Wolves 0 - 2 Crystal Palace: The Verdict.

[Norman Deeley]

The worrying thing for me is that this is the 3rd or 4th time Nuno has known the questions before he went into the exam and the 3rd or 4th time he’s failed the test. How Palace set up was absolutely no surprise – just as say, Cardiff was no surprise – but we looked absolutely clueless and the lack intensity was frightening. What has changed since last year as we when we were at home to say, Sheffield United, last year (which is a reasonable comparison to being at home to Palace this year) we weren’t this frightened? Sadly, that summary by a Palace fan is exactly right.

 

[AndyWolves]

Same problems as always, outnumbered in the centre of midfield and the two IFs being too wide (and shit)

I'd really like to see Nuno try 3412 at home, even without Jota we have the personnel for it

 

[Deleted Cyber]

The worrying thing for me is that this is the 3rd or 4th time Nuno has known the questions before he went into the exam and the 3rd or 4th time he’s failed the test. How Palace set up was absolutely no surprise – just as say, Cardiff was no surprise – but we looked absolutely clueless and the lack intensity was frightening. What has changed since last year as we when we were at home to say, Sheffield United, last year (which is a reasonable comparison to being at home to Palace this year) we weren’t this frightened? Sadly, that summary by a Palace fan is exactly right.

If you look back at Nunos reign there is no doubt that he knows how he wants his team to play. Sometimes however he needs to accept that it is not or may not work and adapt. We do have the personnel for 3-4-1-2 be it MGW or Moutinho in the hole. Looking back to when we have come unexpectedly unstuck at home under Nuno

Sunderland 0-0 Strong defensive organised display by the worst side in the championship
Forest 0-2. Great counter attacking organised display
Cardiff- 1-2 - out muscled in midfield and hit on the break.
Watford-0-2- out orgainsed out thought and outplayed.
Huddersfield-0-2 undone by organisation on top of a truly insipid performance and indivdual errors
Palace-0-2 never looked like scoring against a strong organised system.

Now given how far we have come and our position some question those who are "negative" about us. I agree we are doing well but the signs were there last year of how to play against us and in the top division more teams are capable of doing it , as we seem to be finding out. For all his plaudits Nuno must take this one on the chin. His resolte refusal to go a bit more horses for courses has contributed to these defeats or poor performances. As has been said many times there is nothing wrong with having a plan B. Arsenal did that to good effect at the weekend going from a 3 to a 4 at the back and winning the game.

Perhaps Tammy Abraham up top with Raul could help a 3-4-1-2?

 

[Tredman]

Perhaps we should just consider that after several seasons in the premier palace simply have better players in quite a few positions. That's probably as you would expect and we do have to upgrade.

Let's not chuck everything else under the bus because we lost one game to a very fluky goal (i sit inline with the 6 yard box and thought it was onside fwiw).

 

[Deleted Cyber]

Perhaps we should just consider that after several seasons in the premier palace simply have better players in quite a few positions. That's probably as you would expect and we do have to upgrade.

Let's not chuck everything else under the bus because we lost one game to a very fluky goal (i sit inline with the 6 yard box and thought it was inside fwiw).

I dont think it is one game and I dont think its chicking everything under a bus. We have been undone at home 3 times in 11 games and lost to spurs and Liverpool. We really dont want 7 or 8 home defeats in the season. If I was West Ham , Brighton, Cardiff or Fulham I would already know exactly how I would be playing on their visit to us. Those 4 games are 4 we really should be taking points off and probably winning at least 2. To do that we need to be able to break them down. None of those teams are coming here playing expansive football for us to counter attack. All will close us down, press and be organised. We need to be prepared for that. Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.

 

[Tredman]

Every time we lose we have to go through this; beating spurs didn't make us great, losing to palace doesn't make us shit.

 

[Deleted Cyber]

Every time we lose we have to go through this; beating spurs didn't make us great, losing to palace doesn't make us shit.

Every time we lose in that manner and dont adapt, yes we will go through this and quite rightly so. Or are you saying that losing to teams at home who are lower than us in the table and dare to turn up organised with a plan is the wolves way?

I respectfully think not. Shit like last night needs to be unpicked . This feast or famine is unhealthy. We , at home this year are consistently inconsistent!

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Probably because we're a mid table team, by their nature that tends to be the way.

Intensity was the problem last night, we started flat and couldn't raise our game. That said we quite obviously should have gone 1-0 up off the set piece and it's an offside goal that's done us over (Rui had very little to do all game). 0-0 would have been a fair reflection.

We'll probably go 7th again at some point and we'll get dreams of the Europa League again.

 

[Tredman]

We didn't play that well and we probably should have rotated the team more. Equally a good 4 or 5 of their players are better than ours.

Nuno isn't going to completely change his style, if that's what you want then you want a new manager.

Not sure what all the nonsense about us never playing 3-4-1-2 is as we clearly played it last night when MGW came on, we've also started with it in at least 3 games.

 

[Tredman]

. That said we quite obviously should have gone 1-0 up off the set piece and it's an offside goal that's done us over .

Not seen it back, but he looked in line from my seat directly in line with it.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

We didn't play that well and we probably should have rotated the team more. Equally a good 4 or 5 of their players are better than ours.

Nuno isn't going to completely change his style, if that's what you want then you want a new manager.

Not sure what all the nonsense about us never playing 3-4-1-2 is as we clearly played it last night when MGW came on, we've also started with it in at least 3 games.

Be interested to know which 4-5 Palace players you'd want at Wolves.

Personally don't think it was a difference in individual ability that separated the sides yesterday, and I don't think the shape was wrong either, it was just the overall approach to the game, it was the wrong mentality.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Not seen it back, but he looked in line from my seat directly in line with it.

He's offside. Not by much and it's one that you can't really slate the linesman for missing, but he is off. Whatever, we should push out properly.

 

[Jinky]

Every time we lose we have to go through this; beating spurs didn't make us great, losing to palace doesn't make us shit.

No, but you've got your head in the sand if you can't admit there is a problem against this type of opponent. It isn't just by sheer luck or coincidence that we've looked excellent and got results against the likes of Spurs, Arsenal, both Manchester clubs, Chelsea etc and then gone and lost to Huddersfield, Cardiff, Palace, Watford etc.

ND was spot on when he said "The worrying thing for me is that this is the 3rd or 4th time Nuno has known the questions before he went into the exam and the 3rd or 4th time he’s failed the test".

I love Nuno - but he can see what's happening just as much as everyone else and is failing to do anything about it.

As soon as I saw the line up last night I knew we were in for a tough match, and within the first 5 minutes it was clear to see that it wasn't working. We had nothing in the middle, the front 3 were too far apart, we were overran in the middle of the park - and unfortunately to go with all these tactical errors on Nuno's part, the players themselves seemed absolutely shattered. So many misplaced passes, heavy touches, lost tackles etc. Not a single player played well last night and when that happens, defeat is inevitable.

Nuno does need to look at the way we set up against this type of side. We cannot be slow and ponderous in possession. We allowed Palace to get back in to shape every time we had the ball. We didn't play between the lines. Moutinho/Saiss were far too deep. Costa was very poor (again) and Cav blew hot and cold.

I hope we can add some much needed quality in numbers this month because we looked knackered last night. That said, irrespective of whether we do sign a couple of more players this month, Nuno needs to learn some lessons.

 

[Tredman]

He's offside. Not by much and it's one that you can't really slate the linesman for missing, but he is off. Whatever, we should push out properly.

Yes, i know it's not our way but sometimes when we are trying to pass it out of the 6 yard box it would be nice to just leather the fuck out of the ball.

 

[Penk Wolf]

Yes, we’ve been shit for a number of games at home, however, if everything was perfect we’d be challenging City and Liverpool in our FIRST season back in the PL.

If we are sitting here next season with the same issues we have problems as we aren’t progressing and we haven’t brought in the players to resolve the issues.

Rome wasn’t built in a day.

 

[StuardoWulf]

I didn't think Palace were anything special tbf they were equally average as us. We can (and should) discuss formations all we like but the elephant in the room is that our players couldn't string any passes together and were poor on the second ball.
Rui's kicking to Doc was crap exacerbated by Doc running under the ball at least three times. I don't really get this tactic. Doc can head it forward I know but if your gonna do that kick it to someone who can head it. Doing the same thing everytime is never a good thing.
Costa safe option everytime, creative players must have the backing/balls to be more speculative in possesion.
We are so ponderous in build up sometimes by the time we've eventually got into their half they are set up. We play side to side looking for overloads and they just stay in shape. I certainly aint a gerrit forward merchant but sometimes try the quick ball (several times last night you could see good movement but the player with the ball turned away and did the safe thing).
Me and my bro both wanted Vinagre brought on as we felt that Jonny was slowing play down on that side.
I just want to add that Raul worked his absolute bollocks off again last night. Boly was a bit complacent at times. A defender should not realling be trying to take lots of people on although it does look good when it comes off.

For me for this type of game Neves, Saiss and then Moutinho behind the front 2.

But we are top half in January and 3 wins from safety so rejoice and hope our IF's show up for the rest of the season (would be nice)

 

[Hereford Wolf]

We were poor but I just couldn't understand why they didn't use Doherty more.

Everything went down the other side.

Besides that, it was a night when no passes were accurate, balls bounced off players and it was all frustrating.

I have to give Zaha credit though - he is very good.

 

[b3h]

He's so over rated

 

[Johnny75]

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

Sorry YW but this is coach speak/ pop psychology nonsense. It had nothing to do with confidence or bravery and I think they're easy get outs for the players, it was a tactical mis-step from Nuno and the players didn't respond mentally to this challenge.

The mindset last night was to keep possession and control the pace of the game, in itself not a bad tactic but for some reason we wanted to keep the ball whilst Palace got back into their solid formation. That's a definite plan on Nuno's behalf and one that he got wrong.

When we then tried to allow Palace to come onto us and try and hit them on the break our central pair were over run by their central 3 and so we struggled to win the ball back anywhere but wide and our 3 up against Wan Bissaka and PvA is never going to end well. Sakho is no slouch either and we played into their physical capabilities using this approach.

Credit Nuno for trying to change it by bringing MGW on but Palace just stifled him as Doc, Moutinho and Cav just buggered off whenever he was looking for a quick return ball.

It's a mindset I hope Nuno changes and becomes more positive with and I think he got it wrong playing Cav and Costa last night. We needed a more technical player from the off in MGW sitting on Milivojevic so we could try and get quicker ball in and around their weaker players technically like McArther and Sakho.

I know Nuno likes his defenders to come forward and his central midfielder to drop back with the ball and that works against the bigger clubs but teams like Palace sit off and are OK with midfielders dropping out and letting us have the ball wide as it doesn't hurt them. I'd like to see Boly/ Bennett and Coady step forward more and have runners between the lines both coming in off the angles and running off the shoulder and last night the front 3 didn't do that. Too static and easy to crowd out. We missed Jota in that sense.

The press/ sitting off didn't work either last night as it was far too easy for Palace to come out with the ball and only Raul was doing the pressing which left an easy pass most of the time. When we hunted as a pack we pushed Sakho into the kinds of mistakes we know he can make, sadly we didn't capitalise.

I'm sure Nuno will look at things and he has shown he can change as he did when he switched to a 3-4-1-2 formation.

On to City and a completely different performance.

 

[Premier Quality]

I think it’s easy to say don’t worry about it because over the season we’re doing well (which we are), but losing 5 of the last 7 home games and only having a shot on target in the 91st minute yesterday means things need improving.