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New Season

Pessimist in all things Wolves and worried we'll be dragged into a relegation battle, do well to match last season's final position in the league.
 
All depends on the start. Three tough games followed by a friendlier run of fixtures. If we can get through the Man United game with maybe five points on the board I would be optimistic. I do think that five point haul would be a very big ask though.
 
We saw what happened when he tried to be more expansive, our defenders weren't good enough. It was pragmatic of Nuno to revert to a more defensive setup, if he'd have carried on we could have ended up getting spanked every week which could have run out of control very quickly. Whoever the manager is the issue we've had for ages is we've not bought any defenders for 3 years and the ones who have been playing there are mainly converted midfielders.
He started out with a conservative mindset from day one, he only tried to be more expansive in his 4th year in the job.

The weak defence remained so because Nuno's system afforded it protection, when he finally made some attempt to be more ambitious the lack of attention paid to improving that defence then came home to roost.
 
Will be surprised if we seriously challenge for the top half & right now would take last year's finishing position - far too many unknowns to have any real expectation.

Only real bright spot is Raul returning & starting to look as if he still has the potency, but needs serious competitive games & will be assisted when Neto can return. Defensive issues have been commented on by many & whilst it's not as bad when we had no left back for years so just shoehorned whoever in there it has been an issue that has needed attention & not got any.

Hopefully Sa is red hot - not seen enough yet & only in friendlies which you can't judge on.
 
All depends on the start. Three tough games followed by a friendlier run of fixtures. If we can get through the Man United game with maybe five points on the board I would be optimistic. I do think that five point haul would be a very big ask though.
I’d snatch your hand off for two points at that stage.
 
I've got no idea how the season will pan out tbh, I'm in the 'nervous' camp about how we will do without Nuno and with a relatively inexperienced coach, however as always I will be optimistic until such time as results/performances say otherwise.
 
Short term apprehensive with regard to the current squad, manager and likely approach.

Apathetic otherwise, this season is likely to be the final 19 home games I go to with the suspected price rises next season so why care beyond that.

I thought I'd be chomping at the bit to get back but I'm honestly not fucked either way at the moment.
 
He started out with a conservative mindset from day one, he only tried to be more expansive in his 4th year in the job.

The weak defence remained so because Nuno's system afforded it protection, when he finally made some attempt to be more ambitious the lack of attention paid to improving that defence then came home to roost.
You must have missed us in the Championship when we played some of the most stylish and attractive football I've ever seen.
 
The eternal optimist in me is already looking forward to Lage's second season. Mid-table this season followed by 2-3 great signings and a confident mindset will have us pushing for at least 6th/7th next season.
The cynic in me says slightly different. Poor start turns to an ultra-defensive mindset where the goal is to not concede and hope for Raul or Neto to score. Enough 1-0s and 0-0s to just keep us up in 17th.
12th-15th.
 
You must have missed us in the Championship when we played some of the most stylish and attractive football I've ever seen.


It still wasn't overtly attacking football at that point, even with one of the greatest gulfs in ability that level has ever seen. It was considered and methodical, hell even McCarthy's promotion side was probably more attack minded in comparison.

They would've had a greater share of possession in most games, as you'd expect with the talent available, but they still probed cautiously rather than trying to batter the door down. When they lost possession it was still the same shape based system waiting patiently to regain the ball rather than press to win it back immediately.
 
Well with pretty much the same players we have looked better on the pitch particularly going forward. It is amazing what a difference playing 20 m higher can do and pressing harder. I think this is the true transition season. Last year we tried to shoehorn a defensive minded manager into an attractive football system and for a number of reasons it failed. We will lose plenty but we will win plenty too. We will probably finish around the same as last season. Higher and playing attractive football, scoring goals and winning well on occasions. I don’t think I can really judge until I know exactly what the squad is. There are more ins and outs to come. But I do not think we will have a dull as ditchwater thread this season. It could be a roller coaster.
 
I’m expecting the roller coaster. Some good wins and some right thrashings. The big boys are going to rip the defence to bits if we aren’t careful.
 
You must have missed us in the Championship when we played some of the most stylish and attractive football I've ever seen.
we still set up in quite a conservative way, just that we were so technically superior to most teams, we had loads of possession....we still struggled at times to break defensive teams down.
 
Not optimistic really I’m hope I’m proved otherwise. I was openly sceptical about the Lage appointment to.
I think things will be more entertaining but I do think we’ll get a couple of heavy defeats this season.
11th-15th is my prediction
 
It still wasn't overtly attacking football at that point, even with one of the greatest gulfs in ability that level has ever seen. It was considered and methodical, hell even McCarthy's promotion side was probably more attack minded in comparison.

They would've had a greater share of possession in most games, as you'd expect with the talent available, but they still probed cautiously rather than trying to batter the door down. When they lost possession it was still the same shape based system waiting patiently to regain the ball rather than press to win it back immediately.
To me dominating the ball and probing for weaknesses in the opposition isn't really cautious, the quality of the football was a joy to watch IMO. If that's cautious for you fair enough, different strokes for different folks.

The quality of the football was fine for those first two seasons in the Prem as well. The problem is teams became wise and adapted their way of playing to negate us. That's when he tried to change it and it didn't work because we didn't have the players. There probably is a legitimate criticism to be made in the way he set us up when trying to change it up, but I personally think whoever was in charge would have struggled implementing a different style.

The only option he had then really was to revert back to the tried and tested system which was at least defensively sound, but then that offered zero entertainment as teams had worked out how to defend against it. We'll never know if he asked for a different profile of player last summer and didn't get them, maybe that's why he was such a grumpy bastard as he knew he'd been put in an impossible position.

The next four weeks are absolutely pivotal for me, if we don't get some players in I'm quite worried and I think Lage will suffer the same fate as Nuno. It's alright Fosun wanting attractive football, but that comes at a premium in terms of the players you need to pull it off.
 
Well with pretty much the same players we have looked better on the pitch particularly going forward.
Have we? I thought we were largely awful against Crewe and Las Palmas. With close to the best XI we had available in the latter game we didn't have a shot on or off target in the entire first half. Ok in parts against Betis, Stoke was the best performance (particularly in terms of how we kept and used the ball) but we didn't win against a moderate Championship team, very fortunate to beat Coventry and created next to nothing after it went 2-0.

It's more about fitness than results of course but it's a serious stretch to say we've played well.
 
To me dominating the ball and probing for weaknesses in the opposition isn't really cautious, the quality of the football was a joy to watch IMO. If that's cautious for you fair enough, different strokes for different folks.

The quality of the football was fine for those first two seasons in the Prem as well. The problem is teams became wise and adapted their way of playing to negate us. That's when he tried to change it and it didn't work because we didn't have the players. There probably is a legitimate criticism to be made in the way he set us up when trying to change it up, but I personally think whoever was in charge would have struggled implementing a different style.

The only option he had then really was to revert back to the tried and tested system which was at least defensively sound, but then that offered zero entertainment as teams had worked out how to defend against it. We'll never know if he asked for a different profile of player last summer and didn't get them, maybe that's why he was such a grumpy bastard as he knew he'd been put in an impossible position.

The next four weeks are absolutely pivotal for me, if we don't get some players in I'm quite worried and I think Lage will suffer the same fate as Nuno. It's alright Fosun wanting attractive football, but that comes at a premium in terms of the players you need to pull it off.

Attractive football and attacking football aren't mutually exclusive. A team can move the ball around nicely without having any great attacking intent or can be very attacking with very little aesthetic appeal and vice versa. Teams fall into all different shades of grey between the black and white of those extremes and it's up to every individual what blend they consider to be entertaining to them, some will accept anything as long as the results are right.

For me Nuno never had Wolves as a genuinely attacking side at any point, it was always solidity that came first even in the Championship where the gulf in quality over most opponents allowed much more freedom. They were generally easy on the eye without being particularly gung-ho though, sustained possession and moved the ball around well enough.

In the Premier League I'd say the aesthetics took a hit with the move to 352/532 and surrendering more possession to better opponents. There were however flashes of greater entertainment as some of the counter attacking at pace was a good watch. It wasn't thrill a minute stuff by any means but similar in style to Leicester when they won the league, the patient defensive element could be somewhat forgiven by the sudden acceleration into attacking opportunities.

Last season everything nose dived though, generally awful to watch, minimal attacking impetus and often little effectiveness to even paper of the cracks with undeserved points.
 
Have we? I thought we were largely awful against Crewe and Las Palmas. With close to the best XI we had available in the latter game we didn't have a shot on or off target in the entire first half. Ok in parts against Betis, Stoke was the best performance (particularly in terms of how we kept and used the ball) but we didn't win against a moderate Championship team, very fortunate to beat Coventry and created next to nothing after it went 2-0.

It's more about fitness than results of course but it's a serious stretch to say we've played well.
Does pre season friendlies have any bearing on what happens this season.
We cannot compare pre season with Bruno to a league season with Nuno.

Lets wait until October before saying we are worse.

We have the same team as last season, plus Jiminez back
 
I'd say we were conservative rather than defensive in the Championship. We won games early on and conserved energy to win 2-0 rather than going after teams. Different mentality post promotion when it was much more about playing on the counter until last season
 
I would say that last bit is unfair Mark.

These are the teams we beat last season:

Sheff Utd x 2
Fulham x 2
Leeds x 2
Arsenal x 2
Palace (H)
Chelsea (H)
Southampton (A)
Brighton (H)

I think we deserved to win pretty much all of those in the end and there weren't many/any spawny draws either.

Plenty where we deserved nowt and got nowt too.
 
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