Wolves 2 Barnsley 1 - Never Give Up, Never Surrender!

[The Bear]

If you look at their pass map, Potts and Moncur are high up the pitch whereas Neves & Saiss are a lot deeper.

Yesterday was the first time I've watched Wolves this season and thought that the 3rd centre back was a wasted man. If we'd put Alfie on for one of the CB's and matched up with their 4-2-3-1 we would've pegged them back in their own half IMO.

Agreed. I said to my mate, Costa on for a CB would give us a better grip on the game going forwards as Neves/Saiss weren't in the game.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

I guess the only issue you have with taking one of the centre halves out is choosing which one will least upset the balance back there.

Coady's use of the ball back there has been important this season but would he be exposed in a conventional centre half pairing with his inexperience there? The others should be more used to playing as a pair but would they offer the variety of distribution without Coady?

 

[rather sceptical wolf]

Three at the back allows our wingbacks to play much further up. If the opposition really succedes in pushing us back like Cardiff and Barnsley in the first half we would lose all width without that extra man back there. We would then have to play actual wingers or be very easy to defend against - we're hardly outplaying the opposition like Barca or Bayern. Moving one player from defence to midfield might seem a small change on paper but would in fact completely change the way we play. I'd much prefer we stick to one main style and then make smaller changes like swapping one of Saiss or Neves for a more mobile N'diaye, or withdrawing one of the forwards to bolster our midfield when needed.

 

[AndyWolves]

I think having ball playing CB are essential. If the opposition stop our full backs and sit on our centre mids then the CB become the spare men which is why having Boly back will be a huge boost. Baath has done really well but bringing the ball into midfield isn't his game

 

[Rui_CostCo]

It's hard to be critical when we're 2nd in the league, but I'm still trying to keep both feet on the ground. The set piece situation needs to be sorted quick. Shipping late goals from dead balls whilst we are only scoring the bare minimum will hurt us badly over the course of the season. We don't seem to have any other real major issues to deal with. It's not like in years gone by, where it was a struggle to drag a positive from performances with negatives pilled up high after every match. The Club is moving forward, rapidly, with success on all fronts where it has previously failed. The standards being set are high, so when Frank says we are struggling to win at home, I don't think he means the same as when previous sides have literally struggled to gain 3 points at home. In leaking unnecessary goals and not converting enough of our own we ARE making it look difficult, far, far more difficult than the dominance we have played with in many matches suggests we should.

Just because we are top 2, doesn't mean our house is perfectly in order. Alf doesn't connect with his shot and we lose 2 points at home thanks to an injury time set piece equaliser and Sunday Morning has a totally different outlook. We can praise the never say die attitude, but it was a necessity of our own creating. There was a player a few seasons ago that often got lauded for his ability to clear up problems that Deutsche used to point out was true, but they were more often than not problems of his own making.

We need to cut out the mistakes at the back, or at the front, ideally both, but set piece defending should be bread and butter. That has to be an absolute priority

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

Hang on

Two weeks ago there was wailing about "what if Millwall had scored late". Yesterday shows what. We go up the other end and score again.

You can't rant about both.

 

[Carrotdude]

That 2nd goal was a thing of beauty, great movement from Leo, excellent pass from Bright and another excellent pass from Leo to a great run from N'diaye

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

I don't really know how Leo has spotted the run from there. Superb play.

4 assists to go with his 3 goals now #notgoodenough

 

[MARKakaJIM]

I don't really know how Leo has spotted the run from there. Superb play.

4 assists to go with his 3 goals now #notgoodenough

I don't think it's always a case or spotting the run, if you're in tune with your team mates then sometimes you can take a bit of a gamble and play those little passes blind to a certain extent as you'll know the runs that will usually be made. His pass for Douglas' effort on the highlights was similar, got played in outside the defender and just reversed it back for the overlapping runner.

It's the sort of football I love, both watching and playing, high tempo 1 and 2 touch stuff that's all about interaction rather than the individual. No-one ever really needs to do anything extravagant on their own but the way it all meshes together makes it almost impossible to stop when it clicks.

 

[sycophantia]

I don't really know how Leo has spotted the run from there. Superb play.

4 assists to go with his 3 goals now #notgoodenough

It seemed to me he had a very quick glance over his shoulder as he ran onto the ball and layed off an inch perfect and perfectly weighted pass........thats how I choose to see it anyway

 

[sycophantia]

That 2nd goal was a thing of beauty, great movement from Leo, excellent pass from Bright and another excellent pass from Leo to a great run from N'diaye

I agree, sad bastard that I am, I stayed at the end to watch the highlights on the big screens and have watched it about 4 times today. In a pretty even game I felt the difference and the reason we deserved all 3 points was our quality both in defence and attack, I don't see Barnsley or many other Champ teams scoring that type of goal....first goal wasn't half bad too

 

[Carrotdude]

Plus a lovely breakaway move for Leo's chance that he should have done better with. Barnsley's only highlights were a couple of set pieces

 

[The Bear]

Leo's no look pass gets better every time I watch it.

 

[Deleted Cyber]

I don't really know how Leo has spotted the run from there. Superb play.

4 assists to go with his 3 goals now #notgoodenough

Great signing. Combination of the best bits of Doyle Bodvarrson, Fletcher for me. Can link well. Can poach. Really pleased so far. Long may it last

 

[MARKakaJIM]

Great signing. Combination of the best bits of Doyle Bodvarrson, Fletcher for me. Can link well. Can poach. Really pleased so far. Long may it last

I don't think he's really got the best of any of them! He's a completely different player to the first two, certainly doesn't match their trademark tireless running, and whilst his link up play is great I think he falls short against Fletcher when it comes to finishing, despite the good start he could've doubled his tally with some easy chances.

 

[The Bear]

It he had a bit more pace and strength...

... then he probably wouldn't be playing for us, or some team in the arse end of Saudi Arabia last season.

 

[Deleted Cyber]

I don't think he's really got the best of any of them! He's a completely different player to the first two, certainly doesn't match their trademark tireless running, and whilst his link up play is great I think he falls short against Fletcher when it comes to finishing, despite the good start he could've doubled his tally with some easy chances.

His touch is good. His positional and link up play looks good. His poaching is good. Right place right time! Doyle could link. Fletcher could poach. Jon Dadi worked for the team. Bonatini has shown those qualities for me

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Fletcher is the best Wolves forward I've ever seen in the air by a country mile and Leo doesn't have that. I'd also doubt he could hit double figures in the PL which Fletcher did twice for us, the second time in an astonishingly poor team. I love Leo, he's a lovely player to watch and I'm delighted we have him, he is proving by the week that we did just fine in bringing him here. But the Fletcher we had in 2010 would fetch £20m+ in this market, he is not at that level.

We've never really had that kind of forward here before (not in my time anyway), Keogh is about the closest fit as a link man but he had very different characteristics (and was not as good either, even before our fans battered the confidence out of him).

Edit: Maybe Nathan Blake thinking about it. But even then it's not an exact fit.

 

[MARKakaJIM]

His touch is good. His positional and link up play looks good. His poaching is good. Right place right time! Doyle could link. Fletcher could poach. Jon Dadi worked for the team. Bonatini has shown those qualities for me

Doyle couldn't link play for shit! He just ran off into corners trying to win set pieces, Fletcher was much the better player in that respect and a better goalscorer too, he was often perceived as lazy by some though as he didn't run around like Doyle. Actually come to think of it I would differentiate between Doyle and Bodvarsson on their strongest asset, the latter was surprisingly good running with the ball at times, carried it really well and you wouldn't usually expect that from someone with his frame, Bonatini I think looks a little immobile to match that.

I don't think there's any need to try and rewrite history to make Bonatini look like the best thing since sliced bread when he clearly isn't. What's important though is that he's a very good fit for what Wolves need from their centre forward at the moment. The link up play is the most important aspect and that's where he excels, he sometimes comes up short when it comes to finishing things off, either through absence in the danger area or some inconsistent finishing, but so far there are enough others doing their bit to make up for it. If there was someone like Fletcher, from his PL vintage, in there instead then I think you'd see a substantial difference in output without harming the overall balance of the frontline.

 

[YoungWolf]

A fully fit Fletcher who can actually be bothered would be unreal in this team. I watched him yesterday for Shef Wed and have done a couple of times and thought 'what a waste'. He wasn't lazy on the pitch by any means but there's obviously something about his attitude (as we look as injury issues) that stopped him doing better than he has.

bonatini is a good fit for this team currently. As he starts to adapt further to this league, and gets a bit fitter and stronger maybe he will improve too as he is only 23. I hope so as I really enjoy watching him play in an important role for the team.