Pre-season friendly thread

[Mel Evo]

I hope that mentality has been in place for a good 12 months or more.

Why do you hope for such a thing out of interest?

 

[AndyWolves]

I hope that mentality has been in place for a good 12 months or more.

I never really worried about relegation under the old regime, I think it's a possibility now.

It's not a criticism of Lage or praise of Nuno, more a comment on where we are now

 

[prawnking]

Right many on here said we should wait until the today before showing any concern.
Nothing since then has calmed any doubts I had since then if anything we look pretty much the same as last season. Sterile first half and easy to cut open and more endeavour second half but always chasing things.

Tbf I don't think anyone's been holding off 'showing concern'

Certainly doesn't look like it's come together yet and lack of signings still a concern. We just have to take it game by game for a bit?

 

[Throbber3]

I enjoyed the second half. In fact I think performance wise there is plenty to like In Pre season regarding intent. Unfortunately, it often lacks quality. We are three or four short of the squad we need but two of those are Neto and Jonny.
For me the following are at best, squad players based on pre season

MGW
Saiss
Marcal
Moutinho
Cutrone if he stays
Fabio
Hoever
Kilman.

in an ideal world you would upgrade all of them but that won’t happen. Leander did fine and he has the legs , if not the brain and that lets Neves thrive especially further up the pitch. Saiss still makes the same positional and poor tackles that he has done at times for 4 years. Kilman has no pace and doesn’t jump high for a tall man. MGW is a 10 and if we are playing him at all then it’s there or don’t bother. Marcal defends ok but makes poor choices offensively as does Hoever who at least has age on his side.
Tactics are looking better and we are so much better on the front foot as we are not great defensively. We are just going to have to outscore 5 or 6 teams if we want to keep clear of trouble unless we spend some money in the next three weeks. It’s tough on Lage who appears to have been given a job without being provided with the tools to complete it. There is still time .

 

[MARKakaJIM]

Why do you hope for such a thing out of interest?

There was plenty to be concerned about long before Lage was on the scene.

 

[big mean bunny]

Tbf I don't think anyone's been holding off 'showing concern'

Certainly doesn't look like it's come together yet and lack of signings still a concern. We just have to take it game by game for a bit?

That's fair but not having a plan could see us start like a Sheff Utd type is my worry after today. We look like we can't transition away with the current squad but they also now can't revert back to the effective Nuno shell of soak and break that we had the first two seasons. And it doesn't seem like the amount of transfers needed to overhaul, are going to come.

Positives
I don't think Sa is going to be an upgrade but think he is more suited to this hopeful change going forward, he is our Bravo to City in the sense he is the first step of changing how the keeper plays.

Hoever - thought he was decent, starting to hit a decent level for someone his age at this level.

Raul - seems to still be Raul, which I was worried wouldn't be the case.

Everything second half seemed to be more narrow and compact off the ball and multiple players were getting to the man on the ball and we forced a lot of mistakes and turn overs it felt like.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Well that was quite an enjoyable day out. Decent enough crowd and the South Bank was noisy.

First half was an abomination. Second half was great entertainment.

God I have missed being in the ground. Lovely to be back.

 

[Mel Evo]

There was plenty to be concerned about long before Lage was on the scene.

Indeed. However, the straw man that everyone who would have rather the owners took a different approach than sacking the incumbent and replacing with an unproven novice was some kid of emotive fan boy was patronising then and tedious now. I’m off the fence, I think we’ve made a mistake. I’m also hoping I’ll be dead wrong and eating my words, which I’ll be delighted to do. I only want Wolves to win and have a decent medium to long term strategy. Whatever… I think we all agree we need, and all hope to see, some decent signings.

 

[Deano]

Then Molineux is wrong, IMO. The extent of the impatience truly grinds my gears.

If we don't give Lage time to make what he wants to do work, then we've truly fucked up by getting rid of Nuno and we're all the more likely to end up like Watford.

It's not just Molineux this is football in general.

I'd say it's easier to say "Molineux is wrong" when you've selected your favourite team from the colour of their kit on a computer game than someone who is from a part of the UK that's not well off and are being asked to pay the best part of £700 to watch the team they love.

You could say nobody forces them to pay but for some people it's their main hobby and they will go without other things to get tickets. That's just the way football is here.

 

[Throbber3]

If Raul and Marcal had scored their chances then the narrative tonight may have been different.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

I’m quite happy with what I watched second half.

 

[Alan]

It's not just Molineux this is football in general.

I'd say it's easier to say "Molineux is wrong" when you've selected your favourite team from the colour of their kit on a computer game than someone who is from a part of the UK that's not well off and are being asked to pay the best part of £700 to watch the team they love.

You could say nobody forces them to pay but for some people it's their main hobby and they will go without other things to get tickets. That's just the way football is here.

You'll have to forgive me if I find this more than a little off-putting. But feel free to discount my opinion based on geography, sure.

 

[Deano]

You'll have to forgive me if I find this more than a little off-putting. But feel free to discount my opinion based on geography, sure.

On whether "Molineux is wrong" or not yes.

I've followed the Vikings in the NFL for years. For me to go on their message boards telling their season ticket holders who pay god knows what, what they should or shouldn't be doing in US Bank stadium would take some nerve tbh.

 

[prawnking]

Indeed. However, the straw man that everyone who would have rather the owners took a different approach than sacking the incumbent and replacing with an unproven novice was some kid of emotive fan boy was patronising then and tedious now. I’m off the fence, I think we’ve made a mistake. I’m also hoping I’ll be dead wrong and eating my words, which I’ll be delighted to do. I only want Wolves to win and have a decent medium to long term strategy. Whatever… I think we all agree we need, and all hope to see, some decent signings.

I think there's only one person on the entire board who would have sacked Nuno, but you can't deny there's a groundswell of hankering for him now (much of which airbrushes over the struggles of last season and the repeatedly underwhelming transfer windows he was part of since PL promotion) which is not particularly helpful.

You can't tell me that if Bruno had won all his pre-season games 3-0 people would suddenly think he (and we) are amazing, of course not. So it's surely OTT now to say you're 'off the fence' or for people to talk about relegation when the window is still open and the new manager has yet to oversee a competitive game for us.

I have my concerns, but there's a time when the dominant atmosphere we have now on the board would have been derided as' pant-wetting'

 

[Mel Evo]

I think there's only one person on the entire board who would have sacked Nuno, but you can't deny there's a groundswell of hankering for him now (much of which airbrushes over the struggles of last season and the repeatedly underwhelming transfer windows he was part of since PL promotion) which is not particularly helpful.

You can't tell me that if Bruno had won all his pre-season games 3-0 people would suddenly think he (and we) are amazing, of course not. So it's OTT now to talk about relegation when the window is still open and the new manager has yet to oversee a competitive game for us.

I have my concerns, but there's a time when the dominant atmosphere we have now on the board would have been derided as' pant-wetting'

I’m not talking about relegation and never have. I also think you (persistently if you don’t mind me saying) confuse maintaining a consistent position with somehow veering from positivity to negativity. That’s just not right. Finally I haven’t told you what to think or not think in any hypothetical situation which hasn’t come about. Think what you want!

Hey, we all want good times at Wolves don’t we? Let’s hope the second half was more indicative of what’s to come.

 

[Alan]

On whether "Molineux is wrong" or not yes.

I've followed the Vikings in the NFL for years. For me to go on their message boards telling their season ticket holders who pay god knows what, what they should or shouldn't be doing in US Bank stadium would take some nerve tbh.

I'll call it like I see it. Football fans in general have always struck me as enormously impatient with coaches and managers, and I'll say so, happily.

Sorry to have offended your STH sensibilities. I'll remember in the future that my opinion matters less than yours.

 

[Throbber3]

I think there's only one person on the entire board who would have sacked Nuno, but you can't deny there's a groundswell of hankering for him now (much of which airbrushes over the struggles of last season and the repeatedly underwhelming transfer windows he was part of since PL promotion) which is not particularly helpful.

You can't tell me that if Bruno had won all his pre-season games 3-0 people would suddenly think he (and we) are amazing, of course not. So it's OTT now to talk about relegation when the window is still open and the new manager has yet to oversee a competitive game for us.

I have my concerns, but there's a time when the dominant atmosphere we have now on the board would have been derided as' pant-wetting'

I agree. We were flaccid 90 percent of the time last season. Give Bruno 50m and let him buy the players he needs. We could tell him to build it around Neves and don’t play moutinho next to him. It doesn’t work in that system. I think there will be some incoming players

 

[PuntsWolf]

We lost 4-0 at home to Burnley FFS. We we’re going nowhere fast.

If we had kept Nuno the problems would have been the same. Laughable how people seem to think everything was rosy before

 

[Mel Evo]

Just checking the bit where I said everything was rosy, or indeed where others did. Why must be people hear what they want to hear? It’s this straw man that is a bit frustrating TBH, but tear it apart if you must. Easier that way.

 

[slink]

Well being honest the first half was very poor and i would rather see other players than those who played. RAN instead of Marcal, Donk instead of Moutinho etc… but I don’t have a clue what people were watching when they said they couldn’t see what we were trying to do. Being at the game it was very obvious but it seemed the players were still in last seasons mode and were struggling to do what Bruno had asked them to do. He was fuming all first half because they weren’t doing what he wanted. Dendoncker coming on helped and the press was better, the tempo increased, the link up play was better and the only thing missing was the finish on numerous occasions.

Play like we did in the second half and we will be fun to watch and will definitely win games but we have to get the press and the high line right. It’s early but too many times especially in the first half we were too high with no pressure on the ball and they could have been in a few times but didn’t really look like scoring until Jon Moss did a Jon Moss and gave them a penalty for absolutely nothing.

We obviously need additions and Bruno knows this with his comments yesterday, we still need a centre half and a mobile midfielder and probably a couple of others to go with them depending on what may happen in the next couple of weeks. I don’t expect that 11 to play many if any games in the league and as people have rightly said it shouldn’t but still think Bruno has been judged by a few before we’ve kicked a competitive ball.

Basically there’s still a lot to work on and get right but there’s potential based on that second half and i’ll judge Bruno and the players once we’ve played a few competitive games. Can’t wait to get behind the lads at the King Power next week.