Newcastle 1-1 Wolves: Verdict Thread

[Aikiwolf]

What I like about WJ:
The three times a game he drops and links play, those three times he looks decent.
He's taken the pressure off Fabio playing every minute and people getting frustrated with him.

Other than that, his runs in the box are awful, he's so hidden behind defenders our other players would only find him if he sent his Google location.

As for the rest of the game, the pressing we had against Leeds seemed to have vanished, we allowed an awful Newcastle team to keep the ball and gain confidence and we deservedly conceded. Good to see Neves get into the box and I enjoyed him playing further forward, even if all of his passes weren't coming off.

 

[big mean bunny]

Not been the biggest fan of Silva, but at least on the header he makes good contact considering that he's actually ended up a tiny bit ahead of the ball, and does really well to readjust to that. Good movement and not easy to get the contact he does or track the ball after the CB ahead of him jumps and misses it.

 

[darlowolf64]

Usual week off performance. WJ literally a statue in this game. It's like we have 10 men. Next 3 games will be a struggle to get anything points wise. 3 points here would have helped. Pah....

Excellent, I see what you're doing here... You said the same in the lead up to our previous 4 games and we got 10 points. Keep up the good work

 

[Law's Bus]

I'm unfortunately now firmly in the Deutsch camp regarding Willian José. I want WJ to prove me wrong; but he reminds me of Robert Taylor at this point, but with a great line in actively running away from the ball.

Other than that, I thought our passing was generally terrible, and we'd gone back to being, well, boring.

Whilst I'm disappointed that Fabio wasn't quite able to steal three points at the end, make no mistake, it would have been theft. I'm content with a point from that.

 

[Jinky]

I’m not sure I agree with these “we’ve got nothing to play for” comments that everyone on here seems happy to post every week. We beat Newcastle yesterday and we are level on points with Spurs (yes, I know they’d have a couple of games in hand), but do we honestly think Spurs have effectively given up on this season? Of course not. We should be better than that.

Also, if we’ve “got nothing to play for”, why are we setting up so defensively/passively in the first half of every single game? Why not entertain a bit, have a bit of a go? And why did we throw the FA cup game a couple of weeks back if we have “nothing to play for” in the league?

I don’t buy it, I’m afraid. We should have won yesterday - we shouldn’t have been so poor in the opening half hour and that has been a trend all season that Nuno hasn’t managed to do anything about (bar the odd game here & there), which actually makes me think he’s actively telling them to go out and start the way we are.

Newcastle were without their best forward and their other best two players had to go off with plenty of time left on the clock - and we only really started to give it a go from about the 80th minute.

Not good enough. Especially with City coming up. Start like we did on Tuesday like we did yesterday and it’s going to be a bloodbath.

Adama MOTM (even though he is infuriating).

Saiss, Donk, Moutinho, Neves (bar the last 15 minutes), WJ, Neto all appalling for large spells yesterday.

 

[PuntsWolf]

We do have nothing to play for. We needed over 2 PPG to likely finish 7th. We may have picked up 10 points from the last 12 but it could have Just as easily been 5.

We Chuck in performances like last night more often than not over the last 18 months so are never going to suddenly become a 2ppg team over the next 3 months.

So yeah, nothing to play for. So why is the manager chucking in dull, passive performances? I have no idea. Last year we thought “we were conserving energy” due to hectic schedule. This year we can’t use that excuse.

Thought we were turning a corner. But we’ve gone backwards again. Better than it was (from an intent perspective), at least we are getting people forward at some point. But still massive improvement needed to be competitive in the top 8 next season regardless of recruitment

 

[Walnut]

I can't see what Dendoncker does. He always, even when there is plenty of space in front of him, always passes it back. He doesn't read the game at all.

 

[Tony Towner]

Two deeper midfielders in Neves and Donk could work but those two CB’s would need to be rock solid. Dunk or Webster?

If we are going British then we're going to have to bite the bullet and overpay. You are looking at £40m+ for a Tarkowski or Dunk. I agree with Daz Hale when he described our need as a footballing Ryan Bennett, those 2 are the closest to that. I'd do that to secure the certainty of knowing what you are getting. If that meant the RAN and Vitinha money then so be it.

The Conor Coady story has been remarkable, but just like the Doherty one I think for the club to take the next step it's time for it to come to an end at least as a starter. With Boly out I understand the will to play a 3, but with Boly +1 quality addition that formation and therefore Coady will start to hold us back

 

[sycophantia]

I can understand why people say we've nothing to play for and lets get this season over but for me we should be using it as a pre pre season from now, if the plan for the future is to go 4 at the back lets get on with it, use the players we have currently and see for sure where we need to upgrade.

 

[PuntsWolf]

If we are going British then we're going to have to bite the bullet and overpay. You are looking at £40m+ for a Tarkowski or Dunk. I agree with Daz Hale when he described our need as a footballing Ryan Bennett, those 2 are the closest to that. I'd do that to secure the certainty of knowing what you are getting. If that meant the RAN and Vitinha money then so be it.

The Conor Coady story has been remarkable, but just like the Doherty one I think for the club to take the next step it's time for it to come to an end at least as a starter. With Boly out I understand the will to play a 3, but with Boly +1 quality addition that formation and therefore Coady will start to hold us back

Dunk over Tarkowski. Him and Boly would be two mountains. Dunk also probably the biggest CB threat from set pieces in the league. Scored 3 and had a couple wrongly disallowed (not including yesterday).

 

[Tony Towner]

I can understand why people say we've nothing to play for and lets get this season over but for me we should be using it as a pre pre season from now, if the plan for the future is to go 4 at the back lets get on with it, use the players we have currently and see for sure where we need to upgrade.

I think the 2 things are the same. Nothing to play for to me, means in the grand scheme of things win, draw or lose won't make a lot of difference to this season. We'll finish somewhere between 10th and 15th, I know there's a financial incentive to finish higher, but other than that it's meh as to which of those places we fill. There's exceptions Villa, Albion for fan pride, City to avoid humiliation but other than that there is no reason to not use games to see what we have in some players or how others adapt to potential formations that will progress the club in the medium term.

 

[Premier Quality]

Dunk over Tarkowski. Him and Boly would be two mountains. Dunk also probably the biggest CB threat from set pieces in the league. Scored 3 and had a couple wrongly disallowed (not including yesterday).

Tarkowski is a far superior defender to dunk.

 

[Tony Towner]

Dunk over Tarkowski. Him and Boly would be two mountains. Dunk also probably the biggest CB threat from set pieces in the league. Scored 3 and had a couple wrongly disallowed (not including yesterday).

He'd be my choice from the 2 as well. I don't think it would be the case with Tarkowski, but there's still that slight concern that Burnley defend their box in the same way as Blues did 10 years ago and the ghost of Roger still haunts me.

 

[Deano]

Yeah Dunk is quality, he's a very good defender, a leader and chips in with goals to boot. As someone said further up, if it was around 40m for him I'd much rather do that deal than sign RAN and Vitinha.

 

[prawnking]

The team needs a fresh mentality as well as a fresh face or two, our forward play is so awkward for the quality of players we have

 

[AndyWolves]

If we are going British then we're going to have to bite the bullet and overpay. You are looking at £40m+ for a Tarkowski or Dunk. I agree with Daz Hale when he described our need as a footballing Ryan Bennett, those 2 are the closest to that. I'd do that to secure the certainty of knowing what you are getting. If that meant the RAN and Vitinha money then so be it.

The Conor Coady story has been remarkable, but just like the Doherty one I think for the club to take the next step it's time for it to come to an end at least as a starter. With Boly out I understand the will to play a 3, but with Boly +1 quality addition that formation and therefore Coady will start to hold us back

I think I'd rather have RB than Donk at the moment

 

[Freddeno]

I think I'd rather have RB than Donk at the moment

Yeah, in that position of course..Bennett is a solid defender(with limitations in other areas of his game)

 

[Premier Quality]

We definately need a career centre back to replace Donk - someone who attacks the ball, who naturally reads and reacts quickly to danger, and ideally someone who can contribute to build up play, but the starting point is that they can defend well.

 

[Tony Towner]

I think I'd rather have RB than Donk at the moment

I think any natural centre half of Championship level or higher would improve our aerial defending. None of Saiss, Coady or Dendoncker attack the ball or sense danger in that way. It was Donck yesterday, but it's been the other 2 plus Semedo in other games. Hayden should have scored after 10 mins from a free header. Bennett did a grand job and way overexceeded my expectations, but it was time to move on. The fact he'd probably get a game says more about our recruitment in the last couple of years in that area than whether we should have kept him

 

[PuntsWolf]

Tarkowski is a far superior defender to dunk.

“Far superior” is some stretch. Don’t think there’s much in it. Dunk offers that increased physicality, set piece threat and leadership.

Id be happy with either, but if the financials were the same for both then it would be Dunk for me.