Huddersfield (A) 26/2 Build-Up

[sycophantia]

MGW is nowhere near ready. Not a fan of the loan system but not sure we can really afford to develop him off our bench. Think he needs to start every week somewhere in the Championship.

For all his trickery, he loses the ball far far too much. His passing radar is about 30% off and he has that trait of slipping over a lot that is not uncommon in players trying to force it a little too much.

Have to disagree here, MGW was far from our worst player last night, but to expect him to come on and turn the game round when most others were having a stinker is asking a lot

 

[Norman Deeley]

Well everything that I want to see has been said, but still need to let off steam.
Nuno – for about the 4th time this season he knew the questions before the exam but still failed abysmally. Ultimately the manager takes responsibility for a performance like that and last night was woeful. It was shite. Choose your own adjective: any will do.
Tempo – what fucking tempo? The amount of time we took over throw-ins and goal kicks was ridiculous. Start on the front foot, get into them early and there was an easy win there. It was 15 fucking minutes before we had a touch in their penalty area.
Desire – the great truism of football. The team that wants to win the most always wins. Sorry, lads, February 26th is too early to have the deckchairs out.
Ruben Neves – didn’t notice him for the first 20 minutes. A bloody awful performance not worth more than a 3.
Cavaleiro – as has been said elsewhere, plenty of clever little step overs, but when does he beat a man? By no means our worst performer but, like Costa, a player we need to upgrade in the summer
MGW – I got dog’s abuse early in the season for suggesting that Helder Costa could be bullied out of a game. So here’s another observation that will attract the same level of ire. MGW will not make it at the top level of the game: if he goes out on loan in the Champ next season he’ll be on the bench after 5 games
Huddersfield – a team that would be about four points off the Championship play-offs
Exempt from most criticism – Jonny and Diogo Jota, who at least looked like they wanted to win the game
Man of the Match – an easy one. The pre-match pie. Overpriced, but at least it was adequate, which puts it well ahead of the Wolves players

 

[Deleted Cyber]

So.

Here we are again. Another absolute shocker against a team destined for relegation. In the cold light of day I still cannot defend that performance from a team quite rightly given plenty of credit this season.
The thing is you know its coming. I don't know why but before a ball was kicked we were joking that we would lose home and away to Huddersfield . For me there are times when Nuno is stubborn. We play the way we play he says.He likes consisting of selection but what is the point of bringing in sub's who are so clearly lacking in form and or confidence. Traore has had plenty of stick on here but surely last night was just crying out for an injection of pace? How Neves stayed on baffled me. He did absolutely nothing good all game. MGW needs to do the basics right before he starts doing his flicks. He added nothing when he came on. Costa, with apologies to the sensitive souls who insist on positivity , added the square root of fuck all, which is unfortunately his regular contribution. Only Jonny gets 6.

So what to do about it? Like it or not we do have a really dross record in the premier league against sides who start the day bottom. OK, when we were last here we weren't pulling up any trees, but still. 7 defeats in 12 must be addressed if we genuinely want to be the best of the rest. Outside the top six in the premier league anyone can beat anyone on their day. Our results against palace and very nearly Newcastle show that. But until we do start to win these games consistently , our reality will not match our ambition frustratingly.

And you can take the piss as much as you like about my bottom five paranoia . Our record against the current bottom 5 is played six, won 1 drawn 1 lost 4. If that is in any way acceptable to any Wolves fan given the team , ambition and investment then there is nothing more to say. We have to solve this and quick.

Huddersfield have won three games in 28. Two of them against us. Let that sink in for a second

 

[Premier Quality]

I don't think that's an issue that's exclusive to tonight's game. It's generally just not Wolves set out to do, I mean there really aren't that many players in the squad who look to take on their man that often, nor is the emphasis usually on neat interplay between players in tight areas. Wolves are at their best when they can draw a team out and then exploit the spaces they leave open, either down the flanks for the wingbacks or since the switch to a front two the option to just get in behind has been available more often too, the long passing from Neves and Coady is crucial to this allowing Wolves to quickly change the route of attack and punish the big spaces left in seemingly safe areas. When teams are happy to play on the back foot, keep men behind the ball and defend the full width or the pitch it takes away Wolves' main weapon and often they don't look anywhere near as assured trying to pick those defences apart rather they rely on a lapse in concentration or tiredness to eventually provide the big open space they've been looking for, as with Doherty's late goal against Newcastle.

Agree with you, and that’s the problem - when faced with a press, we don’t do the things we need to do to beat it, ie passing and movement to get around players, or simply dribbling past them, we rely on our usual game. It’s not a surprise that the majority of teams who have beaten us press us hard, and a lot of the teams we’ve beaten sit off us.

For me, where it’s not working, then the subs should give us a way to change the flow of a game. Last night was crying out for someone that could do something different, but our subs didn’t manage that - effectively we just continued plugging away in a similar way to the guys they replaced.

 

[jdrodrigues]

Agree with you, and that’s the problem - when faced with a press, we don’t do the things we need to do to beat it, ie passing and movement to get around players, or simply dribbling past them, we rely on our usual game. It’s not a surprise that the majority of teams who have beaten us press us hard, and a lot of the teams we’ve beaten sit off us.

For me, where it’s not working, then the subs should give us a way to change the flow of a game. Last night was crying out for someone that could do something different, but our subs didn’t manage that - effectively we just continued plugging away in a similar way to the guys they replaced.

Might be because we lack that depth in the team. Our players were chosen for a specific role and philosophy. We will probably get more options come the summer.

I am not sure if I really want us to push through European games just yet. It sure would be awesome, of course, but I am afraid of overreaching and failing in an epic fashion.

Generally, how do English teams handle these kind of situations? Is it normal to invest a lot for European football and then falling behind in the table?

 

[Deleted Cyber]

Might be because we lack that depth in the team. Our players were chosen for a specific role and philosophy. We will probably get more options come the summer.

I am not sure if I really want us to push through European games just yet. It sure would be awesome, of course, but I am afraid of overreaching and failing in an epic fashion.

Generally, how do English teams handle these kind of situations? Is it normal to invest a lot for European football and then falling behind in the table?

That is a fair and valid point. I want to see us win the cup though!

Burnley, Fulham, Wigan Birmingham, Middlesbrough all had uefa or Europa league in the last decade and it pretty much fucked them up. Burnley have done well to recover but aren't out of it yet. Fulham are back this year but heading down. The rest are no where. I would love European football but the inconsistency in the team and the tiny squad makes me nervous.stand, walk, run. There is time.

 

[Premier Quality]

English football is weird in that respect - with the exception of the big 6, I’d say very few teams see European football as a priority, they are usually far more worried about premier league position, hence our generally crap records in the europa league.

 

[Dire Wolf]

So.

Here we are again. Another absolute shocker against a team destined for relegation. In the cold light of day I still cannot defend that performance from a team quite rightly given plenty of credit this season.
The thing is you know its coming. I don't know why but before a ball was kicked we were joking that we would lose home and away to Huddersfield . For me there are times when Nuno is stubborn. We play the way we play he says.He likes consisting of selection but what is the point of bringing in sub's who are so clearly lacking in form and or confidence. Traore has had plenty of stick on here but surely last night was just crying out for an injection of pace? How Neves stayed on baffled me. He did absolutely nothing good all game. MGW needs to do the basics right before he starts doing his flicks. He added nothing when he came on. Costa, with apologies to the sensitive souls who insist on positivity , added the square root of fuck all, which is unfortunately his regular contribution. Only Jonny gets 6.

So what to do about it? Like it or not we do have a really dross record in the premier league against sides who start the day bottom. OK, when we were last here we weren't pulling up any trees, but still. 7 defeats in 12 must be addressed if we genuinely want to be the best of the rest. Outside the top six in the premier league anyone can beat anyone on their day. Our results against palace and very nearly Newcastle show that. But until we do start to win these games consistently , our reality will not match our ambition frustratingly.

And you can take the piss as much as you like about my bottom five paranoia . Our record against the current bottom 5 is played six, won 1 drawn 1 lost 4. If that is in any way acceptable to any Wolves fan given the team , ambition and investment then there is nothing more to say. We have to solve this and quick.

Huddersfield have won three games in 28. Two of them against us. Let that sink in for a second

I know Cyber gets a lot of (often harsh and unfair) stick on here for his views, but I can't disagree with a word of this.

 

[PuntsWolf]

They pressed us but only with the front 3. They still defended deep. This is why it doesn’t make sense.

When teams park the bus we struggle, and then when they press our CBs we struggle.

Last night there should have theoretically been Tons of space in midfield, particularly with players of the quality of Neves, Moutinho and Donk. As they were defending deep with a 5 and then pressing with a 3.

But somehow we couldn’t get the ball in midfield or when we did we lost it. It was just hoofs up front and then lost the first and second ball (Billing on Moutinho being a huge mismatch).

They defended with the 5 which completely nullified our switch of play, but then there should have been our 5 in midfield to there 2 (Billing and Hogg), but as mentioned we couldn’t get control of the ball here, didn’t have the switch of play on and then Anthony that was clipped up to Raul was lost from poor touch or sloppy on possession.

Whenever we did get forward we were just sloppy losing momentum. Would pass it out of play, miscontrol it, run into a blind alley and give up a throw from a ricochet.

Bringing on Adama we might have won that. When Costa came on we barely kept the ball, and he’s not a threat when he has it. At least Adama would have got us up the pitch and at worst won us some free kicks and corners.

 

[b3h]

Wolves players got a case of cybertosis, and the only prescription, is more cowbell

 

[Jinky]

So I've had time to reflect on last night's 'performance', and wanted to comment on Nuno.

Nuno has every right to be annoyed and frustrated with the players. Not one of them came out of last night with any credit and we are not good enough to win games when 80% off the starting line up are performing at a 5 out of 10 level, best. But for me, the biggest finger has to be pointed at Nuno himself. I hope he does some serious soul searching and self analysis over the next couple of days before we take on Cardiff, because that wasn't good enough from Nuno and his team last night.

As soon as I saw the starting 11, I said we should have freshened things up. I don't need the benefit of hindsight to call that one because it was obvious at the time. We had traveled about as far South as we need to in this league at the weekend - and had another long trip for this one, a couple of days later. We have a small squad (at Nuno's request) so if players like Adama, Cav, Vinagre & Saiss can't get a look in for games like last night, when will they? He should have made some changes - and it was quite obvious after watching 10 minutes that it wasn't going to work. Huddersfield themselves had made a lot of changes and their side was full of young lads who wanted to make an impression. The crowd were behind them at the start and our opening 10-15 minutes, where we simply sat back and allowed them to have the ball, made things even worse. We only have ourselves to blame for that - and the fact Nuno took over an hour to make a change is baffling. I can only assume he took a note out of Paddy's book and was relying on "blind faith".

However, when he DOES finally make the change - he brings on MGW/Cav, taking off Moutinho and leaving Neves on (who genuinely looked like a park player last night). Poor from Nuno again. The final change took the biscuit. If you're a Huddersfield defender who has spent 80 minutes pressing play, chasing down players - who wouldn't you like to see coming off the bench for the final 10-15 minutes? Helder Costa or Adama Traore? For all of Adama's faults, I would say even his harshest critics on here would agree the answer is the latter. Seeing Costa come off the bench rather than Adama probably gave the Huddersfield lads a little boost that saw them over the line. As soon as Costa came on, Hogg crudely took him out, and that was the last we saw of Helder for the rest of the game. It's so fucking predictable, yet Nuno continues to make the same mistakes.

We don't have the squad size to make wholesale changes at the weekend - but Nuno needs to do something. I haven't even got on to the tactics yet, or the lack of pace/urgency with the ball, or the fact our big name players seem to think they can win these types of games in 2nd gear etc - but these things have been well covered already.

Simply put - Nuno has a LOT of credit in the bank; but he needs to have a serious look at himself before the Cardiff game to ensure we don't see a repeat performance.

 

[Lycan]

Nuno OUT

 

[Jinky]

Nuno OUT

Oh yeah, and before anyone thinks this is hilarious and goes with this line - I don't think anyone is saying that. Thankfully he'll have known it wasn't good enough and I expect him to bounce back. But the warning signs that he doesn't seem to learn lessons are there for all to see.

 

[Lycan]

Oh yeah, and before anyone thinks this is hilarious and goes with this line - I don't think anyone is saying that. Thankfully he'll have known it wasn't good enough and I expect him to bounce back. But the warning signs that he doesn't seem to learn lessons are there for all to see.

Doesn't seem to learn lessons?

I genuinely have no idea what you see sometimes.

 

[Deleted Cyber]

Wolves players got a case of cybertosis, and the only prescription, is more cowbell

Unfortunately , unlike chicken pox you can continue to catch it. The club needs inoculating to ensure no repetition next season :icon_wink:

 

[Jinky]

Doesn't seem to learn lessons?

I genuinely have no idea what you see sometimes.

Took him far too long to find a solution to our poor run earlier in the season. Still makes the same, odd, substitutions during games which have little to no affect on the outcome (when he has different options available). Occasionally takes too long to make a change during the match.

I love Nuno, but it's ok to criticise him when he has underperformed (providing it's done in the correct way). If you're not comfortable doing that, fair play. Nuno will be his own biggest critic, thankfully - so will know last night wasn't good enough.

 

[Deleted Cyber]

Going back to the thread, just an observation. I thought that the shoiuts of it being too negative were a bit harsh. To me , people were calling it as they saw it.

 

[The Saturday Boy]

It was clear in the first half that things weren’t working and if wholesale changes had been made at half time nobody could have complained and it might have disrupted Huddersfield who had been allowed to grow in confidence in the first 45 minutes. Cav and Traore at half time and reverting to 3 up front would have given Huddersfield a different challenge as they had dealt with Doherty/Otto with ease mainly by crowding out our midfield.

It was a really lacklustre display and Nuno needs to make changes for Saturday.

 

[Jinky]

Going back to the thread, just an observation. I thought that the shoiuts of it being too negative were a bit harsh. To me , people were calling it as they saw it.

Absolutely. The comments from people sticking their head in the sand and just relying on nothing other than blind faith are/were more frustrating than anything "negative" last night.

There were a couple of comments in the matchday thread yesterday evening that were perhaps a little bit OTT, but it's ok for people to comment on what they're seeing without feeling the need to be positive with every post. Especially when it's extremely obvious that we're having a stinker.

I think each and every one of us supports the team and wants us to do well.

 

[Johnny75]

I think each and every one of us supports the team and wants us to do well.

Reading the drivel of the matchday thread you wouldn't think it.

You've posted some dross on here Jinks but your post at the top of this page is a joke. I'm with Lycan, I have no idea what you see sometimes, it's baffling.