Wolves 1-0 Fulham: Verdict Thread

[Norman Deeley]

Just seen the score. Want to send #ThoughtsAndPrayers to anyone who works with a Villa supporter...

 

[MARKakaJIM]

Just feels a bit like the team splits into two parts into possession, attack and defence, think it's always been that way to some extent over the last few years but feels more obvious lately.

Back three are obviously always staying back, then typically had the midfield two very conservative in front of them with the wingbacks allowed to push up and form the attacking element along with the front three. If you went three in midfield Dendoncker would generally try to make runs forward to keep it as five making an attacking effort.

Today particularly felt like Dendoncker was asked to push more highly more often to make it more of a 6/4 split but in doing so it just vacated the midfield, Neves was in their along and his game isn't really about shuffling about knocking little give and goes to knit it all together, he's a fairly stationary player so that void in midfield becomes even more evident. Teams can just play him however suits them best, if you want to drop off you can leave him with that space and he'll not really hurt you directly without the spaces behind to hit long passes, if you want to press him then he'll just play safe passes with the back three or blindly hook things forward, he's not really someone who will take that extra touch under pressure and work his way out of a tight spot.

It needs more players from the attacking element to move towards the ball, come short and get on it, don't just all stand in a line 30-40 yards from the opposition goal and wait for someone to pick you out with a long ball. Vitinha looked like he might have it about him to try and mesh some bits together when he came on against West Ham, he was playing it short but then moving to receive the return, he was never static but by that point West Ham had it wrapped up so could drop off and watch him with little worry.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

It'll help a huge amount when Raul re-learns how to control a ball, that was a huge problem against West Ham and equally in the first half today. We use him so much as an outlet, if he's having one of his days where he's trapping it further than he can kick it then we lose possession all the time.

 

[Johnny75]

Some of Neves passing was outstanding today, dropping passes over the heads of defenders and into feet on the run of Semedo in particular.

When RAN comes in he'll have two wings to aim at.

Donck did excellent work today and but for a negative sub where there shouldn't have been I think we were in danger of extending our lead.

It's my only knock on Nuno and I agree with TT in that game management and subs have been poor for a while now, I don't know who's doing the data analysis but they need binning, quickly. Silva should've been the sub and let Raul and Neto look after the deeper players, particularly as Moutinho's legs don't look there right now.

Other than that we look OK and relatively untroubled whilst looking like we should've scored at least 3.

 

[Deleted Cyber]

Since lockdown the trying to kill the game with an extra midfielder tactic hasn't worked. Burnley, Sheff Utd, today. Yes we didn't concede, but we gave the initiative away.

If anyone wants to run as a mod on a banning XG from being mentioned platform, they'll get my support. It's just a bollocks stat

Glad you agree with me on that.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

One other thing from yesterday - absolutely shameful dive from Cairney to win them a free kick near the end, fortunately Kebano larruped it straight into the wall. Could have been Alonso/Mount all over again.

VAR needs to start checking these as a matter of course when they're in a shooting position. Wouldn't take any time as it takes ages for the wall to be set up and the ref to restart play regardless. When the player has obviously dived (as those two cheating bastards clearly did), overturn the free kick and book the offender.

 

[Dinowolf]

One other thing from yesterday - absolutely shameful dive from Cairney to win them a free kick near the end, fortunately Kebano larruped it straight into the wall. Could have been Alonso/Mount all over again.

VAR needs to start checking these as a matter of course when they're in a shooting position. Wouldn't take any time as it takes ages for the wall to be set up and the ref to restart play regardless. When the player has obviously dived (as those two cheating bastards clearly did), overturn the free kick and book the offender.

When this happened I'd have bet my mortgage they were going to score.

Luckily they missed and I remembered I don't have a mortgage anymore.

 

[Boozad]

One other thing from yesterday - absolutely shameful dive from Cairney to win them a free kick near the end, fortunately Kebano larruped it straight into the wall. Could have been Alonso/Mount all over again.

VAR needs to start checking these as a matter of course when they're in a shooting position. Wouldn't take any time as it takes ages for the wall to be set up and the ref to restart play regardless. When the player has obviously dived (as those two cheating bastards clearly did), overturn the free kick and book the offender.

Bang on. The Chelsea one was bad enough but Cairney yesterday was a complete fucking disgrace. I thought at the time that it could do with VAR checks on these as they are clear and obvious errors, and why is yellow carding diving so inconsistent as well (thinking more of Sterling for City than Cairney as that one was seen fro what it was)?

 

[Parkins left foot]

Bang on. The Chelsea one was bad enough but Cairney yesterday was a complete fucking disgrace. I thought at the time that it could do with VAR checks on these as they are clear and obvious errors, and why is yellow carding diving so inconsistent as well (thinking more of Sterling for City than Cairney as that one was seen fro what it was)?

Stupid thing is that Cairney can be quite good when he wants to - was finding space & passes through us at times, then goes and does that