Wolves 1-0 Chelsea: Verdict Thread

[MARKakaJIM]

Sky Sports highlights if anyone wants a view of the goal.

Also I get it's not ideal but I'd keep with Costa. I mentioned this before in the build up when I was supportive of the team selection, but todays goal and the Forest one come via targetting him in that central area.

Looks like the handball claim against Gomes was a bit fortunate, definitely seen them given.

 

[James]

Massive result & what a goal by Nunes.

 

[C.L.D]

Sky Sports highlights if anyone wants a view of the goal.

Also I get it's not ideal but I'd keep with Costa. I mentioned this before in the build up when I was supportive of the team selection, but todays goal and the Forest one come via targetting him in that central area.

Ideally we need someone who can do what he does, is 10 years younger, and remembers what a goal is.

Julen is grinding out points which is what you want, wish we could do it against relegation rivals too. We have breathing room though, good stuff.

Toti can be plugged in anywhere? Did it when thrust into the side during Saiss' ACON, now these last two games. Solid worker.

As for RAN, what is this trend with our young fullbacks getting on the wrong side of their current gaffer?

 

[StuardoWulf]

Yep and the brain dead Southbank sang it in glee after the announcement on the Tannoy.

'WE'RE THE SOUTHBANK, WE SING WHAT WE WANT'

Hopefully a few knuckle draggers get banning orders in the mail next week.

Can we please caveat these type of generalisations hardly anybody around me sung it. “A handful of cunts in the south bank” works.

 

[SSB]

Followed by "we're Wolverhampton, we'll sing what we like". Such morons.

Wasn’t sung loudly from our section of the south bank, but it was by the two unwashed within earshot who are permanently angry towards the opposition and must save up their dole money through the year to pay for their season tickets.

 

[SSB]

Enjoyed the disability game at HT. Need more of that.

I can’t see why we can’t have something like that at every halftime. It’s better than kicking a ball through a hole.

 

[Mel Evo]

What a shame this is the headline of the crowd behaviour yesterday. The halftime match saw both sets of fans at their best in a genuinely heartwarming 5 minutes, which would have been great to focus on, but there’s always some twats ready to ruin it.

 

[sycophantia]

I can’t see why we can’t have something like that at every halftime. It’s better than kicking a ball through a hole.

Yep it's good, we saw it last season (can't remember the game) and had a really good view from the Steve Bull. All the players seemed to have a great time, enjoying the crowd and the crowd giving them a lot of love back, I'd vote to have it every match if that's possible.

 

[jd1981]

What a shame this is the headline of the crowd behaviour yesterday. The halftime match saw both sets of fans at their best in a genuinely heartwarming 5 minutes, which would have been great to focus on, but there’s always some twats ready to ruin it.

Yeah I thought it was fantastic and loved how both sets of kids thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

 

[Lycan]

Regarding punishing certain fans, everyone who's ever stood in S1 or S2 knows exactly who starts these chants. I wasn't even there yesterday and I know exactly who it was. It shouldn't be hard to identify them and kick them out.

 

[Tredman]

Though Moutinho did really well yesterday, that’s exactly how we should use him.

 

[Johnny75]

It's a deplorable chant but this is taking away from the game itself. I'm more concerned the stewards haven't done anything about the obvious racist in our section.

We were really good in a 4-4-1-1 formation.

Pre-game none of us had a clue what the formation was going to be as the selection looked really odd. 3 CB's and 3 CM's with a striker who is well past his best.

But it worked and Nunes on the right really worked, he looked like he really enjoyed himself there (Adama was shit when he replaced him and it was noticeable).

Cunha is a number 10, never in a million years is he a striker. He's a bloody good number 10, makes great runs, works hard and links midfield and attack well but he isn't a striker at all.

Hwang and Sarabia made a difference and Hwang was unlucky to be pinged by the ref when he'd outmuscled Koulibaly and was through on goal.

I like Toti but he isn't a full back and we really could do with Bueno back in for his quality on the ball.

Kilman was OK but then I would've been ok against Havertz who has mentally checked out already. He's similar to Cunha in ability (better in the air) and he too is never a centre forward.

Thought Semedo had a superb game up and down the right and neither winger did much against him and he looked more comfortable with Nunes in front of him rather than Adama.

But the best players on the pitch were Lemina (who may have the biggest thighs on a player I've ever seen) and Gomes. They were magnificent, pressed, harried, kept the ball simple and didn't drop onto the toes of the centre backs.

Big props to Lop who tactically got the whole team forward and pressed much higher at a better tempo than we have done in recent weeks. We still don't create enough but I think that has more to do with a lack of striker than anything else.

 

[jd1981]

Regarding punishing certain fans, everyone who's ever stood in S1 or S2 knows exactly who starts these chants. I wasn't even there yesterday and I know exactly who it was. It shouldn't be hard to identify them and kick them out.

The attitude I’ve seen on a certain facebook page highlights just how narrow minded some people are.
Most of them if you accused them of homophobia they’d deny it and say “it’s just banter” sorry doesn’t work like that and you can’t have respect ish. Also you don’t decide what someone might find offensive and the fact people can’t differentiate between context of use is unbelievable.

 

[The Bear]

It will be interesting to see if Lop sticks with this 4-4- variant from now on, especially when Neves is back.

He absolutely has to IMO. The evidence is getting overwhelming now.

 

[Alan]

Gonna get a shirt that just says “4-4-2 bitches” with a big picture of Lop’s face

 

[The Bear]

Gonna get a shirt that just says “4-4-2 bitches” with a big picture of Lop’s face

 

[Wolvensam]

Our performance against Liverpool was similar: 4-4-2 with Nunes out wide, coming inside to give the FB space to run into (and he also did a lot of dirty work tracking back on TAA).

 

[White Wolf]

Wasn't sure on the team selection or even what formation was being played but Lopetegui got it right, pulled a rabbit out of the hat yesterday.

Pretty narrow shape especially up top, I thought both of the full-backs played really well. Toti out of position and you can still see how raw he is but the performance was very positive. We could do with Bueno playing however as we were missing someone who could put in a good delivery and provide better width.

A rare time where Nunes looked like he was in his right position, played very well, looked up for this match, great hit for the goal. Joao Gomes excellent.

Starting Costa was right decision also. Doesn't have the legs to hit teams on the break or last much longer than 45 minutes but we do need that focal point and we benefited from him simply occupying the sort of spaces a striker does which brought Cunha more into the game as well and allowed him to find space. I agree with Johnny, Cunha is not a striker and this is what will get the best out of him.

With the chants - it did seem to start from some idiots in the South Bank but I did hear some in the NB sing it after the tannoy announcement too.

I'm not trying to go overboard and we are certainly still in a relegation battle right now but we are actually the same amount of points off Fulham (albeit with game in hand) and Chelsea in 10th and 11th as we are Southampton in 20th. The midweek performances by all of the teams around us, followed by our win today, really pours cold water on this idea we're an abysmal team who are 100% going down. I don't believe we are one of the worst 3 teams in the league by any stretch, we're quite inconsistent and there are some big holes in our team but we're fortunate to possess a good coach and some quality players. With our next three games we should certainly be looking to stay top of this mini relegation table rather than thinking about just keeping our heads above water.

Lopetegui took over a team that was bottom of the league with 10 points from 15 match, since then we have taken 21 from his 15 league matches. 1.4 PPG is a very good return from this set of players considering the conditions he came into IMO. Do people belueve if Michael Beale had taken this job he would have achieved that? I doubt it. Lopetegui deserves a lot of credit for salvaging a season which, after our start, would have sent plenty of clubs down. Hopefully he can finish the job with some results from our next three games.

Getting back was an absolute nightmare on the trains, was in Liverpool only the five hours late. Winning at least made the wait much, much more bearable.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Late to the party - absolutely everyone played their part yesterday and we got it spot on tactically. We don't *really* have the players for any kind of version of 4-4-2 but we can sort of make do and mend for now and it seems to give us the best chance of getting results.

Costa is no kind of long term answer but he did a good job for the team yesterday, hopefully he can do it again next week.

I slated Nunes last week but no such issues here, he worked hard, was much tighter in possession on the whole and obviously a stunning goal.

Joao Gomes man of the match, he won everything in the last half an hour, we've got a serious player there.

Two wins and I think we're done. Might not even need that.

 

[slink]

Well that was much more like it, the team looked balanced and everyone knew their job. We didn’t have a midfielder as the deepest player and our forward players linked up well. We definitely could still be playing now though without scoring again unless it was another worldy and this has to be addressed in the summer and I’m hopeful it will.

Midfield was outstanding and i think a Neves less midfield has been needed since at least when he picked up his 9th booking. Been playing to protect him too much with either him dropping too deep and being in safe positions/in Lemina’s way or just him not putting himself about like he should. If those 2 carry on like that it will hard to take them out of the team and we need to play Cunha with a striker to at least look effective going forward. Gives Julen a headache until the end of the season but it’s a good one to have.

Glad Matheus got his goal and what a hit it was, think he’s taken some undeserved criticism imo because of his playing style and even yesterday he’s still being played out of position. His work rate and energy and his willingness to always have the ball is needed and actually directed play in the first half quite a lot.

Regarding the chants they definitely started in S1, SL1, S2 but they were pretty sporadic until the announcement. After that quite a lot joined in and made it worse. I do think quite a few of them will have just joined in because that’s what you do and not understand the meaning or as pointed out will just say it’s banter.