Wolves 2 - 3 Spurs: The "where's the VAR" result thread

[Parkins left foot]

Watched in the middle of a game reserve in South Africa, barely had WiFi that worked but a working HD SSN feed!
hugely disappointing but any talk of wholesale changes in formations are really premature (and still will be premature if we lose to arsenal next week).

Dendonker in for Bennett is a probably change, I'd like to see MGW with more game time but I don't think next week is a good time for him to start.

Finally, appalling from the lino, really sub-par, great position for him and he fucked it.

Next game is probably not one to start MGW, but could see him as a viable option depending on the match situation later on - he was the best player for us yesterday

 

[Aikiwolf]

Next game is probably not one to start MGW, but could see him as a viable option depending on the match situation later on - he was the best player for us yesterday

Agreed, I felt he looked more dynamic than Moutinho and Neves, however I think João and Neves are more solid and should start vs Arsenal. Huddersfield though....

Mind you, MGW came on with nothing to lose and that may have helped make his performance stand out. Its not long ago we were all raving about our midfield 2!

 

[Parkins left foot]

Agreed, I felt he looked more dynamic than Moutinho and Neves, however I think João and Neves are more solid and should start vs Arsenal. Huddersfield though....

Mind you, MGW came on with nothing to lose and that may have helped make his performance stand out. Its not long ago we were all raving about our midfield 2!

Neves & particularly Moutinho's experience will be needed v Arsenal (Huddersfield is a different issue/game)

And yes when MGW came on (seeing as the 3rd goal had just gone in while he was waiting) may have changed his mindset, suspect that he wouldn't have played any differently if we had been 2 up at that time

 

[Banjo]

Yes, I love us scoring goals and goalscorers..great game and teamspirit yesterday though on that comeback, we deserved at least a point

I'm almost sick of saying this but I'll say it again: the problem isn't our central forward. He's doing his job to a tee. The difference between this season and last is that our inside forwards aren't scoring. The system requires goals from across the front three- this magical 20 goal a season central striker stuff is just plain nonsense - we don't use our central forward that way and anyone who thinks we do simply hasn't been paying attention since August 2017.

 

[Alan]

I'm almost sick of saying this but I'll say it again: the problem isn't our central forward. He's doing his job to a tee. The difference between this season and last is that our inside forwards aren't scoring. The system requires goals from across the front three- this magical 20 goal a season central striker stuff is just plain nonsense - we don't use our central forward that way and anyone who thinks we do simply hasn't been paying attention since August 2017.

Bingo.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Raul has scored 3 in 11, at that rate he would end up with 10-11 goals over a full season.

13 players scored 12 or more goals last season, three of them (Vardy, Mahrez and Murray) played for a team outside the top six and one of those has since joined the reigning champions.

So essentially we need to sign Jamie Vardy, sounds doable.

 

[Deleted Cyber]

Costa clean through. Must score
Raul one on one hits it a good height for Lori's

Douglas had a wand of a left foot but was a championship left back.

We haven't replaced that wand. Do that and others start scoring again

 

[Alan]

Costa clean through. Must score
Raul one on one hits it a good height for Lori's

Douglas had a wand of a left foot but was a championship left back.

We haven't replaced that wand. Do that and others start scoring again

This is an argument I have a lot more time for than "get a striker in".

When we sold Barry I was convinced that Moutinho and Neves would at least be able to equal his quality of delivery. Thus far, that hasn't been close to the case. Moutinho's corners aren't awful but aren't consistently dangerous, and Neves is unfortunately overcooking his long passes more often than last season.

That's getting into nitpicks as I think both are absolutely class players, but we do miss Barry's left foot more than I thought we would.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

He didn't really create much from open play (virtually nothing after October) so it's his set pieces we're missing. But then teams in the Premier League are better at defending them than Championship clubs are, I very much doubt he'd be chalking up the numbers at this level that he was last season - it's only the same principle as Jota not scoring as many goals etc.

Joao's corners are pretty rubbish though, he needs taking off them. Maybe give them to Doherty and have everyone stand by the opposite corner flag...

 

[Deleted Cyber]

Douglas had 14 assists last year. Cav had 12. Costa 6.

We need a better set piece delivery. It's not the only thing but it's something we are worse on than last year and there isn't much.

 

[Alan]

Also of note: we don't seem to be winning nearly as many free kicks this season as last. Last night there were two incidents involving Traore that I thought could easily have been given as free kicks but were simply ignored; possibly because I'm sure the refs are aware that Adama is going to try to knock the ball past people and force them to knock him down. But it was indicative of what has plagued Costa and Jota this season, too. They are tackled off the ball too easily and look to win fouls that are not being given.

I'm not saying that this is right or wrong on the part of the officials, but it does impact games, obviously.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

Also of note: we don't seem to be winning nearly as many free kicks this season as last. Last night there were two incidents involving Traore that I thought could easily have been given as free kicks but were simply ignored; possibly because I'm sure the refs are aware that Adama is going to try to knock the ball past people and force them to knock him down. But it was indicative of what has plagued Costa and Jota this season, too. They are tackled off the ball too easily and look to win fouls that are not being given.

I'm not saying that this is right or wrong on the part of the officials, but it does impact games, obviously.

You've really got to change that wording man, sounds like you're saying they've been fouled away from the action. Just 'tackled' alone would make more sense, 'knocked off the ball' or 'dispossessed'.

 

[Sedgley Wolf]

Douglas had 14 assists last year. Cav had 12. Costa 6.

We need a better set piece delivery. It's not the only thing but it's something we are worse on than last year and there isn't much.

Deutsch's point still stands: teams are better at defending them at this level. Alan's point is a salient one too; we're not winning as many set-pieces, also because of higher quality defending.

So I doubt our set piece delivery is getting worse.

 

[Alan]

I think it's a little of both, tbf. Fewer free kicks and slightly worse delivery, I mean.

 

[VanWolfie]

Joao's corners are pretty rubbish though, he needs taking off them. Maybe give them to Doherty and have everyone stand by the opposite corner flag...

Deutsch, I found that wickedly funny!

 

[Tredman]

Forgot to say earlier the North Bank starting the singing with a very loud 'Nuno had a dream' was great on Saturday.

 

[SLA]

Deutsch's point still stands: teams are better at defending them at this level. Alan's point is a salient one too; we're not winning as many set-pieces, also because of higher quality defending.

So I doubt our set piece delivery is getting worse.

This is the thing for me across the board. There's little point in comparing the "form" of our players to last season. They're up against better players and better managers. The games are faster and our defence will be under more pressure so more mistakes will come. Taken in isolation, they look like poor individual errors but in the context of a whole game where we might have been run ragged by top international players, it's not surprising that the defenders make the odd slip. And those slips will be punished much more often than they were in the Championship. Same with the midfield and attack. The opposition is that much quicker, more skillful and smarter than what we were up against last year. Stands to reason our players will be less effective.

I think it's hugely encouraging that even though we've been worked out to an extent, we still look competitive, solid and dangerous in every game.

 

[Deleted Cyber]

think it's hugely encouraging that even though we've been worked out to an extent, we still look competitive, solid and dangerous in every game

Agreed. Even more so if you compare it to our last premier League visit. We certainly do not look out of place

 

[Deleted Cyber]

I do think it's right to look at areas we can improve on. Even if it's encouraging we have still dropped points in games when we deserved better. Be that because of poor defending ( Leicester) poor finishing (Brighton, Spurs,) or just plain out thought ( Watford). That raises issues for us to debate, compare and contrast. This season more of us have access to games than ever before and even though I agree we do see a game differently on TV as against seeing it live it is good to stimulate chatter.

If we win more than we lose this season it will be an excellent result

 

[b3h]

I did laugh when Keane said we need a 20-25 goals a season striker. Might aswell pop a bid in for Kane then I guess.

I did too. We need more goals from the front 3 though, that's for sure.

We do also need another striker. I hope we're proactive in January rather than seeing if we can make it to the end of the season with Bonatini as backup and then be left with only Bonatini potentially.