent left sided player from crossing the ball , which is pretty much what any Right Back needs to do as a minimum standard. I am surprised Patricio is not getting more of a mention. He looked very weak on anything in or around the six metre area. Hoever looks a good buy but why have him out on the wing? Their second goal I have not too many complaints about, bar stopping the cross by closing Gomes down more. That's a Samedo issue.
I am feeling very dejected. We have gone from Manager of the Month winning team in November to one win in 8. We have been unlucky with injuries but 2 of our big money buys have not justified the spend so far. To be honest , Raul looked isolated at times before his injury. I am fast entering the stage where I cannot wait for the season to be over and us stay up. That is a big climbdown on my anticipated expectations at the start of the season.
 
Excuses are constantly made for Semedo but the fact is he just cannot defend. I actually like some of the things he does when he carries the ball he looks class at times but he is so easy to go past and the cross from that side comes in every single time. We can keep pretending all the issues are due to him being overloaded or not dealing with switched balls etc but he is a very expensive full back failing to do basic parts of his job.
 
Everton had an xG of 0.32 but scored 2 goals.

We won't be winning games if we continue to do that
 
Feel the criticism of Semedo for last night is harsh, he was playing in a 4 but expected to add and contribute to the final 3rd like an out an out wingback, Digne seemed to have a lot more freedom and support in not tracking Semedo completely, but Semedo was not only getting left on an island with a player he was struggling with at times, but we weren't pressing or trying to cut those sweeping balls out to Digne neither. I can see the thinking with him long term.

I am disappointed with last night and we are in awful form in terms of results. Over the last 10 games we have 9 points, the same as Brighton and only 2 more than a retched Fulham side. We concede goals far too easily and we play pretty and neat passing but with zero threat without Raul and the other established attackers.
 
I think (rightly or wrongly) they don’t want to just go for short term fixes. So if someone comes available who we think adds to the team both now and towards what we are building, we’d do it.

so Josh king for example. For the next six months would give us an extra option, give the younger players a bit of breathing space and allow us to rotate the team for example. A capable mid table player, but does he actually help us finish in the top six in the future? No. We don’t want any waste in the squad, so it makes sense. It just means this injury crisis is amplified somewhat and we probably have to accept the short term hit (which I guess is fine as long as Nuno is happy with that).
If that's the level of arrogance then I think we're in trouble - I mean vision wise, not relegation. Ambition is wonderful, but it needs to be accompanied with a touch of pragmatism and reality. If that really is the outlook and I appreciate you are only speculating, then to use an Americanism that's an organisation really taking a whiff. The Summer recruitment gave me similar concerns re being young talent developers
 
Feel the criticism of Semedo for last night is harsh, he was playing in a 4 but expected to add and contribute to the final 3rd like an out an out wingback, Digne seemed to have a lot more freedom and support in not tracking Semedo completely, but Semedo was not only getting left on an island with a player he was struggling with at times, but we weren't pressing or trying to cut those sweeping balls out to Digne neither. I can see the thinking with him long term.

I am disappointed with last night and we are in awful form in terms of results. Over the last 10 games we have 9 points, the same as Brighton and only 2 more than a retched Fulham side. We concede goals far too easily and we play pretty and neat passing but with zero threat without Raul and the other established attackers.
Bang on.
 
The soft goals especially from set p
we’ve lost Raul and Boly, our 2 best defenders from aerial set pieces IMO. Replacing them, last night, with one weak ass player and MGW who, as much as I like him, can no more defend a set price cross than Fabio.

3 at back allows us to get another player in able to defend at set pieces more than anything. It also plays to the strengths on our WBs. Despite the revisionism there is no way we got RAN and Semedo to play FB.
 
Excuses are constantly made for Semedo but the fact is he just cannot defend. I actually like some of the things he does when he carries the ball he looks class at times but he is so easy to go past and the cross from that side comes in every single time. We can keep pretending all the issues are due to him being overloaded or not dealing with switched balls etc but he is a very expensive full back failing to do basic parts of his job.
Agree with all of the above. I have read “Semedo looks good going forward” a lot on here, but to be honest, I don’t particularly agree. There’s been some improvement over the last 4-5 weeks, but it was a low bar. And last night he went backwards again.

Looking at his attacking play, he isn’t offering the kind of interplay and movement that Doc did, he doesn’t look like scoring (a few long distance shots here or there but nothing of note), he doesn’t offer us anything on set pieces i.e. scoring from a header on a corner - hell, his crossing is bang average too! Last night he got himself in to an excellent position to put a ball in with some nice play on the right, and then he hit a woefully under-hit cross along the ground that was cleared by the first man.

He isn’t the worst player out there, but he is miles away looking like the kind of dynamic, strong, skilful attacking wing back I thought we were getting. I’ve not even mentioned the defensive issues...
 
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we’ve lost Raul and Boly, our 2 best defenders from aerial set pieces IMO. Replacing them, last night, with one weak ass player and MGW who, as much as I like him, can no more defend a set price cross than Fabio.

3 at back allows us to get another player in able to defend at set pieces more than anything. It also plays to the strengths on our WBs. Despite the revisionism there is no way we got RAN and Semedo to play FB.
Sorry that was supposed to be deleted as the conversation had already been had. I agree with you re the full backs and I do think we would be more solid generally with an extra centre half. Yesterday he would possibly have closed the free space Iwobi had down, would make the full backs more solid and cover more for our centre mids letting runners go. It's still not the answer to the majority of the goals issues though. We let soft ones in, playing a 3 or a 4. We had 3 against Brighton but still got done by the ball into the box to the big centre half, we'd still have had goalkeeping mistakes, we'd still have given away stupid penalties, we'd still switch off and let simple runs leave players free in the box. It's more fundamental than what formation we are playing it's a mentality issue which wasn't there before
 
Don’t understand the criticism of Semedo. He’s playing pretty well right now, is improving too as he adapts to the league and this team more (not an ideal situation to come into, quite evidently). He looks more and more worth the money to me.
 
If that's the level of arrogance then I think we're in trouble - I mean vision wise, not relegation. Ambition is wonderful, but it needs to be accompanied with a touch of pragmatism and reality. If that really is the outlook and I appreciate you are only speculating, then to use an Americanism that's an organisation really taking a whiff. The Summer recruitment gave me similar concerns re being young talent developers
Again I disagree. This isn’t about just only signing young players, but the right players. If we aren’t going down, and if we aren’t going to challenge for top six this season, what is the point of the stop gap player in the short term? If someone comes available at good value I think we would sign them, I really do.

I think we will get to the summer, and revaluate the squad. The spine of the team is going to be a big area for analysis I think. If Raul is back and no signs of problems, we are fine in that department. In midfield, we will have to sign someone of similar or even better ability of neves to play next to him. At centre back, the profile has changed and so we have to consider how we upgrade there.

If those two positions are sorted (very important ones) then we’ve got on our hands (minus a needed wide player) a really good squad when all are fit IMO - I think that’s where we are trying to get to.
 
Don’t understand the criticism of Semedo. He’s playing pretty well right now, is improving too as he adapts to the league and this team more (not an ideal situation to come into, quite evidently). He looks more and more worth the money to me.
I think you not 'you' see what you want to see depending on your viewpoint. I think he gives ammunition both ways
 
I think you not 'you' see what you want to see depending on your viewpoint. I think he gives ammunition both ways
He's looking a lot better than he did at first but he's doesn't appear to be the huge upgrade that so many anticipated, £30m+ looks a lot of money for what he provides at the moment.
 
Don’t understand the criticism of Semedo. He’s playing pretty well right now, is improving too as he adapts to the league and this team more (not an ideal situation to come into, quite evidently). He looks more and more worth the money to me.
Like I said, there’s been an improvement but the bar was low. Surely you can accept that he is weak defensively and not particularly offering us much going the other way either?

When every verdict thread turns in to an Adama Traore bashing session, I think it’s safe ground to discuss the merits of whether Semedo looks like a good signing or not?

I’m on the fence. It must be difficult settling in and getting used to playing in a new league etc while everyone around you are underperforming. But I still expect him to be able to kick the ball properly rather than scuffing in a cross along the floor.
 
Don’t understand the criticism of Semedo. He’s playing pretty well right now, is improving too as he adapts to the league and this team more (not an ideal situation to come into, quite evidently). He looks more and more worth the money to me.
I do - looking better and better going forward, but defending, he gives loads of space, poor in the air, weak in the tackle - he does feel more like a WB (same for RAN), recruited for a 5 but now in a 4 where there is more defensive work to be done.
 
I do - looking better and better going forward, but defending, he gives loads of space, poor in the air, weak in the tackle - he does feel more like a WB (same for RAN), recruited for a 5 but now in a 4 where there is more defensive work to be done.
How does he look “better and better going forward”? Can you provide examples?

Genuinely interested, because this is the line that I’ve read a lot, but when I watch the games it just doesn’t translate.
 
Again I disagree. This isn’t about just only signing young players, but the right players. If we aren’t going down, and if we aren’t going to challenge for top six this season, what is the point of the stop gap player in the short term? If someone comes available at good value I think we would sign them, I really do.

I think we will get to the summer, and revaluate the squad. The spine of the team is going to be a big area for analysis I think. If Raul is back and no signs of problems, we are fine in that department. In midfield, we will have to sign someone of similar or even better ability of neves to play next to him. At centre back, the profile has changed and so we have to consider how we upgrade there.

If those two positions are sorted (very important ones) then we’ve got on our hands (minus a needed wide player) a really good squad when all are fit IMO - I think that’s where we are trying to get to.

I sit between both of the opinions in that we have lost Raul and Fabio is years away from being ready so we need an adequate plan B.

That may well be a CM/ ACM if MGW doesn’t pan out, at least one more wide/ inside forward and a dominant CB if Boly is not going to do it.

I think there’s a larger problem at FB as you can see we are deliberately allowing crosses to come in with minimal pressure and trying to defend from there. That can’t continue as we can’t defend the cross in the air.
 
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