Burnley 1-0 Wolves: The Verdict

[redvictor]

We did, but no longer play that way. Unfortunately 3 games out of a season is an anomaly. What it does show is we can play a more expansive way with the players we have however. A goalscorer Ofcourse would’ve made a huge difference first 3 games, but since then not so much

yes, a goalscorer. If we can't put 1 goal in from 50 chances how are we going to do it with 3? For me a goal scorer is absolute priority in the summer. Maybe 2.

 

[Tony Towner]

A lot of the criticism levelled at Fosun when they appointed Lage was that he had no PL experience. Pretty much anybody we recruit will be like that. My main point was that in comparison to the 19 other managers currently employed in the Prem, he actually stacks up pretty favourably and at the moment I can't see our fans willingly switching him with any other (realistic) alternative.

Negative. Happy to eat humble pie if he fails. Only a Wolves fan could think an improvement of 5 league places and a flirtation with European qualification on a budget of next to nothing counts as a sackable offence .

Well from the bits you chose not to quote, I said there's no point sacking him and gave a credible alternative in the event that we did who we wouldn't look at. You know this though as you only come on here to play your games

 

[Carsy]

yes, a goalscorer. If we can't put 1 goal in from 50 chances how are we going to do it with 3? For me a goal scorer is absolute priority in the summer. Maybe 2.

I do agree we need a goalscorer. No disagreement from me. But ignoring the first 3 games a goalscorer would be feeding off relative scraps.

If we carried on creating like we were first 3 games, surely we would’ve started scoring some goals eventually? Will never know mind but you’d like to think do

 

[thisisgil]

Well from the bits you chose not to quote, I said there's no point sacking him and gave a credible alternative in the event that we did who we wouldn't look at. You know this though as you only come on here to play your games

That's a little bit harsh. Everything I post is in good faith and I've been pretty consistent about this since August. Namely:

• I think Bruno could be a fantastic manager for Wolves, I'd like to see him given the chance to build his own squad rather than work with one he's inherited.
• I don't think it's the right time to let him go and I think he's done a more than acceptable job given the constraints he's had to work with this season
• I had hoped he'd play more exciting and expansive football and whilst he's not really done that so far, I remain optimistic this could happen given a personnel overhaul
• I support the club, not the manager. If he spunks 50 million up the wall, doesn't give MGW a decent run, continues to play snoozefest football and the club looks like it's moving backwards, I'll be just as likely to want a new guy in as anybody else
• I'm naturally cautious about managerial changes as I still bear the scars from the lows and almost-highs of pretty much every season in the 90s. A couple of times I recall we acted rashly wrt managers and I think if the board had shown a little more patience and listened a little less to a particularly toxic element of our fanbase, Sir Jack would have had more than one Premiership season to enjoy.

I'm sorry you thought I selectively quoted you and misrepresented what you were trying to say. I just quoted the parts I wanted to respond to. If you want to drop me a PM, we can talk about whatever games you think I'm playing? Believe me, though, when I say that I'm too old and too tired to put the effort into anything nefarious. I just come here to shoot the shit when I can't make a match.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Charlie Wolf]

Once I saw the starting XI it was hope, rather than expectation, for me today. Hwang and Jiminez have basically been pants all season and, predictably, were again today. How on earth they were not subbed off today, only Bruno, our ever increasingly clueless manager, can say. Fabio was the only bright spark in today's front three and he gets pulled off! He put in at least one decent cross in today, first half, which was crying out for someone to tap into an empty net but we just don't have anyone in those right places at the right time, ever! Moutinho tried his very best in midfield, with little or no support from Donkey. Semedo and Jonny were OK. But make no bones about it, in the main we were horse shit. I don't really blame Boly for leaving his man in the middle to try to stop the cross that led to their goal because he was covering for Saiss and Coady who both went AWOL. I really do think our problems stem from the back. We need a decent, proper centre half to replace Coady, enable us to switch to a back 4 and get an extra man into midfield to partner Neves and Moutinho (assuming they both stay). Until then we will always struggle to play football the way it should be played.

This absolutely is what I thought

On Dendonker, he actually started well for 20 minutes and then was non existent

At this point we need at least 5 upgrades on what we have now

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Nah, if anything we hung on to managers too long. Turner by a couple of years, McGhee should have gone after the FA Cup semi-final, Jones could have gone any number of times before he did and shouldn't have lasted as long of his final season as he did, Hoddle shouldn't have been retained beyond his original contract. You could only really argue that Taylor was sacked too early but I don't buy that, we were getting relegated if anything.

We could easily get 0-2 points from our remaining games, giving us an uplift of 4-6 points from last season with all its mitigating factors, which doesn't smack of massive improvement to me, especially when we know full well we have ridden our luck a fair bit to get to our current points haul. We are now the worst performing team in the country when we go a goal down, we play absolutely shite football, he talks utter drivel whenever we lose and in terms of recruitment; either he has some form of a say and he was involved in signing Trincao/Hwang, not signing a central midfielder and effectively letting Adama play for someone else for no financial gain to Wolves for half a season, which is bad and doesn't suggest he should be handed a budget in the summer, or he has no real say and therefore in that respect it doesn't really matter who the manager is, his performance should be evaluated purely on how the team performs, which is largely dreadful at the moment and has been for a couple of months.

You might not have vast swathes of people actively campaigning to get rid of him, though I'll happily skipper that ship, I've had enough of him. However I don't think that many people would care if he did leave, there's little to no bond with the club/fans and we're objectively no fun at all to watch.

 

[Newbridge Wolf]

Ah bolloxs.

 

[Johnny75]

Chances were created by both wing backs. There was no one to finish them. 9 defeats by 1-0 this season. Maybe if we could score that stat might be different.

Can't score what isn't created. You seem to be missing this important point

 

[PuntsWolf]

We could easily get 0-2 points from our remaining games, giving us an uplift of 4-6 points from last season with all its mitigating factors, which doesn't smack of massive improvement to me, especially when we know full well we have ridden our luck a fair bit to get to our current points haul. We are now the worst performing team in the country when we go a goal down, we play absolutely shite football, he talks utter drivel whenever we lose and in terms of recruitment; either he has some form of a say and he was involved in signing Trincao/Hwang, not signing a central midfielder and effectively letting Adama play for someone else for no financial gain to Wolves for half a season, which is bad and doesn't suggest he should be handed a budget in the summer, or he has no real say and therefore in that respect it doesn't really matter who the manager is, his performance should be evaluated purely on how the team performs, which is largely dreadful at the moment and has been for a couple of months.

You might not have vast swathes of people actively campaigning to get rid of him, though I'll happily skipper that ship, I've had enough of him. However I don't think that many people would care if he did leave, there's little to no bond with the club/fans and we're objectively no fun at all to watch.

I certainly haven’t been anti-Bruno but I’m certainly not Pro, but there’s not much to argue with there.

I was anti-Nuno in the end because of how dull it was, but at least he had done something positively previously. Bruno hasn’t done anything positive, is arguably more dull and he himself has no charisma and talks nonsense. I don’t think he should go and deserves a summer window but I definitely wouldn’t be arsed if he did.

As for the Adama situation, I’m certainly no fan but I’d rather him be in our squad than someone else’s and £0 to show for it. Especially when Hwang and Trincao are worse. We could have bought him on today and done the “pass to Traore and see what happens tactic” and something *might* have happened. Can’t have been any worse than bringing on Trincao who did absolutely nothing and the team didn’t even get near their area let alone have a chance.

This is all amplified as the decision to get rid seemed sound as Neto was coming back mid Feb. 2 months on he still can’t do more than 30 mins and still looks well off it. He’s been in full training for 4 months so I have no idea what’s going on there.

 

[redvictor]

Can't score what isn't created. You seem to be missing this important point

50 chances in 3 games = no goals. We haven't been a high scoring team since Jota and Doc left. We did have Raul to score and Adama to assist for a while then that ship sailed too. We had 3 strikers on the pitch today. Aren't they supposed to create chances for each other sometimes?

 

[Tony Towner]

That's a little bit harsh. Everything I post is in good faith and I've been pretty consistent about this since August. Namely:

• I think Bruno could be a fantastic manager for Wolves, I'd like to see him given the chance to build his own squad rather than work with one he's inherited.
• I don't think it's the right time to let him go and I think he's done a more than acceptable job given the constraints he's had to work with this season
• I had hoped he'd play more exciting and expansive football and whilst he's not really done that so far, I remain optimistic this could happen given a personnel overhaul
• I support the club, not the manager. If he spunks 50 million up the wall, doesn't give MGW a decent run, continues to play snoozefest football and the club looks like it's moving backwards, I'll be just as likely to want a new guy in as anybody else
• I'm naturally cautious about managerial changes as I still bear the scars from the lows and almost-highs of pretty much every season in the 90s. A couple of times I recall we acted rashly wrt managers and I think if the board had shown a little more patience and listened a little less to a particularly toxic element of our fanbase, Sir Jack would have had more than one Premiership season to enjoy.

I'm sorry you thought I selectively quoted you and misrepresented what you were trying to say. I just quoted the parts I wanted to respond to. If you want to drop me a PM, we can talk about whatever games you think I'm playing? Believe me, though, when I say that I'm too old and too tired to put the effort into anything nefarious. I just come here to shoot the shit when I can't make a match.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

If I've misjudged you then I apologise, it just seems to me that you come on once a week make a pro Bruno/anti Nuno comment and then disappear again. As I said previously your Avatar does somewhat lend itself to that viewpoint. Neither are/were far from perfect as I attempted to summarise in earlier post.

Full disclosure as those who've been on here longer will know, I wouldn't have sacked Nuno, I'd have given him until November to fix things, however in hindsight after seeing his Spurs team play, be it with their best player on strike, I think we probably saved time. I also didn't want Bruno, not the man himself, but what he represented - a coronation without a proper recruitment process.

The hand he was given by the board was crap, it's why it's more nuanced than it's all x's fault, but I've seen nothing this season to have faith in your first bullet and on your MGW point he told him in Jan he could come back and compete with the wide forwards - he isn't one.

If by the 90's sacking manager point you mean Taylor then we won't agree on that. We were going down that season, be it that he was very unlucky the previous one with injuries

 

[Johnny75]

50 chances in 3 games = no goals. We haven't been a high scoring team since Jota and Doc left. We did have Raul to score and Adama to assist for a while then that ship sailed too. We had 3 strikers on the pitch today. Aren't they supposed to create chances for each other sometimes?

It's 26 attempts with 14 on target. We have no idea where those attempts were from either

But you're missing the wider point that the chances we create are few and far between and the quality of them not great.

Our attacking play is negative in the extreme, our off the ball running is wank and our third person running is non-existent.

Strikers aren't going to change that, that's tactical and a coaching job.

 

[jd1981]

I’d say 70% of our performances have been similar to that of Prime Pulis, Big Sam etc
When we’re bad we’re woeful, occasionally we chuck in a good performance but they’ve become less and less best performance of the season probably West Ham at home or Man Utd away.
Current predicament is a combo of a few factors, 4 dreadful transfer windows which has lead to player complacency, never a good thing knowing you’re playing every week.
There’s a good reason why the press don’t talk about us it’s because we have very few endearing features.
If someone asked how do wolves set up and play?
Erm head scratching set up not to lose anything after that is a bonus.
Firstly had Nuno’s time come to an end? Yes probably have we either upgraded or found a manager of a different mold? Absolutely not
I’ll agree that he’s been let down with recruitment but he made some baffling decisions.
Let MGW out on loan then have to bring in Cundle when we get short, yes two different types of player but even still.
Could’ve loaned in another CM instead of Trincao or Hwang.
Letting Traore go out on loan and singing Hwang up permanently? Seriously
Don’t think anyone could legislate for just how bad Raul has been this season.

 

[Aikiwolf]

Fabio was the only forward to run off the ball, one of the reasons the away crowd booed the substitution, which in itself is telling about the bond between Wolves fans and Bruno.

We have no attacking pattern of play, we have no plan to score (so what on earth the "80% of our time on attacking" is covering is beyond me).

Positives:
Jonny Otto played well again
Joâo Moutinho excellent despite donck being pressed out of the game in the 2nd half
Fabio Silva most attacking threat we had, until he was subbed

I'm getting more and more concerned about next season and I think our "clever" recruitment is really going to come home to roost, especially if Neves goes.

 

[Del Woppio]

I don't know what to think tbh. It's quite possible that Lage isn't a very good manager. He's certainly underperforming and has been for a few months. We're not seeing any stylistic progress, and it doesn't even particularly look like the players are trying something and failing at it, either. It certainly doesn't look like they've spent 80% of the last 9 months working on attacking patterns. The manager has to take a lot of the blame for all of that.

He's had absolutely no backing. None at all. Other than Sa, Jonny, Joao, Neves and Neto, I'd happily sell the rest for their TransferMarkt value. I'm 100% behind the concept of a 'great reset'...but I've got zero trust in the board to spend the money, or then further spend it well. And then further still, I've not got a particularly large confidence that Bruno would succeed even with 6-7 new players of his choosing, either. And then sacking him seems sensible, but then I don't trust the people that would recruit his successor.

I don't care that we're 8th, we're not playing like we have a plan. We're playing like, and spending like, and run like, a club that's happy with an attritional bungle around the 8th to 14th area, but it's going to get very boring very quickly. It's gutting that we are and have been so close to regular European football but basically couldn't be arsed/didn't want to take the risk. We've been basically horrible to watch since we got out of the group stage in the Europa league. We've had flashes, but by and large it's been a really poor watch for a very long time.

 

[Carsy]

I don't know what to think tbh. It's quite possible that Lage isn't a very good manager. He's certainly underperforming and has been for a few months. We're not seeing any stylistic progress, and it doesn't even particularly look like the players are trying something and failing at it, either. It certainly doesn't look like they've spent 80% of the last 9 months working on attacking patterns. The manager has to take a lot of the blame for all of that.

He's had absolutely no backing. None at all. Other than Sa, Jonny, Joao, Neves and Neto, I'd happily sell the rest for their TransferMarkt value. I'm 100% behind the concept of a 'great reset'...but I've got zero trust in the board to spend the money, or then further spend it well. And then further still, I've not got a particularly large confidence that Bruno would succeed even with 6-7 new players of his choosing, either. And then sacking him seems sensible, but then I don't trust the people that would recruit his successor.

I don't care that we're 8th, we're not playing like we have a plan. We're playing like, and spending like, and run like, a club that's happy with an attritional bungle around the 8th to 14th area, but it's going to get very boring very quickly. It's gutting that we are and have been so close to regular European football but basically couldn't be arsed/didn't want to take the risk. We've been basically horrible to watch since we got out of the group stage in the Europa league. We've had flashes, but by and large it's been a really poor watch for a very long time.

Agree with your thoughts regarding the players to keep. I’d however throw semedo and RAN in there. A mid table team (which is what we are) aren’t going to have 3 better fullbacks to choose from as a whole. I’d even put them ahead of Uniteds options, even spurs, for example

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Just trying to reconcile how it's fairly likely we could end up losing 10 of our final 14 games, and "he deserves backing". The two don't tally.

He absolutely doesn't "deserve" anything. He might keep his job and he might do better with different players. I'm not sure I want to take that chance though.

He certainly hasn't done anything above and beyond with this group of players that makes you think "wow, I really wish I could see what he could do with a big budget". We're horrible to watch and he doesn't learn from his many mistakes.

 

[Wilf Wolf]

Didn’t watch the game but like many I could have predicted the result and many of the comments in this verdict thread. My thoughts …

The solution is not signing a “goal scorer”. it will help but more importantly we need to create chances which needs an overhaul in the way we play.

I’ve never really thought this squad are good enough for Europe. A good run in January gave us a chance and whilst that was never likely to continue we’ve fallen off a cliff since then.For all his many faults Traore scared teams, is it coincidence that results have plummeted since he left and Hwang who couldn’t scare a timid kitten, returned? I know who I’d rather face! The persistence with Hwang and Trincao has certainly contributed to our completely toothless displays.

Bruno is increasingly showing that he cannot get the best out of the players he does have available. If he had any say in the signing of Hwang I’d be reluctant to let him spend another penny let alone bring in a number of players to “allow him to play how he wants”. Why would you trust a man to build a team when recent performances suggest a sand castle is beyond him?

I suspect that we’ll get no more than four points by the end of the season which would constitute a shocking end to the season. Given one game is against the mighty Canaries if that transpires Bruno ought to be getting a P45 rather than a transfer budget.

 

[Throbber3]

A predictable result against Burnley. I couldn't bring myself to bet against us but I told friends (I do have some) that we always stuff it up at Burnley.
That said, we have played a lot worse in games this season. We didnt create much but what chances we did have were poorly taken. Raul should have done much better with his early chance. Fabio showed some better movement outside the box but still was no where to be seen for the crosses into the box first half. I am in Jinkys camp- probably have been most of the season. Plenty of changes and upgrades needed if we are to improve next year. Four or 5 new faces in the first 11 to really freshen it up and a style of play that suits the managers ethos , whoever that is. I am not convinced Lage knows whether to stick or twist. We have been largely shite since February with the odd gift like Spurs or the odd good performance like Watford to punctuate a lot of poor performances against some average sides. I dont know why I am at all surprised. 2 Managers have got pretty much the same tune from this squad, so while we can bemoan the tactics of both Bruno and Nuno there does come a time when you have to look at the personnel and accept there need to be changes. I wont be upset if Trincao, Hwang , Marcal , Saiss, Hoever, Ruddy all move on this summer. We may/ will lose Neves , Traore and possibly Moutinho too. I am ambivalent on Lage , mainly because sacking him will only lead to the next Mendes candidate being appointed. Roll on the summer. I wont be renewing my passport in anticipation of any European away days.

 

[Carrotdude]

For what it’s worth, I don’t necessarily have a problem with being a solid mid table team but I’d like some entertainment and attacking football along the way at least. This just feels like it will drag out until one season we’ve lost one too many of our better players, our luck swings the other way, and we go down. Fuck knows what happens then.

The Hwang signing makes me very worried about who we bring in if indeed there is a big reset this summer