Wolves 0-1 Norwich (FA Cup 4th Rd): Verdict Thread

[PuntsWolf]

Bruno: "We did everything in our hands with the players in our squad."

He ain’t happy. And him and Jeff aren’t on the same hymn sheet. He’ll probably have enough credit by the summer to give the ultimatum.

 

[Alan]

Bruno: "We did everything in our hands with the players in our squad."

He ain’t happy. And him and Jeff aren’t on the same hymn sheet. He’ll probably have enough credit by the summer to give the ultimatum.

You're reading into it. It's equally as possible that Bruno's ire is drawn from the injury situation.

 

[Derby Wolf]

This is it, he was perfect patsy material with no reputation even if he doesn't deliver European football but we finish 8th or 9th with a tiny squad and tinier budget it'll add to growing reputation and the power starts shifting.

 

[Deano]

You're reading into it. It's equally as possible that Bruno's ire is drawn from the injury situation.

I doubt it. Bruno made comments at the start of the window about what players he wanted in what positions and then all of a sudden it stopped, and he went out of his way to mention about being on the same page as Jeff. These comments about not having the options he needs aren't just about injuries. They're telling.

 

[PuntsWolf]

You're reading into it. It's equally as possible that Bruno's ire is drawn from the injury situation.

We don’t really have any injuries. Two of them were out before the season started and their timeline were known during the summer window. The other two are CBs where we aren’t short.

Trincao has covid, that’s it.

 

[Alan]

You can't pretend as if Jonny and Neto don't exist because they're injured.

The players we have due to come back are the reason (I assume) that Fosun/Shi/whoever felt okay without spending on more reinforcements.

 

[Johnny75]

You can't pretend as if Jonny and Neto don't exist because they're injured.

The players we have due to come back are the reason (I assume) that Fosun/Shi/whoever felt okay without spending on more reinforcements.

We're reaping the rewards of the £35m acquisition of a lad who's barely Lg1 standard.

That money should've bought at least two quality players. It hasn't.

Yes, the injured players are coming back soon but none of them play up top effectively and when Raul isn't really available we look toothless up front as we did today.

Bruno got it wrong with Donk, should've trusted Chiquinho from the start.

I thought we created plenty but without the front player to challenge there's no point putting crosses in. One of those things is tactically wrong.

 

[Derby Wolf]

You can't pretend as if Jonny and Neto don't exist because they're injured.

The players we have due to come back are the reason (I assume) that Fosun/Shi/whoever felt okay without spending on more reinforcements.

Of course you can if the manager has never had that resource to begin with.

 

[PuntsWolf]

You can't pretend as if Jonny and Neto don't exist because they're injured.

The players we have due to come back are the reason (I assume) that Fosun/Shi/whoever felt okay without spending on more reinforcements.

I’m not pretending they don’t exist. Bruno clearly wants more, but you are saying he doesn’t.

Jonny doesn’t change anything anyway, We aren’t short there. Neto is still probably 6-8 weeks away from being a real option. Our season might be over by then.

We’re still playing Donck as an attacking option FFS. Hwang is average, Trincao hasn’t scored or assisted, Podence massively hot and cold(hasn’t scored either), Raul out of form, Fabio not good enough. I’m not happy with the options.

Now That’s all just my opinion and not relevant to the initial discussion of “Bruno isn’t happy with his options”. He clearly isn’t and I don’t know how you can think by his comments all season that he is.

 

[White Wolf]

Really disappointing to lose this, not at it at all. Bad performance against poor opposition. Why was Dendoncker so far forwards? Pretty much every game he has played for about 2 years has made him look out of his depth. Fabio and Podence also really bad.

Only person to come out of that with much credit is Semedo, imo. Wasted opportunity to progress.

 

[Paul]

Really disappointing to lose this, not at it at all. Bad performance against poor opposition. Why was Dendoncker so far forwards? Pretty much every game he has played for about 2 years has made him look out of his depth. Fabio and Podence also really bad.

Only person to come out of that with much credit is Semedo, imo. Wasted opportunity to progress.

Unfathomable, a career defensive midfielder, lets continuously play him advanced where to be honest I'd be more constructive and I'm a chronic asthmatic

 

[The Bear]

I'm assuming Bruno thought about how Donk did a couple of forward runs for the Southampton goals, and thought he'd try it even further forward for a full game.

 

[Aikiwolf]

I don't read those words and think they're anything like a manager who is happy with his squad. We know he wanted players coming into both windows, he hasn't got them (in fact the opposite, we've let players go).

We've managed to go into the winter transfer period light on options, got rid of a unique player in Adama and left ourselves even weaker.

No succession planning for Neves and/or Moutinho means this summer is enormous - and that's assuming Lage is willing to stay and we don't need to find a new manager!

 

[The Bear]

At least we got the Manager Of The Month curse out of the way before the next league game.....

 

[Tony Towner]

Be interested to hear from those at the game - looks like a Ragnick style 4222?

I was there and couldn't tell you. 4 2, do what you want

 

[AndyWolves]

1 decent pl season is probably enough to be considered for other jobs. I can't see Lage going higher than wolves for the next season or two though

 

[PuntsWolf]

I was there and couldn't tell you. 4 2, do what you want

It wasn’t very good. If anything it made us worse as Norwich were just hitting the ball into empty and relieving pressure easily.

EDIT: And as Neves played right in front of the back 2 and all the other players vacated the middle it was Just a modified Nuno horseshoe.

 

[Aikiwolf]

1 decent pl season is probably enough to be considered for other jobs. I can't see Lage going higher than wolves for the next season or two though

I'm not expecting him to go to City but its perfectly plausible that he could go to a Southampton, Palace or even Leicester. Or to a club in another country. Whilst this is obviously conjecture, he's not being supported by the owners and so a sideways move where he's allowed to make some transfers would surely be appealing?

 

[Lupo]

Pretty poor all round. The formation did us no favours, at half time I wanted Donk hooked and replaced with Chiquinho back to 3 up top, found it odd that he chose to bring Chiquinho on for Toti and move Donk into defence with Kilman moving to the left.

Chiquinho looked ok when he came on, got stuck in a bit and decent crosses. Thought both Semedo and RAN were good today. Ruddy doesn't fit how we play at all, ie. Sweeper/keeper. Too slow and almost got us into shit for it a couple of times.

Word about the goal, didn't look a free kick to me and the Norwich player went down theatrically but as he lay on the floor where the challenge took place Coote drew the line about 5 yards further back which gave Norwich a much better angle to whip the ball into the box.

Disappointing, fancied a run in the cup and home to Norwich should have been a good opportunity.

 

[Tony Towner]

I don't normally bother going to Cup games, today reminded me why. Whether it was because it was the cup or whether it was because it was Norwich there was a sloppy complacency in the first half, both in and out of possession.

I need to see the goal again, but it looked like the type we don't concede this season, runner in the box getting an unchallenged flick, Ruddy looked heavy legged.

Second half was better, but more huff and puff than anything especially creative. Coady didn't do anything wrong and Semedo had a good game, everyone else sub standard to poor, I except Ruddy from that if my first view on the goal was harsh.

As always with Fabio, it's not who he is but what he is. If he were a 19 year old from the Academy you'd say he ran around and had very little service. Unfortunately for him and us he isn't.

Lage's radio interview was concerning, firstly it's clear he's pissed off with the squad he has, his tone was not of a man lamenting injuries. Secondly he kept mentioning finding solutions, which sent a shudder down my back.