Crystal Palace 2-1 Wolves: Verdict Thread

[Tony Towner]

Nunes who looked like he is having major regrets over his transfer here. And with us being relegation candidates who can blame him, I bet that wasn't what he was sold.

Don't forget he had big reservations in coming in the first place. That was a concern at the time with the hope he'd put in a couple of great years to earn the move to the type of club he felt he should be at.

 

[Tyrannosaurus Dan]

Podence is a luxury we can't currently afford to have in the side. I'd rather see what Campbell can offer.

 

[Lycan]

Podence is our only player consistently creating chances. We can't afford to be dropping him right now.

 

[WsWolf]

Thing for me is that Kilman has to get his positioning inch perfect whereas all Semedo has to do is run a bit quicker. Semedo has the easier opportunity to influence the play there, for me anyway.

Not sure inch perfect is needed, if he's one step higher he cuts that pass off, really poor lack of awareness but I agree, it's more forgivable than the lack of effort from Semedo.

 

[Johnny75]

What did he do badly?

I want to caveat this with the point it really isn't Joe's fault he's not good enough and is Davis and Collins atrocious decision to play him.

Defensively he took up the wrong positions both in 1v1 and positionally so he couldn't affect the game under pressure or through anticipation. 1v1 was because he didn't have the physical attributes at PL level, his speed, acceleration, strength and agility aren't there.

When we were in possession he took up the wrong angles to receive the ball, his movement was behind players so unable to receive a pass it take defenders out of position and his spatial awareness was easy to pick up as he would move in front of defenders so they could easily see his movements.

When he had the ball his thought process was too slow which meant runners off the ball were out of sync and play became even slower (the Guedes offside for Collins howler).

His lack of technical ability meant his first touch was always to control and kill momentum which allows defenders to close him down and force him to kill the attack and if not lose the ball close any attacking opportunity of by going backwards/ sideways.

He's just nowhere near ready and the managerial duo have got this badly wrong.

 

[PuntsWolf]

Adama has done more than Podence in the last 2 games. Sad state of affairs.

Podence does a couple of good/excellent things but the detriment he is to the team the rest of the time I don’t think it’s a net positive. We have to carry him and the rest of the team can’t do it and he’s not good enough to be carried.

 

[Jinky]

For me, it's youth managers trying to be too clever in over-promoting youth players that they know, to the first team squad. It's a compliment for Hodge, because it means Davis & Collins trust him, but it's also stupid, because the lads not ready. Also feel sorry for Ronan.

As soon as we have a proper manager in charge, Hodge will be nowhere near the matchday squad.

 

[AndyWolves]

Collins seems to be getting a battering in the ratings by E&S etc. I only saw the last 30 minutes or so but he seemed to do OK to me

 

[Tony Towner]

Absolutely spot on. Semedo was excellent in the first half, but as you say, that becomes irrelevant when he has effectively cost us two goals in the second half due to poor positioning/lack of effort. We need it for 90 minutes, but he's not that kind of player.

In terms of your second paragraph, I wholeheartedly agree and this is a major concern for me. The lack of fight and leadership in the dressing room and on the pitch is alarming. Neves will say all the right things beforehand & he'll hustle around the middle of the park for 10-15 minutes here or there, but he's not a proper leader. Plus he'll be off in the summer so as you say, he won't feel the consequences of relegation. Behind him, I can't point to anyone who is backing him up. Collins could be that man in a few years but I thought the "young John Stones" comparison that someone mentioned a page or two ago was spot on too. People scoffed when we let Coady go, but we're missing him; maybe not so much on the pitch, but as a character and leader. Then the big characters like Saiss & Ruddy that have been allowed to go too - neither in our best 11, but clearly big personalities. That's all on Shi, Lage & Sellars. Absolute clown show in charge at the top.

Just to touch on an earlier point, as you also correctly state TT, many of this squad will be off in the summer or even during the next transfer window.

Semedo, Neves, Adama, Raul, Jonny, Podence, Guedes, Costa, Moutinho - they all very much feel like they're coming towards the end of their cycle here, or will be sold to make profit if we go down. They also all individually know (bar possibly Costa) that they'll all definitely get nice, comfortable moves somewhere else. Probably on the continent to some nice warm country too. Do we honestly believe they will fight and scrap for the shirt in a relegation dogfight? I don't. You can likely add Nunes to that list too as he won't be sticking around if we go down.

We'd then be left with a list of players like Ronan, Hodge, Yerson, Hwang, Campbell etc. Would that be good enough to come back up? Doubt it.

I think we are in serious, serious trouble; and it's mainly on Shi and co, but the players aren't helping.

Not too much I'd disagree with there other than I don't think Coady individually is a loss more that we couldn't afford to lose all the big characters at the same time and not bring any of that type of player in, but we know why that happened.

The only other thing I'd add is if it were to happen, Mendes will get us above fire sale prices for those who will leave and we'll have access to his 3rd tier player group to try and rebuild. We wouldn't be just left with who is still here.

 

[Tony Towner]

Also, I know Guedes is universally disliked on here, and he has been a disappointment for sure, but I thought in his time on the pitch yesterday he offered more and contributed more than Podence by a long way. Podence had one brilliant pass for the Costa chance and was then garbage, giving the ball away, pretending to be hurt, trying fancy flicks, looking for free kicks, absolutely useless. I'd be happy to never see him pull on a Wolves shirt again't

Not a dig at you, but the argument really shouldn't be who was least shit. My views on Podence are well known, but amongst all the shite, there is normally at least one telling contribution a game, clearly that's not good enough, but is 1 more than many

 

[Loki]

Collins seems to be getting a battering in the ratings by E&S etc. I only saw the last 30 minutes or so but he seemed to do OK to me

He had a bit of a jittery start but settled as the game went on. As good as our central defenders are they can be naive at times.

 

[Johnny75]

Collins seems to be getting a battering in the ratings by E&S etc. I only saw the last 30 minutes or so but he seemed to do OK to me

Collins was fine, made some excellent interventions and he and Kilman were solid in the main.

Both players carried the ball forwards well too.

 

[Loki]

Don't forget he had big reservations in coming in the first place. That was a concern at the time with the hope he'd put in a couple of great years to earn the move to the type of club he felt he should be at.

I wonder if he is missing Lage?

 

[Tony Towner]

Collins seems to be getting a battering in the ratings by E&S etc. I only saw the last 30 minutes or so but he seemed to do OK to me

He suffered from the collective panic in the first 20 mins of the second half, as did Kilman. Collins seems to get more of the stick mainly due to confirmation bias re Max. Individually they are both decent players, whether they work as a 2 with them both being quiet types I'm not so sure now. One of them at least needs to step up into a leadership role

 

[PuntsWolf]

Not a dig at you, but the argument really shouldn't be who was least shit. My views on Podence are well known, but amongst all the shite, there is normally at least one telling contribution a game, clearly that's not good enough, but is 1 more than many

Yes. What I will say is there is literally no alternative. Hwang and Guedes, fuck me.

 

[jd1981]

2 years of catastrophic decisions are coming to a head now.
Signing Fabio
Sacking Nuno
Appointment of Bruno
Signing Hwang
Not sacking Bruno in May
Shutting out your club captain and most natural leadership.
Not sacking Bruno before the international break
Why have I highlighted those 2 signings both cost a combined £49m and have contributed less goals than you’ve got fingers and thumbs.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

Just looked for some stats on individual players from last night's game and found a few things interesting.

Much maligned Hodge had the highest pass completion rate of any Wolves player, and managed more touches than the big money man he replaced in about half the time on the pitch worryingly.

Neves had the most shots, not really what you'd want with half the team playing more advanced than him.

Only two Wolves players managed successful dribbles, no wonder they're so easy to push back with so few able to beat their counterpart. Moutinho, Guedes and Sa the only ones who weren't dispossessed at some point.

All of the starters ahead of the defence, except for B Traore, noted for 'unsuccessful touches' on multiple occasions. Again little wonder the football is so disjointed when they're incapable of maintaining control of the ball.

Costa and Guedes only outfield players not to make a tackle, at least everyone mucked in a bit then.

 

[NicholasG1973]

Podence is our only player consistently creating chances. We can't afford to be dropping him right now.

I understand this, but at what cost?

Podence will always do one decent thing per game, a few bad things and go missing for, quite literally, two thirds of every game.

Quite simply, especially in the forward areas, we’ve got too many players that drift in and out of games - contributing, largely, fuck all.

It’s ok if you’re Man Utd and Ronaldo - not when you can’t score goals and you’re clearly in a relegation battle.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

Just looked for some stats on individual players from last night's game and found a few things interesting.

Much maligned Hodge had the highest pass completion rate of any Wolves player, and managed more touches than the big money man he replaced in about half the time on the pitch worryingly.

Neves had the most shots, not really what you'd want with half the team playing more advanced than him.

Only two Wolves players managed successful dribbles, no wonder they're so easy to push back with so few able to beat their counterpart. Moutinho, Guedes and Sa the only ones who weren't dispossessed at some point.

All of the starters ahead of the defence, except for B Traore, noted for 'unsuccessful touches' on multiple occasions. Again little wonder the football is so disjointed when they're incapable of maintaining control of the ball.

Costa and Guedes only outfield players not to make a tackle, at least everyone mucked in a bit then.

Bit of comparison on the last few points.

Palace had 5 players manage successful dribbles, pretty much the same players registering dispossessions but lower numbers other than Zaha with a match high 9!

They're pretty similar on the slack touches too.

 

[Tredman]

Just looked for some stats on individual players from last night's game and found a few things interesting.

Much maligned Hodge had the highest pass completion rate of any Wolves player, and managed more touches than the big money man he replaced in about half the time on the pitch worryingly.

Neves had the most shots, not really what you'd want with half the team playing more advanced than him.

Only two Wolves players managed successful dribbles, no wonder they're so easy to push back with so few able to beat their counterpart. Moutinho, Guedes and Sa the only ones who weren't dispossessed at some point.

All of the starters ahead of the defence, except for B Traore, noted for 'unsuccessful touches' on multiple occasions. Again little wonder the football is so disjointed when they're incapable of maintaining control of the ball.

Costa and Guedes only outfield players not to make a tackle, at least everyone mucked in a bit then.

For a non-Wolves supporter you do have that very Wolves-supporter characteristic of picking your favourites and scapegoats then sticking with it.