Wolves 0 - 2 Wednesday verdict thread

[darlowolf64]

People need a reality check it's not on your Xbox.

We "bomb-squadded" a number of players when Jackett came in without using and Xbox or playing Football Manager...

 

[darlowolf64]

The position we're in I would rather see the likes of Ronan, Herc and Enobakare playing plus the attacking players we bought/loaned and throw in Silvio and Borthwick-Jackson, Saiss etc

 

[Jamwolf]

In hindsight, the crazy rush by Fosun to bring in players, and to hastily appoint Zenga, was just that - crazy.

Yes, the old guard needed replacing, but do it gradually. It's hardly a surprise, and nobody's fault, that Zenga, the Italians, and the Portugese led to a divided dressing room.

The season is over. There will be a massive clear out in January - who goes is anyones guess as this stage.

 

[jd1981]

In hindsight, the crazy rush by Fosun to bring in players, and to hastily appoint Zenga, was just that - crazy.

Yes, the old guard needed replacing, but do it gradually. It's hardly a surprise, and nobody's fault, that Zenga, the Italians, and the Portugese led to a divided dressing room.

The season is over. There will be a massive clear out in January - who goes is anyones guess as this stage.

The season is over in the sense that we can't challenge the top 6 but it's very much alive with the relegation battle. We are in deep shit currently and don't even look close to winning a game of football soon.

 

[Norman Deeley]

Not sure there will be a massive clear out. For a player to leave someone else has to want them and come close to matching their wages. Plenty of managers would take Dave Edwards, but George Saville? I don't think so.
And Darlo is spot on - every coach we have needs replacing

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Bomb them out to train on their own and run their contracts down then.

 

[wordsleywolf]

We need a couple of defenders as a minimum, just so we don't pack midfield with workhorses rather than footballers. That still doesn't explain why the likes of Saiss are on the bench while Coady/Price/Edwards/Saville strut their stuff. Hopefully this is just that Lambert isn't familiar with the players yet rather than he considers them better footballers.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

What did I say in the week? We've averaged marginally over a point a game for the whole of 2016 with the British/Irish core of players, they aren't very good. They are poor Championship players at a real push, keep picking them as the heartbeat of your team and you'll get relegated or very close to it. Not happy at all with Lambert's selection, doing that once as a makeshift "get a 0-0 away from home" team in your first game is just about ok. Not at home when you've been making noises about playing from the front foot. Aside from the opening 10 minutes where we outworked Wednesday (and not much else), we giftwrapped these three points for them. They didn't have to do anything. Didn't get out of second gear. I said to the guys in the pub before and after the game, I could have done Carvalhal's team talk for them. It's easy. Here it goes.

"Hunt and Wallace, you boys down the right have got nothing to worry about defensively so just play your own game. They've got a fat, shite right back who'll only ever cut inside and a crap central midfielder down there. Fill your boots. Back line, step up 5-10 yards from where you normally stand, they've got no-one to run in behind. Midfield, again don't worry about them, no creativity, they'll run around but they'll let you play. Their defence will make a mistake or two so just bide your time. They won't try to keep the ball at all so just bide your time for possession, no need to press too hard. Enjoy."

We're in a relegation fight now, make no mistake about that. And the answer is not picking these shitehawks or playing for 0-0s.

Lonergan: Kicks like a 4 year old. Couldn't do much about the goals but he is what he always has been, a poor Championship keeper with a highlight reel. 3

Iorfa: What has happened here? Put us in the shit for the second goal with a woeful five yard pass and nearly repeated the trick in the second half. I like the guy but that doesn't mean I can't see when he's had a shocker and it's happening all the time at the moment. 2

Stearman: We absolutely mugged Fulham last August to get £2m for him. He goes there and they concede 78 goals...so we bring him back. His one asset of being quick on the turn has gone, he can't do it any more. So what you're left with is a casual bastard who strolls around stroking his mullet. Awful. Don't ever pick him again. 2

Hause: Did at least stand up to the physical presence of Lucas Joao but distribution was awful and lucky not to give away at least one penalty. 3

Doherty: Just wow. This awful, awful cunt would not get a game for Bilston Town. He's not a footballer. Overweight, stinking attitude, horribly one footed, no defensive ability whatsoever, can't run, can't turn, can't tackle, can't mark, can't jump, isn't even any good going forward and we have him contracted until 2019. I've said it before about him, he was a £100k Irish league player when we bought him and he's an Irish league player now. He is a total liability, he will constantly cost you goals at this level. Hate is a strong word. I fucking hate Matt Doherty. Rip his contract up, I never want to see him ever again. 0

Price: Tries hard, really though he's just a neat and tidy cog in a wheel. Stick a dominant presence like an on form McDonald or what I think Saiss could be, and he'd probably look ok. In this team he looks like a little boy lost. 4

Coady: Did a bit of Dennis Bergkamp skill to engineer our only first half chance...followed it up with a Dennis Pearce finish. Rubbish footballer, £2m for that? I've seen more accomplished players down the park. Can't play as a defensive midfielder, can't attack so what really is he doing? 3

Saville: Newsflash everyone, George Saville can't play on the left wing. This was a shocking selection by Lambert because you're completely negating any threat down that side and he isn't even that good at tracking back. I tell you what, I'm not going to rate him. I wouldn't rate Olly Murs on his DIY skills or Gordon Ramsey on his ability to drive an F1 car. N/A

Costa: The only one in the first half who looked to do anything, he had a couple of runs which came to nothing. Basically he's our only attacking outlet and in the process doesn't have that much end product. I feel sorry for him, I bet he wants to leave. 4

Edwards: Played more or less up front in the first half. Played sort of on the right in the second half. Was crap at both. We all know he's a great pro but he wasn't good enough years ago and nothing has changed. If he's going to be the fulcrum of a Lambert team then I'm not sure I want to see it. 2

Bodvarsson: Yeah, the service to him is dreck. But he really isn't offering anything at all to us at the moment. Maybe he might in a genuine front two, maybe he might if we played a bit more football (we played none yesterday). At the moment he may as well not be on the pitch, he's playing like Sig did last season without the stick from the crowd. 2

Subs: Dicko gave us a bit of impetus, gave us an outball down the channels, tried one shot from a silly angle when he should have crossed or waited for support. Teixeira came on with seemingly no instructions, played nowhere and might have got sent off on another day. Cavaleiro missed a sitter but the game was gone by then. A collective 3 for effort alone.

I'm not happy.

 

[Lord Knows]

I think its hard to pass judgment on a collection of individuals because they keep losing out to football TEAMS, who beat Wolves with collective skills and collective intelligence.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

The defence is a unit. A shite unit.

Same with the midfield.

This is nothing to do with individuals versus teams. You are kidding yourself if you think it is. It is to do with a minimum of 7 of the starting 11 being not good enough to be considered even vaguely fit for purpose.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

I think its hard to pass judgment on a collection of individuals because they keep losing out to football TEAMS, who beat Wolves with collective skills and collective intelligence.

Bingo. Been that way for years too.

 

[Langers]

I think its hard to pass judgment on a collection of individuals because they keep losing out to football TEAMS, who beat Wolves with collective skills and collective intelligence.

I agree.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

It's nonsense.

 

[Norman Deeley]

DW's first para says it all. Same core of players, 4 different managers, a point a game in 2016. We have to start again.

 

[SSB]

Lonergan: Kicks like a 4 year old. Couldn't do much about the goals but he is what he always has been, a poor Championship keeper with a highlight reel. 3

Subs: Dicko gave us a bit of impetus, gave us an outball down the channels, tried one shot from a silly angle when he should have crossed or waited for support.

Good post.

It was Lonergan's shite kick that ulitmately left Stearman flapping and led to their second goal. He doesn't even look comfortable with simple saves.

Alvaro Negredo scored for Middlesbrough yesterday from the exact position Dicko had his shot. Edwards gave Dicko a right bollocking, only for Dicko to give him a shrug of the shoulders back.

 

[Langers]

I don't think I've seen a Wolves defence so bereft of confidence since I've been a Wolves fan. And when you think of some of the horrific defenders who have blighted Molineux over the years, that's quite the accolade.

And it looks like that confidence seeps through to the rest of the team making the entire XI play like a jibbering wreck with absolutely zero ideas or belief.

We don't just need 1 centre half in January, we badly need two. I hate how much abuse Danny Batth gets but at the same time, if we have any ambition to make a promotion push any time before 2020, we need to get out of the mindset of 'X will play better with a leader alongside him'. We need 2 centre halves who are both good defenders in their own right - not semi-decent depending on their partner. As it stands, we don't have a single defender who fits this bill (I can't count Williamson as I've no idea if he'll ever play for us).

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Ah yes, full marks to the morons who booed Batth when he came out at HT for a presentation. Guess what you idiots, we're 2-0 down and he's not in the team. Maybe he isn't the problem after all.

Batth is ok at this level when he's on decent form. But he should be a squad option, not an automatic pick.

Kenny and I discussed it at half time, if the whole back four + keeper (either of them) were replaced in January then not one of them could complain. To be honest anyone would be better than Doherty. Recall Ben O'Hanlon from his barnstorming loan at Telford. Pull a bloke out of the crowd. So long as they stand vaguely in the right place and don't sulk after they've made a calamitous error then there's an instant improvement. Or we could, y'know, pick the guy we signed from Atletico Madrid, it's a tough one.

 

[wordsleywolf]

If he ain't good enough for Madrid what makes you think he's good enough for Wolves?

 

[Derby Wolf]

I think its hard to pass judgment on a collection of individuals because they keep losing out to football TEAMS, who beat Wolves with collective skills and collective intelligence.

I cant agree with this:

6 of yesterdays team inc Dicko have been playing together since 13/14

8* of yesterdays team inc Dicko have been playing together since 14/15

8* of yesterdays team played together last season.

**I excluded Saville from 14/15 as he barely featured and Dicko from last season for the same reason.

The problem here isnt the side playing as individuals when theyve been playing together for so long. The cold reality is they simply arent good enough.

 

[Johnny75]

I think DW says it better on an individual basis than I could and I agree with all of his post, particularly the Doherty and Lonergan bits.

I will add some bits on Paul Lambert's formations.

We started with our standard 4-2-3-1 with the aforementioned mess always likely to happen. This needed to change after the 2nd goal and a better manager would've hauled off Saville for Cavielliero right then and there, but alas our own Robert the Bruce did not do this. We then saw Lambert the Villa play tippy tippy nonsense across the back before a defender hit straight balls into Bod or the right channel for Costa to try and run past the defender. Surprisingly enough this didn't work and so Wednesday decided they would have some fun, kick Bod to pieces and generally pass the ball around our midfield which seemed to be doing the Mannequin challenge for the first half.

That had to wait until half time when Saville was replaced by Dicko accompanied by a 'WTF you've left Coady on as well?' and 'WTF has Cav banged your daughter?' remarks from various fans around me. I had to agree, has Cav done something so heinous he can't even get a sub appearance for George Saville?

This duly sent us into a sort of diamond but gave us a formation but ended up more akin to child's first eleven aside game where the manager is the local primary school history teacher who once played Kick Off 2.

Lonergan
Iorfa--Stears--Hause--Doherty
Price
Edwards--Coady
Costa
Bod--Dicko​

Everybody looked lost and DW's post on the match day thread of our 2 banks of 4 but sideways perfectly illustrates the mess we found ourselves in. We had a diamond with full backs that didn't provide width and all the creativity of BBC daytime show. Costa looked lost, Bod hadn't a clue but Dicko at least knew what he was doing. Price and Edwards waved their arms around a lot and for 15 minutes actually pressed the ball.

The diamond worked much better when Tex and Cav came on for Costa and Bod and we actually had shots and even one on target. I wouldn't be surprised to see this used more and we were far more effective with it but we have to play CBJ and Silvio along with Saiss at the base of the diamond.

Hopefully Lambert goes to this system, sees the error of his ways and plays Saiss and Cav from the start with one of Tex or Costa at the tip of the diamond.

One positive was the crowd who I thought were tremendous yesterday and a tip of the hat to the Sheffield Wednesday fans who to a man managed to have an item of blue somewhere on their person resulting in an impressive sight.