Wolves 2-0 Palace: Verdict Thread

[Elephant Pyjamas]

He got that wrong. He was going for Raul and looks pissed off the moment it left his foot....then surprised when Neto tapped it over the line

Haha..shut up man..it was a great ball.

Doc ALWAYS looks pissed off.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Doc ALWAYS looks pissed off.

:icon_lol:

I get this all the time.

"Cheer up, Dan"

"I'm alright man, honest"

Although I do moan about everything. Managed to go on a date on Saturday and even given what a narrow window it is between finding somewhere to go at this time/finding someone that likes crappy 39 year old writers, I managed to spend three minutes moaning about "this fucking chair".

Fortunately it all seems ok.

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

Resting batch face ay it.

I get the same.

Irony is whenever someone actually says "Cheer up" it pisses me off...

 

[Kenny]

Nah Doc's face was def "fucked that up" rather than his Curry House pose

 

[sycophantia]

When I was a kid, we used to go the local social club Saturday/Sunday nights....live band, bingo, quiz etc. If none of my mates were there to play football with (on the bowling green) I was always reading a book. Cue comments like 'is he alright?' 'whats up son?'..... Nothing you morons, I'm fine

 

[Newbridge Wolf]

Resting batch face ay it.

I get the same.

Irony is whenever someone actually says "Cheer up" it pisses me off...

I get the same, I kind of settle on an angry / miserable look - a bit like if Mark Wahlberg's entire acting range was crossed with Droopy. Yes being told to cheer up just winds me up, I happen to be happy being miserable, why does everyone have to be not only be enjoying themselves at any given time, but to also be required to use their face to advertise this to the world.

Bah humbug

 

[Derby Wolf]

I sometimes wonder what would have happened if we'd started the season better in the league. Easy to forget now, but we stunk up the joint until the end of September/start of October.

A lot of the media puffery about the Europa destroying our season was clearly guff, but we did take an awfully long time to get our feet.

I'm not sure that's entirely true.

3 of our first 5 were Leicester, United and Chelsea.

We had the better of the Leicester game United was fairly even and no showed v Chelsea. Burnley wasn't great but we stole a point.

I think if Dendoncker goal stands at Leicester most would be fairly satisfied with the start with plenty to improve on. Stinking out the place is a bit unduly harsh imo.

 

[Premier Quality]

We won 2, Drew 6 and lost 2 of our first 10 games, so 12 points, and were in 12th place.

It wasn’t the worst start ever, but wasn’t a good one either

 

[Boozad]

Nah Doc's face was def "fucked that up" rather than his Curry House pose

:icon_lol:

 

[Jinky]

Spiers -

For the first 41 minutes, the most exciting thing that happened was a Daniel Podence scissor kick that flew into the stand.

It was dull, it was predictable, it was 0-0. Most first halves involving Wolves are thus.

Then amid the barren, featureless wasteland grew a flower… a rose by the name of Joao Moutinho.

With a single stroke of his velvet right boot, Moutinho left Crystal Palace exposed. It was as if they’d been left naked, save for their trousers wrapped around their ankles — they couldn’t run, they couldn’t stop what was happening, they were embarrassed, confused and directionless.

That one pass took out almost half of the Palace team. Like a conductor calling for his baton, Moutinho demanded the football 25 yards from goal and received it from Matt Doherty, who then proceeded to bound towards the byline. Spotting the run, Moutinho channelled his superpower and disguised a pass with a high backlift, then sand-wedged a caressed chip which fooled, looped over and eradicated five visiting players.
Not one, not two, not three, not four. Five.

As the pass was played, Moutinho twanged his juddering foot back and held the pose like Hendrix at the euphoric climax of a guitar solo.

Doherty half-volleyed first time across goal and Podence, the shortest man on the pitch at 5ft 5in, headed into the empty net with keeper Vicente Guaita stood motionless, helpless, bereft. He had been Moutinhoed.

It was a moment of artistic inspiration completely out of character with the rest of a banal first half, akin to Laurence Olivier guest-starring on Mrs Brown’s Boys.

That’s what Moutinho can do. He takes a step back and paints pictures.

There is artistry throughout this Wolves team; Conor Coady sprawls over vast landscapes with 50-yard passes to the flanks, Adama Traore creates a beautiful yet unexplainable mess in the manner of Tracey Emin. And then Moutinho and Ruben Neves paint sensual watercolours. They bring beauty to life through their vision and technique.

Moutinho has perhaps been doubted of late, his form indifferent since the restart. He was rested against Everton and Neves seemed to embrace the responsibility of being the sole creative midfield genius, dictating play like a Portuguese puppet master.

He may be 34 in two months but to exclude Moutinho is to deprive Wolves of their maestro. He’s created 23 per cent of their chances this season (77 of 335). Only James Maddison, Emi Buendia, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Jack Grealish and Kevin De Bruyne have forged more opportunities in the Premier League. Of those, 30 come from open play and 47 from set pieces.

He, Traore and Jimenez account for 51 per cent of the chances Wolves have made, far ahead of Jonny Castro Otto, Diogo Jota, Neves, Doherty and the rest.

Only Traore can top Moutinho’s six assists in the league (with nine) and in all competitions the midfielder has set up 13 goals in 53 appearances. With 441 successful passes into the final third, he is miles ahead of Wolves’ next most positive passer (Neves’ 343) and has the highest pass accuracy in the squad on 85 per cent. He backs up the beauty with brawn, producing 90 tackles (one behind Jonny), comfortably ahead of fellow midfielders Neves (62) and Leander Dendoncker (63).

“I think it was pure talent in the moment of the first goal,” enthused head coach Nuno Espirito Santo after the match. “The combination was very good. After the organisation comes the talent of our play.”
“The first thing I think is to control the ball and shoot… but after I saw the movement of ‘Doc’ (Doherty) and I try to put the ball behind the defence,” Moutinho added of his magic moment. “Hopefully the pass is very good and Doc can assist Podence.”

Ask any of Wolves’ squad about Moutinho and they’ll fawn over his performances in training and his professionalism. Despite being the wise old head of the group he’s also the joker in the Wolves pack, pulling pranks and behaving like a kid.

“He does things in training you wouldn’t believe,” Coady said last year. “His first training session, he came out and trained without his laces done up, which I found unbelievable. It’s like he’s got slippers on. That’s just him, he’s quite laid back. He manipulates the ball. And for me, playing behind him, it’s how he controls a game. He’s not a winger who’s got all the skill in the world. He just controls a game.”

That manoeuvring of possession, setting the tempo, carrying Wolves up-field, that’s why Moutinho remains such a pivotal cog in this Wolves machine, plus he wins it back so regularly, often in the opposition half.
As Wolves’ mammoth season (on Saturday, it will be a full year since it began) enters its home stretch, Moutinho’s wily experience will go a long way as they look to secure another season of European football. Beat Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Sunday and it’s at least a return to the Europa League… win the Europa mini-tournament in Germany next month though, and it’s hello Champions League.
Moutinho has been there and done it before, but he’s still hungry and a wolf now.

As the fans sing, he loves a vino. And like a deep, rich, full-bodied vintage red, Moutinho has improved with age.

Just ask Crystal Palace.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Tim goes very Partridge at times. But not in an amusing way.

 

[Newbridge Wolf]

Jesus, I gave up trying to read that, reminds me of the flowery prose that The Southbank bloke used to put out.

 

[Kenny]

Generally liked Tims work at the Athletic but that is a horrible read really. Can only presume he was well short of the required word count so tried to bulk it out with sime terrible filler

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

If metaphors and pop culture references don't come naturally to you then don't cram them in. It looks terrible.

His style is so at odds with pretty much every other writer they have, it's bizarre.

 

[Kenny]

His style is so at odds with pretty much every other writer they have, it's bizarre.

That shouldn't be a bad thing though. Having a different style to everyone else at least means the articles are not all the same across the site. Let himself down though on Mout and had a Dave Edwards of a performance in writing that - Meant well but offered fuck all

 

[Tony Towner]

On a semi related note I've cancelled my Athletic subscription from the end of the month as I don't see why I should pay full price when there are 40% offers aplenty for new subscribers. I'm working on the theory they'll offer me one after a week or so.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

My freebie runs out in the middle of next month. I won't be paying full whack for it. I read it, but not for the Wolves content.

 

[YoungWolf]

I got mine for the year in the first place, runs out next month. I do like a lot of the articles but with the podcasts available for free I may just stick to them and save my money.

 

[Dublin Drummer Wolf]

I gave up half way through that piece, too much flowery prose as Newbridge said.

This being particularly difficult to get through:

Spotting the run, Moutinho channelled his superpower and disguised a pass with a high backlift, then sand-wedged a caressed chip which fooled, looped over and eradicated five visiting players.

 

[Dinowolf]

I quite enjoyed it, flowery language and all. Think he got it spot on.