Found that performance to be a strange mix of the solid reliability of old and at times incredible frustration.
Was unsure of the choice of formation given the available personnel but shuffling the back three over to avoid having Saiss or Kilman on their weak side proved to be a wise move. Those three along with the two young wingbacks were generally solid, only really that one chance at the back stick which Fernandes poked right at Patricio comes to mind as a clear chance.
First half I thought the midfield had a good balance, Neves and Moutinho did their typical screening job and pulled out when fullbacks advanced against them to prevent overloads. Seemed to me that Vitinha helped in those situations by dropping deeper to plug the gap left by whichever of his peers had pulled wide, that gave Wolves a better chance of collecting the second ball if it was crossed in and he also had the composure to take a touch in those situations and look to retain possession rather than merely clear his lines.
Wasn't a great deal for either Traore or Neto to work with in the first period but both did their bit to keep United's back like honest. Two good openings in quick succession for Neto just before the break and he fluffed both, think a sloppy cutback inside killed both moves. First one just slowed it down too much and have AWB chance to shuffle across to cover Traore's run, then a poor scuffed pass from Neto was cut out without too much effort. Second one he tried a similar move to cut back into his left foot but again it was a bit sloppy and so he got closed down and lost the ball.
Second half started in a similar vein but soon began to unravel with the substitutions. Felt the removal of Vitinha was a bit odd, not from a performance POV as he wasn't outstanding but given the minutes in some of the players legs he seemed an obvious one to leave out for 90mins as long as he wasn't having a shocker. Podence had little impact in his place bar one combination with RAN down the left hand side, which again was squandered like Neto's breaks in the first half as he tried to pull a ball back to someone about 25 yards behind him. Felt he let down the midfielders behind him both with and without the ball, was too advanced too often so wasn't available for an easier pass or to attempt to cover Pogba's increasing advances, nor was he so advanced to push onto Matic and prevent him starting attacks, just sat in no man's land affecting nothing.
Felt like Fabio gave it a go but looked like a boy against men, not quick enough to trouble Bailly down that side nor strong enough to hold off Maguire or Matic when he probed elsewhere. Did at least put the yards in and track people back down his side when required.
Ultimately this is where the frustration is for me, you can see a lot of good things in this side but equally you can see the same failings repeatedly that hold them back from pushing on to being even better. They just don't force the issue and take advantage when they get these half openings. The players have the ability to do what's required but it's almost like there's a bit it a mental block, the mentality isn't quite there to really believe in themselves and properly put teams to the sword when the opportunity arises.
I think a lot of it boils down to risk aversion, too often the safe option is taken unnecessarily and opportunity wasted as a result. In the match thread I flagged a situation where Neto strolled straight back into a net for which Traore had just slipped. He had better choices at the time, he could have laid it back in to Traore's path to run at United centrally or played a first time pass out to Hoever who was ahead of both of them but for whatever reason he took the safe option to play the way he was facing, running back into a crowded area and ultimately playing the ball back to Wolves' defence.
Similar with the two breaks first half and Podence is the second. They're half way to an opening advancing on United's backline but they don't really go all out to commit a defender into a challenge or get beyond them, they cut back to relative safety and look to pass responsibility. Also, in contrast to watching Leeds directly before the game, the lack of commitment from team mates to get up in support in those situations is alarming. Neto only had Traore in support for the first break, no-one for the second, Podence had Traore the complete opposite side of the box and everyone else at least 20 yards behind, Ait-Nouri got in once and only had Silva striving to get in the box as a target.
It's something made all the more difficult by how deep the team generally plays though, coupled with the focus to make almost every turnover of possession instantly into a counter attack. It seems incredibly rare at times to see Wolves be content with winning the ball back and just maintaining possession for a while, passing the ball around and allowing themselves to reset. This is where another big annoyance of mine rears it's head, the lack of composure on the ball in the middle of the park. Players like Neves and Moutinho should be controlling the tempo of games, they should be players that all their team mates look to as an out ball, someone that can bail them out under pressure and hold onto it. Too often they're just hooking things over their shoulders of swinging it down the line when it's laid inside to them, players it their ilk should be doing a lot more than simply clearing the decks more often than not. Perhaps if they were more settled and acted as the calming influence they should be then it would give more opportunity to shift the entire team up the pitch with sustained possession and get more players into threatening positions.
That perhaps seems an overly critical view following a generally valiant effort against one of the league's biggest sides but these short comings don't half annoy me. It's not like this is a squad of cloggers battling away under someone of Allardyce's ilk, they're better than that, they should be thinking and footballing their way to success not just battling and scrapping for it.
