Wolves 1 Newcastle 1 verdict thread

[Norman Deeley]

Interesting stat from Opta
1/11 - Wolves have won just one of their 11 Premier League games under Nuno Espírito Santo in which they have had at least 60% possession (D5 L5), with that win coming against a Manchester City team who played with 10 men for over 75 minutes.

 

[prawnking]

Traore delivered 2 brilliant crosses but no one in the box. You cannot keep giving him just 25 minutes to shine.

I don't think he was a major problem, he just didn't seem himself (like against Leeds).

I like Traore more than most, but the crosses by definition can't be that brilliant if they aren't aimed at anyone!

That kind of wingplay from him doesn't often pay dividends with this Wolves team anyway, he's better off getting into the box himself and causing havoc or playing something low and hard , or even coming from a more central position, rather than the type of typical winger's cross that only Raul will benefit from (1 time out of 20).

 

[Charlie Wolf]

Newcastle reverted to type and will no doubt wonder how they again got away from the Mol with anything. Fathead must be chuckling his backside off, as to how he can summon up that turgid drivel that he calls football to the Geordies and stay in a job. They were awful and deserved nothing.
But in his defence, although controlling the game we struggled to break his 12 man defence down and he got lucky with a dubious free kick at the end. We got the goal our overall play deserved then sat back and failed to manage the game. Simple as that really and tonight we’re all feeling like this is a defeat and two points dropped
Our last 3 seasons have been fantastic and sitting seventh tonite I’m being over self-indulgent in wanting more, so setbacks like today have to be tempered and put into context.
Couldn’t give a shyte what people outside of our pack think of our football, cuz some of it smacks of the green eyed monster, however, two points for thought.
Firstly, we don’t have a Plan B other than thinking Adama is gonna turn it on. Said it before but teams have worked us out, it’s not rocket science, they watch the game the same as us and will want to nullify our greatest threat and exploit our weaknesses.
Secondly, we have a number of players who are playing or starting to play as individuals and not making the right decisions for the team. God bless him as we’d be screwed without him, but Raúl sometimes falls into that category. His simple pass to an open Podence in the first half was an example of this
I also watched the Southampton game and 12 months on from being stuffed 0-9, today they played as team with pace and movement and butchered Everton.
We have got to get back to that game ethos of pace and be brave and take a few risks.
On a positive Kilman was excellent again. Keep the faith

 

[The Bear]

16 shots. Only 3 on target. Several from distance including the goal. That's the main issue to take away from today IMO.

 

[Premier Quality]

I agree with this apart from the Donck bit. He doesn’t need to be particularly creative if Podence and Neto play narrow, the WBs play high and wide and Neves pushes up a little work one of the CBs stepping in. Unfortunately Podence/Neto are often wide, with the WB behind them leaving only 2 people in the box to aim for with Donck often being one of them.

It’s that extra central attacker I think we’re missing - a non diving Bruno Fernandes if you like - we have the wide forwards wide, and the wing backs wide, and Raul linking play outside the box - which means we’re reliant on donks runs into the box.

and where a Fernandes/Erickson/Van De Beek/James type player could be someone to link play as well as score a few, that’s just not Donks game, it’s like asking Saiss to turn into Alex Telles, not going to happen.

but you’re right, in that the alternative is for us to have an attacking LWB, and for the WB on the opposite side to get in the box to give us an option - but semedo isn’t doing that yet, and it’s not Saiss game either.

the offensive set up was just a bit of a mess tonight.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Frustrating as that's points frittered away and it's such an annoying goal to concede. Not a free kick (but don't even give him a decision to make in the 88th minute), don't think it was taken from the right place, wall wasn't set up right and even then Rui could have saved it.

I thought some of the football was played was decent, probably the best we've looked in possession since the first half at Sheff Utd. But for all that, we didn't create much in the way of clear cut chances, the intent was there but we never got in behind them to any great extent. Semedo, Kilman and Neves played well, Podence and Neto flickered here and there. Newcastle are such spawny bastards, so many games where they have 1 or 2 shots and they end up pinching a result. Rubbish team and we should have been putting them away.

Adama isn't doing much when we're bringing him on which is starting to become a problem. I'd like to see Vitinha in the matchday squads, I don't think we need three defenders on the bench.

These things can happen when it's 1-0, we have to learn from it.

 

[Alan]

We know that we're only 3 points off first place, right?

 

[sycophantia]

Frustrating as that's points frittered away and it's such an annoying goal to concede. Not a free kick (but don't even give him a decision to make in the 88th minute), don't think it was taken from the right place, wall wasn't set up right and even then Rui could have saved it.

I thought some of the football was played was decent, probably the best we've looked in possession since the first half at Sheff Utd. But for all that, we didn't create much in the way of clear cut chances, the intent was there but we never got in behind them to any great extent. Semedo, Kilman and Neves played well, Podence and Neto flickered here and there. Newcastle are such spawny bastards, so many games where they have 1 or 2 shots and they end up pinching a result. Rubbish team and we should have been putting them away.

Adama isn't doing much when we're bringing him on which is starting to become a problem. I'd like to see Vitinha in the matchday squads, I don't think we need three defenders on the bench.

These things can happen when it's 1-0, we have to learn from it.

agree with most of this, although not sure what Coady is supposed to do different, striker threw himself backwards into Conor and fell to the floor

 

[Norman Deeley]

We know that we're only 3 points off first place, right?

And if you really want your glass half full, we're ahead of City and United who were also in Europe late on

 

[prawnking]

We know that we're only 3 points off first place, right?

Do you think we're title contenders, Alan?

 

[Alan]

As much as anyone else is at this point.

 

[Deleted Cyber]

As much as anyone else is at this point.

Dream on mate. Trump has more chance than we have of a top 5 finish let alone champions.

 

[Del Woppio]

For the first 10 minutes I thought we were playing really well, there seemed to be more zip to the passing and sharper movement than we've seen since lockdown, but unfortunately we reverted to type, made ourselves pretty easy to defend against and resorted to pot shots from outside the box. We never really got in behind, and tbf we've never really found a solution to teams defending in a low block.

Picking saiss there was just stupid tbh, he doesn't do anything on the ball, and the primary quality we need from wingbacks should be to penetrate the back line and ask questions of their defenders, and hopefully allow space for our front 3.

On the front three, they have absolutely no chemistry or understanding with each other at all at the moment. They're all technically excellent, intelligent and hardworking, but the combination just isn't working.

 

[Deleted Cyber]

We should be sitting 5th tonight.

The fact we are not is down to the fact that we have managed the last 10 minutes poorly , conceded a poor free kick and defended it like a pub team with a pub team keeper and you can all agree we are much much better than that.

 

[Dublin Drummer Wolf]

I think we need to give Murphy a lot of credit with the goal.
The wall wasnt that bad... Rui was almost inviting a shot on the inside as it would need some serious swerve and I thought he would have had it covered.
We gambled and failed as Murphy hit that free kick perfectly and the main fuck up was Rui not stopping it at his near post

 

[Alan]

Dream on mate. Trump has more chance than we have of a top 5 finish let alone champions.

That's not what the table says right now.

 

[Dire Wolf]

Dull game. Disappointing result. We passed it around and kept possession but we have zero clue how to break down teams who park the bus and it is worrying how many late goals we concede.

Newcastle must be the most boring team I've seen in a long while. They are fucking shit and we couldn't beat them.

 

[YoungWolf]

We’ve got to create more, basically! Plenty of possession but not enough threat to their goal. Not sure what putting Marcal on achieved. Then again, a freak free kick denied us the 3 points. I need to watch the game back

 

[Jabbawolf]

We’ve got to create more, basically! Plenty of possession but not enough threat to their goal. Not sure what putting Marcal on achieved. Then again, a freak free kick denied us the 3 points. I need to watch the game back

Agreed - if Nuno is going to stick with 3 CH’s, I think we have to trust them to do the defending, and have Semedo and RAN (yes, I have seen him play) given licence to maraud - the conundrum for me is the other 5 - would like an AM (hopefully, Vitinha in time), but who partners Raul? Could Podence become a more central Hazard?

 

[MARKakaJIM]

Does anyone, looking at you Louie, have a good resource for those average position/pass map type graphics?

Thinking there could be some interesting comparisons to be had if could get them averaged across different periods.