• Welcome, guest!

    This is a forum devoted to discussion of Wolverhampton Wanderers.
    Why not sign up and contribute? Registered members get a fully ad-free experience!

Pre-season friendly thread

I’m not talking about relegation and never have. I also think you (persistently if you don’t mind me saying) confuse maintaining a consistent position with somehow veering from positivity to negativity. That’s just not right. Finally I haven’t told you what to think or not think in any hypothetical situation which hasn’t come about. Think what you want!

Hey, we all want good times at Wolves don’t we? Let’s hope the second half was more indicative of what’s to come.

The paragraph where I mentioned relegation was referring to 'people', not you specifically, I've since amended it to include your 'off the fence' comment, which is still OTT

You're fine to think we've made a mistake, but to be so conclusive (you're not the only one) with so little to go on isn't consistent, it's incredibly premature.
 
Bruno is certainly very animated in the technical area.

He wasn’t happy in the first half, they weren’t pressing like he had asked them too. That changed in the second half and players like Hoever stepped up and pressed high and aggressively to win the ball back.
 
Just checking the bit where I said everything was rosy, or indeed where others did. Why must be people hear what they want to hear? It’s this straw man that is a bit frustrating TBH, but tear it apart if you must. Easier that way.
Not directed at you. More reference to the “I’m worried until proven otherwise brigade”. Happy with the old manager serving up dross but then unhappy when a new manager tries to change the mentality in a few weeks without reinforcements.

I would expand on that but Slink has done it for me.
 
He wasn’t happy in the first half, they weren’t pressing like he had asked them too. That changed in the second half and players like Hoever stepped up and pressed high and aggressively to win the ball back.
It's almost like a learning process!
 
For me, we played better in the second half today than in any game last season. Not since we beat Burnley and had about 30 attempts on goal in our first season back have we looked that menacing offensively.
I want the board to back Bruno. I will judge him on his team not Nunos
 
Isn’t there some proverb that goes something like if you do the same thing repeatedly and expect a different outcome it leads to madness? Well Neves Moutinho starting together is on that route for me.
 
Isn’t there some proverb that goes something like if you do the same thing repeatedly and expect a different outcome it leads to madness? Well Neves Moutinho starting together is on that route for me.
We've known that that pairing was flawed for ages, though. But you can understand why Lage would need to see it be dysfunctional with his own eyes. It's a very talented pairing that likely has a certain allure, a la getting the best out of Adama.
 
Not watched the game had a quick skim through here and the general consensus seems to be we were shit first half, improved in the second but still didn't score and ended up narrowly losing. So basically exactly the same as last season, hardly surprising when it's nearly exactly the same players.

If the transfer window shuts and we haven't got the 3-4 in that Bruno has publicly said he wants, I think we're in deep shit. Just a shame that if his success is dependent on these signings this year then he's been hobbled for the first few months, but then I guess that's the way the transfer window is going to be this year and there will be alot of teams in the same boat.
 
I'll call it like I see it. Football fans in general have always struck me as enormously impatient with coaches and managers, and I'll say so, happily.
I have no knowledge of how NFL works, but could this not just be down to consequences of relegation, if you want to make changes that are better in the long term, you still need immediate results otherwise there's no benefit to the changes next season if you're in a lower division, afaik this isn't an issue in the NFL or American sports in general?
 
The paragraph where I mentioned relegation was referring to 'people', not you specifically, I've since amended it to include your 'off the fence' comment, which is still OTT

You're fine to think we've made a mistake, but to be so conclusive (you're not the only one) with so little to go on isn't consistent, it's incredibly premature.
What’s wrong with having an opinion based on discretion rather than concrete evidence? Isn’t that, you know, the stuff of forums and football talk in everyday life?! It’s not like I’m applying that decision main process in my professional life as head of the armed forces and about to invade Iraq. It’s quite likely I’ll be wrong, I’m wrong about plenty of stuff, but its OK to have an opinion.

It also doesn’t make a jot of difference as to what happens on the pitch. If I turned up to the games and whined and booed that would be a different matter, but I don’t. I turn up and support and will always do so, and I’ll be delighted to see my concerns proven wrong. Deelighted. You, it seems, will be right either way 😉 Anyway, I’ve ranted a little here as a result of weeks of reading this portrayal of consistency as negativity so I’ll cork it now, it’s going off track.
 
I have no knowledge of how NFL works, but could this not just be down to consequences of relegation, if you want to make changes that are better in the long term, you still need immediate results otherwise there's no benefit to the changes next season if you're in a lower division, afaik this isn't an issue in the NFL or American sports in general?
If you're shit in the NFL you get rewarded with a high draft pick and exactly the same amount of cash to spend against the salary cap as the rest of the teams the next year.

Shit in the Premier League, get relegated to a shit league, have your revenue reduced by about times 10 and lose your best players. No wonder there's a lot less patience around in football.
 
Human nature being what it is, some people are probably too invested now to change tack that much unless Bruno gets us 6th place or a cup final
Well that just isn’t going to happen. This squad with the injuries it has is worse than the one that played Leicester in 18/19. Add in that in that time the competition have all got stronger then it’s an impossible task.

Edit - plus the team has zero momentum behind it and is trying to change style.
 
Human nature being what it is, some people are probably too invested now to change tack that much unless Bruno gets us 6th place or a cup final

I am going to be honest and say I am not going to be happy if the end result of Bruno for Nuno is just 'the football is better to watch' for some of the posters on here. My entire mood can be off for the weeks when Wolves lose.

The pass Bruno gets with me is its not his fault the squad looks a bit crap, he seems to have stumbled into his own version of Moyes at Utd, he has already managed to change some aspects too with the different approach to games and the pressing and higher line, I can see that. He will get credit from me when he deserves it, but he will get the detriment he is replacing my favourite ever manager and I am not going to be hiding that.
 
I have no knowledge of how NFL works, but could this not just be down to consequences of relegation, if you want to make changes that are better in the long term, you still need immediate results otherwise there's no benefit to the changes next season if you're in a lower division, afaik this isn't an issue in the NFL or American sports in general?
I'm sure that that's exactly where the issue stems from. But that doesn't mean that a tactical sea-change shouldn't be allowed the proper amount of time to set in before tossing out the plan.
 
We've known that that pairing was flawed for ages, though. But you can understand why Lage would need to see it be dysfunctional with his own eyes. It's a very talented pairing that likely has a certain allure, a la getting the best out of Adama.
We need a new defence to do that and you won’t invest that money to keep a 35 year old on a pitch. Neves showed today that further up the pitch he has the vision and ability to unlock any premier league defence. Playing like we did second half we would have caused any team problems. Their goal led a charmed life and on any other day we win 2 or 3 goals. When was the last time we could say that? We are shy of Neto Jonny Podence and Mosquera. Semedo is due in too. Add a couple of 15m signings and we are in decent shape with a bit of luck and a few good decisions. We are not top 6 but we never have been. That squad is a mid table squad and it should be there again this season, with a couple or three additions. We are going to get some dickings this season but we may well hand out a few ducking s too which is a real positive. If in the summer of 2022 we are a premier league team and are getting similar reviews to Bielsas Leeds from last year I will be very happy.
Guedes,Palhinha and Tarkowski? Who knows. Just don’t sell neves. Build it around him.
 
The main thing I learned to day is that Marcal shouldn't be starting ahead of RAN at LWB.

Marcal played in the Champions League for Lyon at LCB regularly. Why can't he play there for us? That's where I was hoping he'd been earmarked for when he signed for us.

Boly-Coady-Marcal should be good enough for mid-table IMO. We need another CB because you can't rely on Marcal's fitness though.
 
Boly-Coady-Marcal should be good enough for mid-table IMO. We need another CB because you can't rely on Marcal's fitness though.

Think it depends. You need defenders that are more athletic and with more pace if we want to play a high line, especially if we want to play a 4 at some point.
 
Back
Top