FA Cup 4th Rd: Chorley 0-1 Wolves

[Deleted Cyber]

At least three times Chorley played the ball into Hall, he held it then laid it off to Mr Alice Band alongside him quite neatly.

We didn't do that ONCE.

£53m worth of signings and they couldn't do what a pair of sixth tier strikers can do. It's the very, very simplest thing you ever learn when you're playing up front FFS.

While we're constantly having the ball coming back at us then we are always going to look vulnerable. So we need Willian to hit the ground running because this is a recipe for disaster.

Welcome to our world .

 

[redvictor]

We won and we're through are the only positives from tonight's game. For me though what it did show is that we're really struggling right now and it's coming from the management for me. This wasn't against a side that were putting themselves about loads and i know the pitch wasn't great but we were tactically outplayed by a semi professional side. They were well drilled, they had set pieces worked out and executed them, they knew when to go in to the striker and got bodies around them to link and we did none of the above. We have players in positions when we have the ball that are never going to have a positive impact on the game. The forwards were poor tonight but our midfield 3 never looked like they wanted to pass it forwards anyway and they just aren't going to carry the ball with any threat.

I think everyone realises what Nuno has done for this club and i'm not going to go near Nuno out and yes he may or may not have personal issues but as someone that enjoys the tactical side of football, that has coached and played at a decent level i struggle to see what the plan in possession right now, there is no link up play or patterns that look familiar, i struggle to see what the plan out of possession is now, there's no block at all, there's no pressure anywhere. The less said about how we set up/execute set pieces at both ends the better as for the want of a better phrase piss poor. Under Nuno we've always left men unmarked at the back post from deep free kicks and finally teams have worked this out, we still haven't worked this out though and what makes it worse is we don't set up to pick up the second ball back in either so a free kick 45/50 yards from goal hit diagonally towards our back post pretty much sets up a good chance.

It's well known Moutinho is in charge of our attacking set pieces and in the first year and a half of him being here he was immense, probably the best player i've ever seen in a Wolves shirt but his level has dropped so much and with that so have our set pieces. They were never as good as when we had Barry but in the last season and a half i would say we have 1 good delivery for every 6 set pieces, it's not good enough.

As i said earlier it's not a stage of Nuno out for me but something has to change soon or it will just be inevitable. I've said lots of times recently that small margins have cost us and that at times we haven't been that bad but sometimes it feels like that's just because we have good players and their ability is masking the fact that we haven't got a clear plan or identity at the moment. Some players have stood up (Neto) some players haven't but i do think as a squad they're being held back/misused more than they should right now.

Certainly agree on the set pieces. Neves is way better on free kicks. Usually Neto is way better on corners. It's part of our game that needs massive improvement, and Moutinho is very guilty of making a shit job of them. It would piss me off if i had run up to the box, only for the ball not to come in there! It needs Coady to bollock him, but i guess he's (Joao) senior in the team, so he won't. I would give him both barrels for doing it.
I still think a lot of the in play problems still relate to no Raul. In attack and defence. But that is me.

 

[Bestno1 englandnever had]

At what point do we say it’s gone from a bad run of form to things clearly are not going to get better? Not saying I want a change but some worrying patterns are evolving.
We keep getting very slow second half starts which sets a tone for the rest of the game.
No clear sign of improvement from set peices or balls into the box.
Continually conceding first in league game and no clean sheet in 12.
Formations and personnel changed game by game.
Post match interviews are like a cut & paste job, ie “we’re working hard on our weaknesses” “we must do better in this situation”
This is clearly the hardest time Nuno has had here and the most pressure he’s been under to, I really hope he can turn us around.

I agree with much of this, I believe that losing both Jota and Raul albeit for different reasons has caused confidence to plummet, it puts pressure on the midfield and defense knowing you need to be faultless or lose the game ie the forwards won’t save you from a mistake, they know Silva or Cutrone aren’t the answer hopefully they will have more respect

 

[sycophantia]

Of course, but 306 goals says he's better than Cutrone or Silva at scoring. And watching the you tube videos of them showed you that his first touch then shot ended up in the net a lot.

Absolutely, I actually watched his top 20 goals (again) today. I was just saying hid first touch while good isn't the same as whats required for us required, although as DW says he was doing it more later in hid career.

 

[lemonjelly]

I thought Hoever had a decent game in the main. First half there was a lot happening on the right.
Also thought Vitinha displayed glimpses, again in the first half mainly, of talent.
Ruddy performed well too.

I recently wondered if Cutrone was the new eastwood. I'm concerned I did eastwood a dis-service.

 

[Wolfmania]

One of the things we can (and absolutely must) work on are our set pieces. We are always stupidly slow to take throw ins and static to receive them, constantly waste free kicks (the Moutinho one should have been shot on goal really, or at the very least not a pass that goes for a GK...) and corners are always just dreadful short kick routines generally.

if we haven’t got players with the ability to take free kicks/corners directly then we need to be training them to do so or tweaking the recruitment policies to make sure incoming players have that ability. We have not got the quality to throw away the opportunities that set pieces provide.

 

[slink]

Certainly agree on the set pieces. Neves is way better on free kicks. Usually Neto is way better on corners. It's part of our game that needs massive improvement, and Moutinho is very guilty of making a shit job of them. It would piss me off if i had run up to the box, only for the ball not to come in there! It needs Coady to bollock him, but i guess he's (Joao) senior in the team, so he won't. I would give him both barrels for doing it.
I still think a lot of the in play problems still relate to no Raul. In attack and defence. But that is me.

Certain problems of our play do relate to Raul but he's not fit so you have to find a way of getting the best out of what you have without him. The problem is not many strikers can do what Raul does and our low/mid block to counter has a ceiling so that way of playing was never sustainable for a longer period of time, Nuno has realised this i think but he struggles to set a team up to play any other way.

 

[UpTheToffees]

What... A... strike!!!

 

[oslowolf]

Dendoncker offers something in the oppositions box that our strikers can not atm. It may not be the best solution, but I do not know any other player that can threaten the center backs in the air. We should expect more crosses from the wing backs if they got a target.

With our current set up we need the wing backs to challenge, get to the by line and deliever crosses. We are so massively dependant on individual performances and more so from the wb position.

Dendoncker tried at times to drift right to get an 2 vs 1 situation with the possible outcome of a cross, but to whom?

If we go 4 at the back I would like to see Kilman as a defending midfielder.

 

[AndyWolves]

Glad we're through but we were shite.

I can't make my mind up if Nuno tells them to play that way or the players are so lacking in confidence they're unable to perform.

I have to say, I love Netos attitude - he came on and played how he would against anybody. He's going to outgrow us very quickly at this rate.

 

[Deano]

People saying "it weren't that bad" and "we won that's all that matters" is literally as bad as the people they think are overly negative. Fuck me, how low are your standards to think that was anywhere near acceptable.

 

[AndyWolves]

People saying "it weren't that bad" and "we won that's all that matters" is literally as bad as the people they think are overly negative. Fuck me, how low are your standards to think that was anywhere near acceptable.

I don't think anyone has said we weren't that bad and I don't think there is a single person who has said it was acceptable.

A few, me included, have said "well at least we won". That's different from being happy or thinking the performance wasn't awful.

 

[Deano]

I don't think anyone has said we weren't that bad and I don't think there is a single person who has said it was acceptable.

A few, me included, have said "well at least we won". That's different from being happy or thinking the performance wasn't awful.

I was waiting for the "I don't think anyone has said" line. I suggest having a look back over the thread.

Someone literally said it wasn't as bad as people were making out and excusing the performance by blaming the pitch and such rubbish.

All that matters is we won is a ridiculous thing to say against a conference north side. There 5 leagues and hundreds of millions between the club's a win should be a given. We've seen plucky underdogs nick results against big teams before but I'm struggling to think of a game where a side was such clear favourites as last night create so little. It was fucking shite.

 

[Jabbawolf]

I was waiting for the "I don't think anyone has said" line. I suggest having a look back over the thread.

Someone literally said it wasn't as bad as people were making out and excusing the performance.

All that matters is we won is a ridiculous thing to say against a conference north side. There 5 leagues and hundreds of millions between the club's a win should be a given. We've seen plucky underdogs nick results against big teams before but I'm struggling to think of a game where a side was such clear favourites as last night create so little. It was fucking shite.

It was shite - we created little through midfield, and anything that was created was squandered up front. Lots to work on.....the only real positive is that we won.....

 

[Tredman]

People saying "it weren't that bad" and "we won that's all that matters" is literally as bad as the people they think are overly negative. Fuck me, how low are your standards to think that was anywhere near acceptable.

Just because people do not agree with you it doesn’t mean their standards are low. For me, I could give a flying fuck about the FA cup - yesterday was no worse than the early games in the run to the semi final. It was a shit game, but not worth spending your time raging about. There are better things to exercise a red face about.

 

[malta mick]

Didn't watch the match last night (only had Mikey's commentary) but from most of the matches recently, isn't our problem that we play too deep. Hence the reason Mouthino and Neves seem to be picking the ball up in our own half. Surely with a back 3, they could be a lot further upfield instead of the whole team being stretched out. The other problem being not having a forward who can hold the ball up with his back to goal.

 

[Deano]

Just because people do not agree with you it doesn’t mean their standards are low. For me, I could give a flying fuck about the FA cup - yesterday was no worse than the early games in the run to the semi final. It was a shit game, but not worth spending your time raging about. There are better things to exercise a red face about.

It's not just about last night, this is indicative of the way we play. This new striker is going to be feeding off scraps in this team. People keep saying we aren't in a relegation battle and it's probably because of the 10 points but we don't look like winning any time soon.

Make comments about "raging" and "red face" all you like, this is a forum and I and others will express concern around our performances, particularly when they are as bad as that.

 

[AndyWolves]

I was waiting for the "I don't think anyone has said" line. I suggest having a look back over the thread.

Someone literally said it wasn't as bad as people were making out and excusing the performance by blaming the pitch and such rubbish.

All that matters is we won is a ridiculous thing to say against a conference north side. There 5 leagues and hundreds of millions between the club's a win should be a given. We've seen plucky underdogs nick results against big teams before but I'm struggling to think of a game where a side was such clear favourites as last night create so little. It was fucking shite.

Sorry if I missed one post. The thread is pretty damning when you read it though.

It's possible to think we played shite but still be happy we won.

 

[Tredman]

It's not just about last night, this is indicative of the way we play. This new striker is going to be feeding off scraps in this team. People keep saying we aren't in a relegation battle and it's probably because of the 10 points but we don't look like winning any time soon.

Make comments about "raging" and "red face" all you like, this is a forum and I and others will express concern around our performances, particularly when they are as bad as that.

Express your comments all you like, that’s what a forum is for isn’t it? Gaslighting other posters because they are not annoyed as you just come across as a bit pathetic.

 

[Wilf Wolf]

We won and we're through are the only positives from tonight's game. For me though what it did show is that we're really struggling right now and it's coming from the management for me. This wasn't against a side that were putting themselves about loads and i know the pitch wasn't great but we were tactically outplayed by a semi professional side. They were well drilled, they had set pieces worked out and executed them, they knew when to go in to the striker and got bodies around them to link and we did none of the above. We have players in positions when we have the ball that are never going to have a positive impact on the game. The forwards were poor tonight but our midfield 3 never looked like they wanted to pass it forwards anyway and they just aren't going to carry the ball with any threat.

I think everyone realises what Nuno has done for this club and i'm not going to go near Nuno out and yes he may or may not have personal issues but as someone that enjoys the tactical side of football, that has coached and played at a decent level i struggle to see what the plan in possession right now, there is no link up play or patterns that look familiar, i struggle to see what the plan out of possession is now, there's no block at all, there's no pressure anywhere. The less said about how we set up/execute set pieces at both ends the better as for the want of a better phrase piss poor. Under Nuno we've always left men unmarked at the back post from deep free kicks and finally teams have worked this out, we still haven't worked this out though and what makes it worse is we don't set up to pick up the second ball back in either so a free kick 45/50 yards from goal hit diagonally towards our back post pretty much sets up a good chance.

It's well known Moutinho is in charge of our attacking set pieces and in the first year and a half of him being here he was immense, probably the best player i've ever seen in a Wolves shirt but his level has dropped so much and with that so have our set pieces. They were never as good as when we had Barry but in the last season and a half i would say we have 1 good delivery for every 6 set pieces, it's not good enough.

As i said earlier it's not a stage of Nuno out for me but something has to change soon or it will just be inevitable. I've said lots of times recently that small margins have cost us and that at times we haven't been that bad but sometimes it feels like that's just because we have good players and their ability is masking the fact that we haven't got a clear plan or identity at the moment. Some players have stood up (Neto) some players haven't but i do think as a squad they're being held back/misused more than they should right now.

Excellent post. I think too many players have become risk averse, they don’t want to try an incisive pass or take a player on. At times last night it was like watching Hoddle’s Wolves passing safely but not actually going anywhere. The forwards got nothing to work with and that’s down to the midfield. With no wide forwards we needed the wingbacks to get forward and they were poor. RAN had the demeanour of being in a training game and Hoever was ok defensively but desperately needed a wide player in front of him.

We have become extremely predictable and easy to play against. I’m struggling to see what Moutinho brings to the team at the moment. He wants the ball all the time, often dropping far too deep to get it, but then does next to nothing with it. It just about works if he can get it to Neto or Traore and they go on a run but we need more. Donk hasnt been much better since his injury, constantly going backwards or sideways. At least Neves tries to move the ball forwards and quickly.

Clearly confidence is low but it is definitely not a case that one win will make everything click again, there are huge structural issues in the team and they need sorting quickly.