Pre-season friendly thread

[Kenny]

Where did you hear that chief?

Mentioned on Twitter. No proof of it or if the person is just chatting bubbles

 

[The Saturday Boy]

I am optimistic. Sam Alladyce was available…

Lage has years of coaching experience and was obviously a manager in waiting and it probably wouldn’t have been Wolves if his last gig hadn’t ended badly. Nuno had a good amount of financial support from day 1 and was able to spend heavily to get promotion and we probably did punch a little bit above our weight in the first two seasons but he moulded together a very effective side.

He was hung by his own petard with a squad that was too small and hit by injuries but I don’t think he would have lasted the season if there had been crowds in the ground witnessing it first hand.

Before Lage can be judged we need to see if he is backed by the board. If we keep Neves and Traore and add 3 or 4 more of good quality then he has been backed and what comes next is on him. If we don’t add any more then he will be working more or less with Nuno’s team and there will be a direct comparison to be made.

At the moment, a handful of pre-season games and no significant transfer activity it feels premature to judge him. Lage was a manager in waiting for someone - he could turn out to be the new Pep or the next Frank Lampard but the optimist in me yearns for more Pep, less Frank.

 

[big mean bunny]

Playing them again today would have been madness given the injuries unless there was significantly different teams from each - like an A and a B fixture.

 

[Jinky]

Been in Ibiza for the last 10 days so have missed the last 3 pre-season matches. Kept tabs on this thread throughout (at times, no idea why for my own sanity), but having watched the various highlights put out and a few videos doing the rounds on social media, I have to say I’m hugely encouraged by the role Lage has Neves playing. He could really kick on and be massive this season. Looked to me that he loved having players ahead of him actually making forward runs off the ball.

Over to Jeff, now. Would be all on him if he hangs Lage out to dry by not backing him in the transfer window (or whatever remains of it). The massive fuck up with the Graham Hughes stand not being ready after they’ve had 17 months to sort - meaning 1800 home fans won’t be there to see us against two top 6 sides - doesn’t fill me with any sort of confidence that there’s any sort of plan in place. Obviously I hope we’re wrong and we pull 3-4 top signings out of nowhere this week…

edit: here’s one of the Neves videos:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1424081268883476481

 

[WolfMan]

Been in Ibiza for the last 10 days so have missed the last 3 pre-season matches. Kept tabs on this thread throughout (at times, no idea why for my own sanity), but having watched the various highlights put out and a few videos doing the rounds on social media, I have to say I’m hugely encouraged by the role Lage has Neves playing. He could really kick on and be massive this season. Looked to me that he loved having players ahead of him actually making forward runs off the ball.

Over to Jeff, now. Would be all on him if he hangs Lage out to dry by not backing him in the transfer window (or whatever remains of it). The massive fuck up with the Graham Hughes stand not being ready after they’ve had 17 months to sort - meaning 1800 home fans won’t be there to see us against two top 6 sides - doesn’t fill me with any sort of confidence that there’s any sort of plan in place. Obviously I hope we’re wrong and we pull 3-4 top signings out of nowhere this week…

edit: here’s one of the Neves videos:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1424081268883476481

Thing that strikes me is that in most of these attacking moves there are least 4 players sprinting into the box. That was one of the things that used to annoy the shit out of me last season, we never seemed to have more than 2 players in there.

 

[Freddeno]

I think we just had came to an end of a cycle with Nuno and needed something different, if it works or not we will see..he need to be semi-backed at least by Fosun though to get some players he want in his team.

 

[Alan]

Something that's being overlooked every-so-slightly is that our opponents in some of these friendlies have been very good sides. Betis and Celta especially are the types of teams that, were we to play them in Europe, you'd probably have no right to expect we would beat them.

Obviously not every friendly we've played has been like that, but it's at least worth keeping in mind.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

I'd have backed our 2019 vintage to have dealt with both with little fuss, to be honest. We beat better teams than that in our Europa League run.

 

[Alan]

Very different circumstances, no?

Betis and Celta finished 6th and 8th in La Liga last season, IIRC. Hardly scrubs.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

They were good. But in my opinion both Torino and Olympiacos were superior sides. Espanyol probably less so as their season was already disintegrating

 

[Alan]

That Torino side was weird; came off a great season and then it just kind of all fell apart for them. Can't follow Serie A close enough anymore to say why.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

They were good. But in my opinion both Torino and Olympiacos were superior sides. Espanyol probably less so as their season was already disintegrating

Besiktas were better too (albeit they put out reserves in the dead rubber at the end). Finished 3rd in Turkey, miles clear of Fenerbahce and Galatasaray.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Looking back we really didn’t get an easy run there. Bloody great to be in that competition though. Hopefully we can return in future.

 

[Newbridge Wolf]

Looking back we really didn’t get an easy run there. Bloody great to be in that competition though. Hopefully we can return in future.

I never thought I would ever see European football at Molineux in my lifetime, to have gotten to the quarter finals is what dreams were made of growing up.

I would love to get back to it

 

[YoungWolf]

For those as sad as me to care, the xG (take with a pinch of salt btw) for the pre-season games except Crewe which I couldn't find.

Real Betis 0.72 (0)-(1) 0.58 Wolves
Las Palmas 1.03 (3)-(2) 0.58 Wolves
Stoke City 1.35 (1)-(1) 2.16 Wolves
Coventry 1.42 (1)-(2) 1.41 Wolves
Wolves 2.3 (0)-(1) 0.97 Celta Vigo

Attacking wise we definitely improved as it went on. Defensively, not so much of a surprise, though in the only game that I really cared about performance wise it's almost 0.2 without the penalty against.

 

[Tony Towner]

I read yesterday XT is now a thing - expected threat. Such joy! We lost 2-1, but our XT was 2.4

 

[YoungWolf]

I read yesterday XT is now a thing - expected threat. Such joy!

Yeah, thought people would like that!

it's been around a while I think just behind xG in going mainstream...