AndyWolves
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Peri peri Pulis is one I've heard
Dull as ditchwater FC
- Thread starter Jabbawolf
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D
Deleted Cyber
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as you really deserve this
13 years since Bruce won at Molineux ( we dodged that thank god)
1977 the last time we beat them in a league game at home. 43 years.
Another last minute goal at home. I cant be bothered to count them up.
And the best you can do is aparapo of sfa bring me into the conversation? Jog on numpty.
Tony Towner
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I think none fan football in general is boring or at least not a real product, but here we are.
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You see so many batshit mental results at the moment for a lot of reasons. We were subjected to one with a 0-4 loss at West Ham so I can absolutely understand a cautious approach, even more so against a caffeine fuelled Leeds and a ridiculously negative Newcastle. I daresay Klopp, Pep etc regret not approaching some of their games this season with a similar mindset.
The whole game needs to calm the fuck down and maintain some degree of normality because it's really not doing so at present. Lack of preseason, crowds, whatever - it's a bit surreal.
But you only have to have a smattering of knowledge about Wolves under Nuno to realise that we've played sublime football more often than not.
I'll take pragmatic for the time being - particularly when we are trying to do things slightly differently and have new players trying to bed in.
The whole game needs to calm the fuck down and maintain some degree of normality because it's really not doing so at present. Lack of preseason, crowds, whatever - it's a bit surreal.
But you only have to have a smattering of knowledge about Wolves under Nuno to realise that we've played sublime football more often than not.
I'll take pragmatic for the time being - particularly when we are trying to do things slightly differently and have new players trying to bed in.
Jabbawolf
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I suppose it comes down to that style versus substance debate - I seem to remember someone (think it was Alan) say that he would rather be entertained than win - I like to win but not if it comes with a reliance on a very sterile approach.
Norman Deeley
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The simple fact is that we have scored 6 goals in 6 games, with 2 of those coming in the first few minutes of the season. Our xG for today was 0.8 against a very poor team. I've said it any number of times but we simply must play with more pace and aggression. And sadly, Jabba is right - in the main we are boring to watch. The endless repetition of the comfort blanket pass to Coady. I'm trying not to over-react to today's result but we have simply tossed two points away today through being too cautious
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malta mick
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needless free kick given away, and poor wall alignment cost us. Newcastle deserved fuck all from the game
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You've had a bit of a mare there Cyber. We've beaten them three times at home in the league since 1977. The last one was 1993.
D
Deleted Cyber
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Not in the top division we havent.
t3ch
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not sure this is an overreaction to a single game tbf, we've been generally stale for a while and our lack of attacking edge has been highlighted by numerous posters.
doesn't seem unfair for people to want to see better interplay, and it doesn't mean people think the team sucks, dear god get a grip.
we have the players to play more creatively; they are brilliant at times, yet the other 90% just instantly pass backwards or make odd decisions. has to come down to coaching/tactics. it's not an unreasonable point to bring up, given that it's... ya know... been a staple critique in verdict threads.
doesn't seem unfair for people to want to see better interplay, and it doesn't mean people think the team sucks, dear god get a grip.
we have the players to play more creatively; they are brilliant at times, yet the other 90% just instantly pass backwards or make odd decisions. has to come down to coaching/tactics. it's not an unreasonable point to bring up, given that it's... ya know... been a staple critique in verdict threads.
MARKakaJIM
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I think the thread title is a bit harsh but the premise isn't far off the mark.
It's always been a bit safety first under Nuno, even with the gulf of quality between most Championship opponents there were rarely games that Wolves ran away with. Don't want to speak with too much certainty but would imagine there was generally much greater possession in Wolves' favour back then but rather than Biesla style relentless waves of numbers being bombed forward it was that solid base with the back three, always there for the ball to be recycled backwards if an attack hit a dead end, then when the opportunity presented itself you'd get those moments of electric interplay between the front three that could create havoc.
Following promotion we've seen a transition to more of a counter attacking style as the default setup, and it's borne great fruits at times particularly against the bigger sides in the league, but I think there's only so far you can go with that as your primary tactic. Even in previous seasons Wolves' have found themselves tripped up by less ambitious sides, cover off that counter attacking threat with your own cautiousness and, whilst it won't be much fun, you probably won't have a great deal to worry about. So now you have to adapt back to something more akin to the Championship style where you can be more dominant again when the situation dictates but I think Wolves are struggling a bit being caught between two stools.
Up until today I don't think they've seemed anything like as comfortable with the ball as they used to which makes it really difficult to make headway when teams are content to sit off, as increasing numbers of teams will look to do now Wolves are seen as more of a threat given recent successes. That then gives you another problem as some teams will see that you look a bit uneasy with the ball and now they have the option to either sit off being cautious to cover the counter or maybe attempt to get amongst you and see if they can exploit that lack of composure in possession. I'd say since the turn of the year that's been the issue, lack of composure, when teams allow the counter it's not so much of an issue because a quick ball into the channels could pay dividends but if they cover that off and/or really press well then that lack of composure causes problems.
I think there's perhaps a bit too much rigidity with the setup at the moment, it's like Nuno is looking for a one stop shop tactic that will work every week but it ends up being a bit of a fudge that doesn't really suit any situation, like this weird thing of picking a team to play 343 then lining up 352 which buggers both Neto and Podence into positions where they aren't going to excel. There needs to be more flexibility with both tactics and selection to suit the opponent/situation, though with Nuno's preference for a small squad you're always going to be struggling to some extent to provide a great deal of options to allow much variation.
Take today as an example, Newcastle didn't really offer much of anything in the way of ambition but Wolves still didn't really go for the jugular at any point, not so much Wolves being kept at arms length but willing standing out of arms reach. There were large periods of the game where Wolves just seem to abandon central midfield and restrict themselves to trying to play around the outside of their opponent but in doing that it usually drags the wide forwards into wider positions to create overloads and then you struggle to get any numbers in the box to get on the end of anything you may create. In the period just before the opening goal Newcastle had completely dropped off with Wilson stood inside his own half just watching the back three, then Neves decides he needs to drop in ahead of Wilson to get on the ball, why? If you can't trust one of the three centre halves to bring it over the halfway line under zero pressure then what is the point? No-one from Newcastle's midfield would follow Neves in there so he's not creating any spaces to be exploited, merely stacking the numbers further in Newcastle's favour when you try to go forward.
You've also got this long standing thing of being seemingly content with essentially writing off the first 45 minutes of a game, get through it with as little incident as possible and then do what you can with a 45 minute match after the break. It seems a bit arrogant at times that Wolves think they can pick and choose when they want to play rather than playing each game on it's own merits and responding to the situation as it develops.
Ended up as a bit of a ramble but think sort of mirrors my feelings, there isn't really any one thing in particular wrong with the team or the tactics, but several smaller issues which can compound in certain situations and make it appear to be much worse than it is.
It's always been a bit safety first under Nuno, even with the gulf of quality between most Championship opponents there were rarely games that Wolves ran away with. Don't want to speak with too much certainty but would imagine there was generally much greater possession in Wolves' favour back then but rather than Biesla style relentless waves of numbers being bombed forward it was that solid base with the back three, always there for the ball to be recycled backwards if an attack hit a dead end, then when the opportunity presented itself you'd get those moments of electric interplay between the front three that could create havoc.
Following promotion we've seen a transition to more of a counter attacking style as the default setup, and it's borne great fruits at times particularly against the bigger sides in the league, but I think there's only so far you can go with that as your primary tactic. Even in previous seasons Wolves' have found themselves tripped up by less ambitious sides, cover off that counter attacking threat with your own cautiousness and, whilst it won't be much fun, you probably won't have a great deal to worry about. So now you have to adapt back to something more akin to the Championship style where you can be more dominant again when the situation dictates but I think Wolves are struggling a bit being caught between two stools.
Up until today I don't think they've seemed anything like as comfortable with the ball as they used to which makes it really difficult to make headway when teams are content to sit off, as increasing numbers of teams will look to do now Wolves are seen as more of a threat given recent successes. That then gives you another problem as some teams will see that you look a bit uneasy with the ball and now they have the option to either sit off being cautious to cover the counter or maybe attempt to get amongst you and see if they can exploit that lack of composure in possession. I'd say since the turn of the year that's been the issue, lack of composure, when teams allow the counter it's not so much of an issue because a quick ball into the channels could pay dividends but if they cover that off and/or really press well then that lack of composure causes problems.
I think there's perhaps a bit too much rigidity with the setup at the moment, it's like Nuno is looking for a one stop shop tactic that will work every week but it ends up being a bit of a fudge that doesn't really suit any situation, like this weird thing of picking a team to play 343 then lining up 352 which buggers both Neto and Podence into positions where they aren't going to excel. There needs to be more flexibility with both tactics and selection to suit the opponent/situation, though with Nuno's preference for a small squad you're always going to be struggling to some extent to provide a great deal of options to allow much variation.
Take today as an example, Newcastle didn't really offer much of anything in the way of ambition but Wolves still didn't really go for the jugular at any point, not so much Wolves being kept at arms length but willing standing out of arms reach. There were large periods of the game where Wolves just seem to abandon central midfield and restrict themselves to trying to play around the outside of their opponent but in doing that it usually drags the wide forwards into wider positions to create overloads and then you struggle to get any numbers in the box to get on the end of anything you may create. In the period just before the opening goal Newcastle had completely dropped off with Wilson stood inside his own half just watching the back three, then Neves decides he needs to drop in ahead of Wilson to get on the ball, why? If you can't trust one of the three centre halves to bring it over the halfway line under zero pressure then what is the point? No-one from Newcastle's midfield would follow Neves in there so he's not creating any spaces to be exploited, merely stacking the numbers further in Newcastle's favour when you try to go forward.
You've also got this long standing thing of being seemingly content with essentially writing off the first 45 minutes of a game, get through it with as little incident as possible and then do what you can with a 45 minute match after the break. It seems a bit arrogant at times that Wolves think they can pick and choose when they want to play rather than playing each game on it's own merits and responding to the situation as it develops.
Ended up as a bit of a ramble but think sort of mirrors my feelings, there isn't really any one thing in particular wrong with the team or the tactics, but several smaller issues which can compound in certain situations and make it appear to be much worse than it is.
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You never said that though. You said "league game".
Tyrannosaurus Dan
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The thing that is bothering me the most about this thread is that I always thought the saying was ‘dull as dishwater’!
D
Deleted Cyber
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hardly a mare though. You can take the award for this weeks Cyber pick up pedant. Tredman wont mind
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I never know which one to use tbh. Ditch or dish!
Alan
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Other way around. I'd rather play boring and win than play the prettiest football in the world but lose all the time.
D
Deleted Cyber
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I actually dont have a problem of Wolves being wolves. Its brought us two 7th place finishes. However our game management is bloody awful at times. We let them back in today , nearly blew it against fulham. 8-10 times in 2020 we have conceded post 85 minutes ( depends who you belive) its 8 times in 15 games at best and thats piss poor if you say you are aiming to close games out or get something from a game like City. We dont seem to learn from our mistakes especially at home and dropping points to dross like this wont get you in europe.
D
Deleted Cyber
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Depends where youre from. Southerners say Dish, fenland its ditch.
Norman Deeley
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Whether it's dish or ditch the simple fact is that objectively we could be so much more exciting & we simply have to take the handbrake off against teams like Newcastle. The number of times I yelled 'FFS not back to Coady' at the TV today was beyond count. In many ways I thought the Leeds approach favoured us, as we had to play at a faster pace. I'll pay my £15 and watch the Palace game and I'll get my £15 back by backing 0-0 at half time
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