Wolves 0-1 Bournemouth: Verdict Thread

[Johnny75]

We looked much less likely to score after he went off. Not sure how we blame him for that.

Adama was fucking rubbish second half.

He's actively detrimental to our play when he's run out of steam and didn't run off the ball. Which he was second half.

He's an impact sub and a good one but he's not a starter.

 

[Tredman]

Adama was fucking rubbish second half.

He's actively detrimental to our play when he's run out of steam and didn't run off the ball. Which he was second half.

He's an impact sub and a good one but he's not a starter.

I don’t disagree, but it’s hard to ignore the fact that we look much less likely to score without him on the pitch. Same for last week too.

 

[Johnny75]

Amazed we took Adama off when we put two strikers on, especially as he'd put in a couple of reasonable crosses. One especially good but Cunha didn't get his head to it at the near post.

He put one good cross in the second half.

Sarabia was the much better player.

 

[Johnny75]

I don’t disagree, but it’s hard to ignore the fact that we look much less likely to score without him on the pitch. Same for last week too.

I don't think that's the case, more to do with having willing runners.

I thought Hwang was much more effective than Adama against Liverpool.

He just didn't fit with the other players. He'd be good for Sean Dyche but not a team looking at fast movement and ball speed.

 

[Foxtrot150380]

Sorry chaps, I take full responsibility for that result. Just joined the forum yesterday, said it was a banana skin and look what happened. Next time I will just keep quiet !

 

[Johnny75]

I don’t disagree, but it’s hard to ignore the fact that we look much less likely to score without him on the pitch. Same for last week.

Of course I'm not blaming Adama alone.

Our midfield 3 of Mout, Nunes and Neves isn't anywhere near dynamic or forward passing/ driving enough and that leads us to go down the wings when we need better options.

Hopefully JL sees today and concludes we need better options

 

[Tredman]

Of course I'm not blaming Adama alone.

Our midfield 3 of Mout, Nunes and Neves isn't anywhere near dynamic or forward passing/ driving enough and that leads us to go down the wings when we need better options.

Hopefully JL sees today and concludes we need better options

The difference did seem to be the midfield getting forward, as against Liverpool. Is that just covering for the fact our forwards don’t score though.

 

[prawnking]

This summer we either change Adama or change 5/6 of our outfield players.

He's fine as a sub when we need him till then

 

[AndyWolves]

I didn't get to see the game today, thankfully it would seem.

I was wondering before the game if we need to be a bit braver and have Cunha playing off Raul / Costa and have two in CM rather than 3.

 

[Aikiwolf]

He put one good cross in the second half.

Sarabia was the much better player.

Nah, Sarabia was mince today. Created nothing and did nothing of note. His highlight is he gave the ball away slightly less than Podence

 

[The Bear]

Adama was fucking rubbish second half.

He's actively detrimental to our play when he's run out of steam and didn't run off the ball. Which he was second half.

He's an impact sub and a good one but he's not a starter.

Agreed. You could tell he was knackered and blowing a bit in the second half and likely the reason he got hooked.

 

[Mel Evo]

Amazed we took Adama off when we put two strikers on, especially as he'd put in a couple of reasonable crosses. One especially good but Cunha didn't get his head to it at the near post.

This was a really good chance and Cunha’s inability to get his head on it was a disappointment like so much else today. Everything was so flat about the match, just got to hope it was a one-off after such a good run. It’s all been said for me in this thread already, but whereas Gillett’s ludicrous red card didn’t cost us the points last week it seemed we paid today.

Maybe we shouldn’t have ditched the winning Elvis / Fleetwood Mac / Smiths combination.

 

[Aikiwolf]

This was a really good chance and Cunha’s inability to get his head on it was a disappointment like so much else today. Everything was so flat about the match, just got to hope it was a one-off after such a good run. It’s all been said for me in this thread already, but whereas Gillett’s ludicrous red card didn’t cost us the points last week it seemed we paid today.

Maybe we shouldn’t have ditched the winning Elvis / Fleetwood Mac / Smiths combination.

He really should have scored, I'd have backed Bonatini, Cutrone or Jake Cassidy to score in that situation.

 

[Del Woppio]

First half was good, well on top and got ourselves into some really good positions, but obviously couldn't convert any of them into decent scoring chances. Second half was absolute fucking mince and it got worse with every sub. Last twenty minutes was literally embarrassing, just dripping with Championship tactics. Not a single one of the forwards put in more than a 6/10 performance today, and tbh no matter what combination of 3 we choose, there's always going to be too many things missing for it to properly click. The only way we'll look consistently threatening is in a 4231 or a 4222 for me. In a 433 neither of the threes has the right combination no matter what players we chuck out. It'll still probably be just enough, but I'd rather we look at a different formation tbh.

Cunha just isn't a number 9, Sarabia I think is better in the half spaces or a second striker than a wide forward. We haven't got a midfielder capable of playing as a ten or even running in behind off the ball as an 8, Nunes has a go but he's fucking useless in the final third. I don't especially like any of our wide men with the exception of Neto and we don't know how we'll he's going to come back.

I do still think we'll be fine, but fuck me we've got some rebalancing to do in the Summer. I do like Cunha as a footballer but I'm still not even particularly convinced what he is and what position and formation to put him in, but surely to fuck at £45m there's a plan for to get the best out of him, but I'm fucked if I know what it is and how many transfers it'll take to get there

 

[Leigh Griffiths' Hairline]

Zero strategy or game plan in that match. Dominated possession in the first half but did nothing with it.

Our tactic throughout seemed to revert to play the ball to Adama and let him cross it into nobody. When Adama went off, we continued the same tactic, now with 2 x number 9s on the pitch, but with no Adama to execute the plan - so Costa and Raul were completely isolated.

Easily the worst managerial performance by Julen since he arrived.

 

[ROVERT47]

I’m hoping it’s just a blip in the new regime, a bit like Huddersfield with Nuno but at the moment after that shit today I’m feeling like I felt a few months ago.

 

[The Saturday Boy]

Way too predictable meant we were very easy to defend against. Not one Wolves player took the game to Bournemouth, we kept passing neatly while Bournemouth got back into their defensive shape and then we tried, and failed, to get past them…usually down the wings with the largely ineffective Traore and Sariba.

A number of times, Cunha asked for the ball to be played into his feet. Most of the time he was ignored. I have yet to see him head the ball…i don’t think I have ever seen a footballer so unable to put his head where a football is.

There was plenty of effort, but no energy. Formation was so fluid at times it looked like a training ground exercise to see what worked.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

I’m hoping it’s just a blip in the new regime, a bit like Huddersfield with Nuno but at the moment after that shit today I’m feeling like I felt a few months ago.

It's not quite in that bracket for me.

1) First half, we did knock it around quite well. There was some genuinely nice football, albeit with little threat. If one of the many blocked crosses had fallen kindly and we'd gone in 1-0 up, absolutely no-one would have said it was undeserved

2) There wasn't any lack of effort, as there frequently was under Lage in his final six months

3) We did at least try to change it tactically, the changes didn't come off but that's preferable to just sitting there, either going purely like-for-like or worse still, leaving the same XI out there in the same shape

4) We already know we can play way better than that. we've seen it multiple times under Lopetegui already and he's only been in charge for two months' worth of games. Prior to his arrival, that was just the norm. That was how we played, week after week

5) We didn't look an absolute rabble at the back, as we pretty much always did from March-November 2022

6) The manager has accepted we weren't very good and didn't deserve anything. This never happened before

 

[Wilf Wolf]

Hopefully it will prove to be “just one of those days”, but plenty of areas of concern. The main one is complete lack of goal threat and whilst it is pretty clear Cunha isn’t a centre forward I’m not sure what he is. As pointed out he made a few runs in the first half but was ignored every time, apart from that he looks decidedly average and there’s precious little evidence so far that it’s £45m well spent.

To end up chasing a game with Costa and Raul on the pitch was dreadful, made even worse by fannying around with the ball rather than playing it in early and hoping they’d win something. With the pair of them on we completely lost control of the midfield. I’d have actually preferred to see Collins come on and move Dawson up front as at least he can jump. Raul compounded a nondescript display by acting the tit again blocking their keeper thereby giving him the excuse to waste even more time.

The first two times their keeper had the ball the ref motioned for him to get on with it and after that the ref just seemed to accept it. A yellow card early on and we’d have seen the ball in play for another five minutes. Almost certainly wouldn’t have made any difference to the outcome but the constant breaks and delays certainly don’t help a team get any momentum. It’s clear being cheating, diving, injury-feigning cunts is in the Bournemouth DNA and I’d be delighted if they never visit Molineux again.

 

[ROVERT47]

I’m a notorious Wolves sceptic but even I was feeling pretty confident pre match yesterday.
Win and we probably would have only need 3 more wins and couple of draws.
Then seeing all the other results and being at a game where we looked like we were never going to score my inner Morrisey kicks in and it’s, ‘I was happy in the haze of a drunken hour but heaven knows I’m miserable now’.
Ah well, maybe Friday night might spring a nice surprise if I can bring myself to watch it.