Man City 4-1 Wolves: Verdict Thread

[sycophantia]

He's got to to stop the pragmatism now. We've basically eleven 'pre-pre-season friendlies' left, with plenty of time between them, so please, please don't waste them.

Have a proper think and decide how you want us to play next season, and tell the players to relax, that results don't matter, and to drill the higher line and more aggressive press into them. Look at the players you're unsure about, so you've got a better recruitment plan. Push Neves higher up, keep Traore and Neto inside, put players close to Fabio, see if you can find a central defensive combination that can cope, or at least which individuals might be able to. Give RAN and Vitinha minutes.

We've probably spent hundreds of hours on this board talking about transitioning to a new style, but we've also probably only seen about 2 hours of us trying to do it on the pitch. For fucks sake, the season is dead, a hard earned attritional point/win against anybody doesn't teach you anything, and it doesn't prepare you or the players for anything.

Take that opportunity for fucks sake, give us something interesting to talk about and something to look forward to

This absolutely.....you put it better than I would

 

[Tony Towner]

I think you've answered your own question there. A team without confidence is unlikely to go into any game with the belief they need.

Why would a team who took 30 minutes to get going against a team fighting for their lives look any better against a team who've won 20 games on the trot.

Even with confidence, belief etc I would not expect us to get anything from a team like city.

That's not addressing the root cause though. Why is there no confidence after back to back wins? Why is the strategy to contain for the first half an hour, irrespective of opposition, their ability or form? City aside, why does a team full of Internationals play with the mentality that they are inferior to the opposition? Why isn't the manager changing it? For me there's only 3 answers to that all of which are concerning. He either can't see it, is happy with it or doesn't he know how to

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Like you said in an earlier post I can't wait for the season to end as we need to refresh the personnel in the squad and have a rethink in terms of our way of playing and ideas as at the moment this is shit.

Other than the good lady, there's nothing in this world that I love more than watching Wolves. Normally.

I'm not enjoying watching us at all, it's a slog. A bit of a chore.

We don't need to play like this, we choose to. Why is another question.

 

[AndyWolves]

That's not addressing the root cause though. Why is there no confidence after back to back wins? Why is the strategy to contain for the first half an hour, irrespective of opposition, their ability or form? City aside, why does a team full of Internationals play with the mentality that they are inferior to the opposition? Why isn't the manager changing it? For me there's only 3 answers to that all of which are concerning. He either can't see it, is happy with it or doesn't he know how to

We've been playing pragmatic football for the last 3 seasons, we've always been about the shape rather than the press, stay in position rather than winning the second balls.

As I've said in other threads and posts, the way we've setup is down to the manager and if the manager can't fix it then there is logically only one course of action.

For me, we either accept that this is going to be the status quo until the summer and see what Nuno can do around changing the system. Or we get rid of Nuno now and give a new man as much time as possible.

 

[Wilf Wolf]

He's got to to stop the pragmatism now. We've basically eleven 'pre-pre-season friendlies' left, with plenty of time between them, so please, please don't waste them.

Have a proper think and decide how you want us to play next season, and tell the players to relax, that results don't matter, and to drill the higher line and more aggressive press into them. Look at the players you're unsure about, so you've got a better recruitment plan. Push Neves higher up, keep Traore and Neto inside, put players close to Fabio, see if you can find a central defensive combination that can cope, or at least which individuals might be able to. Give RAN and Vitinha minutes.

We've probably spent hundreds of hours on this board talking about transitioning to a new style, but we've also probably only seen about 2 hours of us trying to do it on the pitch. For fucks sake, the season is dead, a hard earned attritional point/win against anybody doesn't teach you anything, and it doesn't prepare you or the players for anything.

Take that opportunity for fucks sake, give us something interesting to talk about and something to look forward to

I said more or less the same thing before the City game. I understand the approach last night as City are on a different level and like it or not we were still in the game 3 minutes from the end of normal time. Going forward it has to be about preparing for next season. Nearly everyone has been very patient with Nuno but if we see the same approach as the Newcastle game going forwards he will lose a lot of the goodwill fans have for him.

 

[YoungWolf]

I fully expected us to set up like that last night, especially with the form they are in and our struggles this season. The previous five games though, we haven't set up like that at all, we've tried to play higher - even if there have been teething issues (first halves against Arsenal, Southampton and Newcastle we looked like a team unsure how to do it effectively).

Villa away is another chance to continue trying to play a bit higher, stopping them getting the ball into any of their attacking players. Villa can be very direct to Watkins, so we need to stop them at source like we did well against Leeds.

 

[Wolf of Ashford]

I get that Nuno has always been shape ahead of press. But we seem to be getting even more pragmatic as time goes on and as mentioned above, as a fan, it's just a slog to watch. This seems to have been the way pretty much since last season restarted after the first lockdown.

Obviously against a team like City you can't go all attack, but last season we went to their place with 2 up front & Adama as wing back. We soaked up the pressure but at least we had some semblance of a plan of what we would do when we got it out of our half and we created chances. Last night, apart from a 10 minute spell around when we scored, we were hopeless really.

In our first season back, we were strong defensively but we seemed to genuinely go into any game believing we would win it. Hearing Coady saying after the game last night that it was just about staying in the game was a little depressing......... particularly when as also mentioned before, it was pure luck that we weren't out of the game by half time anyway. There was no skill on our part for catching City offside just before half time.

 

[Dire Wolf]

We are a tough team to watch, no matter who we are playing. The pundits in one of our recent games (might have been last night on 5 Live actually) described us as a boring, dull and unadventurous team to watch. It's not the first time something like that has been said. And the approach to last night's game summed that up in the first 45 minutes. It was a terrible half, filled with cowardly tactics and a small time mentality. And to say "well it was against Man City" blatantly disregards the 90% of games this season where we have set up and played in exactly the same cowardly fashion, regardless of the opposition. We allowed Steve Bruce's Newcastle 80% possession just 4 days ago.

If Nuno wants to continue to play this way and has no intention/clue (delete as appropriate) to change it, then sorry, for me it is time to say thank you for everything you have done but we need a fresh set of ideas to continue our journey. If he genuinely has a plan to change our way of playing he needs to start implementing it and the board needs to fund the players required to make it work. As it is I think there are a number of the current squad who may well not be good enough to change/improve: Donk, Coady, Moutinho, Saiss, Traore, MGW to name a few who I think may need to be replaced with better quality, or at least equal quality but a better mindset.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

That's not addressing the root cause though. Why is there no confidence after back to back wins? Why is the strategy to contain for the first half an hour, irrespective of opposition, their ability or form? City aside, why does a team full of Internationals play with the mentality that they are inferior to the opposition? Why isn't the manager changing it? For me there's only 3 answers to that all of which are concerning. He either can't see it, is happy with it or doesn't he know how to

From the horse's mouth...

"Our opponent doesn’t do well so we have to assume that we are better than them… we never do that. We always respect (the opposition)"

Never assume you're better than your opponent, the loser's mentality.

 

[Wilf Wolf]

Never assume you're better than your opponent, the loser's mentality.

Better that than the McGhee mentality. Wasn't the quote something along the lines: "Birmingham are a very average side and we should beat them 9 times out of 10".

 

[Tony Towner]

From the horse's mouth...

"Our opponent doesn’t do well so we have to assume that we are better than them… we never do that. We always respect (the opposition)"

Never assume you're better than your opponent, the loser's mentality.

Hopefully that's false humility publically or badly communicated because if that's genuinely how he thinks and what he transmits to the players then it would explain a lot.

 

[Del Woppio]

I remember Doc saying last season that they go into every game with a strong plan, and believing they can win. I don't think we've got that any more

 

[MARKakaJIM]

Better that than the McGhee mentality. Wasn't the quote something along the lines: "Birmingham are a very average side and we should beat them 9 times out of 10".

There's a middle ground though isn't there, Wolves shouldn't be going into every game they play with an underdog mentality when they've proven in the last couple of years that they can be far better than that, that doesn't have to mean going into every game arrogant as fuck expecting to stroll through the game and win 5-0. If you were playing Blues tomorrow would you rather than manager sent them out with the message to be careful because they're at least equal to you or that they're a poor side who you should be putting to the sword?

Hopefully that's false humility publically or badly communicated because if that's genuinely how he thinks and what he transmits to the players then it would explain a lot.

It sort of ties in with something I remember being said last season, think by Coady in a post match interview, where they said the slow starts were generally by design to get a feel for the game rather than storming in head first. Which is a nonsense too isn't it? You've got all the resources in the world to scout your opponents at this level and be fairly certain how they're going to approach the game, so you set your team up to play that from the off, not start every game with a blank slate and see how it's gone after half an hour.

 

[Dire Wolf]

I remember Doc saying last season that they go into every game with a strong plan, and believing they can win. I don't think we've got that any more

It was clear last night was an exercise in damage limitation. But why does that seem to be almost every game whoever it is we play?

 

[prawnking]

meh, I tried

I'm sure you mean well mate, but I'd take it more seriously if good-natured souls like yourself ever 'tried' with the others on here who spend plenty of time engaged in sniping and bitching. But you never do.

How many times does Jinky get 'you love it when we lose' on matchday? How much sniping and 'in jokes' do Cyber or Dire Wolf encounter daily? Not a peep from other posters when that happens.

When I see those who enjoy a dig at their expense getting a finger wagging then I'll accept one myself, OK? And if you or the other good Samaritans aren't prepared to be even-handed then I'd just leave the whole topic well alone

 

[YoungWolf]

I remember Doc saying last season that they go into every game with a strong plan, and believing they can win. I don't think we've got that any more

We certainly haven't had that same confidence. Again, lots of factors that it's hard to put a finger on it but I agree with those saying we need the end of the season to come so we can reset, come back fresh and find our 'mojo' again regardless of formation/approach.

 

[Walnut]

I want to be entertained by our style of play, not bored out of my mind like this season.

 

[YoungWolf]

I'm sure you mean well mate, but I'd take it more seriously if good-natured souls like yourself ever 'tried' with the others on here who spend plenty of time engaged in sniping and bitching. But you never do.

How many times does Jinky get 'you love it when we lose' on matchday? How much sniping and 'in jokes' do Cyber or Dire Wolf encounter daily? Not a peep from other posters when that happens.

When I see those who enjoy a dig at their expense getting a finger wagging then I'll accept one myself, OK? And if you or the other good Samaritans aren't prepared to be even-handed then I'd just leave the whole topic well alone

I mean, I have challenged plenty of people in the past. I've also put people on ignore that I simply can't be bothered with anymore. In fact, for a bit last summer I just didn't read/post at all because I didn't like how a lot of people were posting and I didn't enjoy it.

It works both ways anyway, i never saw you pick Jinky up on his snipey comments (and there were so bloody many), but that was because you had the same viewpoint as him.

For someone who doesn't like people 'tone-policing' comments, you do it a lot yourself, which was why I was trying to say how your post came across, was all.

 

[Dire Wolf]

"With 7 at the back, we're slow to attack, we're Wolverhampton, we're boring and cack"... new song for when fans return.

 

[PuntsWolf]

From the horse's mouth...

"Our opponent doesn’t do well so we have to assume that we are better than them… we never do that. We always respect (the opposition)"

Never assume you're better than your opponent, the loser's mentality.

I’d like to think he just means they aren’t over confident, or assume they will just need to turn up.

Basically saying you need to try hard to win any game.