Wolves 0 - 2 Crystal Palace: The Verdict.

[PuntsWolf]

We never looked like scoring. 0-0 would have been fair until Palace turned the pressure cooker up and got a flukey goal. Make your own luck though, if you actually get in the oppositions third and get men in the box.

I don’t really know what the answer. MarkakaJim pretty much summed it up though. Too deep, too slow, too predictable. We don’t generate the overload and then the attackers don’t win (or refuse to attmept) their 1 v 1s so the ball inevitably goes backward. We don’t get the forwards dropping deep and getting in the half turn. So it inevitably goes wide and then there’s no point in crossing it as there’s no one in there.

Few random points that piss me off:

1) before HT we had the long throw opportunity which Nuno gave the thumbs up to. The morons then took it short and lost the ball (shock) and Saiss had to foul and get on a yellow. Use your brain!! We aren’t making anything happen, get in in the Kenwood!

2) we’ve just scored from a corner against Spurs. We nearly score from one today. Next corner we knock it short and lose it. Jesus, have some common sense. We’re playing shit, a set piece is the leveller we need to steal something.

 

[Wilf Wolf]

Yet again overrun in midfield at home with both inside forwards, Cav and Costa, contributing next to nothing in the first half. Similar to Watford and Huddersfield but this time we somehow managed to keep them out for 70 minutes. We needed to lose one of Cav and Costa and play MGW or Moutinho behind Raul and the one who stayed on.

Raul looked tired and that left us toothless up front. Moutinho and Saiss did ok but were left isolated, Boly looked away with the fairies at time, and spurned the opportunity to redeem himself when gifted an opportunity from a corner. Incredibly the next corner was wasted and the ball never even got into the box.

Jota back asap please and Cav back to the bench as he looks three times the player coming on than when starting. Time to take a hit on Traore and reinvest in another inside forward, preferably one with a brain.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Palace were cack. We were worse. Dreadful game and we got what we deserved. On to the next one.

 

[Premier Quality]

Cav and Costa were terrible tonight - but I still think our system makes it hard for them, by leaving them isolated from support. We need them to have interplay with Raul and the fullbacks, but everything went backwards tonight.

 

[playtheace]

Well if you don't try to win a game, more often than not you won't.

Wolves never approached the game with any sort of drive or urgency, first half was very similar to that against Spurs, conservatively plodding along and feeling things out, all well and good when there's a vast array of firepower trying to gun you down but against a middle table side with an even more conservative outlook you've got to do more, especially as the home side with big aspirations then the onus is on you to make something happen. Second half it needed more urgency, get the defence higher up the pitch, let the midfielders receive the ball part way inside the opposition half instead of holding hands with centre halves, commit some bodies forward into areas that worry the opposition and play with some tempo, take some risks and try to force errors in the opponent rather than sit there waiting to see what happens. Seems Palace were the side that had more of than thought about them.

Didn't think the initial line up was a bad one but evidently there was something lacking by half time, I'd have ditched Saiss for MGW, get two midfielders on who are comfortable roaming from their position a bit more, encourage the defence to bring the ball further up the pitch and see if you can move Palace around more with extra bodies in more threatening areas. As it was I think MGW introduction made things worse, Jimenez did nothing in a wider position and MGW didn't get on the ball with any great regularity to try and force the issue from the centre of the pitch, it addressed none of the issues that had been so glaring in the first half, defence still too deep, not enough bodies in advanced areas and with MGW rarely on the ball no extra spark to raise the tempo. Next up I'd have tried Vinagre for Jonny, if you're not managing to tweak the system then he's probably the biggest difference you can make in terms of individuals available, let him have a run and see if that can open anything up. Instead we got Neves for Saiss, another pointless shuffle where you're just going to get fresher legs spending 90% of the time behind the ball trying to hit long passes into a congested defensive area, unsurprising it had little impact on proceedings.

First goal was woefully slack from Coady and Boly, both just switched off and sauntered away from the goal, didn't push up with any sort of urgency making it incredibly easy for Ayew to sneak out with them and neither was paying any sort of attention to what was going on around them, pitiful stuff.

It needs to stop being so safe and slow against these lower teams, you can't go in with the same mentality to every game, being conservative and feeling your way into it against a stronger side is all well and good but when you're the favourite all you're doing is presenting that same opportunity to your opponent. You have to take the initiative, be bolder, commit more men forward, play with more tempo and try to force the issue, teams at this level aren't going to just fall apart when they haven't had the ball for a couple of minutes, you have to force them into errors rather than just wait for them to happen.

Agree with all of this.
Too many players looked tired in the 1st half and you could tell from Doherty' s body language what was coming.
Vinagre Would have had a field day down that left side tonight, its not about "unlocking" teams after 50 passes, just upping the pace would have caused problems and Vi agre has that.

 

[jdrodrigues]

Didn't manage to watch the game so I can't comment. Seems more akin to the Watford game then anything else though. Fair play then. Definitely need to up our games against these sides as we don't seem to be able to play any football when the other side plays a more defensive strategy.

 

[Wilf Wolf]

Didn't manage to watch the game so I can't comment. Seems more akin to the Watford game then anything else though. Fair play then. Definitely need to up our games against these sides as we don't seem to be able to play any football when the other side plays a more defensive strategy.

They showed more attacking intent than we did. Unfair to Palace to suggest they were particularly defensive.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

This was very different to Watford. They worked us out. Palace didn't. They were equally as bad, and got one bounce of the ball and won a penalty (absolutely correctly). We didn't get going at all, but not through being pressured, we were just absolutely poor from back to front.

 

[jdrodrigues]

Ah, fair enough.

From what I was reading, it seemed we were battered.

Thanks!

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

We weren't at all. We just the poorer of two dreadful outfits on the night.

 

[Wilf Wolf]

We weren't at all. We just the poorer of two dreadful outfits on the night.

Weren't battered but from start to finish Palace looked far more likely to score.

 

[Tredman]

Pace was the big difference i thought. They had zaha and wan-bissaca we had no one. At one point we had Cav, Raul and MGW rushing up with the ball, it was like Cav was running in treacle.

 

[Tony Towner]

Bored of typing the same stuff after every performance against a team that packs the middle of the pitch, so I won't. We all know what the problems are Nuno needs to fix it. Doing the same time after time isn't going to work because for a team with that mindset at this level we are so easy to play against.

 

[big mean bunny]

Don't think anyone else here posts on the one football forum but I called this exact score and performance on there, being right is scant consolation mind.

 

[YoungWolf]

Well if you don't try to win a game, more often than not you won't.

Wolves never approached the game with any sort of drive or urgency, first half was very similar to that against Spurs, conservatively plodding along and feeling things out, all well and good when there's a vast array of firepower trying to gun you down but against a middle table side with an even more conservative outlook you've got to do more, especially as the home side with big aspirations then the onus is on you to make something happen. Second half it needed more urgency, get the defence higher up the pitch, let the midfielders receive the ball part way inside the opposition half instead of holding hands with centre halves, commit some bodies forward into areas that worry the opposition and play with some tempo, take some risks and try to force errors in the opponent rather than sit there waiting to see what happens. Seems Palace were the side that had more of than thought about them.

Didn't think the initial line up was a bad one but evidently there was something lacking by half time, I'd have ditched Saiss for MGW, get two midfielders on who are comfortable roaming from their position a bit more, encourage the defence to bring the ball further up the pitch and see if you can move Palace around more with extra bodies in more threatening areas. As it was I think MGW introduction made things worse, Jimenez did nothing in a wider position and MGW didn't get on the ball with any great regularity to try and force the issue from the centre of the pitch, it addressed none of the issues that had been so glaring in the first half, defence still too deep, not enough bodies in advanced areas and with MGW rarely on the ball no extra spark to raise the tempo. Next up I'd have tried Vinagre for Jonny, if you're not managing to tweak the system then he's probably the biggest difference you can make in terms of individuals available, let him have a run and see if that can open anything up. Instead we got Neves for Saiss, another pointless shuffle where you're just going to get fresher legs spending 90% of the time behind the ball trying to hit long passes into a congested defensive area, unsurprising it had little impact on proceedings.

First goal was woefully slack from Coady and Boly, both just switched off and sauntered away from the goal, didn't push up with any sort of urgency making it incredibly easy for Ayew to sneak out with them and neither was paying any sort of attention to what was going on around them, pitiful stuff.

It needs to stop being so safe and slow against these lower teams, you can't go in with the same mentality to every game, being conservative and feeling your way into it against a stronger side is all well and good but when you're the favourite all you're doing is presenting that same opportunity to your opponent. You have to take the initiative, be bolder, commit more men forward, play with more tempo and try to force the issue, teams at this level aren't going to just fall apart when they haven't had the ball for a couple of minutes, you have to force them into errors rather than just wait for them to happen.

Pretty much this really

When we were more aggressive with the ball in the early stages of the game we looked so much more likely to score. There’s definitely a lack of confidence and we need to be braver. It may leave us exposed sometimes but that is the risk we have to take against teams who set up as Palace did

First goal being offside was a bummer but no idea what Joao was doing before hand, massively overcompensated to help Doc. That was his worst game in ages unfortunately and I was surprised it was Saiss that was taken off

We have a good opportunity between the City and Chelsea league games to give ourselves a chance of finishing as high as possible. It will be interesting to see how we look to solve some of the issues we have faced this season and show we are continuing to improve. Some of it is lack of quality in certain positions and some of it is our mentality.

 

[t3ch]

Whilst it's always horrible to lose the main worry is again the inability to break teams down. We try to draw teams out and they know that now so if that isn't working we need something else.

Nuno will sort it, let's erase this abomination from our memory as quickly as possible.

I mean... how many games with Nuno making zero changes do we stop saying "nuno will sort it"?

1) before HT we had the long throw opportunity which Nuno gave the thumbs up to. The morons then took it short and lost the ball (shock) and Saiss had to foul and get on a yellow. Use your brain!! We aren’t making anything happen, get in in the Kenwood!

2) we’ve just scored from a corner against Spurs. We nearly score from one today. Next corner we knock it short and lose it. Jesus, have some common sense. We’re playing shit, a set piece is the leveller we need to steal something.

this stuff drives me absolutely nuts.

 

[t3ch]

Well if you don't try to win a game, more often than not you won't.

Wolves never approached the game with any sort of drive or urgency, first half was very similar to that against Spurs, conservatively plodding along and feeling things out, all well and good when there's a vast array of firepower trying to gun you down but against a middle table side with an even more conservative outlook you've got to do more, especially as the home side with big aspirations then the onus is on you to make something happen. Second half it needed more urgency, get the defence higher up the pitch, let the midfielders receive the ball part way inside the opposition half instead of holding hands with centre halves, commit some bodies forward into areas that worry the opposition and play with some tempo, take some risks and try to force errors in the opponent rather than sit there waiting to see what happens. Seems Palace were the side that had more of than thought about them.

Didn't think the initial line up was a bad one but evidently there was something lacking by half time, I'd have ditched Saiss for MGW, get two midfielders on who are comfortable roaming from their position a bit more, encourage the defence to bring the ball further up the pitch and see if you can move Palace around more with extra bodies in more threatening areas. As it was I think MGW introduction made things worse, Jimenez did nothing in a wider position and MGW didn't get on the ball with any great regularity to try and force the issue from the centre of the pitch, it addressed none of the issues that had been so glaring in the first half, defence still too deep, not enough bodies in advanced areas and with MGW rarely on the ball no extra spark to raise the tempo. Next up I'd have tried Vinagre for Jonny, if you're not managing to tweak the system then he's probably the biggest difference you can make in terms of individuals available, let him have a run and see if that can open anything up. Instead we got Neves for Saiss, another pointless shuffle where you're just going to get fresher legs spending 90% of the time behind the ball trying to hit long passes into a congested defensive area, unsurprising it had little impact on proceedings.

First goal was woefully slack from Coady and Boly, both just switched off and sauntered away from the goal, didn't push up with any sort of urgency making it incredibly easy for Ayew to sneak out with them and neither was paying any sort of attention to what was going on around them, pitiful stuff.

It needs to stop being so safe and slow against these lower teams, you can't go in with the same mentality to every game, being conservative and feeling your way into it against a stronger side is all well and good but when you're the favourite all you're doing is presenting that same opportunity to your opponent. You have to take the initiative, be bolder, commit more men forward, play with more tempo and try to force the issue, teams at this level aren't going to just fall apart when they haven't had the ball for a couple of minutes, you have to force them into errors rather than just wait for them to happen.

pretty spot on, a few points I agree with particularly strongly.

maddening to see Neves almost deeper than 1 or 2 of the center halves at times, who tracks back just to kick it to the defender 10 feet to either side of him. it's no wonder our forwards are so isolated.

team was too scared to play any risky passes to make something happen. we've been bad about finding players running in lanes and on the overlap for a while now. especially in games like this when you're not making any progress, would like to see some aggressive play from the players even if it doesn't always work out.

 

[Andre]

I guess this is a good time to apologise for being a drunk idiot the last few times I posted. Sorry everyone.

Anyway, very disappointing display against Palace. Amazing against Spurs. Next game please.

 

[VanWolfie]

I agree with this summary and would add that Jimenez had a poor game, with every player being below par. Neves, though was ok when he came on and had our one shot at goal, so I don't know which game Alan was watching. I'll have to take another look at it but I though Ayew was offside when the ball came through to him for the first goal. Did anyone else see that?

I've just finished playing the tape back and have done my own unofficial VAR. There is one view from the Waterloo Rd side that is in line with Coady, the one supposedly playing Ayew onside. It is clear that Ayew is about one foot offside. Boly had moved out, Coady was slower but slightly further away from the goal than Ayew when the ball was hit. I think the AR was confused by the player who was clearly offside on Coady's right and Coady's slow movement compared with Boly's. But, despite being slow, Coady was not playing Ayew on.

Having said that, Wolves got what they deserved because they were terrible, passes going astray all night, and if any team deserved to win on the night, it was Palace. Nevertheless, next season such a goal would be chalked off with VAR in operation.

 

[Deleted Cyber]

So it was another shit home perfromance. Unfortunately it is a very familiar theme. Set up with a good defensive structure, dont give the IFs any space, dont let the Wing backs interact and hit them on the break. We werent going to score if we were playing til Saturday. Excellent defensive perfrimance from Palace who never looked troubled and you knew that they were going to score , regardless if it was offside- they deserved it. Fair penalty too.

Nuno has made it clear that the wolves way is the wolves way. In which case we are two players short of being able to break down teams who set up in a disciplined way with a game plan. We cannot keep re-hashing the same issues every time. It has happened 3 times at home now all 2-0, all the same pattern, all to teams well below us in the table. Once is a one off- twice is careless- Three times in 12 games is criminal.