Everton (H) 23/09 - Carabao Cup R3 Thread

[Leigh Griffiths' Hairline]

It's a good win against Everton who are having a good season under Moyes. We really need a win in the league. Would love for it to be against that twat of a Spurs manager at the weekend.

 

[WVWolf]

Do Agbadou's passing mistakes cloud his overall performance? I say that because many are (rightly) tonight praising Johnstone on here and social media. But the pass he did to Dewsbury-Hall was inexplicably shit. Thankfully, Dewsbury-Hall took an age to make a decision and we got away with it.

With Agbadou, he did a similar thing against City and Leeds and both are punished, but Sa should've saved both shots in truth.

I know Agbadou was poor against Woltemade but I'd still be tempted to give him a chance alongside Krejci, who look as though he brings more leadership, composure and intelligence to the defence, as well as being a good player on the ball.

Anyway, to tonight, there was more balance to the team in a back four. They showed a lot of spirit as well, which is a positive.

But, hard to get excited. We still lack a lot of quality and I can't help feeling that if Dewsbury-Hall, Grealish and Ndiaye had started, Everton would've won.

There's a real lack of spark in attack and if we are to get enough points on the board, it will have to be in a way like Burnley and Everton over the years. Low quality games where you scrap and fight, but I don't think we have the defensive quality to replicate those sides.

 

[Sedgley Wolf]

The first time every player in a Wolves starting XI has had a different nationality.

Someone prove me wrong.

 

[Alan]

I'm not changing it now.

Nor should you! It’s my favorite typo since Japan Moutinho.

 

[Spartacus]

Nor should you! It’s my favorite typo since Japan Moutinho.

You are welcome for the Japan one - that was my finest moment on the site!!!! Well done me!!!

 

[Mel Evo]

Great win and, evidently, one I wasn’t expecting. Useful to have the game, and it offers some progression in a way I didn’t see before KO. Andre stood out a mile from either team, looked absolute quality. As there was really precious little of that in the rest of the match (let’s be fair) this was the big takeaway for me. Hopefully that injury was nothing and, much more importantly, he can find a way back to be first name on the team sheet for VP. I like the formation, but plenty of work to be done on the 3 behind whichever big man is up top. Obviously a formation our recruitment hasn’t accounted for and the lack of pace really stands out. At the back however, will be great to have 3 players for every CB spot. Krejci stepping up to CM for the last 20 minutes of most games is something he’d be in for.

 

[1986]

I enjoyed the game, which tbh surprised me. After the debarkle of Saturday and when I saw it was Doc at RB with Santi at RCB I expected the worst. Thought we started well and matched Everton in the first half, we didn't seem under that much pressure at the back.
Second half after Beto and Grealish came on it was backs to the wall but we didn't really panic imo and just about coped (a little bit of fortune at times).
What a lovely finish by Tolu, didn't know he had that in him.
Doc and the Bueno twins played well, Krejci was very good. Calm, organised, got his tackles in and good on the ball.
Hwang and Munetsi clearly aren't footballers but you can't complain at their effort and attitude. Beloegarde also ran his bollocks of, got his challenges in, moved the ball forward well at times, if only he could time and deliver a pass consistently he'd be genuinely useful.
Was interested by Arias, had more of the ball in the first 10 minutes than in all his previous performances put together. Didn't create a whole lot but kept the ball moving tidily. His twist and shot that lead to the first goal was excellent. Second half he got through a mountain of work and did his defensive duties well.
Not Larsens best game, spent a lot of time wrestling with Tarkowski and did OK, held the ball up on a number of occasions, sometimes got it to a team mate, other times there was not another Wolves player near him.
Andres best game this season?
Subs all worked well.
Good to hear Vitors name ringing out.
It's nice to win a game. My grandsons record so far, games attended 2, wins 2, goals for 5, goals against 2.

Buy that grandson a season ticket now !!

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

 

[Jinky]

What we saying for the weekend then? Same shape as last night? Who comes in to partner Krejci at the back? Would Vítor be brave enough to play that away at Spurs? (My guess is ‘no’) - who plays at RB? Does he start with Munetsi if he plays that system so you have the ‘legs’ in there?

Lots of questions for Vitor to answer/unpack over the next few days.

 

[slink]

Not a brilliant game of football but we got the job done. Andre the best player on the pitch closer followed by Krejci and they have to be the players we build the team around with a solid base. Santi and Johnstone showed on form they should be playing even if we know they probably aren’t of the required standard consistently.

Happy with the change to a back 4, think it’s definitely the way to go moving forward and definitely at home. We haven’t got much pace so we need an extra body further forward in the build up. Interesting to see how we go in the league over the next 2 games as we need points desperately.

 

[Langers]

Well bloody hell, an ENJOYABLE evening at the football! I'd forgotten what that felt like. Far from perfect but nice to actually have a few positives for a change. Even though this post will probably be more negative than positive, please rest assured that I'm okay, enjoyed my evening and not as grumpy as this post suggests.

The positives:

We won! We didn't concede a goal! Actually thought the defence was fairly solid. Andre was comfortably our best player, it was good to see a bit of fight in the side, particularly in the 2nd half. Tolu's finish was fantastic and it was such a relief to get the job done.

The not-so-positives:

Still far too many players who I have no idea what they're supposed to be. The area between Andre and JSL was just a vacuum - no movement, no confidence whatsoever, no quality which meant the back 4 spent a lot of time passing it between them. Andre was always on for a pass but ahead of him, absolutely fuck all. I get that confidence is low but a lot of the players really didn't want the ball. Felt sorry for JSL because every time the ball was played up to him (which was pretty often) there was no-one around him to support. Arias grew into the game but I was far from impressed with his first half display (he played us into trouble by our own corner flag with a stupid bit of showboating, backheeling it straight to an Everton player). Bellegarde, Munetsi, Hwang - 3 players who shouldn't be starting games for us. That's a lot of pitch that's effectively wasted. Yes, it was good to be 1-0 up at the break but it wasn't pretty.

The 2nd half seemed a bit better - Arias showed a bit more, Tolu is fucking huge and used his presence well (still not enough alongside him to profit from his touches though). Also, we played 90 minutes with a tall striker - how many decent crosses into the box were there? Very very few, if any at all.

Yes, we sat back a bit in the middle of the 2nd half but this is a team chronically low in confidence and self belief - that was always going to happen with such a slender lead but we defended the box pretty well and bringing Joao Gomes on gave us a bit of extra fight.

Johnstone was fine aside from that horrific pass to Dewsbury-Hall that should have resulted in an equaliser at the start of the 2nd half. Thought his save from Keane's header in the 1st half was excellent - doubting whether the 2025-26 version of Sa would have got to that. I don't rate Johnstone at all but Sa is far from the obvious choice to start at the moment.

Santi and Krejci were fine, I felt much more comfortable with these 2 than I have done with Agbadou recently. Krejci in particular looks like a decent signing - comfortable on the ball, communicative with a rare aura of calm.

Doc and Bueno - again, fine but as mentioned, the lack of crosses into JSL/Tolu was frustrating.

Andre looked like he had something to prove. The only one who actively looked like he wanted the ball, and you could sense his frustration with the lack of movement ahead of him.

Bellegarde - I'd be disappointed to see him in the XI next season if we went down. I don't see what he brings to the team, I don't know where he's supposed to play and a few things he did (or didn't) do last night drove me mad. A total waste of what should have been a productive counter attack summed him up.

Munetsi - see above. He's able to control the ball further than I can kick it. Fair do's to him for the first goal, that was well taken but aside from that, it's another ineffective player in a team that can't afford to carry this many ineffective players.

Hwang - looks like a player in a game of FIFA when the controller is unplugged

JSL/Tolu - looks like a lot of our game plan will now be to whack it long to the big guy upfront. And that's fine because they're both good players and they'll score goals if they get some service. But when they win the flick ons, hold the ball up etc, there's nowhere near enough support for them. Tolu's finish was fantastic - I'm another who didn't think he had that in his locker. Pleased for him - cracking pass by Joao Gomes too, by the way.

We won, and I'm really pleased about that - we had to show character when the confidence and mood in the camp is bound to be very low, so that too is a bonus. I had predicted 0-1 so again, I'm very happy to be proved wrong. Small steps - I really hope we can take some small amount of belief from this into the league before we're cut adrift.

 

[Pastywolf]

Really pleased I went last night in the end, really enjoyed it despite getting back at 2.30!
Without repeating what has been said, Krejci looks a fabulous player, so comfortable on the ball and aggressive in the tackle, just what we needed.
I was watching Hwang in the warm up, he looked like the lad you get your mate to drag out of bed to play when you’re short on a Sunday morning, looked lost in the squad, very little interaction with any of them, played like it too.
Good atmosphere in the southbank, like I said earlier I’m normally in the Billy Wright with my dad which is very sedate so it was great to be in the thick of it with my sons, crowd was much bigger than we feared it would be.
Fair play to Everton for turning up in numbers but they never got going, spoke to a couple of them before the game and they were fuming at the starting eleven so maybe that had an effect on their mood.
Andre seemed pissed off for the first 5 or so minutes but once he got in the mood he was superb.
Hopefully get another home tie and get on a roll in the competition, give the lads some confidence, Hwang aside, they worked their socks off so no lack of effort and looked united during and after the game.
Great to be back at Molineux!

 

[Jinky]

Johnstone
Yerson Agbadou Krejci Hugo
Munetsi Andre Gomes
Arias
Tolu JSL
​

Could something like that work? Munetsi isn’t ideal but in that system you need someone to give you legs/pressing. Andre would do the holding, Munetsi & Gomes do the running. Arias free to roam in behind the big two strikers?

If you don’t play Tolu & JSL together and have runners off them, you end up shoe-horning someone like Bellegarde or Hwang in to the 11.

 

[WVWolf]

I'd rather go 4-4-2 if they play together. It will be interesting to see if they can.

Tolu's finish last night and Larsen's goals last season show they're both better footballers than just stereotypical target men, but getting it wide and getting the ball into the box quickly may be our best avenue to scoring goals as we look so limited in terms of creativity.

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

I'm interested to see if it works, as traditionally 2 "big men" as partners isn't something you usually see, as a more mobile partner is required to create space.

I think the majority of CBs would rather play against Tolu and JSL than against 1 of them with a more mobile partner.

But we don't have a lot of choice.

 

[Carsy]

Not a brilliant game of football but we got the job done. Andre the best player on the pitch closer followed by Krejci and they have to be the players we build the team around with a solid base. Santi and Johnstone showed on form they should be playing even if we know they probably aren’t of the required standard consistently.

Happy with the change to a back 4, think it’s definitely the way to go moving forward and definitely at home. We haven’t got much pace so we need an extra body further forward in the build up. Interesting to see how we go in the league over the next 2 games as we need points desperately.

It’s not just the fact we don’t have pace, last year we had 2 wing backs in semedo and RAN who carried the ball continuously and got us up the pitch. We don’t seem to have that now.

Get Andre and Gomes in the centre. I’d start with Munetsi against spurs in the 3 behind the striker, just simply for his off the ball work as I don’t expect us to dominate possession

 

[Carsy]

I'm interested to see if it works, as traditionally 2 "big men" as partners isn't something you usually see, as a more mobile partner is required to create space.

I think the majority of CBs would rather play against Tolu and JSL than against 1 of them with a more mobile partner.

But we don't have a lot of choice.

True but this year seems to be more focus on getting the ball up too to the big me . City are a lot more direct, for example. Need to get players around them though, which I’m not sure where that would come from

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

True but this year seems to be more focus on getting the ball up too to the big me . City are a lot more direct, for example. Need to get players around them though, which I’m not sure where that would come from

Well...that's Munetsi isn't it.

For all his faults, he does get himself in good positions, the goal last night a couple of chances against Leeds.

It reminds me of Dendoncker. .

 

[slink]

It’s not just the fact we don’t have pace, last year we had 2 wing backs in semedo and RAN who carried the ball continuously and got us up the pitch. We don’t seem to have that now.

Get Andre and Gomes in the centre. I’d start with Munetsi against spurs in the 3 behind the striker, just simply for his off the ball work as I don’t expect us to dominate possession

Oh yeah without a doubt we’ve lost the ball carriers too which is just further reason to get another player on further forward to have more outlets. We haven’t to be better than we were last night with it too but i still think we’re capable as the other sides aren’t great either.

 

[Tredman]

I'm not a Munetsi fan but he was fine yesterday, I'd play him on Saturday. Hwang can get in the bin though