Wolves 2-3 West Brom: Verdict Thread

[redvictor]

He's not the best in the air at the moment i will give you that but if anyone watched that game today especially the first half and the first 5 minutes of the second half and thinks he and a striker are our biggest worries then it's time to give up. He's scored a top quality goal, he battled, held the ball up well, linked play up when we actually gave him the ball. He's not Raul and he's not ready to start every game and play 90 minutes yet but we've got bigger worries than that on today's performance.

Nuno sorts the system out, basically the centre backs and the midfield and i think no one is saying Fabio is not what we need right now. He did his job today. I keep seeing how we're struggling without Raul etc and obviously we are missing him, he has turned himself into an elite striker but he's not going to stop us giving away shite penalties like Semedo, Coady and Moutinho have recently. He's not suddenly going to make Nuno realise that he's not setting us up to defend set pieces correctly (every team in the league has spotted this by the way) He's not the reason Nuno constantly sets us up without a midfielder that properly screens the centre backs now we've moved to a more open style and stops the pass into Robinson for the 2nd penalty or stops Iwobi's run against Everton because they know where the danger is.

Fabio is young and as i've said over the last few days isn't ready to be our first choice striker yet although i have no problem with him playing regularly but we have far bigger issues that are being missed because everyone is obsessed with us missing Raul and Fabio missing a few chances which Raul often did too. It's not so bad though when you're rock solid at the other end and no one remembers the misses then.

I'm with you in bold. That is a whole different world of hurt.
Listen, i want Fabio to succeed, but in the same vein this game is a results based business. All the running around in good positions won't get results without the end product. It isn't just him, but he is part of what is wrong currently.

 

[Premier Quality]

There was a moment where he absolutely skated past one of their defenders into the area that looked amazing - he’s not done that before, was a good sign.

 

[The Bear]

Fabio is still getting physically pushed out of stuff on a regular basis, which is to be expected at his age. You can see he's trying and sometimes it comes off like for the goal, but most of the time it doesn't and he loses it or falls over. That will improve as he matures and bulks up, but for me it's the one glaring area of his game that still has to improve.

There's really not much wrong with him otherwise, other than maybe a little bit of technique with the ball at his feet, but again that is eminently coachable at his age.

 

[slink]

There was a moment where he absolutely skated past one of their defenders into the area that looked amazing - he’s not done that before, was a good sign.

Yeah right at the start of the second half. Probably should have done better afterwards but the kid just has ability. I think it's blatantly obvious but i'm quite excited to see how he develops, i just hope as a club we can get it together quickly and help him with that.

 

[jd1981]

I've only seen the highlights, so I could be missing something. When I first saw that Oliver was the referee and Coote was on VAR, I was filled with apprehension about this match. Why? Because Oliver has now become the referee who gives penalties for all sorts of soft collisions and Coote will never overturn one of the reputed top referees when he is acting as VAR. Sadly, my apprehension became prophetic. Both penalties were very soft, the first one being a collision outside the box which Coote as VAR should have overturned. The second one was a piece of masterful deception by the Albion striker when he dangled a leg to make it look like Coady had tripped him. We should not be surprised. Oliver is the referee who gave a yellow to Adama for diving when he had been blatantly tripped. So my conclusion is that Wolves didn't play as badly as many of the posters have suggested. Yes, they could have played better and will need to soon if we are to remain competitive in the PL. But, essentially, we were defeated by a referee and VAR whose performances left a great deal to be desired, underlying my contention that we really don't have any world-class referees in the PL today. So let's not indulge the negativity, let's get on with it, and hope the refereeing standards improve in our future games and that the Wolves players can break out of their current slump. I believe they can, as I also do about Nuno and his ability to inspire them.

The better side won the game today without a doubt, if Robinson is being clever Coady needs to be to.
The problem with VAR is the ambiguity of clear and obvious error.
Basically means you can suffer twice for similar decisions, one week your opponent has a penalty given but it’s not overturned because it’s not clear and obvious. Next week a similar incident happens to one of your players it’s not given on field and isn’t overturned on VAR due to clear and obvious.
Coote especially on the first penalty today hid behind the clear and obvious rule, deep down he probably thought there’s a good chance that’s outside the box but it’s not clear and obvious.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

That's a line decision though. It either is or it isn't (in this case, it wasn't, it's so obviously outside the box).

Albion were definitely not the better team but I don't begrudge them the win, it's our own fault.

 

[jd1981]

That's a line decision though. It either is or it isn't (in this case, it wasn't, it's so obviously outside the box).

Albion were definitely not the better team but I don't begrudge them the win, it's our own fault.

It looks outside the box and probably is but can’t be proved beyond doubt that no part of the players boot was on the line.

 

[darlowolf64]

It looks outside the box and probably is but can’t be proved beyond doubt that no part of the players boot was on the line.

It was a foot outside the area, clear daylight as shown from the angle MotD had. Not even close

 

[Haggstone]

Gave myself 12 hours to cool off as I was not in a good place at all after that.

Few points.

On the first pen, it looked outside the box to me and had the ref not given it I seriously doubt VAR would have over turned the decision. VAR aren’t going to go against on field decisions if they can find a reason not to unfortunately.

We aren’t in a relegation scrap yet, on the basis that a couple of wins almost puts relegation out of reach. A dog fight is when you need a couple of wins back to back just to stay alive.

Yesterday was a low point for me, both personally with what is going on outside of football, and as a Wolves supporter. The tide will turn though, I just want it to happen soon, and with Nuno still in charge.

There are one or two green shoots of recovery there, I’m going to focus on those for now.

 

[Freddeno]

Agree the first pen they got was outside the box, Fabio is young, a bit lightweight and must train on headers and pace but gonna be a good player in a few years if he continues to develop. We really should have won the game though i think, maybe we need a fresh new face(player) in, still have faith in Nuno that he can find the spirit back. I think it is as much mentally as it is tactically or skillwise that we lose games right now.

Also gonna apologise for some of the language i spitted out yesterday, i was drunk and very much pissed off and disappointed that we had lost to that team..

 

[OldManBoom]

Lots of calls for a back 3 again but would 3 at the back actually have prevented any of the goals today? The goals being sloppy penalties from relatively well placed centre backs and a flicked on header from a corner that all of our usual back 3 were defending anyway?

Reluctant to go back to scoring a goal every two games. It seems more like our defenders are just horribly out of form.

 

[Jabbawolf]

Lots of calls for a back 3 again but would 3 at the back actually have prevented any of the goals today? The goals being sloppy penalties from relatively well placed centre backs and a flicked on header from a corner that all of our usual back 3 were defending anyway?

Reluctant to go back to scoring a goal every two games. It seems more like our defenders are just horribly out of form.

Might have meant Traore not being near his own box, trying a mazy dribble in the wrong area, losing it and Boly conceding the penalty

 

[Aikiwolf]

I don't think our current slump is really caused by our lack of goals.

Defensively we've become prone to errors and giving away simple goals that we should be dealing with.

For me, the focus should be on defensive drills and I'm not sure if it should be 3 or 4 at the back but it may be easier to revert to a back 3 and help our players find some form.

I'd rather we were grinding out a few bore draws and maybe nicking a 1-0 here and there as opposed to losing every week. Once we've stemmed the rot and made sure we aren't being drawn into a relegation battle then perhaps it would be time to prep for next season and tty new things.

 

[Tredman]

Our players used to say Nuno prepped them so they knew exactly what to do at all times. That’s gone now, possibly partly in a quest to be more innovative and score more. We need it back.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Last season and to an extent the season before, at 2-1 at HT I'd have been more than comfortable that we'd win against poor opposition. Yesterday I knew we'd need another goal at least. Therein lies the difference.

As I mentioned yesterday we aren't even playing that badly which if anything is more frustrating. If you're getting bossed all the time then at least it's easy to pinpoint where you can improve. Here it boils down to "stop making mistakes" which is akin to saying "don't get run over when you cross the road". Well, duh.

For us to make the same mistake on both penalties - however soft they might be, and the first one isn't a penalty anyway, but it got given - is just ridiculous.

 

[Premier Quality]

I feel like we’re too deep - we’ve had some shit penalties against us this year, but a primary cause is that we have to defend runners in our box, whereas we get defended at least five yards outside the box, so we get free kicks where the opposition get penalties.

 

[Jinky]

Might have meant Traore not being near his own box, trying a mazy dribble in the wrong area, losing it and Boly conceding the penalty

iT's aLL aDAmA'S FauLt.

 

[Jabbawolf]

iT's aLL aDAmA'S FauLt.

Not what I said, but good decision-making by him would have nullified the danger.

 

[Tredman]

Absolutely, I’ve defended Adama to the hilt on here, but he should have passed or wellied it clear.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Wasn't a good pass from Coady to him, but he shouldn't be trying to beat four players there and then he did his "sit on his arse" act after he lost the ball which meant he was nowhere near the runner.