General Wolves News

[lemonjelly]

link gone. we reckon the e&s have had to pull the story?

 

[Johnny75]

link gone. we reckon the e&s have had to pull the story?

Nah, story is there, Aiki is just rubbish.

It's a non-story it's just invoice finance in another form. Shows Wolves operating as a business rather than owner dependence.

Prudent running of the club IMO.

 

[lemonjelly]

I won't hear a word said against Aiki....



Unless I can join in!

(actually, I'm not that brave...)

 

[Aikiwolf]

link gone. we reckon the e&s have had to pull the story?

New link now provided!

 

[Tony Towner]

Interesting paragraph in Spiers' piece about Traore re him and Nuno.

"The pair have spent prolonged hours together one-on-one, watching clips on an iPad or discussing the tactical nuances that hold Nuno’s system together so rigidly."

 

[Alan]

Amazing what happens when a reporter is allowed some actual access.

Not that I blame the club for shutting him out when he was at the E&S.

 

[Johnny75]

Interesting paragraph in Spiers' piece about Traore re him and Nuno.

"The pair have spent prolonged hours together one-on-one, watching clips on an iPad or discussing the tactical nuances that hold Nuno’s system together so rigidly."

The problem is he isn't getting it. He really can't play RWB he doesn't have the brain for it.

 

[Tredman]

He can’t really play RWB in games such as today, no. He did play well at RWB against City where he was primarily defending.

 

[The Bion]

https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...ruggling-demands-europa-league-premier-league

Some doom & gloom statistics for you this morning

Tbh it resonates to an extent, however saying players like Doherty and Jota have been struggling *when they've been injured* is a bit of a stretch.

We're a point off 7th so not entirely worried at this point but PL performances do seem a bit flat atm.

 

[Johnny75]

https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...ruggling-demands-europa-league-premier-league

Some doom & gloom statistics for you this morning

Tbh it resonates to an extent, however saying players like Doherty and Jota have been struggling *when they've been injured* is a bit of a stretch.

We're a point off 7th so not entirely worried at this point but PL performances do seem a bit flat atm.

The headline is bollocks and the whoscored is an advert for how not to look at statistics to judge a game. Having said that the attempts per game have dropped but attempts don't equal goals, good attempts do and that we are lacking in right now.

Nuno has always set us up to contain in the first half (bar Watford this season) so it is no surprise we rely on second half goals. Teams have noticed this which is why we are getting pressed more in the first half and so conceding due to individual errors. Nuno has definitely gone even more defensive in the first half to stop this and the tempo is noticeably slower. I don't think this is the answer. I think Nuno has the answer in 3-4-3 as he did in the Championship season and a higher tempo as we did against Watford.

We are a much better team when we are in control and score first and I think Nuno will get us back to that style and level soon enough.

 

[Del Woppio]

Not a lot to disagree with, the 'eye test' and the stats are well aligned.

 

[Johnny75]

Not a lot to disagree with, the 'eye test' and the stats are well aligned.

Not because of Europe though. That's nonsense.

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

The only effect Europe has (and it is a major one) is that it gives us less time to prepare for Premier league games.

 

[Del Woppio]

Oh aye, agree with that. It's not a fitness or sharpness thing, it's very obviously tactical

 

[Rui_CostCo]

In any sport, if you halve preparation time, and double competition time you are going to see an impact.

 

[Stan Hullis]

I would put our poor form down to the system and players being out of form rather than tiredness though, maybe Nuno has tried to change the style slightly to make it less taxing so that we are less tired in general?

 

[PuntsWolf]

It pretty much impossible for us to tell what is affecting us. The only real variable from last season is the EL. Staff are the same, players are the same. On paper the formation and tactics are the same.

We are just not executing as well. Now that could be lack of preparation, opposition being better prepared, poor form, players over performing last year, tiredness or most likely a combination of all. I’d probably say the middle 3 are the most significant.

But not too much had changed. We’ve historically started slow under Nuno (not sure the championship is particularly good data as the gulf in class was massive and teams simply parked the bus looking to minimise the damage. We also scored loads from set pieces which got us a lead). But the reasons above are seeing us “not look like scoring” and the data backs it up. However there was plenty of games last season you could apply that too as well. We beat Southampton at home but there wasn’t really anything in the game until we got that first goal. The sample size is too small this year, the next batch of games as the article says will give us a better idea. But so far we are looking slightly less dangerous and giving more away. So on the outside the results and performances are slightly worse than expected but realistically its just marginal swings that have made a difference in a small sample size.

 

[The Bear]

Less preparation and training, plus less recovery time. All has an impact on mental and physical fatigue.

 

[Tony Towner]

The game where I'd say we looked underprepared was Everton. Without Europe the team selection would have been different and I'm sure we would have set up differently tactically, notably closing down Sigurdsson.

There have been many more games though where we've been lacking in intensity including Saturday which Europe has played no part in.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

I would say that the relatively weaker form of Neves and Dendoncker has hurt us. The midfield engine room hasn’t been exactly purring. Plus there was the period of long ball weirdness which profoundly ineffective and thankfully appears to have been consigned to the dustbin.

Hopefully we see some improvement over the next few weeks and we are still right in the mix in terms of points tally, so there is quite a lot of hope for when it clicks a bit more.