Wolves 1-5 Man City: Verdict Thread

[AndyWolves]

I think the bigger problem in the first two goals is leaving KdB unmarked in and around the box.

First goal Coady doesn't close down Silva or track KdBs run.

Second goal Coady gets sucked out and KdB waltzes into acres of space.

 

[Del Woppio]

Incidentally is he *really* managing by Zoom and phone calls? You can't fucking do that, for Christ's sake. How insecure is he? You either trust your staff in your absence or they shouldn't be at the club.

Aye I bet you'd have been really supportive if he'd just gone off sick and left it all to his brother and Tony Roberts....

There's a lot to moan at him for, but stuff like this is just weird.

 

[big mean bunny]

But my main thought when leaving was that lot will have Haaland in August. We might as well forfeit the game and take a 3-0 loss. And the table says we are the eighth best team. Competition is dead, and that's why this league is going to shit.

There was an article recently on the Athletic about how the Prem was already the European Super League, it had used some player metrics and stats to declare that the league had such strength in teams that if they played teams from other leagues (1st v 1st, 2nd v 2nd, 16th v 16th etc) the Prem would win every series.

I disagreed and said that it felt like wealth and spending was being confused for quality, and since then all but LFC got knocked out of Europe, but the top 2 continue to crush the other sides. City have just won by a combined 10-1 in back to back games versus top half teams, at least when the games happened.

 

[sycophantia]

Probably Sa's poorest game but hey he's been excellent over the season.
Dunno if all the rumours are true but even if some of them are, it's a worry, especially the one about Jonny being shopped around.
Feels like we're coming to the end of an (brilliant) era. Potentially we could lose Jonny, Neves, Moutinho, Raul, maybe even more. Them are big boots to fill and won't happen overnight.
Trying to stay positive and look forward to Sunday but it's not easy. I just want to see a bit of effort and some positive play to finish the season on.
I really hope Lage is on his way but doubt it.

 

[EnglishBob]

City are excellent but its getting to the point I'm not sure I can be bothered with football outside of Wolves. No doubt they'll spunk another £70m on another left back and not play them half the season - how is it meant to hold anyone's interest?

Spot on. The concentration of top players into a tiny handful of teams isn't healthy for the 'sport'. We're supposedly the 8th best team in the country and at times we could barely get it out of our penalty box, let alone half! 30% possession at home ffs! Felt like less. Must be demoralising for the players having to spend 90 minutes chasing shadows.

 

[jd1981]

Whilst it was good to watch a player of KDB quality in his prime only so many times you can see your side being dismantled by the top teams before it becomes monotonous.
The PL is rapidly becoming like la liga was 10 years ago.
Empty seats in JH stand last night, combine the daft kick off time nobody having any money, on sky along with pretty much no chance of a positive result would explain why. With the PL if you’ve got 2 sides passing 90 points in a 38 game season pretty much tells you that there’s a huge gap in quality and that gap starts from 3rd downwards.
Big realisation is starting to hit myself that what I’ve seen over the last 4 seasons is as good as it will ever be. 7th, trips to Europe and a cup semi final. Seen us beat everyone at some point also. Likelihood of seeing us win anything major is minute yes Wigan, Birmingham, Leicester and Swansea have done it in the last 10 years but they’re rare cases. Even so called big clubs like Man Utd, Spurs and Arsenal are feeing on scraps currently.
If you’ve got a bit of hope you’ve always got some interest once that’s gone we’re just in the league to make up the numbers.

 

[malta mick]

Let's be honest City are a great team to watch. Every player is so comfortable on the ball and always has a choice of 3 or 4 passes. Their movement is brilliant and close the opposition down so quickly. To get to that sort of level would take millions and (obviously) Fosun won't be coming up with the cash.
Our future goals should be to build upon where we are and make a go for 4th to 7th place. I doubt we will, especially if we sell our better players.

 

[Lycan]

I did not enjoy that one bit. There have been times in the Premier League when we've been thrashed and I've just had to admit that the other team were out of our league and there was nothing we could do about it given the gulf in quality but last night wasn't one of those occasions. As good as City were we were absolutely abysmal.

I don't think I've seen a Wolves team be so completely unprepared for an individual game since we got beat by Sunderland under Nuno when half the squad were clearly still hungover from the promotion party. Tactically we had no plan for how to get out from under City. I get that the prep for this game can't have been easy with Bruno et al off with Covid but even still that was shocking.

 

[Tredman]

I did not enjoy that one bit. There have been times in the Premier League when we've been thrashed and I've just had to admit that the other team were out of our league and there was nothing we could do about it given the gulf in quality but last night wasn't one of those occasions. As good as City were we were absolutely abysmal.

I don't think I've seen a Wolves team be so completely unprepared for an individual game since we got beat by Sunderland under Nuno when half the squad were clearly still hungover from the promotion party. Tactically we had no plan for how to get out from under City. I get that the prep for this game can't have been easy with Bruno et al off with Covid but even still that was shocking.

That was my issue. We just didn’t look like we were set up to compete. We’d lost before we got on the pitch. Nuno might have been dull at times, but we were always a participant in games - yesterday we were just spectators.

 

[Trips]

I can take us getting beat by a better side with better players, but to not work as hard or look like we have a plan is unforgivable.

Players looking completely disengaged and just playing aimless balls upfield, poor decision making and a lack of effort. Throw in some poor quality (seriously, why have we paid money for Hwang) and its not a good look.

Some serious thinking and work needed in the summer. If Bruno is their man (and he isn't for me) then back him, if not say goodbye a week Sunday and back the new guy. What I don't want is to leave Bruno there, spend some money and then sack him in October.

Our form and performances over the last couple of months have generally been terrible, we can't start next season like this

 

[AndyWolves]

We got thoroughly beaten by a team with better players, a better manager, better coaches, better resources, better everything really and a team also playing for the PL title.

It doesn't excuse anything, just my reflection.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Well, Palace have got four points off them this season, they're not superhuman. We could try y'know, marking their best player. Or not sending out a starting XI with three players out of position when there was no need to.

You can't just write it off. Losing, OK, pretty much no one expected anything from the game. Losing like that, not acceptable. Losing 8 out of 12, definitely not acceptable.

 

[AndyWolves]

As I said, it doesn't excuse anything.

 

[sycophantia]

I'm not going to get too hysterical about losing 5-1 to City, but the performances, selections and tactics for the previous half dozen games (Villa aside) is very concerning.

 

[lemonjelly]

I actually didn't think we were that bad last night in the main, and for spells we were able to create the occasional decent move, bits of passing, and so on. We were up against a phenomenally good city side, and de Bruyne put in a phenomenally good performance.

I do feel we sat off city a bit too much, and Chiquinho was the more willing to get "stuck in" and as a result he won the ball a few times. Almost like we gave them too much respect. But had we got at them a bit, it might have unsettled them.
Citys movement and use and manipulation of space is simply phenomenal. Liverpool also manipulate that in a brilliant way, but the 2 teams are very different.

I felt City targetted Boly, and he didn't come out of the test well tbh. I also thought Raul looked better than he has done for a while. Neto didn't look interested in doing anything defensively, but this might have been instructions.

We had 3 pretty fucking good penalty shouts (haven't seen motd or any replays), and Atkinson was terrible in city should have had a few yellows he was clearly reluctant to give.

It is becoming disconcerting however to see how empty the stadium is with 10 minutes still to play. That's happening too often.

 

[Tredman]

I actually didn't think we were that bad last night in the main, and for spells we were able to create the occasional decent move, bits of passing, and so on. We were up against a phenomenally good city side, and de Bruyne put in a phenomenally good performance.

I do feel we sat off city a bit too much, and Chiquinho was the more willing to get "stuck in" and as a result he won the ball a few times. Almost like we gave them too much respect. But had we got at them a bit, it might have unsettled them.
Citys movement and use and manipulation of space is simply phenomenal. Liverpool also manipulate that in a brilliant way, but the 2 teams are very different.

I felt City targetted Boly, and he didn't come out of the test well tbh. I also thought Raul looked better than he has done for a while. Neto didn't look interested in doing anything defensively, but this might have been instructions.

We had 3 pretty fucking good penalty shouts (haven't seen motd or any replays), and Atkinson was terrible in city should have had a few yellows he was clearly reluctant to give.

It is becoming disconcerting however to see how empty the stadium is with 10 minutes still to play. That's happening too often.

I don't think, individually, the players were that bad - but it was clear that they had not been set up to challenge City. They did not know where to go or what to do - compare that with previous games against them under Nuno, we might not have been the better team but we always knew what to do and when to do it.

I left at 90' yesterday - second game in a row I've left early. Don't think I've ever left early in the 35 years before. Its soul destroying.

 

[sycophantia]

I actually didn't think we were that bad last night in the main, and for spells we were able to create the occasional decent move, bits of passing, and so on. We were up against a phenomenally good city side, and de Bruyne put in a phenomenally good performance.

I do feel we sat off city a bit too much, and Chiquinho was the more willing to get "stuck in" and as a result he won the ball a few times. Almost like we gave them too much respect. But had we got at them a bit, it might have unsettled them.
Citys movement and use and manipulation of space is simply phenomenal. Liverpool also manipulate that in a brilliant way, but the 2 teams are very different.

I felt City targetted Boly, and he didn't come out of the test well tbh. I also thought Raul looked better than he has done for a while. Neto didn't look interested in doing anything defensively, but this might have been instructions.

We had 3 pretty fucking good penalty shouts (haven't seen motd or any replays), and Atkinson was terrible in city should have had a few yellows he was clearly reluctant to give.

It is becoming disconcerting however to see how empty the stadium is with 10 minutes still to play. That's happening too often.

I only saw 2 penalty shouts, Chiquinho and Neto, both pens imo, on motd that fat idiot JP thought both decisions were correct because the defender 'got the ball' the pundits didn't mention us at all never mind look at the incidents.

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

The Zinchenko one was a penalty, he fouled Chiquinho AND THEN touched the ball, no doubt about it.

The Fernandinho one wasn't a penalty in my view, Fernandinho was fortunate as he didn't intend to play the ball, it hit him, but he did play the ball before he touched Neto.

But both of them were obviously far more penalties than the one given against Moutinho at the Etihad.

 

[Wolf Hunting]

I think it was really Atkinson that failed to spot that City were playing with 15 or 16 players.
Bit hard to count accurately I'll admit seeing how fast they all ran into spaces all the time.

 

[BillyDee]

on motd that fat idiot JP thought both decisions were correct because the defender 'got the ball'

Any pundit pulling out this line should be immediately dismissed. Immediately. Don't even wait for the show to finish, tell them to get up and fuck off...