Where have these players ever displayed the traits they're so sorely lacking now? Under Nuno they flourished in a conservative counter attacking team but now they're being asked to dominate and break teams down, it's a different skillset.
I'm not saying they're bad players outright, they're just generally not front foot players in my view. Or the the few that are more inclined that way are just inconsistent or guilty of terrible decision making. A better manager probably pushes them closet to that mentality but I don't think they ever get all the way there.
If it's all on Lage, every little tiny failing, what is it do you think that he's telling them exactly? Is he telling Jimenez to stand still and avoid the 6 yard box at all costs, like he always has? Is he telling Neves to hold hands with the centre halves, like he always has? Is he telling the wide players to stay as far away from the centre forward as possible, like they have since promotion? Is he telling every man and his dog to make about 3 extra touches and play every pass a yard behind it's target, like they always have?
We're basically just seeing the same problem as we've seen for the last few years whenever a team sits off and Wolves have to break them down, they can't do it. In previous years it happened a few times a season but was largely outweighed by counter attacking successes, now the counter attacking has gone it's just the same failure pretty much every week. The way to improve this output is to go back to what suits them, lying deep, playing conservatively and hitting the ball into massive open spaces where they can just run to go instead of engaging their brains to break teams down.
