Burnley 1-0 Wolves: The Verdict

[Elephant Pyjamas]

Have we ever drawn this few games in a season?

 

[Jack Regan]

When your only goal threat is your left wing back (who has done his ACL twice in two years) then you've got serious problems. You watch other teams who have pressure on the opposition and think they're going to score soon. How often can you say the same about us? We were by far the better side in the first half but never once did I think we were likely to score, unless it came from a Burnley mistake or a piece of individual magic.

I've pretty much zero interest in watching us any more, we're dull to watch and going nowhere fast under the current manager and structure of the club. Season ticket prices are gonna go up and Neves will be on his bike, watching us next season is likely to be as much fun as a wet weekend in Bridlington.

 

[Carrotdude]

Relegation battle incoming next season if nothing changes. Pretty pathetic at the moment

 

[YoungWolf]

It’s all catching up with us. Keeper won’t bail us out every week nor should he be expected to.

what worries me most is that cowardly substitution to take Silva off. Pathetic

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Man U collected more points over the course of a 38 game season, so of course they were better last season!? They finished 5 points above them! It wasn't even close.

The league table doesn't lie, no. Not a 38 game league table!

You are applying a hell of a lot of recency bias to this stance.

The fact that we either win or lose and so rarely draw (we haven't Drawn since before Christmas) doesn't help the psychology of a fan, as it's always boom or bust.

We've won 3 of our last 6 (9 points) yet if we'd been unbeaten in the last 6 games and have 6 points, we'd probably feel better right now.

Nothing recent about it. We started with 4 defeats out of 5 (and scored one goal through one of our own players). We had a separate run of 2 goals in 8 games. We averaged less than 1 goal a game at home for ages. We have lost 6 out of 9 which is nearly a quarter of the season, highly likely we will finish with at least 9 defeats out of 14 which is awful. We are and have been mostly shocking to watch all season. All season bar one freak game we have rarely ever looked like doing anything when we fall behind. Team selections have been weird for ages.

I don't like him, I'm not contractually obliged to. I hope he goes soon rather than us wait for him to stick us in a relegation battle next season, which on current, extended form is quite likely.

 

[redvictor]

When your only goal threat is your left wing back (who has done his ACL twice in two years) then you've got serious problems. You watch other teams who have pressure on the opposition and think they're going to score soon. How often can you say the same about us? We were by far the better side in the first half but never once did I think we were likely to score, unless it came from a Burnley mistake or a piece of individual magic.

Exactly. Even when we pepper the opposition goal i'm amazed when we put it in the net. If we are hanging our hat on Fabio Silva, Hwang and Trincao we are truly fucked.

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

We've lost 3 of our last 5.

But that doesn't tell the whole story. Our football has been as dull as anything Hoddle served up during that period apart from Watford where we decided to play.

When we play we can be good, sadly that's way too infrequently.

It's not all on the manager but a good 80% is him.

As much as I dislike Howe look at the difference between him and Bruce. The football itself is far better and they've only really added 2 players of any quality and neither are better than what we have.

I agree with a lot of that, the last 6 or 7 games have been a tough watch (although Villa, Leeds first half, and parts of the first half today were decent).

I would have it more of a 50% on Bruno than 80% though, to have such a limited midfield to pick from, to have so few goals in the squad, that is a large part of why we look poor at times, because we can't score from our dominance and eventually we see the opposition grow in confidence and score eventually.

Bruno's subs have fucked me off since the start of the season, often the timing, but today taking Fabio off rather than Raul or Hwang was amazing.

No way i want him sacked though, he deserves another window at least, and some players! I don't trust Fosun to provide that though.

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

The most frustrating part is that with a bit more ambition and some half decent recruitment we could have been Europa League regulars by now. It wouldn’t have taken much.

I think no matter what our differing views are on Bruno, this is absolutely true.

 

[Throbber1]

The most frustrating part is that with a bit more ambition and some half decent recruitment we could have been Europa League regulars by now. It wouldn’t have taken much

exactly this.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

Jimenez playing off the right felt a bit like Saunders' back three when he was scared to drop Batth or keep Johnson out. Raul had no right coming back in to the side, he's had minimal impact all season and Fabio deputised fine, let him keep the shirt. Saying that I'm not sure Trincao or the current version of Neto are that much better, that might at least give you more balance playing in their natural role though.

Generally I think the first half went alright, looked like a conscious effort to be fairly direct and anything that went down the sides of Burnley's centre halves had them at least a bit worried. Should've made more of those openings though but for poor decision making or execution.

Leaving Jimenez on above Fabio seems bizarre, unless for fitness reason I can't make sense of it. Maybe he's got a deal where he needs at least one chance a game to earn a pathetic petulant red card?

I've said before that there doesn't seem to be any harmony between players and coach, there doesn't appear to be a great deal between half the players either. I think that still rings true, no-ones heart appears to be in it anymore. Players clinging onto a half baked version of what they did under Nuno and a manager seemingly unhappy with it but rarely trying anything drastically different. It's like a broken relationship where the parents are going through the motions waiting for the kids to get a bit older before they call it a day.

I don't think anyone will ever get a great tune out of this squad, they're too negative, too conservative and all too prone to shitting their ring when things don't go their way. It's looking less and less likely that Lage will even get a consistent melody out of them though. Long gone are the glimmers of hope from the more attacking approach seen in September, everyone's given up and waiting for someone else to do something about it.

 

[The Saturday Boy]

Any team at this level that does not have a consistent goal scorer is going to struggle at some point and if we don’t put that right we are as near to relegation candidates as we are Europe. Raul‘s best days are probably behind him, Silva’s best days may be ahead of him. Meanwhile we live in the vacuum between memories and hope.

At times it is like watching Hoddle’s Wolves…sideways and backwards and impotent up front. Three forward players, none of whom have shown any signs this season that they are reliable goal scorers, did what they have done all season…not quite enough. We are too easy to defend against, to slow in the build up…as others have said, too predictable.

If we are going to progress it won’t be with this team…but I think Lage should at least have the opportunity to bring in his own players but if our season peters out I can see him departing.

I hate Burnley.

 

[jd1981]

When judging Bruno performance over this season saying we came 8th and with 50+ points so things are better is just simplistic.
Key to judgment is how it ends because that’ll give a good indication on how it’ll start next season.
How did he manage the crunch situations, reality not well at all. Arsenal away, West Ham away leeds after going down to ten men and today opportunities missed.
I get we’re caught between a rock and a hard place. We want to be more expansive but don’t have the players to play 4 at the back.
I fear the board will take the simple view and think it’s been a successful season and not much needs to change.

 

[AndyWolves]

Ultimately it's the recruitment that has let us down. We've gone from not making mistakes to most of the deals we make are the wrong ones.

I think not being in Europe next season might end up being a blessing in disguise if we're selling Neves and performing a rebuild.

 

[jlo]

I had the F1 and the football on side-by-side and it's not an understatement to say the football was the most dull of the two.

Even worse I had the snooker on before and that still got more of my interest as well... there is nothing enjoyable about watching us play at the moment. It's more frustrating this year because we actually have a few different players to allow us to set up differently to this point last year.

 

[redvictor]

We have one of the meanest defences in Europe. The stats are there to see. All teams concede goals but the top teams can score more than they concede game by game. We just cannot score. If we go one goal down we are generally fucked. Solve that and we will be so much better. It's up to the recruitment to solve it, and i'm not confident of that.

 

[Carsy]

Solskjaer finished 2nd last season. It was so obviously a misleading position.

There are numerous teams below us who are better. And I don't want Lage in charge of new players because there's very little to suggest he'll get anything out of them.

We're dull, we lack fight, we next to never come from behind and he is awful tactically. Can't wait for him to say later that we played well for the full house.

I said on a previous thread we are where we are because of other teams failings rather than us being great. Bit of a false dawn.

I’m not ready to call for the managers head currently. I want to see some turnover of the squad on the summer to allow him to play the football he supposedly wants to. If however it carries on in this vein next season, we won’t be 8th, we will be a lot lower and I will be more to getting rid.

Huge summer IMO which will really show whether Fosun still have an interesting in investing or are more concerned about the ‘brand’ and Egame bollocks

 

[Lupollet]

Relegation battle incoming next season if nothing changes. Pretty pathetic at the moment

We need to be better than this next season and we are going to sell our best players. Not looking good I’m afraid.

 

[Paul]

I had the F1 and the football on side-by-side and it's not an understatement to say the football was the most dull of the two.

Even worse I had the snooker on before and that still got more of my interest as well...

If ever there was a more damning inditement

 

[SSB]

Trying not to think of what’s it’s cost me to go to the last two away games, but thinking of sending Lage an invoice.

 

[Carsy]

Wolves boss Bruno Lage speaking to BBC Match of the Day: "I'm disappointed because I've seen this game too many times. Different to Newcastle, but we were the better team and played well, we played the way we should. But we didn't score one goal and one mistake and we concede a goal.
"We came here and we controlled everything, with the ball, the spaces and we did well between the lines, but sometimes it is hard in the final third. We are not scoring goals; I'm happy with the players' work, but in terms of putting teams in a different level, the European level, we can't score goals."

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The concern with that statement is right at the start. ‘I’ve seen this game too many times’. If it’s repeated several times, it’s not a one of is it. That should scream something needs changing,no?