Barnsley v Wolves: Matchday Thread

[AndyWolves]

Why would you press him if he can't hurt you? It's more likely to be the other way round, you press the ones who can do damage given the time to pick a pass and rest up when the $#@! house has the ball. Something Wolves executed excellently years ago when they got that first PL away win at Wigan, it was press, press, press, oh wait they've passed it to Bramble let's all have a breather while he belts it 10 yards over Koumas' head, again.

It's all irrelevant really, it doesn't sound like creating chances was a problem for Wolves yesterday anyway. If Bennett was on the bench would it have stopped team mates being offside or prevented Jota from hitting the bar and missing a sitter?

It was based on seeing the difference with Boly / Coady in possession compared to Bennett and what happened in passages of play afterwards. As I said, just an idea.

Bennett has been outstanding for us and has earned his place by being a better defender than his competition.

My point is having 3 centre backs who can pick a pass, zing 40-50 yard balls or dribble out if necessary is surely better than 2 and would make us more potent.

 

[Jabbawolf]

It was based on seeing the difference with Boly / Coady in possession compared to Bennett and what happened in passages of play afterwards. As I said, just an idea.

Bennett has been outstanding for us and has earned his place by being a better defender than his competition.

My point is having 3 centre backs who can pick a pass, zing 40-50 yard balls or dribble out if necessary is surely better than 2 and would make us more potent.

Not if we end up conceding more goals.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

It was based on seeing the difference with Boly / Coady in possession compared to Bennett and what happened in passages of play afterwards. As I said, just an idea.

Bennett has been outstanding for us and has earned his place by being a better defender than his competition.

My point is having 3 centre backs who can pick a pass, zing 40-50 yard balls or dribble out if necessary is surely better than 2 and would make us more potent.

Put there's possibly been only one game where they've struggled to create anything, Sunderland, so why risk upsetting a very effective defence to solve a problem that doesn't really exist?

 

[b3h]

"Saiss can fill in at CB if needed" seen this a few times lately and although he could and has for his country to a better effect than us last season, just don't see it when even if we were to cruelly drop Bennett, then Hause is in waiting and he seemed really comfortable on the ball last game and will drive forward Boly style when needed.

Think Mir will add a new option. He's faster and already been picked out on a run he's made to break the defence a few times. I think regardless of what runs Leo makes, we'll play a tad different with each on the pitch.



Why exactly was Cav benched? Is Nuno only looking to add Cav and maybe Mir to change the game and be more direct?

 

[Premier Quality]

I see what Andy’s saying - if we can improve shouldn’t we? On that basis Mark, are you saying we shouldn’t improve on Bennett when we get promoted?

Personally, I’m pretty happy, we’re going to get games where we can’t get through, but as long as we’re creating chances we’ll be ok in the long run.

My only two small qualms are
1) that Helder and Jota aren’t clicking and we’re relying on Cav coming off the bench to make the difference (with less time to do it), and

2) that I’d like to see MGW and Hause get more game time - they have potential to become premier league players but need the match experience.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

I see what Andy’s saying - if we can improve shouldn’t we? On that basis Mark, are you saying we shouldn’t improve on Bennett when we get promoted?

Personally, I’m pretty happy, we’re going to get games where we can’t get through, but as long as we’re creating chances we’ll be ok in the long run.

My only two small qualms are
1) that Helder and Jota aren’t clicking and we’re relying on Cav coming off the bench to make the difference (with less time to do it), and

2) that I’d like to see MGW and Hause get more game time - they have potential to become premier league players but need the match experience.

Of course, but if you want to improve on him when buy a defender, don't stick one of your first choice midfielders there and weaken another area of your team to fix a problem that doesn't really exist.

Bennett has been better at centre half than N'Diaye when starting in centre mid so why go for the latter? Might turn out that Saiss doesn't work at centre half for us and then you've weakened two positions for no reason.

You should always strive to improve but right now everything is going tickety-boo so why rock the boat? Keep the improvememt for the longer term.

 

[Lord Knows]

It was based on seeing the difference with Boly / Coady in possession compared to Bennett and what happened in passages of play afterwards. As I said, just an idea.

Bennett has been outstanding for us and has earned his place by being a better defender than his competition.

My point is having 3 centre backs who can pick a pass, zing 40-50 yard balls or dribble out if necessary is surely better than 2 and would make us more potent.

Nuno made the call to include Bennett rather than Miranda because he needs that physicality and heading ability in defensive positions. Wolves still seem very capable of moving the ball through the field with Bennetts inclusion plus the left foot right foot combination in midfield enables many of those early long balls to the wide positions.

 

[AndyWolves]

So a bit more from my thinking :-

Saiss must be a reasonable CB because he plays there internationally
Bennett is ok on the ball, not great but not rubbish either. However, he can't really dribble out of defense or ping 40-50 yard balls which Saiss can
Saiss is a superb defensive midfielder but isn't that great going forward. I'm not sure we need two CDMs with 3 at the back. A more conventional midfielder might give us a bit more potentency.
MGW needs game time and has more going forward in his locker than Saiss.
Ndaiye isn't as good as Saiss in midfield so that's an issue.


These are just thoughts, Nuno has it nailed at the moment as were top scorers and lowest conceders so what do I know

 

[Lord Knows]

So a bit more from my thinking :-

Saiss must be a reasonable CB because he plays there internationally
Bennett is ok on the ball, not great but not rubbish either. However, he can't really dribble out of defense or ping 40-50 yard balls which Saiss can
Saiss is a superb defensive midfielder but isn't that great going forward. I'm not sure we need two CDMs with 3 at the back. A more conventional midfielder might give us a bit more potentency.
MGW needs game time and has more going forward in his locker than Saiss.
Ndaiye isn't as good as Saiss in midfield so that's an issue.


These are just thoughts, Nuno has it nailed at the moment as were top scorers and lowest conceders so what do I know

Some fair ideas, but unlike previous managers we can trust Nuno to evaluate those and other options as he drives his Wolves vision forward.

 

[The Bear]

The idea is sound - Replace Bennett with someone who is equally as good defensively but better on the ball to help start attacks.

Saiss isn't the answer though. He plays on the left of a back three for Morocco. He's left footed, as is Boly, so I wouldn't want to move him across to accommodate it either.

 

[Jack Regan]

The idea is sound - Replace Bennett with someone who is equally as good defensively but better on the ball to help start attacks.

Saiss isn't the answer though. He plays on the left of a back three for Morocco. He's left footed, as is Boly, so I wouldn't want to move him across to accommodate it either.

Pretty sure Boly is right footed.

 

[Siggy]

I would still like to see a back 3 of Hause-Coady-Boly, I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work and we would certainly be better going forward. Bennett has been superb defensively and he isn't terrible on the ball we are just spoiled with Boly on the other side who is just all kinds of awesome. Hause will get 90 mins against Swansea on Wednesday and its up to him to show what he can do and push for a start.

Dropping Bennett would be very harsh but if we are playing a team that will sit back a little bit more it makes sense for that kind of change (if Miranda was staying he would also be another good option) bearing in mind Nuno brought Baath in recently specifically to deal with set pieces better.

Saiss as the other CB could work also but hes having such a good season in CM it would be a waste to put him back there.

 

[Norman Deeley]

Pretty sure Boly is right footed.

Boly launched all his long balls yesterday with his right foot

 

[Norman Deeley]

Some observations from my seat among the Barnsley faithful after seeing daughter graduate from Sheffield Uni. the day before...

Boly is just immense - it's like watching waves break up against a cliff. In fact I thought all the back three were impressive yesterday. Shout out to Coady's tackle and back pass to ruddy near the end of the game when clearing into touch would have been 100 times easier. The offisde goal looked a good goal from where I was - haven't seen the highlights yet though. Bonatini does a hell of a lot of work but no way will he be the answer in the Premiership: welcome to Wolves, Vincent... And ditto Barry Douglas: he may well have a wand of a left foot, but he won't be the answer next year.

But above all, Helder Costa. If Cav gives 30 minutes of pace/energy injection from the bench then FFS give him 60 minutes from the start. Doherty plays better with Cav on the pitch and the whole energy of the team goes up. I can see no reason at all for Helder starting and to be honest if someone offered us £12m I'd be very tempted to say yes.

And for God's sake, Diogo, you're a wonderful player but stop the petulant fouls.

Finally, a word to the Barnsley fans - good natured black humour all around me. First time I've been to Oakwell and thought it was a cracking little ground. Hope they stay up