Wolves 0-1 Villa: Verdict Thread

[Wolvensam]

Should have had the game killed off comfortably, but we're utterly hapless in front of goal. Donck should score both of his, Fabio should score and Adama making the wrong decisions when we had overloads on.

Absolute idiocy from Nelson - not at all convinced. He's got no idea 1v1.Can't wait for Jonny to be back, he's absolutely different class and of all our defenders is perfectly suited to playing in a four.

In fairness, some of those goals didn't go in as Martinez was different gravy today.

 

[prawnking]

Refs will be inconsistent and poor, we can't rely on or constantly blame them.

We're trying to win games, but we never look convincing when we attack. It's so simplistic... Have a hopeful shot from distance... High cross to a crowded out striker.. Adama stands before two or three opponents then bursts on the wing and crosses to no one... Disappointingly unimaginative.

After a dozen games I still don't see where Nuno is going with these formation and personnel changes. Looks suspiciously tinkery and more hopeful than with a clear vision, which is unlike him?

There also seems to be a disconnect between our summer signings and what we're trying to do with them now. No sign of Vitinha or whether he's even good enough, poor Fabio is raw and tries, but when I see people saying we need to spend on a striker next month it's staggering considering how much we spend on him.

Same with Nelson. Mate, if you can't defend brilliantly you'd better start coming up with some assists and goals please

 

[Deleted Cyber]

We create much more as a four. So bring in Hoever

 

[James]

I’d rather drop him than go to a 5.

I suppose Hoever can’t be worse than Semedo was in injury time

 

[SSB]

Presuming Nuno will say we need to find solutions.

 

[NicholasG1973]

He was, but he’s a professional footballer we paid THIRTY MILLION POUNDS for. He shouldn’t look “Sunday League at times”. He’s been done by John McGinn the midfield plodder not Grealish/Son/Rashford etc.

Agreed, and he will be the scapegoat.

But there are plenty of other reasons why we got absolutely nothing out of that game, too.

 

[Derby Wolf]

I think Somedo has obviously made a severe and ultimately stupid mistake but I don't think he was as awful as made out. Two minutes earlier he denies Grealish a certain goal and if it finishes there I'm not sure he gets as much stick. "He saved us a point there" its dead easy to paper over or destroy something on a single incident that happened right at the end of the game. I think on the whole he coped quite well and didn't get suckered by Grealish much. He has cost us a point of that there is no doubt but seeing some of the comments like competition winner and parks standard is both an overreaction and disrespectful.

 

[jd1981]

Back to basics for me on Tuesday the experiment with 4 at the back isn’t yielding many points at the moment. As some have said slaughtering Semedo in reality he was bought to play in a back 5 not 4. But in reality wherever you play you can’t make tackles like that in the box it’s just utter stupidity.

 

[Deleted Cyber]

It looked a shit house Villa win and several called it. Horrible team, horrible club,horrible captain and a horrible ethos.

 

[prawnking]

Desperately need a centre forward in January (assuming we don't see Raul much before end of season). Someone with a presence who puts himself about a bit such as Mitrovic or Murray of a few seasons ago. Any thoughts ?

Nothing personal against Fabio, but shouldn't he be filling in this void?? We don't have the luxury of £35m third choice strikers??

 

[AndyWolves]

Semedo did ok until he gave away the pen, I'd be replacing him with Jonny though as soon as we can.

We just seem to lack intensity at times and I don't know why.

I guess we're still transitioning a bit and we do look a bit better going forward but, to use a cliche, we do have some square pegs in round holes - Donck is a defensive midfielder and is being asked to do things we can't.

The front-four look good, and do look dangerous so there are some positives there but they need to start scoring

 

[Jinky]

We don’t have goals in the team and our manager doesn’t know what our best defence and system is. The only player that does score goals is out for, probably the season.

That’s about it. Can’t be bothered to comment on today’s ‘showing’, as it stands.

Finish mid-table and see what we can put together next season, because we’ve gone backwards this season and we’ve lost our best player and goal scorer. That’s about it.

 

[Del Woppio]

Let's not pretend Emi got man of the match for a string of class saves - he got it because nobody else on the pitch was any more than a six out of ten. It was a horribly Championship performance from both sides, with only one genuinely decent chance carved out that unfortunately fell to an athlete who can't play football.

They were shit, we were less shit.

The trend is getting really fucking worrying now though. The performances we were putting in a year ago are a million miles away. If we don't have a moment of individual brilliance, we're not scoring a goal. Combinations and team football just aren't happening - it's just hope one of the talented individuals and conjure something up. Other than the odd half hour here and there, we've basically been shit since lockdown. But prior to that, even if we were shit, we could be dangerous. That's gone now.

 

[Derby Wolf]

In fairness, some of those goals didn't go in as Martinez was different gravy today.

Not sure I agree.

He didn't make a single save I wouldn't expect Rui to make if things were reversed.

 

[Premier Quality]

Let's not pretend Emi got man of the match for a string of class saves - he got it because nobody else on the pitch was any more than a six out of ten. It was a horribly Championship performance from both sides, with only one genuinely decent chance carved out that unfortunately fell to an athlete who can't play football.

They were shit, we were less shit.

The trend is getting really fucking worrying now though. The performances we were putting in a year ago are a million miles away. If we don't have a moment of individual brilliance, we're not scoring a goal. Combinations and team football just aren't happening - it's just hope one of the talented individuals and conjure something up. Other than the odd half hour here and there, we've basically been shit since lockdown. But prior to that, even if we were shit, we could be dangerous. That's gone now.

Agree with this completely

 

[Nando]

In fairness, some of those goals didn't go in as Martinez was different gravy today.

I'd expect any half decent keeper to make those saves to be honest. Donck has acres of space centrally in the box, he shouldn't be giving the keeper a chance. Fabio did the right thing and was unlucky, but I'd still expect that to be put away.

 

[Tony Towner]

It wasn't a game without positives. In Podence and Neto we have players who buzz around and go into dangerous areas, but without Raul there isn't a focal point. We've played Russian roulette with not having cover for him for most of the previous two seasons and this time we've found the bullet. Not going to climb into Silva, but he doesn't have the strength to lead the line, he's 18 and not the answer for now. Problem is neither is anybody else in that role.

Martinez made a lot of saves, but all were those he should be making. We continue to be a wasteful side. For those who are into their XG I'd love to know what Dendoncker's is this year, his role in getting into the box is pivotal, but his finishing is woeful, 2 today he put straight at the keeper when a metre either side would have been enough.

The formation wasn't really the problem today, but i still don't think we have the personnel to play 4 at the back, it's just that Villa didn't put them under much pressure given that their strategy was to fall over when within 30 yards of the box.

At the end of last season most people, me included, wanted an upgrade on Doherty. I'll get accused of hyperbole here because people are desperate for Semedo to be something he isn't, but we've managed to downgrade and spend £15m doing so. For that money at that age, he needed to hit the ground running, he's been a disaster from game 1 onwards.Has the postional sense and game awareness of Zubar.

 

[PuntsWolf]

Semedo might have been saved criticism without that incident but its fair to say he doesn’t look solid.

Hes about as accomplished defensively as Traore (hyperbole before you lynch me). You can have all the technical and physical attributes in the world but as a RB if you lack anticipation, positioning and awareness then you’ll struggle to make any top level career. At the moment the twitter hate us looking accurate and I hosesntly don’t know how you can have such a long CL career for someone who looks Sunday league at times.

 

[The Bion]

After a dozen games I still don't see where Nuno is going with these formation and personnel changes. Looks suspiciously tinkery and more hopeful than with a clear vision, which is unlike him?

I said something similar last week. I remain to be convinced that this is the actual long term plan - if Coady hadn't been forced out I can't see that we would've gone to a 4 naturally, it came completely out of the blue, nobody was expecting it. It worked reasonably well for about 20 minutes against Southampton and a bit more against Arsenal - although how much of that is down to Arsenal being all at sea is also debateable.

I just don't see how it works for us overall, I really don't. We're creating more but not scoring more, and look to have players who aren't comfortable with what they're being asked to do in multiple places.

Today was...pedestrian, to be polite. Silva was unlucky with his chance, Donck maybe could've done better but hitting a volley that's coming across your body is difficult, he did pretty well to get it on target like he did. But not a whole lot more than that, a lot of half chances off 2nd balls which puts you at the mercy of the bounce of the ball, which isn't the greatest idea. It's little wonder we're struggling to score from set pieces with the way we faff around with them.

Most of our play under Nuno has been built around developing the play down one wing then doing a quick switch and overloading the other flank. At the moment I'm not sure what the actual plan is - Podence is nominally the 10 but he's drifting around every which where and seems to want to stand on the wings more than in the middle. The wingers are more often than not left isolated to try and get past their defenders solo and there's little to no interplay with the FBs. The centre mids might as well have been invisible when we had the ball as it was constantly getting lumped forward - when you're asking Podence to win headers you're doing something wrong.

It very much feels like making it up as we go along and not a cohesive plan, at all. If we're going to struggle for goals, which we are anyway, we should at least shore things up at the back.

 

[The Bear]

Disgraceful refereeing really:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1337770402639192066

Indirectly cost us the game.