Wolves 2-1 Everton: Verdict Thread

[Throbber3]

Thought they'd put Plug from the Bash St kids on.

Harsh but fair

 

[Amanda]

I loved that game last night, especially the first half performance. Shows what we can do with these players. Got to keep it up now !

 

[Derby Wolf]

I think it was impossible for Wolves to remain that good in terms of expended energy with our pressing and Everton to be that bad for 90 minutes.

Our pressing game was mesmerising at times. Truly, the stuff of Kloppball. The first half was the most enjoyable half of football I've experienced in over a year accounting for the end of Nuno/lockdown football.

The two teams were much closer at the end but we still ought to have scored 1 and Raul was also unlucky. It wasn't like our performance dropped off a cliff, we still fashioned chances and played some reasonable stuff but the subs should have come sooner, aside for explosive bursts Hwang and Trincao were blowing after an hour and we couldn't press as a unit quite as effectively.

I didnt want to see Adama, no fault of his own but I feel he struggles to get himself into a game from the bench, the only obvious exception was Brighton last season. Leave him up top if we win the corner smacks a bit of "leave one on him early and he won't trouble us" there will be games where Adamas skillset is more appropriate than Trincao but last night wasn't that night.

Overall I'm encouraged by Lage, I do worry that if the club are no longer fucked by European qualification and want us to tick along in midtable whether they'll keep those purse strings tight.

 

[Tredman]

A

Bloody ugly kid though !

does have a touch of the Simkin about him.

 

[Alan]

Will admit that I had a little Jinky moment when he came on and thought to myself "that's the most Scouse lookin' dude I've seen since Leighton Baines".

Disclaimer: I don't actually know if Baines is from Liverpool.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

He's from Kirkby. It's kind of Liverpool.

 

[Carsy]

Amazing the change in view in a week isn’t it!?

First halfway were bloody good. Some great play and really should’ve been 3 or 4 up. Everton were poor, but we looked very, very good.

2nd half a different half all together, although I don’t think we looked under any immense pressure. Trying to work out if we backed off and set deeper,‘or just the Everton change improved them.

All in all, 7th place, 13 points from 15, can’t be sniffed at.

Trincao’s best game for us. Always going to be the type of player who flits in and out of games. Don’t think anyone had a bad game. Neves and Raul pick of the bunch.

Looked a lot more balanced having RAN on the left, gave us another outlet.

Promising signs IMO. Looking at the squad, we are a couple of players from being a really good squad. Here’s hoping Fosun back the manager with what we need.

Only 2 concerns from last night
1. Lage again seems to change things late in a game, potentially earlier changes maybe? (Could be knitpicking as results are pretty good currently)
2. We need to build a squad. 2 of our 3 starting players are on loan. If they carry on as they did last night, we should be lying to signs them permanently. Will Fosun want to sell someone to release the funds, or will it limit them investing elsewhere by signing them?

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

On point one, he just doesn't like some of the players on the bench (they're all we have). Which is fine, but we need to fix that.

On point two, we have profit that the club has made since 2018 that we're not spending, they don't need to put money in or sell anyone.

 

[Carsy]

On point one, he just doesn't like some of the players on the bench (they're all we have). Which is fine, but we need to fix that.

On point two, we have profit that the club has made since 2018 that we're not spending, they don't need to put money in or sell anyone.

Fair enough with point 1. Just thought both hwang and trincao looked leggy from 60 onwards. Thought RAN did too, but understand the lack of lwb option.

Point 2 it’s more a worry than a necessity, given our FFP ‘failings’ and such.

We need to add players to the pool, not sell 1 to buy 1

 

[Jinky]

The key for us continuing on an upward trajectory will be the form of Neves. At times last night he looked like an absolute world-beater. You could see that he was puffing his chest out after flying in to tackles after pressing players – and he looked like a real leader. That’s the kind of performance we should be expecting to see week in week out from him now; not once every 4-5 games. He had a real authority about him at times last night – it was brilliant to watch. And I do wonder if he was one of the players Lage was getting at in his interview the day before the match when he said our players shouldn’t be happy with going on international duty to spend most of their time on the bench?



We also need to see that interplay and movement and pressing from the front from Hwang/Raul/Trincao on a regular basis. I think that’s our front three for now, and we accept that at times Trincao will be a little inconsistent, but that it will be worth it in the long run because we look much better as a team. I’d be happy to play those three against all of Palace, West Ham, Norwich & Burnley, because I think we can see a lot of the ball against those clubs. Then we have the horror run in December where we’ve got Liverpool, Man City & Chelsea in quick succession (then Man Utd/Arsenal not long after) – and in those games I’d be ok with starting Adama and giving, probably Trincao, a rest. I reckon those bigger clubs shit themselves against Adama – we’ve seen it before, and we probably won’t have much of the ball against those three so it might be better to go with the brute force/pace option?

Obviously anything can happen (injuries etc), but it’s nice to have options and I reckon Bruno is slowly but surely creeping towards figuring out his best 11 and the players are getting there in terms of how he wants them to play.

Podence is a more than suitable back up/impact option, and with Neto hopefully coming back in to the picture come January, we’ll be looking in a good spot if everyone can stay fit.

Just need Jeff to pull his finger out and add a quality box to box midfielder in January to help manage Joao’s minutes – and then a first choice defender to step in whilst Saiss/Boly are away, and we’ll hopefully be good to kick on.

 

[Carsy]

The key for us continuing on an upward trajectory will be the form of Neves. At times last night he looked like an absolute world-beater. You could see that he was puffing his chest out after flying in to tackles after pressing players – and he looked like a real leader. That’s the kind of performance we should be expecting to see week in week out from him now; not once every 4-5 games. He had a real authority about him at times last night – it was brilliant to watch. And I do wonder if he was one of the players Lage was getting at in his interview the day before the match when he said our players shouldn’t be happy with going on international duty to spend most of their time on the bench?



We also need to see that interplay and movement and pressing from the front from Hwang/Raul/Trincao on a regular basis. I think that’s our front three for now, and we accept that at times Trincao will be a little inconsistent, but that it will be worth it in the long run because we look much better as a team. I’d be happy to play those three against all of Palace, West Ham, Norwich & Burnley, because I think we can see a lot of the ball against those clubs. Then we have the horror run in December where we’ve got Liverpool, Man City & Chelsea in quick succession (then Man Utd/Arsenal not long after) – and in those games I’d be ok with starting Adama and giving, probably Trincao, a rest. I reckon those bigger clubs shit themselves against Adama – we’ve seen it before, and we probably won’t have much of the ball against those three so it might be better to go with the brute force/pace option?

Obviously anything can happen (injuries etc), but it’s nice to have options and I reckon Bruno is slowly but surely creeping towards figuring out his best 11 and the players are getting there in terms of how he wants them to play.

Podence is a more than suitable back up/impact option, and with Neto hopefully coming back in to the picture come January, we’ll be looking in a good spot if everyone can stay fit.

Just need Jeff to pull his finger out and add a quality box to box midfielder in January to help manage Joao’s minutes – and then a first choice defender to step in whilst Saiss/Boly are away, and we’ll hopefully be good to kick on.

Yea, neves was fantastic last night. Great on the ball but does the pressing/tackling parts as well.

 

[darlowolf64]

Fair enough with point 1. Just thought both hwang and trincao looked leggy from 60 onwards. Thought RAN did too, but understand the lack of lwb option.

Point 2 it’s more a worry than a necessity, given our FFP ‘failings’ and such.

We need to add players to the pool, not sell 1 to buy 1

We don't have any FFP failings, it's a red herring thrown out by Shi

 

[1986]

You'd wonder is Boly going to be considered at all under Lage - unless an injury happens . He's out of luck too as his only chance to play will be the FA Cup - but he'll probably be away for that with AFCON .
One of our real superstars under Nuno and then injury strikes at just the wrong time .

 

[1986]

Next 4 matches prior to deadly December . We simply have to pick up points in those four games .

Having West Ham at home will help as they are beatable at home , but not away I think . Norwich we should be winning . We owe Burnley big time .
Palace will be tricky - Viera has them ticking over nicely .

 

[Alan]

If he's not doing enough in training to convince Lage that he should be playing ahead of Saiss, I'm not sure he can have any complaints.

 

[Jinky]

If he's not doing enough in training to convince Lage that he should be playing ahead of Saiss, I'm not sure he can have any complaints.

Difficult for him to impress in training when he's been injured/ill, but I agree. I don't think his situation has been helped by the form of Kilman/Saiss, as it would be extremely harsh to drop either of those two (despite us only keeping two clean sheets this season).

 

[Carsy]

We don't have any FFP failings, it's a red herring thrown out by Shi

I know, hence the ‘’. My concern is that they will revert to type and not add to the squad - using FFP as a blanket.

If they decide to add, rather than replace, I believe there is reason to be very optimistic

 

[Wilf Wolf]

Next 4 matches prior to deadly December . We simply have to pick up points in those four games .

Having West Ham at home will help as they are beatable at home , but not away I think . Norwich we should be winning . We owe Burnley big time .
Palace will be tricky - Viera has them ticking over nicely .

When did West Ham become unbeatable away? It's a tough game but if we play well we are more than capable of beating them.

 

[northfield wolf]

When did West Ham become unbeatable away? It's a tough game but if we play well we are more than capable of beating them.

If we play all the game like we did in the first half we can beat anyone.

 

[WsWolf]

If he's not doing enough in training to convince Lage that he should be playing ahead of Saiss, I'm not sure he can have any complaints.

Saiss seems to have improved a lot this year. Just from a concentration aspect and he's nowhere near as rash either..