Wolves 2-6 Chelsea: Verdict Thread

Embarrassing today and Ait-Nouri's worst performance in a Wolves shirt. The defending on show today was rank amateur at times. Only Mosquera comes out of it with any credit and he was at fault for the second goal.

We looked good once we were 1-0 down but I'm already fed up of saying that this season. The attacking signs are good with Cunha back in the side, and with another right sided forward/winger we should look dangerous all across the front line.

The only silver lining to these first two games is that they were against teams who are in the top 6 with ridiculous attacking talent in their sides. Hopefully against the lesser lights and with some defensive reinforcements we can tighten up a bit but without losing the attack at the other end.

GON desperately needs those defensive reinforcements though. CB and LB sold in this window and zero replacements. It's our biggest weakness right now and it needs sorting before next weekend or we're going to continue to struggle defensively. Hobbs and GON need to be telling Shi it's make or break for our season.

We could have prime Maldini and Beckenbauer and GON would find someway to fuck it up.

2 gifts in the first half and utter collapse in the second half. Individual errors, lack of discipline and a coach who wants to go toe to toe with better quality opposition all account for this drubbing. Are Chelsea that good? No. But we gave them the freedom of Wolverhampton at times.

Attacking wise we look OK but we leave ourselves so vulnerable. Hopefully we learn. Not going to criticise individual players. We all know who was at fault for the goals. So, now we'll get to learn how good GON is and if Fosun are going to invest in the team to make it more solid at the back.

There's an old saying about building from the back. It needs to start this week with some quality signings.

How many times have we fallen apart at the start of the second half now?

Obvious other one was Brighton last season but it feels like we come out at the start of second halves and even if we don't fall apart as in these two we're caught asleep and concede.

The only plus point from today was that it's happened before the transfer window closes and Shi/Hobbs still have time to wake up to the fact that we're nowhere good enough to stay in this league without buying a defence. Not holding my breath, though.

A woman in the North Bank spilt a cup of Bovril down me at half time.

It was easily the highlight of the hour after the half time whistle went.

Utterly embarrassing. How he can have not learnt a thing from last season to improve how we defend and protect the middle of the pitch is astonishing.

I’ve been reading the Wolves book by Johnny Phillips. All of them knew Nuno would go mad if you ever let them pass through us - it’s like the opposite with this moron.

back 3/ back 4 it doesn’t matter. We’ll continue to be punished until he gets his head out of his own arse

That was a performance reminiscent of the worst of the Dave Jones and Mick McCarthy Premier League eras. Awful, awful defending, awful tactics and a total capitulation.

GON won't last long, I don't think. But I don't know who would come here and operate successfully under the absolute clowns running the club. I can't see anything but a slow death spiral in this team's future.

Well worth the huge hike in prices.

Chelsea's xG - 1.56

Just highlights how bad the defending was.

Well that was chaos. For a while, it was entertaining chaos. But chaos all the same and I don't think we're ever going to win many games doing that.

Some of the defending had to be seen to be believed. Two things though:

1) This has been in the post for a while, we have habitually looked poor in transitions for quite some time and conceded tons last season

2) This is NOT a situation where just lamping an extra CH in would solve anything. It just wouldn't. We'd still have the same issues

Let's get it right, we could have scored way more than 2 today. Two very tight disallowed goals, Mosquera's golden chance, Cunha off the bar, some other very good play in the first half that on another day could have reaped rewards. But we conceded 6. We could have conceded 12. This isn't sustainable.

On to individuals and not many are getting a glowing report:

Sa: Shite in possession, very easily beaten all too often, and wandering around like an airhead for the second goal. But can we change it, no, because the back up isn't even Championship level. Great.

Doherty: Sets the tone in the first 90 seconds by first passing the ball straight to a Chelsea player under no pressure and then from a corner refusing to mark or indeed, do anything. He's a bad, bad, bad player. Not got any business playing anywhere near this level.

Mosquera: My word does he play on the edge. There's a lot of ability there but he needs a settling hand next to him badly. And we don't have one.

Toti: He is what he is, he would be fine as a squad player who started 15-20 games a season and came on now and then to shore things up. He's been given far more responsibility than that and it doesn't suit him.

Ait-Nouri: Only fair that after I've absolutely drilled Doherty for over a decade for abysmal one-on-one defending that I do the same when someone else - as much as I like him - puts in such a shameful show. Never ever got to grips with the challenge of Madueke and I don't even think he had to do much, it wasn't like it was searing pace or dazzling skill that was causing the issues. It was failing to do the very basics in defending. Good going forward in the first half but so what when at least three goals are in part down to you. Can we change it, no, we have one left back at the club. Great work lads.

Lemina/J Gomes: We leave them with so much work to do whichever way we set up and it's no surprise that they frequently get totally overwhelmed. Joao gave the ball away horribly for one of the goals.

Bellegarde: Won the ball back well for the first equaliser. Generally though didn't offer much and didn't help RAN out much either. Still don't know what he is.

Hwang: You know, I'd nearly forgotten what it was like to watch Darron Gibson on the right hand side. So that was a handy reminder. Much like Gibson, displayed absolutely no heart or quality, in fact I don't think he did anything positive all game. Much like Gibson, he bottled out of numerous challenges, at one stage two inside about 45 seconds. Fuck off with that.

Cunha: Unreal in the first half and well...let's just say we need him to stay fit and in form.

Strand Larsen: Another very good first half, he did everything you'd want off him. Mobile, linked play well and got his goal. On a hiding to nothing after we fell to pieces.

Subs: Nothing of note from any of them though I will note Rodrigo Gomes getting outmuscled by Joao fucking Felix which is not a good look and the supreme pointlessness of bringing Tommy Doyle on after 89 minutes.

I doubt there were 30k in there to start with. We're charging top 6 prices to behave like Rotherham United when it comes to squad building. If alarm bells weren't ringing then they fucking well should be now.

Bad. Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad.

Stop staring at the iPad, Gary.

It won’t fix it for you.

Considering the start we’ve got this should have been a game to target getting a point at least.
Picture the worse start we could’ve possibly had and here you have it just didn’t predict it would be Chelsea that would batter us.
Sounds like we were cut open at will second half so sounds like there’s little to no protection for what is a very flimsy back line.
Regardless of opposition GON won’t last long if these performances defensively continue.
Before anyone states it’ll all get better once the opponents get lesser you know full well football isn’t that linear, Chelsea will still probably end up fumbling around between 6-9th.
We’ve got some quality up top but it’s probably not enough to compensate the mess at the back.

Is anyone surprised? You can't keep selling without a plan and hope to compete. We've become league's whipping boys. Good old hapless Everton keeping us off bottom!

What was the mood like at full time? Boos or just quiet acceptance that we're a bit sh*t really?

Really enjoyed the first half. Despite being open, thought we showed a lot of fight, decent quality and we were at least entertaining to watch.

I suppose the flip side of playing like that is you run the risk of seeing a second half like the one we did.

RAN absolutely appalling - Toti just as bad. We just seemed to lose any kind of discipline and shape and to be honest, it was an embarrassing watch.

Yes, Gaz picks the team and sets us up tactically, but I just can’t pin all the blame on him. We need to sign some fucking players. This is all on Jeff Shi & Fosun. Hopefully today forces them to do something about it this week. I’d say it was naive from Gaz, but we probably needed today to happen for him to realise what we can & can’t do. I have faith in him doing something about it, but I don’t have faith in Jeff Shi or Fosun doing anything. That’s where I’m at.

Good showing from Strand Larsen. I think we’ll grow to like him.

Just seen goals 3,4 & 5 all very similar and way to open and a classic case of FB who’s heads been scrambled.

jd1981 said:

Just seen goals 3,4 & 5 all very similar and way to open and a classic case of FB who’s heads been scrambled.

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Rayan getting sent off (how he got away without a second yellow is beyond me) would likely have been better for him mentally, and us in the short term.

Considering after giving early christmas presents we could have been 4 or 5 - 2 up at half time, but the 2nd half!!!!! Jeez!
Sa was his awful worst, apart from the goals ,he was back to tippy tapping in his area, and his positioning and clearance kicks were woeful.
Ait nouri, less said the better, one decent run for cunha's goal, the rest was appalling.
Toti/Mosquera. I think there's a decent player in both of them, but they are naiive, in the extreme and have the positional sense of a couple of summer wasps.
Doch: left the back post free for the first, but he was nowhere as bad as some today.
Lemina, steady
Joao gomes, just not in the game today.
Bellegarde, reasonably decent game.
Hwang, didn't turn up.
Larsen, great first half, scraps 2nd.
Cunha, the man! could have had 3 goals.
Gon, must have thought we could take em 2nd half, but totally at fault, for not taking ryan off after the third goal, and bringing Dawson on, plus not swapping Hwang for for mini gomes.
In short a second half shit show, and over to jeff shi.

EnglishBob said:

Is anyone surprised? You can't keep selling without a plan and hope to compete. We've become league's whipping boys. Good old hapless Everton keeping us off bottom!

What was the mood like at full time? Boos or just quiet acceptance that we're a bit sh*t really?

Click to expand...

There were so few people that the only thing I heard was my daughter asking if the bubble tea shop was still open. Oh, and and my son said ‘happy birthday dad’ and laughed.

I really, truly believe that these players deserve better. They aren’t as bad as they’re being made to look and frankly that incenses me.