Wolves 0-1 Arsenal: Verdict Thread

[Lupo]

I thought Chiqi showed enough at both ends of the pitch to warrant a start.

Would be interesting to see how holds up over 70 minutes because, aside from baiting Martinelli into his second yellow, he was busting a gut for everything. Semedo must have been wondering what lottery he'd won to finally have some defensive support on that wing.

I would be starting him next game too

 

[Jinky]

Well last night isn’t looking any better in the cold light of the next day having slept on it.

I’m genuinely so frustrated with that Trincao performance. He clearly has a lot of talent, but we’re not seeing it anywhere near consistent enough. This was summed up in the first half when we were breaking down the right with Semedo (more on him in a minute) and he’s looking up to see who’s in the box and Trincao is just slowly jogging over the halfway line. There is no desire what so ever to get in/around the box to try and get on the end of a ball in. Then when he does get in to a more advanced position, his final ball is appalling, and he is the most predictable footballer in the planet because you know he’s going to cut back on to his left foot. Never ever beats a man down the outside.

On Semedo – it’s been touched on already – but as good as he has been, he stops momentum and attacks dead. He doesn’t get down the outside, he never gets to the by-line and puts a dangerous cross in – but I feel for him because it must be so disheartening to look up and see no one in the box. When you’ve got Semedo constantly stopping and turning back and Trincao unable to use his right foot, we’re very, very easy to defend against and very predictable.

The cute one touch passing in & around the edge of the box has threatened to rear it’s head a couple of times (there was one lovely move last night) but we’re completely toothless when it comes to the important bit i.e. putting the ball in the back of the net.

I won’t go on about Raul again because I commented last night, but he’s half the player he was and that’s a massive concern/issue for us. We all know we have a lack of goals in the team and we all know he’ll be picked regardless of form, if available, so we need him to start contributing more in terms of scoring goals or at least being a team player (which he wasn’t at all last night) so that others can share the goalscoring burden.

I’m not a massive fan of Hwang, but I’d almost be tempted to play him close to Raul to see if they can strike up some sort of partnership again. Happy to bin Trincao off to the bench and have something like this:

Sa
Kilman-Coady-Saiss
Semedo-Moutinho-Neves-RAN
Podence
Raul-Hwang​

 

[YoungWolf]

Thats what I meant:

Sa
Semedo - Kilman - CB - RAN/Jonny
Moutinho - Neves
Neto - MGW - Pod
Raul​

This would be very close to what I'd like to see. Before end of season I'd be trying Podence behind the forward in MGW's absence and Coady alongside Kilman if Saiss isn't staying beyond this season. Will still need a different type of midfielder to Joao/Ruben I feel but that has long been discussed.

 

[Alan]

Can someone help me understand what Ruben is doing just before their goal? I can't tell if White is supposed to be marked by him, but Ruben does clear out of the area the ball gets headed back into with a strange sense of urgency.

Can anyone tell me what the tactical purpose of vacating the six yard box in that situation would be? Not saying Ruben was wrong to do it, just really can't work out what danger he thought he was snuffing out there.

 

[WsWolf]

Having had time to think about last night properly and with a bit of perspective.

This isn't the dark days of boredom under Lamberk or the end of the Jackett era and getting to watch Neves week in week out has given me the most pleasure as a Wolves fan. He was our best player by a very long way again last night.

We've gone from a brilliant January to a dire February which is odd. Norwich showed us the horseshoe of doom was back and it was there again last night. No pace in possession unless it was on the counter and always going to the wide areas miles away from Raul.

We kept doing this even though Podence was having a disaster, even if he was continually booted up in the air, and Trincao was abysmal in his decision making, as crap an end product as Adama's was.

Our tactic of having the wide men stay wide and cut in was as frustrating to watch under Nuno as it is under Bruno and had the same results.

Tin hat on, this style of play seems to be some kind of club philosophy as it's the same under two coaches now and predictably with the same results.

There is something amiss in this, it's like somebody at the club has seen the best 3 up front systems and decided that's the way to play, neglecting the fact the best 3 up front systems play with 3 in midfield and attacking full backs.

This same person's philosophy has decided 3 at the back is the best defensive system but fails to realise it's one of the worst for transition on the counter or conducive to launch any attacking play. Tin hat off.

Our problems with the wide men are they are playing for themselves, no link play to Raul, they're occupying the channels and neither of them are Salah, Jota, Mane, Raphina or any other goalscoring inside forward.

It's like they've never played or trained together in this system before. Constantly checking to see where each other are and no fluidity. No third person running or clever angled runs. It's all so static or individual and that's bad coaching.

How can Raul do anything about that? Especially when he's in a funk in front of goal himself.

The coaching and philosophy needs changing as it isn't working.

Last night was frustrating and watching Bruno flail around on the sideline it seems he is too.

TLdr frustrating as fuck on every level.

This absolutely drives me insane. No one ever runs to make space for anyone else, which is one of the main reasons we struggle to open anyone up or drag defences around other than side to side. It could be the previously alluded to the selfish play of our forwards. I always thought it was because Nuno didn't want our players being out of position and was therefore tactical but I think it's quite clear it's player limitations.

The thing with Raul, especially since Jota went is that he has to pretty much create chances for himself and often does too much meaning he loses the ball. I have no doubt if we had two other inside forwards who played off him and ran beyond him when he dropped deep he'd look much better. As shown by the Newcastle game.

 

[WsWolf]

Can someone help me understand what Ruben is doing just before their goal? I can't tell if White is supposed to be marked by him, but Ruben does clear out of the area the ball gets headed back into with a strange sense of urgency.

Can anyone tell me what the tactical purpose of vacating the six yard box in that situation would be? Not saying Ruben was wrong to do it, just really can't work out what danger he thought he was snuffing out there.

Generally to leave forwards offside when the ball is knocked back in but has to be done together.

 

[Alan]

This absolutely drives me insane. No one ever runs to make space for anyone else, which is one of the main reasons we struggle to open anyone up or drag defences around other than side to side. It could be the previously alluded to the selfish play of our forwards. I always thought it was because Nuno didn't want our players being out of position and was therefore tactical but I think it's quite clear it's player limitations.

The thing with Raul, especially since Jota went is that he has to pretty much create chances for himself and often does too much meaning he loses the ball. I have no doubt if we had two other inside forwards who played off him and ran beyond him when he dropped deep he'd look much better. As shown by the Newcastle game.

The thing that actually worries me is that Fabio doesn't seem to have much more about his movement at the moment than Raul.

I'm horribly nervous that the lack of movement from our forwards is being coached, and if it is, then I would have to seriously re-examine my assessment of Bruno.

Got time to disprove that (admittedly tin foil) theory, but it's crossed my mind.

 

[Alan]

Generally to leave forwards offside when the ball is knocked back in but has to be done together.

That's what was so odd. He was the only one who pushed out. It was bizarre.

 

[WsWolf]

The thing that actually worries me is that Fabio doesn't seem to have much more about his movement at the moment than Raul.

I'm horribly nervous that the lack of movement from our forwards is being coached, and if it is, then I would have to seriously re-examine my assessment of Bruno.

Got time to disprove that (admittedly tin foil) theory, but it's crossed my mind.

He does move, he makes loads of clever runs if you watch him closely (I did against Norwich) where he was given pelters but he made about 6/7 great runs off defenders and our players just don't look to play it in behind early. Even last night he was dropping into nice spaces round the box but often doesn't have the burst to get away from a defender so it doesn't come off. He's probably 2/3 years away from being ready to play regular PL games tbh, we went too early on him.

 

[Alan]

Fair enough, as much as I love to fly off the handle when I think a player has been shite, there's still a lot about the nuances of open play that I don't understand.

 

[WsWolf]

That's what was so odd. He was the only one who pushed out. It was bizarre.

Lack of communication obviously, generally you'd have a shout of put and everyone would push out. This is basic stuff, I think I was taught this when I was about 7 but it's probably not taught as early now with kids playing 7s instead of 11 a side.

 

[Throbber3]

we have 34 points. That is an excellent return given the other stats like chances created and goals scored. Its built on the meanest defence bar one as has been much trumpeted. So why cant we try again with the 4-3-3?

Sa
Semedo Coady KIlman RAN
Neves Dendoncker Moutinho
Podence Raul Hwang

or
Podence
Raul Hwang

Dendoncker banned from crossing halfway and play him more like Belgium seem to do, leaving Moutinho and Neves to dictate more further forward. Podence could then come into the hole with Raul and Hwang in a two if you want to try it . Whatever we try we need to finish better.

 

[Wulfie88]

 

[Tredman]

That would mean no crosses which wouldn’t be a bad thing. But for some reason Bruno wants a target man to put crosses into.

I hope we don’t go down that route as I think we’d go down with that approach, it’s too old hat and easy to defend.

Nice to have an option though - bring Chiquinho and someone off the bench as an alternative.

 

[lemonjelly]

I think DWs comment on a nice evening with average football in the middle is bang on.

We had a lot of control around our box and in midfield. arsenal were shite, and were lucky to finish with only 10 men tbh.

Oliver had a phenomenally bad game. I thought he used to be a decent ref. Did his evil twin brother replace him?

Kilman and Saiss weren't quite 100% - both made poor passes especially in the first half.

marcal should never have started, and that one is on Bruno. Gave us nothing in attack or defense. was amazed he came out for the 2nd half.

Semedo was average. Cutting in and shooting with his left foot ain't ever going to work, and it shouldn't be him taking our chances.

I thought Dendonker was ok tbh. He works better in a midfield 2 than in a 3, and several times broke up play and laid the ball off to another team mate. Yes his one cross was poor, but tbf was his weaker foot, and look at the series of over hit terrible crosses in the first half.

Neves is sublime. As Johnny says, it has been a pleasure to watch him, and I suspect he will go in the summer. Up to the arsenal goal, he was running everything.

The front 3, well, we have zero creativity as well as zero goals. Everything podence did in the first half resulted in the move breaking down. at best he is 1 decent game or half game in 5, and that is nowhere near consistent enough.

Also surprised at the love for Chiquinho. Thought his first 15 mins was poor. One decent move of note, but looked a little slow too.

No issue with their goal. Poor one to give away.

6pm to 8pm, and 10pm onwards was great. The bit inbetween poor all round.

Also, the shock on some peoples faces seeing @darlowolf64 and me in the same room was funny!

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

A few extra notes:

Did mention him in my post last night but it was late and I didn't quite go all in on Rohan Trincao. Playing like an absolute coward at the moment. Runs at players with seemingly no expectation of beating them, and on the rare occasions he does he seems surprised by it and has no idea what to do. Still bottling challenges. Sure, with a bit of chicanery both us and Barca end up artificially winning in terms of FFP, but I don't support Crafty Accountancy FC, do I. Looks absolutely miles short. Madness that we're considering that a done deal, we'd be nowhere near being able to flip him for his supposed "value".

WMP appear to have given up on cordoning off the North Bank/Steve Bull crossover post-match and that's a recipe for trouble sooner rather than later. People have rocks for brains, after a fractious 1-0 win don't walk through thousands of Wolves fans singing "ARSENAL", because some neanderthal will have a swing at you.

Not a nice comparison to make but Raul is currently doing the Willian José trick of never showing for the ball, which means that superficially he can blame lack of service for his zero impact on the game but if you just stand there all match then nothing will ever happen. Most unlike him.

Having read Lage's comments I'm hoping he's just spinning a line because as much as he and EP ( ) would like to pretend otherwise, we didn't "create lots of chances", nor was that a particularly impressive save by Ramsdale from Saiss, it was right at him. Remember the game when Man Utd put in something like 70 crosses vs a terrible Fulham team, drew the game and Moyes pulled that stat out afterwards as if it was something to be proud of? Well that was a Lite version of it last night. I wouldn't mind if someone, anyone attacked the ball, but we don't so it's a waste of time, even before you consider that a good 60% of our attempted crosses are shit in the first place. Still, at least it means the likes of Valencia and Monaco won't be trying to steal our manager

For all their shithousing, Gabriel was very impressive for them, looks a serious defender. Man of the Match by a mile for me.

 

[YoungWolf]

Think is all a bit harsh on Trincao. Definitely lightweight but certainly had the beating of Tierney, just frustrated me with poor delivery. He got into two or three fantastic positions by chopping inside and outside of him to then play the ball into the one space we didn't have anyone arriving in. He has very good movement and his dribbling is excellent, it just rarely comes to anything at the moment.

We generated 0.85xG or whatever it was from 15 shots. We categorically did not create any good chances, definitely agree on that.

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

We definitely got in some good opportunities where we chose a bad decision rather than a good one. See Fabio for details, he shoots and that gets added to the XG, but he passed.

Chiquinho's miss was a sitter too, he just wasn't brave enough. It's a header from what? 3 yards out?

 

[The Bear]

Chiquinho was never scoring from there. It was a stooping header from a narrow angle with a defender and GK in the way. He got as much on it as he realistically could.

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

Chiquinho was never scoring from there. It was a stooping header from a narrow angle with a defender and GK in the way. He got as much on it as he realistically could.

Disagree. He bottled it due to the presence of Gabriel. Keeper would have been miles away had he got some purchase on it, because he got such weak contact on it Ramsdale had a chance to get over.