Chelsea (H) Carabao Cup R4: Build Up, Match & Verdict

[sycophantia]

Fair enough, I would never say you're being a prick, far from it, as I said your match reviews are always well-balanced and nuanced.
Must admit I didn't speak to anyone post game that felt conned or that had the wool pulled over their eyes, they all seemed fully aware of the shitshow we are currently but were genuinely enthused by the second half performance as a stand alone period.
You and others who go to every game, some home and away are fully entitled to be pissed off.

Also, there were definitely more people there that dont go regularly, thats normal I think with it being a cup game, cheap tickets and half term so more people feel able to take their kids.

 

[sycophantia]

Thought about posting on here at one point to ask if you had come in your kit @sycophantia, as you might have got a game after that first half performance,

I was certainly wearing my 74 tribute top, I nearly did offer my services but then remembered even in my pomp I was 'Dog and Duck 3rd 11 level at best.

 

[North Shropshire Lad]

I always enjoy your match thoughts but I have to say I find the 'daytrippers' remark a bit patronising tbh. I guess I count as a daytripper as we only get to about 6-8 games a season. I think people just want to get a bit excited about a Wolves performance, me and the other daytrippers aren't under any illusions, we know the club has been terribly run for years now and we're left with an unbalanced woefully under qualified squad and coach. The coaches and club hierarchy deserve all the shit they get. We're in the shit but that doesn't mean we can't enjoy a bit of a 'plucky fightback'

I agree, both with normally enjoying Slinks views and my reaction to the daytripper remarks.

I go to every single home game [I've missed one of the last 450 and probably five of the 450 before that] and as many away games as possible/tickets are available for and want us to win every one. That doesn't make me a happy clapper or daytripper (just a fan) and I actively distrust Fosun and fervently dislike the way Shi acts and runs the club. People who have until recently been employed at a very senior level within the club share that dislike, so it is not unique to me or the fan base in general.

I don't give opinions of here often about performances/player ability because when I have in the past I have been told I'm wrong or that this or that didn't happen. I'd much rather chew the fat in the pub afterwards and agree/disagree with the opinion of another fan because opinions are just that: opinions. Being told that you are wrong, normally by someone that has seen the match via a stream, is grating and frankly insulting. Of course you can have a different view to me but that doesn't mean you are right and I am wrong or vice versa. N.B. this isn't aimed at Slink or his daytripper comment but a wider view.

We are a shambles of a club, team and management structure but I don't think we are a million miles away from somehow having 7-10 points this season and if a little bit more care was taken we needn't have been in this position. Buying £12-20m 'punts' is clearly not working well for us currently and anyone who saw us in pre season would recognise that, so I can't believe that Victor has not followed the template he installed when he took over of making us hard to beat. His random number selector style team sheets can only end in crazy unstructured performances, littered with individual mistakes. Just because we have a totally unbalanced squad with 12 defenders in it doesn't mean we have to use them all in every two game window. We are not getting beaten by great sides [I've hardly seen one this season] and we are our own worst enemy.

EDIT: I didn't press send immediately and have seen Slink's reply since. I certainly wasn't forgetting the first half, start to the season or last three years of mis-management during and after the second half performance, but it was nice to have a little bit of something positive to clutch at and while I agree with the anti Fosun [would like to see Shi the full focus] and Jeff Shi chants, I do think it's quite small time and embarrassing singing 'sacked in the morning' at your own manager during a game.
I'm not sure what the answer is as sacking VP doesn't upgrade the players, alter the make up of the squad or remove Shi, but I don't think sticking with Victor and his randomness works either. I do know that what the fans and other directors think is also futile as Jeff will do what Jeff wants regardless and we are such an insignificant part of Fosun's portfolio that pressure from above him is almost non existent.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

That’s got to be some sort of record from Jose Sa?

I believe that’s 5 appearances, 11 goals conceded and ZERO saves this season

I think he's played 4 games at Molineux, faced 15 shots on target and 14 of them have gone in

 

[Quirkafleeg]

I'm not having any blame attributed to Sa here despite him being wank normally. The pass in was a correct one, any footballer worth there salt knows their surrounding area's and it's a simple ball into Agbadou. There was never any real danger despite the Chelsea midfielder advancing, even Sa shouts and points to Agbadou for the pass. Fer Lopez played his Shakin Stevens card and completely spazzed the pass up. For me Lopez shouldn't play in a Premier League side again a complete clusterfuck of a footballer.

I get it Sa is the number scapegoat at present but this certainty wasn't his fault. And don't come at me to say otherwise or I'll fucking sit on ya.

 

[Wolf of Ashford]

Looking at that picture............. where the hell is everybody else?! We're never passing our way out of that without a hoof, because Chelsea would have kept pressing until we fucked it

 

[Wilf Wolf]

I'm not having any blame attributed to Sa here despite him being wank normally. The pass in was a correct one, any footballer worth there salt knows their surrounding area's and it's a simple ball into Agbadou. There was never any real danger despite the Chelsea midfielder advancing, even Sa shouts and points to Agbadou for the pass. Fer Lopez played his Shakin Stevens card and completely spazzed the pass up. For me Lopez shouldn't play in a Premier League side again a complete clusterfuck of a footballer.

I get it Sa is the number scapegoat at present but this certainty wasn't his fault. And don't come at me to say otherwise or I'll fucking sit on ya.


View attachment 15079

A basic error by Lopez but that’s what happens if you play a player in a position he’s probably never played before. He’s no more a deep midfielder than Andre is a number 10.

 

[Quirkafleeg]

A basic error by Lopez but that’s what happens if you play a player in a position he’s probably never played before. He’s no more a deep midfielder than Andre is a number 10.

He's a Premier League footballer it's a simple simple ball to make Wilf.

 

[Quirkafleeg]

Looking at that picture............. where the hell is everybody else?! We're never passing our way out of that without a hoof, because Chelsea would have kept pressing until we fucked it

The ball may have made it's way back to Sa as 9/10 in that position it does but christ we should never concede from that.

 

[lemonjelly]

it's the second time he's rec'd a pass from a GK, and tried to turn a midfielder and been caught in possession, resulting in a goal against.
The concern for me is he hasn't learned from his earlier error.

 

[sycophantia]

I did feel a bit sorry for Lopez last night (yeah, I know, I'm a big softy). He's clearly nowhere near ready, a poor signing for the money and he clearly was set up to fail by Pereira last night.

 

[Jinky]

It was exciting, but all we did was lump it in the box. As soon as Chelsea raised themselves they cut through us like butter. With our flaky defence its not sustainable.

I think it was DW who suggested this team, lets go full Pulis and go down in a haze of shithousery:

Johnstone
Mosquera - Agbadou - Krejci - Toti
R Gomes - J Gomes - Andre - Arias
Tolu - JSL​

Haven’t caught up on the full thread for now but just wanted to reply to this.

I think we have to try and find a way to get Krejci into midfield. We know from his previous club that he likes a goal - and we’re not keeping clean sheets with him in defence anyway, so he’s almost wasted there. I’d also like to think this might be the start of Wolfe finally arriving and securing that position for himself. Not that Hugo has done anything wrong, but there’s always question marks over his marking.

I’d be ok with one of Yerson or Agbadou coming back into the fold alongside Santi, if it means we can push Krejci up field. Jackson should be starting at RB now to give us that pace and physicality. And finally, I think we have to be starting Tolu AND JSL. It sounds stupid but they are our most likely source of scoring, so start them. And for all of Munetsi’s negatives, he seems to have a knack of making things happen, just purely through how random and hectic he is - so you’d have him just floating about in behind the front two. It won’t be pretty, but it just *might* be effective (in a Crazy Gang sort of way)

Johnstone
Jackson Agbadou Santi Wolfe
Gomes Andre Krejci
Munetsi
JSL Tolu
​

 

[Alan]

I’m just about done with that tactic altogether. It worked when it was novel, but the positioning to make it “effective” is so fucking simple to read. Further, the job in that position is to receive and get it wide as quickly as possible to break the press on the receiver; e.g., Fer shouldn’t be trying to win a duel there in the first place. But if that press doesn’t come, you can’t actually get it wide, so it goes back to the GK for the punt that it should have been in the first place.

Baffling tactic, full stop.

 

[lemonjelly]

Delap should be getting games added on to his ban the dirty bastard. Don’t know if it can though because of the old nonsense where the ref has “seen it”.

agree with this btw - the 2nd yellow could have been a straight red imo, and there were other chelsea challenges that looked like there was a lead with an elbow. The volume of red and yellow cards they have is by design and culture.

 

[North Shropshire Lad]

I did feel a bit sorry for Lopez last night (yeah, I know, I'm a big softy). He's clearly nowhere near ready, a poor signing for the money and he clearly was set up to fail by Pereira last night.

I think this is what I meant earlier with '£12m-18m punts not working', summed up in a single player. He could have been a £3m-£5m investment/gamble in all honesty but would have been better playing 40-50 games for Celta in an environment where he could have progressed. Rodrigo, Lima etc are other examples and each are the 2023, 2024 and 2025 versions of the Fabio mistake that we hoped wouldn't be repeated.
Paying four, five or six times a players worth, stifling their development in a strange country with the hope of getting a good season out of them eventually and possibly doubling the initial investment [which once agents fees at both ends of the deal and over the top wages to sweeten the move to a foreign league are taken into account is not much more than breaking even] isn't a sustainable model. Even if every one was a success you build a shell club and as the hit rate is likely to be relatively low, you get to where we are now.

 

[NicholasG1973]

I think he's played 4 games at Molineux, faced 15 shots on target and 14 of them have gone in

He’s an awful keeper, always has been - costs us goal after goal with errors.

“Good shot stopper”. No, he’s fucking not.

All the saves he makes, any other keeper makes.

There is not close to another PL keeper that continually lets the goals in he does.

Apart from Sam Johnstone, unfortunately for us.

 

[PuntsWolf]

Looking at that picture............. where the hell is everybody else?! We're never passing our way out of that without a hoof, because Chelsea would have kept pressing until we fucked it

Simple first time pass out to Agbadou and we’ve taken 3 of their players out the game with one pass. Then we’ve got massive numerical advantage somewhere else.

This is the exact triangles I was referring to earlier, and this isn’t even a hard one to execute

 

[Tredman]

Haven’t caught up on the full thread for now but just wanted to reply to this.

I think we have to try and find a way to get Krejci into midfield. We know from his previous club that he likes a goal - and we’re not keeping clean sheets with him in defence anyway, so he’s almost wasted there. I’d also like to think this might be the start of Wolfe finally arriving and securing that position for himself. Not that Hugo has done anything wrong, but there’s always question marks over his marking.

I’d be ok with one of Yerson or Agbadou coming back into the fold alongside Santi, if it means we can push Krejci up field. Jackson should be starting at RB now to give us that pace and physicality. And finally, I think we have to be starting Tolu AND JSL. It sounds stupid but they are our most likely source of scoring, so start them. And for all of Munetsi’s negatives, he seems to have a knack of making things happen, just purely through how random and hectic he is - so you’d have him just floating about in behind the front two. It won’t be pretty, but it just *might* be effective (in a Crazy Gang sort of way)

Johnstone
Jackson Agbadou Santi Wolfe
Gomes Andre Krejci
Munetsi
JSL Tolu
​

Jackson is terrible. He's no more a footballer than I am.

 

[Wolf of Ashford]

Simple first time pass out to Agbadou and we’ve taken 3 of their players out the game with one pass. Then we’ve got massive numerical advantage somewhere else.

This is the exact triangles I was referring to earlier, and this isn’t even a hard one to execute

Don't disagree it was a simple pass to Agbadou, so Lopez shouldn't be doing what he's doing there.

But, the ball goes to Agbadou, the chelsea striker cuts off the ball back to Sa, the one nearest Lopez closes Agba down whilst cutting off the ball back to Lopez, the ball up the line is pressured by a Chelsea player marking. Obviously it's hypothetical but the chances are Agba has to hoof it or we lose possession with a likely Chelsea overload.