Wolves 0-0 Burnley: Verdict Thread

[Johnny75]

 

[Aikiwolf]

I just want to surface this post again. Heroic!! Are you setting off for the Liverpool match in an hour or so?!

I blame his lift home for not being committed enough and turning around at Pontefract just because it wouldn't have got to Wolverhampton until the second half due to roadworks....

 

[Loki]

Lets be honest , with Traore you have a world class dribbler , with world class speed coupled with league two awareness and finishing. Thats based on his entire time here. He brings world class excitement to the crowd for 10 seconds and then a huge groan when he fecks it up because of his league two traits as mentioned. That is not going to change ,. If it was he would be playing for a champions league team week in week out not warming our bench 75% of the time.

I like him. I like the excitement he brings but I am a complete realist in that he is a luxury that this current squad cannot afford. We have failed to score against Spurs, Man u , Leicester, Brentford, Norwich , Burnley , Crystal Palace. These teams are currently all below us in the table. In those first three examples we had over 40 attempts at goal and failed to score , so despite looking great we could not finish our dinner. We were rancid against Brentford and Palace and not much better against Norwich. Dyche was happy with his point and we didnt have the guile or ability to create more than 2 attempts on target. This is nothing new from this squad. It will continue to be an issue with these players as many of them have peaked so wont get better, only worse.

Our wing backs cant cross and our midfield cant score. Our attack is a bit powderpuff in the majority of cases. Defensively , we look rock solid so thats the saving grace. We dont look like losing. When we do concede however , we will lose ,more than win as we cant score.

The answer , however , does not exist within the squad. It needs new players. Fabio and Trincao still dont convince me and the former clearly doesn't convince Lage as he has minimal minutes under his belt this season. Hwang certainly has something and has shown he can finish, he is just inconsistent. Again thats why he is here on loan not playing for a better team. I dont know who the answer is but I know that if we keep doing what we are doing , playing the same players and expecting a different outcome then that way lies madness. It wont happen. Traore will never be a consistent goal scorer, Moutinho and Fabio will not get any faster, Semedo probably cannot improve his crossing, Trincao may be too lightweight. Its why Lage has not implemented his preferred style IMHO. Jonny and Neto will improve that but they wont solve it. I fear , however , we best get used to it as the negativity and doom around the possibility of any incoming January transfers has already started.

This isnt a moan, this isn't pelters at the players I mention its just the realistic observations for a number of performances over a reasonable amount of time. We are as likely to beat one of Liverpool Chelsea or Man City as we are to drop points to Norwich or Burnley.

Best post I`ve read on here in a good while.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

Not sure why so many think that Neves was a big miss yesterday, midfield did everything they needed to do for me. Don't see what extra he would've bought to the party that would've changed anything in particular.

As I've said elsewhere, Jimenez was the big negative last night, so better movement in that position and you probably work a few extra openings.

 

[Wilf Wolf]

Too often our wingbacks are in a position to cross early but there’s either just Raul or nobody in the box. They then delay and get crowded out. Under Nuno we got away with it by scoring on the break and last night we’d probably have got two goals if Jota had been playing. As it stands until Neto gets back in open play we are incredibly dependent on Raul and everyone knows it. Last night Burnley barely gave him a kick as they prioritised shutting him down knowing that was a big step towards keeping a clean sheet.

In the long term swapping a sweeper for an advanced midfielder will undoubtedly help but with the players we have available now it would probably lead to conceding more than scoring more so it wouldn’t make sense in most games, especially those we play in December. At least in these fixtures it will be us that is happy with a point in most games so I guess we’ll stick to conservative football and have to hope January sees a couple of players come in that give us options to shake it up a little.

 

[Dire Wolf]

Lets be honest , with Traore you have a world class dribbler , with world class speed coupled with league two awareness and finishing. Thats based on his entire time here. He brings world class excitement to the crowd for 10 seconds and then a huge groan when he fecks it up because of his league two traits as mentioned. That is not going to change ,. If it was he would be playing for a champions league team week in week out not warming our bench 75% of the time.

I like him. I like the excitement he brings but I am a complete realist in that he is a luxury that this current squad cannot afford. We have failed to score against Spurs, Man u , Leicester, Brentford, Norwich , Burnley , Crystal Palace. These teams are currently all below us in the table. In those first three examples we had over 40 attempts at goal and failed to score , so despite looking great we could not finish our dinner. We were rancid against Brentford and Palace and not much better against Norwich. Dyche was happy with his point and we didnt have the guile or ability to create more than 2 attempts on target. This is nothing new from this squad. It will continue to be an issue with these players as many of them have peaked so wont get better, only worse.

Our wing backs cant cross and our midfield cant score. Our attack is a bit powderpuff in the majority of cases. Defensively , we look rock solid so thats the saving grace. We dont look like losing. When we do concede however , we will lose ,more than win as we cant score.

The answer , however , does not exist within the squad. It needs new players. Fabio and Trincao still dont convince me and the former clearly doesn't convince Lage as he has minimal minutes under his belt this season. Hwang certainly has something and has shown he can finish, he is just inconsistent. Again thats why he is here on loan not playing for a better team. I dont know who the answer is but I know that if we keep doing what we are doing , playing the same players and expecting a different outcome then that way lies madness. It wont happen. Traore will never be a consistent goal scorer, Moutinho and Fabio will not get any faster, Semedo probably cannot improve his crossing, Trincao may be too lightweight. Its why Lage has not implemented his preferred style IMHO. Jonny and Neto will improve that but they wont solve it. I fear , however , we best get used to it as the negativity and doom around the possibility of any incoming January transfers has already started.

This isnt a moan, this isn't pelters at the players I mention its just the realistic observations for a number of performances over a reasonable amount of time. We are as likely to beat one of Liverpool Chelsea or Man City as we are to drop points to Norwich or Burnley.

Great Post, sums everything up perfectly really IMO.

 

[Carsy]

Says it all that the highlights on sky sports are only 2 minutes long

 

[AndyWolves]

Too slow and ponderous, by the time the wingbacks had the ball and were ready to cross Burnley were set defensively. Crossing is unlikely to succeed against Burnley at the best of times.

Defence were good and didn't get bullied like we have done, although maybe that's because Barnes was missing. Either way I took a little satisfaction seeing Wood get taken off

 

[Carsy]

Lets be honest , with Traore you have a world class dribbler , with world class speed coupled with league two awareness and finishing. Thats based on his entire time here. He brings world class excitement to the crowd for 10 seconds and then a huge groan when he fecks it up because of his league two traits as mentioned. That is not going to change ,. If it was he would be playing for a champions league team week in week out not warming our bench 75% of the time.

I like him. I like the excitement he brings but I am a complete realist in that he is a luxury that this current squad cannot afford. We have failed to score against Spurs, Man u , Leicester, Brentford, Norwich , Burnley , Crystal Palace. These teams are currently all below us in the table. In those first three examples we had over 40 attempts at goal and failed to score , so despite looking great we could not finish our dinner. We were rancid against Brentford and Palace and not much better against Norwich. Dyche was happy with his point and we didnt have the guile or ability to create more than 2 attempts on target. This is nothing new from this squad. It will continue to be an issue with these players as many of them have peaked so wont get better, only worse.

Our wing backs cant cross and our midfield cant score. Our attack is a bit powderpuff in the majority of cases. Defensively , we look rock solid so thats the saving grace. We dont look like losing. When we do concede however , we will lose ,more than win as we cant score.

The answer , however , does not exist within the squad. It needs new players. Fabio and Trincao still dont convince me and the former clearly doesn't convince Lage as he has minimal minutes under his belt this season. Hwang certainly has something and has shown he can finish, he is just inconsistent. Again thats why he is here on loan not playing for a better team. I dont know who the answer is but I know that if we keep doing what we are doing , playing the same players and expecting a different outcome then that way lies madness. It wont happen. Traore will never be a consistent goal scorer, Moutinho and Fabio will not get any faster, Semedo probably cannot improve his crossing, Trincao may be too lightweight. Its why Lage has not implemented his preferred style IMHO. Jonny and Neto will improve that but they wont solve it. I fear , however , we best get used to it as the negativity and doom around the possibility of any incoming January transfers has already started.

This isnt a moan, this isn't pelters at the players I mention its just the realistic observations for a number of performances over a reasonable amount of time. We are as likely to beat one of Liverpool Chelsea or Man City as we are to drop points to Norwich or Burnley.

The Fabio one is a strange one. Look, clearly 35m was ridiculous, I’m not going to start that dance again, however there must be atleast some talent for someone to fetch that sort of money. Not saying it’s 35m worth of talent, or it was a good signing given where we were as a team. But surely a loan is the right move for him? Being sat on the bench his value just deteriorates more, he doesn’t get any minutes whatsoever so surely that will hinder his development?

I get the squad is paper thin,
But I get the impression if Raul gets injured then Fabio still wouldn’t start.

 

[Aikiwolf]

We don't have an attacking style at the moment. It was noticible against Norwich and again last night.

Are we trying to stretch the game wide and play balls into the box, if so why do we rarely have anyone in the box? Are we trying to play intricate balls around the edge and find gaps between the defence to slide people through, if so why don't we ever try a through ball?

We seem to get the ball wide, realise there's no one in the box (or finally get people in the box once there's two defenders covering our wing backs) so we pass backwards.

Last night I thought Moutinho and Dendoncker were both too deep and that meant when we passed backwards it travelled quite a distance and allowed Burnley to reset.

 

[Carsy]

Not sure why so many think that Neves was a big miss yesterday, midfield did everything they needed to do for me. Don't see what extra he would've bought to the party that would've changed anything in particular.

I guess having another passer in the middle would mean it wasn’t just moutinho spraying the ball around. However even with a midfield 2 of mout and neves we don’t create against teams who sit in and defend.

Wouldn’t suprise me if we get 5-7 points from the ‘top teams’ over the Christmas period

As I've said elsewhere, Jimenez was the big negative last night, so better movement in that position and you probably work a few extra openings.

 

[Tredman]

We really missed a CM breaking into the box, a 3-5-2 with a good attacking CM (Sanches or MGW perhaps?) would have worked yesterday. Take Adama out..

 

[Carsy]

We don't have an attacking style at the moment. It was noticible against Norwich and again last night.

Are we trying to stretch the game wide and play balls into the box, if so why do we rarely have anyone in the box? Are we trying to play intricate balls around the edge and find gaps between the defence to slide people through, if so why don't we ever try a through ball?

We seem to get the ball wide, realise there's no one in the box (or finally get people in the box once there's two defenders covering our wing backs) so we pass backwards.

Last night I thought Moutinho and Dendoncker were both too deep and that meant when we passed backwards it travelled quite a distance and allowed Burnley to reset.

Yep, the double pivot I mentioned last night. If you have a box to box midfielder then even the wingbacks have another option inside rather than going backwards all the time, it occupies another one of the oppositions midfielders rather than them being able to slot in and effectively double up on a forward player.

At this rate, I’d take a punt on a loan deal for Ross Barkley or someone of that nature if funds are tight due to FFP (cough cough)

 

[Johnny75]

As somebody said to me after the game, the biggest excitement you get watching Wolves is when we score a goal.

It eclipses everything else.

 

[Johnny75]

The Fabio one is a strange one. Look, clearly 35m was ridiculous, I’m not going to start that dance again, however there must be atleast some talent for someone to fetch that sort of money. Not saying it’s 35m worth of talent, or it was a good signing given where we were as a team. But surely a loan is the right move for him? Being sat on the bench his value just deteriorates more, he doesn’t get any minutes whatsoever so surely that will hinder his development?

I get the squad is paper thin,
But I get the impression if Raul gets injured then Fabio still wouldn’t start.

There is a player on loan to Milan called Pietro Pellegri. In 2018 a 17yr old Pellegri moved for a then record fee of €25m. His record at that point was played 9 scored 3 for Genoa. He played 22 times in that first season, mainly from the bench.

Pellegri has not played for Monaco since and is now on loan to AC Milan where they have an option to buy him for €6m. He's currently played a handful of minutes over 5 games and Milan are looking at ways to end the loan early.

Fabio is going down this road unless he gets out on loan and gets games somewhere that can aid his development. He isn't good enough right now.

 

[WolfMan]

Switched to the Liverpool Everton game after ours last night and Thierry Henry highlighted every team outside the top 4 has either a zero or negative goal difference. Thought that was quite interesting and suggests we aren't the only ones struggling to score many.

Personally I think whilst it is frustrating, at least we are solid and don't look like conceding many at all. I really think one dynamic central midfielder who can beat a man would make a world of difference to this team. It would negate other teams main tactic of intensely pressing us for a start.

 

[AndyWolves]

Switched to the Liverpool Everton game after ours last night and Thierry Henry highlighted every team outside the top 4 has either a zero or negative goal difference. Thought that was quite interesting and suggests we aren't the only ones struggling to score many.

Personally I think whilst it is frustrating, at least we are solid and don't look like conceding many at all. I really think one dynamic central midfielder who can beat a man would make a world of difference to this team. It would negate other teams main tactic of intensely pressing us for a start.

3rd from bottom on goals scored, 3rd from top on goals conceded.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Pop quiz kids, what is the best option here?

 

[Boozad]

I'm getting more livid by the minute the more I think about that.

 

[WolfMan]

3rd from bottom on goals scored, 3rd from top on goals conceded.

It's funny when Lage came everyone (me included) thought we'd score loads but be vulnerable at the back, it's ended up the complete opposite. We're like some 80's Italian team at the minute.