Chelsea 0-0 Wolves: Verdict Thread

[Parkins left foot]

This game was what it was as we came not to concede & had no real point of attack - Chelsea for all their passing were not capable of doing anything.

Will be good to see what WJ can bring to us once he's got over the jetlag from wherever he arrived from yesterday. Jiminez news is also encouraging though don't want him back till we are all sure that he is fixed & ready.

 

[PuntsWolf]

I assume you are saying Nuno’s football is defensive and boring? I feel for you if that is the case, these past 3 years have been the best in my Wolves supporting life.

Well I would like to think I could be a little less binary about it than that.

I’m willing to write this season off. There’s been many factors that make it different to a normal season - no fans, no preseason, extended previous season. So we will do what we have to do to get through this season. And that is fine, but as a result of that it puts a lot of pressure on the summer to make some crucial additions for the now and then be back up amongst the Leicester’s and Everton’s knocking on the door for the top 6.

I think there’s no question Nuno has always been a safety first, pragmatic manager. That doesn’t have to always correlate with ‘boring’. But do I think we’ve been largely boring since lockdown - more so yes than no, but there are extenuating circumstances and that’s why I won’t draw too much from it right now but as I’ve said puts pressure on next season to become what we hope we can be.

Is this the best we’ve played in my lifetime? Yes but it’s quite a low bar and we’ve never been backed by Chinese billionaires, with the help of a super agent and a team of international superstars. I quite enjoyed us under MM at times because everything is relative. With the budget and players we had we were actually doing well. We may be higher in the table now than we were then but the budget is exponentially higher too.

As I said, write this season off, start again next year. Villa and Arsenal were two of the best performances from a footballing perspective we’ve put in in ages, so we can do it and I hope they becomes the norm rather than the exception.

 

[Johnny75]

Defensive, conservative in his approach maybe, but not boring.

We haven't played in the way we want to since lockdown at all I think, only in some small spells (Arsenal away in the first half for example). Inviting the ball into certain areas of the pitch, stealing it and breaking quickly. I think some of that is down to physical issues, where the lack of preparation time in both 'project restart' and this season have hurt us It definitely feels like we've had less goals from counter attacks in general.

Feels like we have hit a bit of a reset since the West Brom defeat. By the end of the season definitely hope to see us get closer to that approach, with better 'solutions' to when teams defend deep against us too, so that we can look forward to next season with a couple of additions in key positions.

Agree with most of this.

It’s pretty clear to me we need an inverted wingback to make this system work as that player is an option in the middle.

We can’t play Adama and Neto together they are just too far apart and with Neves deep (the less said about the Belgian runner the better) we have nobody to link play.

Podence and Neto need to be much narrower to WJ for him to get anywhere near to a chance at goal.

Ends justified the means tonight and I thought Semedo, Neves and Boly were all very good.

 

[pavlosmacwolf]

I thought we did the job we simply had to do, to stop things getting worse.
Chelsea with the new manager bounce et all, and us having lost some pretty awful games that we sort of dominated.
Get back to basics, get jose into the swing of things and I think this will be a starting point for a better second half of the season, assuming Nuno kicks Adama firmly up the arse, as we played with ten men tonight.

 

[Lycan]

It's a shame that Patrício can't control his area. He might have a future if he learnt how to take a cross...

 

[Dire Wolf]

Echo the thoughts of most that a point earned is a point deserved. But as a spectacle it was horrific and I really don't think playing that way is something I can get on board with for very long. Many will say the ends justify the means and as a platform to build confidence I kind of agree, but if that is the style of play long term i will probably stop watching our games.

I watch football to be entertained and I got more satisfaction out of my Covid lateral flow test and its negative result than I got watching that game...

 

[MARKakaJIM]

Defensive, conservative in his approach maybe, but not boring.

We haven't played in the way we want to since lockdown at all I think, only in some small spells (Arsenal away in the first half for example). Inviting the ball into certain areas of the pitch, stealing it and breaking quickly. I think some of that is down to physical issues, where the lack of preparation time in both 'project restart' and this season have hurt us It definitely feels like we've had less goals from counter attacks in general.

Feels like we have hit a bit of a reset since the West Brom defeat. By the end of the season definitely hope to see us get closer to that approach, with better 'solutions' to when teams defend deep against us too, so that we can look forward to next season with a couple of additions in key positions.

I didn't agree with boring.

I've previously described them as interesting rather than entertaining, sometimes lacking in ambition but until recently boring would've been a bit too far.

It is odd how the signs of a coherent plan in attack have ebbed away in the last 12 months or so, and this season a lot of the defensive plan seems to have gone with it too. In the Championship it was patient but they were happy to control possession, probe down the flanks and come back to the midfielders or Coady to switch play whilst the front three did their thing around the box. Then that struggled to make much impact in the Premier League so we saw the switch to the front two and a stronger influence on counter attacking than patient build up.

I think since that change there's been an ever increasing reliance on individuals than a collective plan when going forwards. It begun with the understanding between Jota and Jimenez when they got change to break on teams, then Traore found form last season and took up the mantle as Jimenez's sidekick for a while. Think those spells have out an over reliance on playing that way to a point almost every spell of possession was incredibly rushed trying to create a counter attack even when the situation didn't really suit. Then we've seen individuals form falter and those partnerships come apart and you're left with a team with no real plan beyond sitting behind the ball and little individual magic to drag them out of trouble.

Tonight at least saw some return to solidity, and it's perhaps a little harsh to judge on attacking output when that side of the game was effectively surrended with no center forward starting, but there were times when the entire team was within 40 yards of their own goal in open play, that can't be long term.

 

[Deleted Cyber]

It's a shame that Patrício can't control his area. He might have a future if he learnt how to take a cross...

Or could punch a ball further than four yards eh?
he was much improved tonight and it’s his best game for a while. His comma and body language were much sharper

 

[Kenny]

Or could punch a ball further than four yards eh?
he was much improved tonight and it’s his best game for a while. His comma and body language were much sharper

Not having much luck with the old auto correct are you...

 

[YoungWolf]

Agree with most of this.

It’s pretty clear to me we need an inverted wingback to make this system work as that player is an option in the middle.

We can’t play Adama and Neto together they are just too far apart and with Neves deep (the less said about the Belgian runner the better) we have nobody to link play.

Podence and Neto need to be much narrower to WJ for him to get anywhere near to a chance at goal.

Ends justified the means tonight and I thought Semedo, Neves and Boly were all very good.

You can see what Jonny would add to this team in various ways (or even just a fit Marcal, a shame he is so injury prone).

I don't mind how we used Dendoncker tonight to be fair. Even when he is the one arriving in the box for crosses - I just don't want our build up play on Saturday to include him playing inside whoever is on the right, if we play 343 it should negate that luckily.

 

[Paul]

Did anyone catch the comms slip in that Chelsea have a new manager, I even think the camera caught him once, I'm not 100% sure but if anyone can verify please

 

[Johnny75]

You can see what Jonny would add to this team in various ways (or even just a fit Marcal, a shame he is so injury prone).

I don't mind how we used Dendoncker tonight to be fair. Even when he is the one arriving in the box for crosses - I just don't want our build up play on Saturday to include him playing inside whoever is on the right, if we play 343 it should negate that luckily.

You certainly can see what Jonny and Doc did coming inside.and I’d like to see us play inside forwards to replace them (Neto and Pod) or buy new WB’s.

I thought Donk was dreadful. We need a midfielder who can actually play football as a midfielder.

It’s the one player I think we’re missing.

 

[Deleted Cyber]

Not having much luck with the old auto correct are you...

Nothing new there

 

[MARKakaJIM]

Echo the thoughts of most that a point earned is a point deserved. But as a spectacle it was horrific and I really don't think playing that way is something I can get on board with for very long. Many will say the ends justify the means and as a platform to build confidence I kind of agree, but if that is the style of play long term i will probably stop watching our games.

I watch football to be entertained and I got more satisfaction out of my Covid lateral flow test and its negative result than I got watching that game...

I quite like the feeling of the swab up the nose to be fair.

 

[YoungWolf]

I thought Donk was dreadful. We need a midfielder who can actually play football as a midfielder.

It’s the one player I think we’re missing.

He did a solid enough job of shielding the back three I thought.

Didn't offer a great deal in possession but I'm finding it hard to judge anyone by that tonight.

 

[Lycan]

I thought Donk was dreadful. We need a midfielder who can actually play football as a midfielder.

It’s the one player I think we’re missing.

I was just thinking that I wouldn't be against moving Dendoncker back into the back 3. He's better on the ball in those areas than he is in the final 3rd and while Kilman is fine in games like tonight he's a waste of a shirt in games where we need to push forward as he just doesn't have the quality to make progressive passes.

Maybe with Willian José in the team Nuno won't feel like Dendoncker's height is so necessary going forward and we can start to see Vitinha or Gibbs-White get more of a game.

 

[Premier Quality]

He did a solid enough job of shielding the back three I thought.

Didn't offer a great deal in possession but I'm finding it hard to judge anyone by that tonight.

He was decent defensively (same as neves), but his passing wasn’t great - at one point, in space and with time, passed sideways to neves who was under more pressure - and obviously he doesn’t give us anything when he breaks forwards.

it’s just hard to see how we progress with players who can only do one aspect of the role.

we really struggled in midfield today.

 

[Norman Deeley]

Well, I suppose I'll take a point but I think I'd rather it was 2-2 than what we saw tonight, clean sheet or no. It was obvious after 5 minutes that the false 9 wasn't working and - as DW days - we've tried it three times now and it has failed every time.
I've two worries from tonight - one is how frustrated Neto is getting. The other is that I don't automatically see it as a springboard for Palace. Think it is very difficult to go from a game where you have set up for 0-0 to go suddenly being on the front foot.

 

[AndyWolves]

Does anyone else think OO deserves a shot in the Dendoncker position?

 

[YoungWolf]

He was decent defensively (same as neves), but his passing wasn’t great - at one point, in space and with time, passed sideways to neves who was under more pressure - and obviously he doesn’t give us anything when he breaks forwards.

it’s just hard to see how we progress with players who can only do one aspect of the role.

we really struggled in midfield today.

I think he will be a very good right sided centre back in the long run. In a back four he'd be good too, he's a cleverer footballer with the ball than he showed tonight (or against Chorley).