Man Utd 1-0 Wolves: Verdict Thread

[The Dude]

And this absolute weapon

https://twitter.com/x/status/1691365844813504512

We've all got dickhead cunt United "fans" as neighbours. This one sounds like he could live on one of your streets.

 

[Tom Hark]

because it was Jon Moss who issueds the apology on behalf of the PGMOL within 30 mins of the game ending I presume

Oh, OK. (The 'sending Moss to the monitor' comment from Alan had me somewhat befuddled.) I wouldn't be surprised if the clowns appoint someone to issue apologies at every game now cos Webb can't keep up. #jobsfortheboys

 

[The Bear]

So a lovely paid weekend off for the 3 berks in charge last night. Then they'll be back the week after.

Waste of time. No punishment at all.

 

[Kenny]

Oh, OK. (The 'sending Moss to the monitor' comment from Alan had me somewhat befuddled.)

Bloody Americans and getting soccer wrong...

 

[WsWolf]

We'll see if they release the audio. Webb said they would do that at the start of the season.

 

[Del Woppio]

Well that was a really enjoyable game of football, probably our best away performance for a considerable time, and I was really impressed with how we approached the game. The penalty is my fault. I said - OUT LOUD - that "apart from the two bookings United should've had and the bookings for Neto and RAN that the ref's actually had a good game*", so I take full responsibility. I then compounded that error when I saw VAR were looking at it, and started celebrating. I'll learn from that, dust myself off, and go again.

What impressed me most was that we rarely turn 'dangerous situations' into good chances, but we absolutely did that yesterday. The Cunha and Sarabia chances flashed wide, the Cunha sitter, Fabio's three half chances...there was plenty there, and 3-1 wouldn't have been especially flattering.

Sa - geezer is a bomb scare, but reckon we're stuck with him for another season.
Semedo - was excellent
Dawson - Like the pre-season rustiness was a figment of my imagination
Kilman - Not great, some positional and decision making mistakes, but some good stuff too. Played like the average midtable CH that he is. £15-20m would be fair, turning down £30m and giving him a payrise is braindead.
RAN - I didn't think he was as bad as some; AWB and Anthony is a really tough gig, and they both played well. RAN's got a lot of ability - a higher ceiling than Bueno for me - we just need to let him learn a bit now with a run in the side
Lemina - MOM for me, he was absolutely outstanding.
Gomes - Couple of dodgy passes but was largely excellent.
Nunes - Don't like him off the left, he's got so much ability we just need to get him in the middle and let him learn through it
Neto - looked a lot like he's over his injury to me. Still quick, excellent work rate. Couple of things didn't come off but that's the nature of the beast
Sarabia -I thought he was anonymous when we were in possession barring his decent shot. He's just not got the physical attributes for the game over here
Cunha -Such a good footballer, his carrying was excellent. Play him off a striker, or even as an 8. Please, for fucks sake.

The penalty, well what can you say. I think you'll do well to find a worse decision for the rest of the season tbh. I frequently sneer at the people that think it's corruption, or an anti-Wolves agenda and what not, but it's becoming increasingly difficult. I'll still manage it obviously, because I'm impossibly smug and filled with self-importance.

Good game, great performance, good start, plenty of encouragement. Gaz's next few teamtalks have already written themselves. We've gone to Old Trafford and battered them, take that into the next few games.

*Actually writing it out, he was basically wrong on four different yellow card decisions, and that that was still a decent refereeing performance speaks volumes.

 

[Tom Hark]

Like DW, I'm not blaming Hooper for the non-pen; not easy to see exactly what's happened in a crowded goalmouth. The comms had no idea either until the replays. That's 100% on VAR for me. As for the bookings, he let RAN (I think) get away with one early on, and Neto's was entirely avoidable - the players should all know what prima donnas the match officials are these days. Decent performance for me, treated both sides fairly, and he's been bundled in with the VAR muppets for form's sake.

 

[Johnny75]

So a lovely paid weekend off for the 3 berks in charge last night. Then they'll be back the week after.

Waste of time. No punishment at all.

They get a basic salary not the appearance fee that makes up the majority of their salary.

 

[Tyrannosaurus Dan]

Bit harsh dropping Hooper for it. Yes, he missed it but refs do miss things in real time and the whole point of VAR is to highlight it for him.

If VAR did its job properly then we would have had the chance to miss a penalty (unless the ref was a proper cunt and still didn’t give it after watching it again).

 

[Quirkafleeg]

We can all keep going on about the non penalty however we had enough chances to win four games last night, we can't keep going on missing chances, again miss chances the weekend then it keeps on cascading down.

 

[Charlie Wolf]

Nearly 24hrs on and slightly calmer, and basically everything has been said.

I thought first half everything that Man U created was from our errors and not getting the basics right, but to a man we put in a performance that suggests we’ll be okay

Jaxy win for Utd (again) but such a poor team, they are rank, and a special big up for Mason Mount as being the first non footballer to bought for £60m. He is more useless than Sancho, and that’s saying something. Both will never be footballers as long as they have an hole up their arse

 

[SLA]

The most disturbing thing in this whole Shi/Lop/GON debacle is the horrible thing it's done to TDan. He used to be such a mild-mannered peace-loving guy. Now he's basically Johnny75 with good taste in music. I hope you're happy, Wolves!

 

[Kenny]

We can all keep going on about the non penalty however we had enough chances to win four games last night, we can't keep going on missing chances, again miss chances the weekend then it keeps on cascading down.

Its an upgrade though.

Gone from not creating enough chances to creating a shit ton. I would back us to score in more games than not if we create that many chances per game

 

[Quirkafleeg]

Its an upgrade though.

Gone from not creating enough chances to creating a shit ton. I would back us to score in more games than not if we create that many chances per game

I agree. Last night and I've said this multiple places, that midfield performance was electric, dynamic and snappy and all without Ruben Neves. We haven't played like that for a few years.

 

[Del Woppio]

If we're missing chances as opposed to not creating anything, we're a lot closer to winning football matches

 

[The Dude]

Something has been playing on my mind. When I logged in after a long long holiday from this forum, I found it quite refreshing and wonderful how those that don't enjoy spicy language can add whatever word they like to their own personal swear filter.

I love the thought of all those non swearry types manually inputting all their least favourite words in their censor list...

C... U... N...

 

[Wolf Hunting]

One key part of that was down to a tactical move.
Will presume more led by GO as normally the training for specific tactics is only done in the days leading up to the game.

All summer we had been pressing the opposition keeper (hi Joe Hart, remember that nightmare) and yesterday we stopped it. Happy to let their WWE keeper have the ball at his feet with time but limited options on the pass. In the build up to the game a lot had been mentioned about his ability to ping a pass to anywhere on the pitch. We cut out doing that press and therefore stopped leaving spaces for him to pass into the midfield and beyond. I think he managed to get one pass out like that all evening and that came when a counter broke down and he quickly got on the ball and found the space to pass into. When it happened the comms team said something along the lines of "finally we get to see what he is about".
Smart move which meant United had to either play out from the CB's or go long. That restricted them for me.

Still annoying we lost this game though.

One passage of play in the 1st half where it went from the keeper out, long pause, little dither and back to the keeper.
I counted 8 of those and was kind of surprised the commentators didn't remark on it.
We just gave them no one to pass to.

 

[Jinky]

This isn't a smug "told you so" message in any shape or form, but I did say in the build up that I was cautiously optimistic. Despite everything going on OFF the pitch, we have some seriously talented players in the group and if we can keep this core group (with maybe 1-2 others added) we will be fine this season. There was some seriously good - exciting! - football played by us last night. I was just sat there with a stupid grin on my face without realising on a number of occasions. Seeing us breaking forward with 5-6 players all attacking their box and playing some really clever, intricate football - I'd forgotten what it was like!

I actually think our midfield looks better collectively without Neves in it, which is a comment that might well end up biting me in the arse, but we now have some proper dynamism in there, some pace, some flair - players who don't want to hold hands with the centre half for 90 minutes. As an individual, Ruben is one of the best players I've ever seen in a Wolves shirt, but as a TEAM, our midfield is going to overrun a lot of opposition teams this season. Gomes, Lemina and Nunes were excellent. As was Neto (great to see him back at 100%).

I have reservations on our defence/goalkeeper. We'll concede quite a few - but I don't mind that too much if we can just find that final clinical moment in front of goal going the other way. On that, I think the obvious change has to be Fabio coming in for Sarabia, no? Even in the short time he was on the pitch, it's blatantly obvious that Fabio just has that selfish instinct that a centre forward needs to score goals. If he was on the end of the Cunha chance (still no idea how he missed), or maybe a couple of the other opportunities we managed to create, we'd have won the game comfortably. Play Fabio in front of Cunha and let the magic happen.

Really, really positive performance. Gutted with the result, of course, and the VAR fuck up - but hopefully this has lifted spirits a little bit. GO was right in that we need to convert the performance in to points so that's a plus that he recognises that straight away. Tricky game this weekend against Brighton, so let's see what we can do there.

 

[Kenny]

This isn't a smug "told you so" message in any shape or form,

I mean it would be some top level smugness to do so after a defeat...

 

[The Dude]

I agree. Last night and I've said this multiple places, that midfield performance was electric, dynamic and snappy and all without Ruben Neves. We haven't played like that for a few years.

All CM's seem capable of tracking back, winning a ball, progressing with the ball, picking a pass and getting forward.

Neves' strength was his long range passing, it didn't make any sense for him to overly exert himself when the ball could do the work for him, our problem with Neves in the team seemed to be the lack of runners and offensive options for him to pass to.