Wolves 0-4 Man City (16/08/2025) - Verdict Thread

[Tredman]

Just want to say thank you to everyone who stayed until the end today. It was emotional.

South Bank led it, brilliant from everyone in there.

 

[Wilf Wolf]

What options did Wolfe have when he did get the ball?
Bellegarde or back to Toti

Exactly. It was mind numbingly predictable. As soon as Toti gets in that side on position the opposition know what’s happening next. He doesn’t even have Sa as an option.

 

[jd1981]

The more I look at the squad the more you ask where’s the clean sheets coming from and how do we counterbalance that with a goal scoring threat?
As @prawnking has said they’ll probably bring in more quantities of JRB/ Munetsi/ R Gomes type players who offer nothing better.
VP will ultimately be the fall guy.
We knew we weren’t near good enough and today just hit home.

 

[slink]

Played well for periods, lost pretty comprehensively in the end despite that. Big issue from todays game is that i think it was players who most would see in our first 11 even with incomings that made the errors or weren’t at their best.

Joao and Agbadou partly at fault in most of them to be honest and we can’t afford that to happen from next week. Sa pretty poor too and despite his faults it’s usually his shot stopping that excels.

Atmosphere was excellent tonight for the most part, wish it would stay like that but understand it’s the circumstances. The Jota chant that was sang for nigh on 20 minutes at the end and the tifo at the start were a bit surreal to be a part of but a fitting tribute to someone who gave us some of our best moments in recent memory. Thanked the lad on my row in S1 that actually started the chant as it was something that definitely was needed and put everything in to perspective and came out of the ground not as down as maybe would have been the case.

Looking forward to a trip to Bournemouth next week.

 

[Wolftone]

Played well for periods, lost pretty comprehensively in the end despite that. Big issue from todays game is that i think it was players who most would see in our first 11 even with incomings that made the errors or weren’t at their best.

Joao and Agbadou partly at fault in most of them to be honest and we can’t afford that to happen from next week. Sa pretty poor too and despite his faults it’s usually his shot stopping that excels.

Atmosphere was excellent tonight for the most part, wish it would stay like that but understand it’s the circumstances. The Jota chant that was sang for nigh on 20 minutes at the end and the tifo at the start were a bit surreal to be a part of but a fitting tribute to someone who gave us some of our best moments in recent memory. Thanked the lad on my row in S1 that actually started the chant as it was something that definitely was needed and put everything in to perspective and came out of the ground not as down as maybe would have been the case.

Looking forward to a trip to Bournemouth next week.

Yep. I thought before the kick off, at least we have a pretty reliable and strong spine. But Sa, Agba and Joao didn't have their best games today.
Can't fathom what Bellegarde was selected to do. Didn't win the ball and posed no attacking threat.
Anyway, onwards and upwards.
No lack of effort from any of them, that will count against lesser opposition.

 

[Derby Wolf]

Didn't get home from work until HT so only watched the second half. Felt we huffed and puffed but City just stepped up when they felt like it and stuck another away. Not the game to judge Wolfe, A, the opposition and B he might need time to get used to the pace of the game here.

Brilliant tribute to Diogo at the end. Very classy of Dias and Silva to stick around at the end too.

 

[Lycan]

Thanked the lad on my row in S1 that actually started the chant

Nice to meet you Slink

 

[HanDoJin]

Better Wolves XIs have lost to far worse opponents on opening day. It’s a long old season and I think we’ve some very good players.

Jeff’s still a whopper and the fans deserve far better

 

[slink]

Nice to meet you Slink

Nice to meet you too. Would never have thought the person i thanked would post on here, it’s a small world. Thanks again for starting it, it meant a lot.

 

[Stan Hullis]

Nice to meet you too. Would never have thought the person i thanked would post on here, it’s a small world. Thanks again for starting it, it meant a lot.

Nice to see you Slink. Row EE assemble.

 

[The Saturday Boy]

It wasn't really, really bad...but it had halll marks of the worst times under O'Neil avoidable mistakes being punished, we looked easy to score against and didn't capitalise when we had moments.

VP was clearly frustrated when interviewed after the game. Whatever plans he had for transfers have not yet been realised and we can't afford to start this season in a similar vein to last. We need the new signings to bed in quickly and any others that come in need to be ready to go.

Probably one of Munetsi's better games. Wing backs didn't really offer enough. Agbadou and Toti scare me playing out from the back. Andre and Gomes will be more than a match for most midfields again this year. Larsen should have scored.

Mostly, it was predictable.

 

[Lycan]

Nice to meet you too. Would never have thought the person i thanked would post on here, it’s a small world. Thanks again for starting it, it meant a lot.

Come and chat next game mate. I'm sure I recognised you from away games.

 

[prawnking]

Wing backs didn't really offer enough

Obviously one was making his debut today, Hoever is hopefully a stopgap and the other hasn't actually signed yet, but this can't be a feature of our season.

Those positions just have to deliver in some way

 

[Mel Evo]

Sorry I’m pleased you’ve found positivity out of this nevertheless they outclassed us only where it mattered.
The fall in expectations is striking that people think that wasn’t that bad.
Probably the lowest in quality a side we’ve fielded in the top flight since 2012.

Well I agree they outclassed us when and where it mattered. Such we were battered.

I also agree that expectation management is appalling. And the quality of our squad has been eroded. I for one don’t buy that it’s natural, cyclical or acceptable to hope for 17th. Or am happy that we are evidently worse than 18/19/20.

But, my ‘positivity’ is more straightforward: that despite the result I think this manager and that performance points to more upside than I felt when sitting watching any Lage or GON teams. It’s just how I felt. I think all the other critical points well made in this thread stand, without qualification. Improvement is needed, individual errors by key players are worrying (Sa, Agbadou - that’s some garbage right there), but having seen that, I’m more confident than I was at 14:59 that we’ll be OK.

 

[Alan]

Good thing there aren’t 37 more games this season.

We were pretty decent; Vítor got the tactics absolutely right in the 1st half, but we couldn’t manage to make things work in the end (Marshall being a smidge oblivious and City playing the offside trap ridiculously well played a big part in that).

The mistakes were dreadful, but if ever a team embodied “make a mistake, get punished”, it’s City. That new guy who got the 2nd goal was outstanding.

They’re in the conversation for most talented team in the world. We’re not close from that perspective. It takes a lot going well all at once to overcome that.

Agbadou is a worry. Jean isn’t a winger. Marshall needs to watch some owl videos on YouTube. Wølfe needs time but I’m hardly surprised that folks are saying he’s not up to this level. The subs all need the same patience; I thought they looked lively, though.

City will put 4 past better sides than us.

 

[t3ch]

Looking forward to the season opener next weekend

 

[prawnking]

Good thing there aren’t 37 more games this season.

We were pretty decent; Vítor got the tactics absolutely right in the 1st half, but we couldn’t manage to make things work in the end (Marshall being a smidge oblivious and City playing the offside trap ridiculously well played a big part in that).

The mistakes were dreadful, but if ever a team embodied “make a mistake, get punished”, it’s City. That new guy who got the 2nd goal was outstanding.

They’re in the conversation for most talented team in the world. We’re not close from that perspective. It takes a lot going well all at once to overcome that.

Agbadou is a worry. Jean isn’t a winger. Marshall needs to watch some owl videos on YouTube. Wølfe needs time but I’m hardly surprised that folks are saying he’s not up to this level. The subs all need the same patience; I thought they looked lively, though.

City will put 4 past better sides than us.

By this (slightly patronising) logic I presume you expect us to put all the promoted clubs and the likes of Bournemouth next week to the sword?

 

[prawnking]

Also I guess no-one can say Reijnders looked pretty good on his debut as it's seemingly wrong to say Wolfe looked unimpressive on his

 

[YoungWolf]

There’s been quite a few people out-right writing him off though which has seemed strange to me. I didn’t think he looked terrible - just seemed like he’ll be a fairly steady performer with time. Tough first game to be thrown into.

 

[prawnking]

There’s been quite a few people out-right writing him off though which has seemed strange to me

Not on here?