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Let's talk about Nuno....

Jabbawolf

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Where do people stand on Nuno?

For me, the thinking has been confused since Sevilla - he seems affected by the pandemic - substitutions are bewildering at times - we don't know our best formation - recruitment also a bit puzzling - performances are erratic.

Has he taken us as far he can?

I'm not sure, but I think the push higher has taken him out of his cautious comfort zone - I really hope getting players back from injury and coming out of lockdown can change our fortunes a bit - I'm probably most concerned that he will walk away soon.

I want him to be the man the push us into Europe on a regular basis.
 
I want him to be the man the push us into Europe on a regular basis.

He is absolutely the man for this IMO.

He's one of the top coaches in Europe for me. He's got some work to do with this squad (young players, injuries etc), and the form we are currently in, and to produce more consistent performances in the circumstances we find ourselves in but unless he gets an offer I don't see Fosun panicking and changing manager for a long time, and I'm glad about that.
 
Has he taken us as far he can?

Nope.

I daresay a lot of managers have been completely thrown by the pandemic. The league is batshit mental - good for the neutral maybe, but I'm not enjoying it at all. It's soulless, we've got too many players missing for it not to badly affect us and the fallout from it all is a bit tiresome TBQH.

The marathon that was last season, the very, very short preseason, the stupidly unnecessary international breaks at the start of the season and the various covid related testing, subsequent isolations, working conditions etc all mean that valuable training ground time has been lost and that's where Nuno shines above many of his peers.

Whilst I don't mean to make excuses for him, these are not normal times and football clubs are having to adapt in new ways. When you throw in the injuries we've had to key players (and I'm convinced that some of this is down to the lack of conditioning a proper preseason would have given us) it's no wonder we're not firing on all cylinders.

Our inconsistency this season is of course frustrating (I daresay even more so for Nuno) but it's not as if we've not played well at all because there have been plenty of decent performances. Not enough consistency and we are badly off form in front of goal so there's shit loads for us to work with but I have absolutely no doubts whatsoever that Nuno is the right man to take us further.
 
Nope.

I daresay a lot of managers have been completely thrown by the pandemic. The league is batshit mental - good for the neutral maybe, but I'm not enjoying it at all. It's soulless, we've got too many players missing for it not to badly affect us and the fallout from it all is a bit tiresome TBQH.

The marathon that was last season, the very, very short preseason, the stupidly unnecessary international breaks at the start of the season and the various covid related testing, subsequent isolations, working conditions etc all mean that valuable training ground time has been lost and that's where Nuno shines above many of his peers.

Whilst I don't mean to make excuses for him, these are not normal times and football clubs are having to adapt in new ways. When you throw in the injuries we've had to key players (and I'm convinced that some of this is down to the lack of conditioning a proper preseason would have given us) it's no wonder we're not firing on all cylinders.

Our inconsistency this season is of course frustrating (I daresay even more so for Nuno) but it's not as if we've not played well at all because there have been plenty of decent performances. Not enough consistency and we are badly off form in front of goal so there's shit loads for us to work with but I have absolutely no doubts whatsoever that Nuno is the right man to take us further.
I agree with a lot of this.

Not particularly happy with the club's use of funds this past summer, think we need a good summer window as we have had poor to mixed windows the last few and it's starting to show.

Having said that as above Nuno does his best work on the training pitch any players you hear interviewed say the same things about him that he works so much on organisation and there's a lot of repitition on the training ground to drill into the player their roles and in the previous seasons he's been in charge you could swap players from the 11 from bench and they'd come on and slot in seamlessly and that just hasn't been the case this season.

I have frustrations with Nuno at times and think he's got a fair bit wrong this season but a football club is never going to keep having season after season of progression and upward trajectory, I can take this season as it is as long as we don't get drawn into a relegation scrap and take the positive that at least it's happening in the year we can't go.

Still nobody id rather have leading the team though. Think he's a great manager.
 
Nope.

I daresay a lot of managers have been completely thrown by the pandemic. The league is batshit mental - good for the neutral maybe, but I'm not enjoying it at all. It's soulless, we've got too many players missing for it not to badly affect us and the fallout from it all is a bit tiresome TBQH.

The marathon that was last season, the very, very short preseason, the stupidly unnecessary international breaks at the start of the season and the various covid related testing, subsequent isolations, working conditions etc all mean that valuable training ground time has been lost and that's where Nuno shines above many of his peers.

Whilst I don't mean to make excuses for him, these are not normal times and football clubs are having to adapt in new ways. When you throw in the injuries we've had to key players (and I'm convinced that some of this is down to the lack of conditioning a proper preseason would have given us) it's no wonder we're not firing on all cylinders.

Our inconsistency this season is of course frustrating (I daresay even more so for Nuno) but it's not as if we've not played well at all because there have been plenty of decent performances. Not enough consistency and we are badly off form in front of goal so there's shit loads for us to work with but I have absolutely no doubts whatsoever that Nuno is the right man to take us further.
I agree with all of this and short of us spiralling into a relegation battle with another 1 win in 8 followed by another then his job is correctly safe.

That said, his thinking is muddled, I believe he's playing a formation that he didn't envisage when considering the Summer's recruitment, his substitutions and sometimes lack of are often questionable, we have been ridiculously passive when in possession of a lead since lockdown one and although the injuries are a reason rather than excuse this impacts us worse than it would others due to the squad size which is Nuno's philosophy.

I also have issues with the youth movement recruitment from the Summer, to the detriment of the short to medium term, but I think that's more Jeff than Nuno.

I think and hope Nuno is the man to take the club where it wants to go, but it's reasonable to start questioning whether that is the case. Personally if we don't get there I think it's more likely to be the decisions of others rather than him which is the barrier
 
I was in the "Lets see with the benefit of hindsight" in terms of our summer window and can't help but feel we made mistakes as alluded to above.

I think the team is really missing a full Molineux getting behind it and whilst I know this is the same for all teams, I still think we are being adversely affected.

Nuno has mentioned about his family also (think they are in Portugal?) and it must be tough only being able to see them on a limited basis.

If you add in the injuries I think we're just in a bit of a perfect storm of shite at the moment but I certainly think we have the right team in place to guide us out of it - we just need to bunker down for the rest of this season and get through it as best as possible and go again after the summer.
 
No question that Nuno is the best for the job.
Take 6 players out of any team and they would struggle.
The issue is a 13 month season, 3 week close season and no pre season.

Add that to an unlucky injury to Raul and all of a sudden we are at the opposite end of the table.
He does need to get someone in, and maybe more than one, trouble is if we know it so does everyone else meaning for Wolves prices increase.
 
Firstly, I think Nuno is the right man for us.

However, it can't be that when everything goes well it's down to him and when it's not going well it's last season/homesickness/the pandemic/injuries. He's not a helpless victim in all this, he has agency and I feel the disconnect between the summer transfer window and this playing evolution is fair game, as is the disconnect between us trying to be less passive and get bodies forward and then the conservatism of his substitutions (and the mentality of some of his senior players).

Too many things are off and don't match, and I certainly have greater expectations for him than 'doing slightly better than Steve Bruce as long as he doesn't win his game in hand'. Bruce has also had plenty of injuries and Covid raging through his squad, incidentally.
 
Take 6 players out of any team and they would struggle.

Add that to an unlucky injury to Raul and all of a sudden we are at the opposite end of the table.

I keep seeing this, but last night 8 of the starting 11 would be in most people's starting teams, I reckon. The biggest issue (aside from Raul) last night was not having either Pod or Adama. Injuries are a factor, but it's still Nuno putting Fabio out on the left, leaving him on for 80 mins and choosing Hoever as our first sub.

The Raul injury is unlucky, but it's crippled us because we had no vaguely suitable replacement in the squad, which isn't the case anywhere else on the pitch.
 
I keep seeing this, but last night 8 of the starting 11 would be in most people's starting teams, I reckon. The biggest issue (aside from Raul) last night was not having either Pod or Adama. Injuries are a factor, but it's still Nuno putting Fabio out on the left, leaving him on for 80 mins and choosing Hoever as our first sub.

The Raul injury is unlucky, but it's crippled us because we had no vaguely suitable replacement in the squad, which isn't the case anywhere else on the pitch.
Rui
Coady
Neves
Mout
Dendonker
Neto

I would start with
Hoever
Missing
Marcal
Adama
Raul
Boly

Thats 50% of the team, even if you decided to keep Semado over Hoever.

We kept Neto on when he should have gone because we had no one to come.on, my worry is Neto missing for Saturday
 
Rui
Coady
Neves
Mout
Dendonker
Neto

I would start with
Hoever
Missing
Marcal
Adama
Raul
Boly

Thats 50% of the team, even if you decided to keep Semado over Hoever.

We kept Neto on when he should have gone because we had no one to come.on, my worry is Neto missing for Saturday

You're welcome to your own assessment, of course, but I think 8 is closer to most people's. I love the look of Ki-Jana, but I feel most of us would be persevering with our £27m Barcelona signing, at least for now! I don't think Boly is a shoe in over Saiss when playing a four either. He was off form and even out of the team to Saiss and Kilman before his injury. And Adama has only missed one game!

It's unfortunate, but it's really Raul that's the killer. Without him we have no focal point and precious few goals. That's on Nuno and the club.
 
While i think it's perfectly acceptable to question some of the decisions that Nuno as made this season and in the past seasons too, i've always thought we were a bit too passive at times despite having very good seasons i don't think anyone should be questioning whether he is the right man to take us forward or not yet. He definitely deserves time with these players and to work on us becoming a better attacking unit but if things carry on as they then i can't help but think that parts of the fanbase will start to turn.

I think as a squad including all of the backroom staff we are struggling with lockdowns and not having fans in the stadium, we have got a lot of injuries, we have tried to change our approach so there are legitimate reasons for being in the position we are in but despite all of that i do think we could be doing a lot better than we are so even though we shouldn't be questioning Nuno's position we should be questioning his decisions.
 
Boly
Jonny
Raul
Podence
Adama

would all be in my starting eleven, at full strength tbf. It's fairly significant, I would say. But the options in the starting eleven are still enough for us to produce better, consistent performances. We only seem capable of playing well in short spells currently, so there is some encouragement, but we need more going forwards.

When everyone is fit, I actually think that our squad is pretty strong and an extra wide player short of effectively having two options for every position. We are just in a situation where alongside the longer term issues of Raul and Jonny, we are in the middle of an injury crisis that is very unusual with the current coaching staff. Once they solve that issue, there will be a level of expectation of improved results which I think is fair.

Rui
Semedo Coady Boly Jonny
Neves Dendoncker
Traore Podence Neto
Raul

That is a good team. As I said in the verdict thread (I think) - if we get to the summer and we sign a centre back and centre midfield that improve us significantly, we're in a very good place.

Right now though, Nuno needs to focus on getting the results with the current players available to him - that is his job after all!!
 
Boly
Jonny
Raul
Podence
Adama

would all be in my starting eleven, at full strength tbf. It's fairly significant, I would say. But the options in the starting eleven are still enough for us to produce better, consistent performances. We only seem capable of playing well in short spells currently, so there is some encouragement, but we need more going forwards.

When everyone is fit, I actually think that our squad is pretty strong and an extra wide player short of effectively having two options for every position. We are just in a situation where alongside the longer term issues of Raul and Jonny, we are in the middle of an injury crisis that is very unusual with the current coaching staff. Once they solve that issue, there will be a level of expectation of improved results which I think is fair.

Rui
Semedo Coady Boly Jonny
Neves Dendoncker
Traore Podence Neto
Raul

That is a good team. As I said in the verdict thread (I think) - if we get to the summer and we sign a centre back and centre midfield that improve us significantly, we're in a very good place.

Right now though, Nuno needs to focus on getting the results with the current players available to him - that is his job after all!!

I agree with the bulk of this, but tbf Podence has only missed the past two league games and Adama one! Plenty of games where they've played this season and we've played worse than yesterday, same as Boly.
 
I was in the "Lets see with the benefit of hindsight" in terms of our summer window and can't help but feel we made mistakes as alluded to above.

I think the team is really missing a full Molineux getting behind it and whilst I know this is the same for all teams, I still think we are being adversely affected.

Nuno has mentioned about his family also (think they are in Portugal?) and it must be tough only being able to see them on a limited basis.

If you add in the injuries I think we're just in a bit of a perfect storm of shite at the moment but I certainly think we have the right team in place to guide us out of it - we just need to bunker down for the rest of this season and get through it as best as possible and go again after the summer.
This says it all for me so I just copied and pasted it. Just to add the injuries to key players have had the greatest impact in my eyes.
 
Boly
Jonny
Raul
Podence
Adama

would all be in my starting eleven, at full strength tbf. It's fairly significant, I would say. But the options in the starting eleven are still enough for us to produce better, consistent performances. We only seem capable of playing well in short spells currently, so there is some encouragement, but we need more going forwards.

When everyone is fit, I actually think that our squad is pretty strong and an extra wide player short of effectively having two options for every position. We are just in a situation where alongside the longer term issues of Raul and Jonny, we are in the middle of an injury crisis that is very unusual with the current coaching staff. Once they solve that issue, there will be a level of expectation of improved results which I think is fair.

Rui
Semedo Coady Boly Jonny
Neves Dendoncker
Traore Podence Neto
Raul

That is a good team. As I said in the verdict thread (I think) - if we get to the summer and we sign a centre back and centre midfield that improve us significantly, we're in a very good place.

Right now though, Nuno needs to focus on getting the results with the current players available to him - that is his job after all!!

With everyone fit, and the XI you have mentioned, you then have Ruddy, Hoever, Saiss, Kilman, Ait-Nouri, Marcal, Moutinho, Gibbs-White, Vitinha, Otasowie, Cutrone and Silva for the bench. Originally we were only having 7 subs available also so plenty of options.

The small squad stuff is being brought up again because of injuries. 23 players there, how many more do we need sat around the place?
 
I was in the "Lets see with the benefit of hindsight" in terms of our summer window and can't help but feel we made mistakes as alluded to above.

I think the team is really missing a full Molineux getting behind it and whilst I know this is the same for all teams, I still think we are being adversely affected.

Nuno has mentioned about his family also (think they are in Portugal?) and it must be tough only being able to see them on a limited basis.

If you add in the injuries I think we're just in a bit of a perfect storm of shite at the moment but I certainly think we have the right team in place to guide us out of it - we just need to bunker down for the rest of this season and get through it as best as possible and go again after the summer.
All good points, but there's still plenty of stuff Nuno has agency over.

Let's hope there are clearer heads this summer, as we knew about Jonny's injury, the need for a Raul backup, the pandemic and (I hope) the plans for a playing evolution last window
 
I'm another that only thinks it's 3 starters missing if I second guess what I think Nuno would have done last night with a full squad.
Podence/Traore
Jonny
Raul

If the top 3 had played there would have been marginal gains, maybe significant with a moment of magic, but the latter is the killer, but we've done that to death
 
Right now though, Nuno needs to focus on getting the results with the current players available to him - that is his job after all!!
I know you don't mean it like that but that sounds quite dismissive, Would Lewis Hamilton have won the championship without using the top two gears on his car ? I
 
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