Spitting Image’s return to the small screen has heralded very little fanfare, but there’s one sketch that tickled me.
The clip in question parodies the (until recently) boundless enthusiasm of Jürgen Klopp, even as he is violently abused by opposition fans.
Ending with Klopp looking on the bright side of life despite his head lying dismembered in his kitchen sink, it’s certainly not a gag one would expect to be able to easily empathise with.
But analysing Wolves’ performances this season has often been akin to clutching at straws, desperately seeking a needle of positivity as the haystack seemingly burns around you.
Tonight was no different.
On the whole, I thought we played well. As was the case against Palace, the return of Dendoncker allowed Moutinho and in particular Neves to orchestrate proceedings from midfield.
Even when Everton profited from our slack defending with an early goal, you always sensed we would get back into the game.
But that crucial knack of killing matches continues to evade us in the absence of key players, none more so than Raul.
Fabio Silva may well end up fulfilling his potential, but I’m beginning to fear it won’t be at Wolves.
The longer he is allowed to continue churning out toothless displays at the head of our attack, the more his inflated price tag will become an albatross around his neck.
Surely he can’t start on Saturday?
I’m far from convinced that Cutrone holds the answer to our problems, but the self-proclaimed pasta merchant must be given his chance against them lot down the road.
With Adama and Podence out, our only persistent attacking threat came from Neto and the on-song Neves.
Our inability to make the most of our possession meant the more experienced visitors always had a chance of nicking all three points, and that’s exactly what they did courtesy of Keane’s towering header.
Assuming a miracle return for our felled Mexican starlet isn’t on the cards any time soon, it would surely be madness not to try and sign a forward this month.
Though shelling out for a short-term solution goes against Fosun’s modus operandi, it could make all the difference in the months ahead.
Nuno had his dream
He built a football team
Then he tried to change it and let some star players go.
Now with four at the back
And a toothless attack
We need Willy and Johnny
And Raul to come back.
(And a loan striker who will throw his weight about and get some goals).
As usual a balanced response to a pretty good display from our team. But we are pretty toothless up front and don’t defend those key moments in the box at all well.
It’s very frustrating indeed at the moment because we seem to lose every game! Or to be heading that way throughout the game. Neves is a plus as is the return of Dendoncker. Although the latter needs to find his scoring boots soon because he spurned a pretty good chance first half.
The Silva debate carries on, by picking him Nuno is trying to build his confidence and improve his game so with patience it will come good for him and us in the end. But it’s a painful watch along the way. He either mid passes or just gets pushed off the ball, fouled I know , but he cannot hold the ball well enough as yet for this level! He also doesn’t attack the ball in the box with anything like the aggression and aplomb required to make the match go our way.
The Baggies game is crucial I feel. It’s typical though for us to go in deflated after yet another tight squandering of the points.
Some good moments from MGW and, when he came, on likewise Vitinha.
But those pesky football Gods are not giving us much joy at the moment! Here’s to brighter days. Up the Wolves!!
Think back to early December. Nuno firmly announced that the January window would be used to ” rebalance the squad, ” to best overcome the Raul long term injury.
This ‘rebalancing ‘ has thus far comprised the return of MGW and Cutrone. The same MGW who had been so useless for many months before being sent out on loan to gain experience, but who for the last three months has been injured. The same Cutrone who Nuno was only too pleased to get rid of, and who has failed miserably while on loan in Italy. So how is this supposed to help us ?
Compare this to Nuno`s post game comments last night. Again he was back to criticising his defence for minor aberrations, and harping on about the ” need to find solutions “, which he now says must ” come from within “. !!!!
The real issue that he doesn’t seem to want to accept, is that we can`t win a football game if we can`t score. But to score we need strikers who have the ability to do so. We have none. Silva is completely out of his depth. An embarrassment. He may have looked brilliant playing with juniors in Portugal , but he is light years away from being good enough for the rigors of the Premiership.
In summary, my take is that if action is not taken now to resolve this striker calamity, it will soon be looking over the shoulder time. This problem is not going to go away on its own.
Stop being stupid ron
Ding dong the Wolves are going down.
Ding dong the wolves are staying down.
Hahaha
Now that face rings a bell. Of course, it’s the simpleton from the Sandwell bell end tower Quasinopoints fresh from his day out watching Blackpool.
Hi Quasi, what are you doing here, I thought you would be re-watching the video of your cup run.
Stop being stupid ron
I thought we played pretty well for much of the game, except where it really counts. In both boxes. This is where games are won and lost and this is where we lost this one. Slack defending, especially for their first, and a dreadfully toothless attack.
It’s hard to believe we won’t bring in an accomplished striker, if only temporarily, before the window shuts but with 5 of our very top performers out, striker isn’t the only position in which we are feeling the pinch at the mo’.
It’s like we are in the middle of the perfect storm with first teamers missing and our young guns not up to the required level as yet.Hopefully we can eke out enough points to keep us out of trouble until our tried and tested return from the treatment table. For sure, a team fighting relegation is a far from tempting prospect for a quality possible addition to the squad.
A threadbare team. Without Adama the only threat was going to be Neto, but how were we going to score?
The performance was ok considering what was available though the result was somewhat inevitable.
Why was Fabio on the left wing – total fish out of water at CF let alone out on the flanks. A Bambi on ice.
Semedo fine going forward but at a liability in defence. He has no idea how to man mark, leaving miles of space behind him. No surprise that Everton via Digne targeted him immediately. He was totally at fault for their first goal.
Unless a goal scorer comes in fast we are looking to be fighting relegation. I can’t really see Cutrone to be the answer, but he has to start ahead of Fabio against WBA .
How can we continue with Semedo when he is such a defensive liability ? Particularly so when we have Hoever ready to play. This guy has impressed during each of the limited opportunities he has been afforded.
It seems to me that Nuno feels obliged to select both Semedo and Silva to justify their their ludicrous transfer fees — and of course because they are Portuguese.
I thought we played quite well too .
In fact we looked most likely to score the second but unfortunately,,,,,
I’m getting pissed off with these tight games just falling the other way, villa, spurs, man utd now Everton, seriously though, how are Everton in the top four .
Unfortunately until we get a few more players back we are going to struggle to finish games off.
After we beat Sandwell on Saturday there is a decent break until we play Chelsea so hope springs eternal.
Positives – neves looks back to his confident best and Neto is going to win the premier young player of the year award, oh and it’s a very civilised 7-30 pm Saturday night kickoff at the weekend.
Come on you wolves
Had Ruddy been in goal he would surely have claimed the cross which lead to Everton`s winner. What was Rui doing just watching?
Even as an Everton supporter I have to disagree. If you watch it again you’ll see that the ball swings out away from the goalie making it the defenders responsibility to deal with it. Everton had no strikers so it was obvious the main threat at crosses or set pieces would be the big defenders who were as it turns out too good for Wolves defense. With the side Everton fielded on Tuesday and the result they achieved, I would be worried were I a Wolves fan.
Welcome Mickey, always good to have an opposition fan on.
Don’t worry about us though mate , we just more than held our own against you guys whilst playing 6 players 20 or under .so our future looks bright, our immediate future for this season though may depend on getting a few more experienced players back.
Odds on we finish above you again.
Utw
What’s the old adage Marney, “You’ll win nothing with Kids” ? Well, don’t you believe it . My reference to Wolves being worried was an emphasis on the depleted side Everton fielded and your inability to break them down. On the whole I thought your lads done well, you have some who are skillfull, clever, and easy on the eye and some who are deffinitely a bit green. You’ll be Ok this season, but you won’t make ten points up on Everton. Good luck Wolves, a proper top tier footy club.
I know Mickey, Ferguson’s class of 92 were useless wasn’t they, ha.
Seriously though, my only point was that you seemed quite enthused about your team’s efforts and our inability to break you down but I wasn’t sure if you realised that we were extremely depleted ourselves ( possibly our weakest premier league team in 2.5 years) .
You seem like a sensible type so I’m sure you would admit that there was nothing between the two teams and we had the better of the action for large parts of the game which is where my enthusiasm for the future comes from.
You did put 2 of your 3 efforts for the game away though so fair play.
I have a sneaky feeling that we will finish very close to each other come the season end but don’t take it the wrong way, if I’m wrong about you guys and your trajectory continues enough to ruffle the feathers of the self titled top six then I’ll enjoy that with ya .
Good luck
Come on you wolves
Could be right, but in truth there are a lot of similarities between the teams.
Both have good managers.
Both depend too much on a single forward.
Both have sprinklings of real quality as well as some average.
Differences include, you have greatly under performed in recent years considering money spent where in the last two years we have been the opposite.
And most importantly, because of the amount of money you have spent you have a larger more mature squad.
Good luck to you, if you achieve what we did last season you will have made real progress. Just cost you more.
It’s what he does. I’m really starting to get frustrated with his style of keeping. He never EVER challenges for a ball.
For those worried about relegation. It will take Fulham another 15 games to get to 22 points on current ratio. I think 5 more wins and we will be safe anyway. Perhaps we should just play Crystal Palace every week and everything will be fine….
I always try to look at a fair (IMO) view of our performances, however on this occasion I am a bit weary of hearing ‘We need to defend better, we need more toughness’. I know, criticism of our leader is taboo, and I am not advocating change, unlike other sites, but as the leader the buck stops there.
Week in and week out we persevere with a team who play great football, but lack the killer touch, we can see it, pundits can see it, why can’t our hierarchy? I get we have constraints under FFP rules. I get we have a requirement for small squad, but it is glaring obvious we need back up for Raul – and have done, way before he was injured. I’m not going to signal out individuals, because I am of the view, they wear my clubs colours, so need MY support, plus don’t believe that they don’t try their hardest, just that maybe their hardest is not quite good enough.
We won’t go down, we will consolidate and we will improve. I guess my frustration lies in the viewpoint (mine) we appear to have gone from an exciting, attacking team to one of little confidence and idea in front of goal. Stating the same thing after each game, to me is not a helpful strategy.
Wasn’t it Einstein who said ” Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”
All that said, we are a wounded animal, with key players to come back, watch us back to our best on Saturday.
The above is just my random thoughts :-).
Deeply disappointing against a very ordinary and unambitious Everton side, and extremely worrying on two fronts.
It’s laudable to be investing in young talented players. But where will we be when they’re ready to perform? We’re certainly heading for a relegation battle at this rate. We need a couple of proven players as quickly as possible.
In addition, Nuno has performed miracles in the last few seasons with a smaller squad and minimal injuries. What’s happened? Why are so many senior players suddenly suffering with a spate of injuries? Has something changed or is it just bad luck? If the club are serious about future achievements, there needs to be a squad of experienced players who can step in without a drop in performance. At the moment, too many of the kids are not able to step up and perform consistently.
If someone handed your 5 year old a loaded gun your’e not going to stand there and let them play with it, “Are you”.?
You wash your hand and the toaster pops up and some bread gets stuck, so you try to prise it out with your wet hands and a fork. No you don’t, “Do you”?
I am not coming on here this morning to rant and rave because the lads were crap and we got beat, because the lads played their very best, they fought hard all night and did all the were capable of in the positions they played in to win this game.
Reference the first two statements above.
Why would you start the game with a lad who is struggling with confidence, lacking 90 minutes stamina due to over inflating his potential and quite frankly who is Not ready yet.
Why would you play MGW on the right side in front of Semedo who as much as I like him, “he is not a RB” when Semedo is comfortable in the more forward role.
Why would you not want to play Hoever at RB, a guy who at every opportunity has shown his talent, natural ability and flair and who to add insult to injury was wearing the No 2 shirt.
Why would you leave Patrick Cutrone on the bench until the 71st minute when Silva was quite obviously drowning in Nuno’s selfish arrogance in trying to prove some kind of point.
I am not going into conspiracy theories here, but I saw exactly the same thing as Tim, no-one and I mean no-one was passing to Cutrone, when Dendonker did put the ball his way it was behind him and even hit him on the heels at speed.
The common denominator here in my post is WHY.
WHY Nuno.
FFS we should have and quite easily could have won this game, against a side whose goal was there first shot in the second half at 77 minutes.
Well played all the guys, but…
Not good enough Nuno.
I’m getting very worried now, after having worked with Portuguese Doctors, Nurses, Ambulance men and firefighters for 4 years over in Portugal, I saw that when things don’t go their way they are truly arrogant, pig headed and throw a strop. (Leupodue, Mourinho, Ronaldo, Bruno Fernandes and sadly it appears, Nuno)
I think I read before that Nuno left one of his other jobs when his boss said he should have got more points than the team did.
I think he quit so, yes, it is possible.
Digne must currently be the best crosser of a ball in the Prem. Having consistently terrorised Semedo all game I was concerned that one of his crosses would find one of their centre-backs. Nearly made it through, but in touching distance of the final whistle it was Gomez who delivered.
Missing Boly very badly at the back. No-one else has the aggression or ability to attack the ball defensively. But even when he returns we could still do with another in the same ilk as I am concerned the aerial assault does not play to Captain Fantastic’s strengths in a back four.
Perhaps if Traore had been available Digne’s efforts may have been more restricted.
Very happy with our first-half efforts, but of course it’s the second-half when the physical efforts of our youngsters get found out against the stronger more aggressive opposition.
Midfield coped well against the classy Rodriguez and co.
Hope Neto doesn’t freeze-up after the Doucoure trip.
I am hoping that Nuno felt Cutrone needed easing in after playing so little football recently. And that he feels ready to start him on Saturday.
Word has it (unofficially) that Fosun do not want to spend significantly in this window. I am sure that there are conference calls to China suggesting that if we don’t we may be drifting a little closer to the fire than we would like and that they could be risking the money already invested.
Such conversations sometimes have a way of focusing financier’s attentions.
A crumb of hope jackomac.
Wolves injury update last week did hint, Boly “could be back against the Shite.
Yesterday, Nuno said, “Adama had a slight strain and won’t play against Everton but may well be ready for the Shite”.
So although the news is all Shite, it may be good news.
Bring on West Brom
It’s tin helmets time with your new Avatar.
Brace yourself Sheila…..
Yes there were positives but our slack defending and power puff attack left us vunerable to another sucker punch.
Cutrone is no Raul but surely he deserves more than 12 minutes to try and show if he up to the challenge the guy been brought back and must be thinking why…..he we go again no time to make an impact
It’s clear to me he is not Nuno choice which begs the question how many other signings has Nuno had to accept.
2 weeks into transfer window and over a month since Raul injury and no signings and as time goes on we look less and less appealing.
I remember people saying a Forest team containing Des Walker Stewart Pierce and a certain Roy Keane were to good to go down….well they did.
1 win in 8 that’s relegation form you can say all you like about positives but our results don’t lie
Jeff needs to give Nuno a hand and get a striker in ASP
Just a point about Everton they have spent £300 million plus in the last 3 years there owner not been pulled up or worried about Fair Play rules
Bloody hell Paul, you have blown me away and completely shocked me.
Well done mate, fairly balanced view and in no way a rant.
We all hurt equally when we get beat.
Cheers Stu,
It’s effecting us all what’s happening and not just talking football mate.
Up the Wolves
I wonder how many managers can have achieved the feat of having a realistic opportunity to qualify for the Champions League and six months later have a realistic shot at getting the club getting relegated .Contrast Angeloti whose teamed looked hopeless at Molineux six months ago and with sensible experienced recruitment in the likes of Allan and Rodriguez have transformed themselves .
Make no mistake this is down to Nuno .Shi has said publicly that he has learnt everything he knows about football from Nuno and thus Nuno has been the prime mover in everything from selling players to buying them and changing systems .
Some say that the points tally is not dissimilar to last season at this stage but the momentum is utterly different .Last season we started slowly but by this stage we were very much on the up after that great Man City double .Now we are in relegation form .
Even the injuries that might be pleaded in mitigation only expose the folly of Nuno having a tiny squad with no experienced back up .I mean NONE not not very much .
I am afraid there is an arrogance in all this that he knows best .
I think we have most likely passed the high water mark of Nuno’s tenure as manager .I am not suggesting a change but my gut tells me that getting back up to and exceedingly previous levels with his unchangeable philosophies will not happen at Wolves .
I can only hope we avoid relegation and can start afresh in August .To do that we need to win a few games .
Why has no one mentioned the Everton player who was a yard offside right before their corner which lead to their second goal?
Check it out on the official Wolves website.
Having said that, it is sad we have to watch results elsewhere, hoping the likes of Burnley and Newcastle both lose.
Once again, we played with 10 and sonetimes 9 men.
Everton were all over the place after we scored, and the game should have been done and dusted by half time.
Semedo is as useless as Traore as a defender, so why play him there, and when Hoever comes on, keep him there??
Madness!
We can see, if Semedo has to play, then he should be attacking sonewhere.
Is there some ruling from above that makes certain players undropable?
Individually, our guys have the skill to compete with anyone, but collectively, are crap.
And, I think Patricio needs to be dropped and John Ruddy should be in goal for Saturday.
He, unlike most of our team, knows the importance of this derby, and will be fired up.
Lose against the shit, and we are in the shit.
With our current form, now would be an ideal time to cancel the season.
At least Ruben finally scored from open play, inside the box!
I had the same thought during the match. The major downside of linesmen not raising a flag for offside is that sometimes there is another phase or two and then the offside is incorrectly forgotten, leading to secondary chances
Yet another game where there was barely a cigarette paper between the two sides but unable to get the right result.
Positives for me were Neto, Neves and Ait-Nouri, but that is probably about it.
Not sure how other bloggers feel, but as soon as I see us line up with a back four I fear the worst. We look less solid and organised, and it reduces Coady’s effectiveness to help influence the game from the back.
As yet another frustrated football manager, I would switch to 352. Patricio in goal; with Hoever, Coady and Saiss at the back, I believe Hoever played both centre back and full back at Liverpool and we have no other right sided defenders, its hard on Kilman but Saiss just pips him on the left for his goal threat; Semedo and Ait-Nouri both look better as wing backs; midfield of Neves, Moutinho and Dendoncker picks itself; and Neto and Traore up top.
Not ideal but until the injured players get back we just to need to start grinding out the results necessary to us safely in mid table.
Not looking forward to the next game!
I’d agree with team but would have Saiss in the middle and Kilman on the left and Coady right.
So many good points made on here but with a constant theme, we badly miss our injured players and are desperate to have them back, knowing in our dreams that a full strength full on team would marmalise that lot on Saturday. Revenge for the 1-5 debacle would be sweet for our sake and for Mick’s. Not only that but yes seriously, top 6 would be doable this year.
It’s not gone to plan though. What is so galling is that the League is so bang average, ManU could only beat our makeshift team with a jammy goal, Everton are nothing special but are fourth now, Big Sam will park several Midland Reds across the goal mouth and send his big conker tree Ajeyi up for all the set pieces knowing we haven’t got anyone over 6 ft. or 11 stone to stop him let alone outjump him. And……….
It was blindingly obvious after the Arsenal game that we needed a proper number 9 and it was grossly unfair (and a child protection issue) to expect Fabio to become Raul overnight yet Fosun aren’t interested in our subsequent freefall down the League table.
Paddy, welcome back from Italy. Welcome to the bench. You will remember it well. Get yourself a hobby, like knitting, perhaps knitting spaghetti, or modelling little pasta dinosaurs because you ain’t gonna get much playing time. Well, it’s easy money just sitting there and there’s little chance anybody will come knocking at the door of the Mol for your signature to interrupt your peaceful life. Not your fault mate. Better weather on its way soon.
Well…. if nuno seriously believes the answer to wolves problems lies within the squad he is smoking some serious shit !
Yes we are lacking height at the back and at the moment we are susceptible to set pieces but the overall play is pretty good except when we get to the opposition box thats where we have a mental breakdown.
If fosun do not bring in a genuine replacement for raul in this window then forget it we will squirm around in the bottom half for whats left of the season.
No wonder nuno was calling for things to be halted …we have hardly got any premier quality players left to pick from yet the vile get their games called off because three or four have tested positive perhaps we should fiddle a few tests until our wounded are fit.
Raul is not coming back this season so lets not kid ourselves about that one and we are going to need a striker anyway up so someone needs to get their finger out and sort it out no matter the cost and no matter the ffp consequences .
Paul for once i will replay your never ending record … Fosun get your bloody wallet out and get someone in NOW not next season NOW because if you dont all the hard work of the last three years could well go down the tubes and will someone please take that mad weed out of nunos fags .
Spike,
Appreciated gives me no pleasure at all mate.
Up the Wolves.
Spikes, I just wonder if Nuno believes what he is saying now or just having to play along with the the Fosun band.
He had previously said “we need help” and that we would be looking to bring players in.
If he is painted into a corner I am concerned that the combined pressure of everything going on around him may force him to throw the towel in. And for the immediate future we can’t physically and vocally get behind the team.
Come on Fosun, if it’s not your government or FFP putting the handcuffs on this would be a good time to throw us a line before we end up sleeping with the fishes, in the Sandwell cesspit.
Don’t know which is more depressing, playing crap and losing or being the best team on the night and losing.
I thought the following played well (but not all at the same , and not all the time): Neves, Semedo going forward, Att Nourri going forward, Hoever in the short time he was given, MGW in patches and Neto when he didn’t over elaborate plus Donk if only for his energy.
If I have not mentioned a player you can make your own conclusions.
Don’t believe we played badly or were dreadfully poor at times…
No-one knows one inkling of what goes on behind the dors of thE Golden Palace.
All we can do is guess.From the top down, exactly what we need is understood and ill bet the best is being done to pull in top players.patience is whats needed and a lot of perspective.
Everything is unravelling and naivety is part of the problem but the board will get this right.
We just need to keep Golden and carry on
UTW
Very nice!
But when it rains, don’t you get a wet bum?
Naa Doogy woogy
Its a work in progress currently as not only have we endured lock down but my little lady has undergone 2x massive brain operations following a second brain bleed.
Its my peace and quiet place .
Love my bikes nearly as much as the Wolves
Nice project, what’s the unit you have in her?
I’ve just renovated and sold a BSA 123cc. Not in the chopper twin league, but fun making everything for it etc…
Sorry to hear about Mrs Trarora s grrr, hope she is on the mend.
A bantam?
My father in law was a tt racist in the 70’s and had a m’cycle shop .I remember popping up the loft to look for Bantam spares.
I came back down with a bantam engine in my arms that had years before been restored!..result!
Its a 1967 harley-davidson ironheadsportster 900cc
In a rigid frame. Lots done and lots still to do.good clean fun.
Bantam racist!! Lol, Freudian slip. Thought it looked like a 900 twin… I used to a lot of work for Harley, if you struggle for parts let me know.
Nice project. Wolf, you and I should do a ride out when it’s done!
You can’t play a back four with two full backs who are poor at defending. The two that played last night good going forward poor defensively.Both goals came from the areas they should have defended better. I think a back five, which our success was based on should be the way to go for the remainder of this season,as our current form suggests we will finish nearer the bottom than top.Lucky there are a few poor teams down there. As I said repeatedly we need two new strikers and they should have been through the door by now given how long Raúl has been out. Seeing the value Fosun got for their outlay in the summer (70,000000) it looks like they won’t be so accommodating.
running around like headless chickens ,comes to mind
come on nuno sort this out
silva , not good enough plus some
First of all, brilliant bit of work by Aït-Nouri on Ruben’s goal.
I don’t think we are playing THAT bad and we seemed to dominate for large parts of the first half. We have to tighten up in defense. We could easily have a few more points over the last stretch of games.
That being said, what was Nuno thinking with that starting line-up? Was Fabio even started as striker?
I get that Nuno doesn’t like Patrick that much. Whether it is his personality or his skill level or his pushing for more game time, I get it. But we are in a situation where we need to start getting goals and Nuno has to stop being stubborn and use someone who has the best chance of scoring. I think it is Patrick over Fabio. I don’t think now is the time to concentrate on the development of Fabio – now is the time to get some goals and points and stem the bleeding.
Of course, I did notice that even when Patrick was playing, the others seemed more content to pass it to each other and back to the defense than to try to get it to him.
Same faults week in week out Tim –
Defence – both Semedo and Ait-Noor leaving wide open spaces and no Boly to soak up the resulting crosses. Patricio loss of form and Boly absence is not coincidental. If Back 4 it needs to be Johnny / Hoever. Boly. Coady / Saiss, Johnny / Marcal. when all fit.
Attack – toothless. Only Neto and Traore (when in the mood) can beat a man. Hope Cuitrone is the answer in the middle but not convinced.
Overall – “ones for the future” are fine in a large squad’ which is a luxury we don’t have – the future is here and they are mostly not yet up to it.
Cheque book needed at least for a striker NOW, because 1 win in 8 is relegation form even in this season.
Couldn’t agree more- unless we get the right balance in defence then we will not get the full benefit from our squad of very skilful, technical players. Some of the forward play this season has been breathtaking. Not too much wrong that a goal scoring CF would not cure. However, as Nuno has clearly stated we are not pursuing a loan deal, we will continue to scrap and scrape for points and the relegation scenario will no doubt go to the wire. There is little sympathy on this blog for the current situation which most place at Nuno’s/Fosuns door. Hindsight is a wonderful gift.
Ww
Indeed, our attacking play can be and often is excellent in approach, but so, so often ends in no end product; it’s fine until we reach the final third of the pitch and then usually dies or opportunity is squandered. The combination of lack of backup for Jiminez (2 years in the making) and the ludicrous sale of Jota have undone 3 years of excellent building – hopefully only temporarily. but that’s going to be up to Fosun because we are without a doubt at a watershed moment.
Coady gone quiet .
He was doing lots of interviews etc when we were winning ,let’s hear some rally
cries from the captain to get this lot going ! Or is he a fair weather leader ?
Play wise a few penetrating balls through the middle and not sideways would be useful from him.
A lot on here say; we played quite well
Not for me we lost
2 at best wing backs playing full backs – could not stop a cross coming into the box, that is basic football imo
Silva nowhere near £35 mill and Cutrone may not be fully fit to play yet
Injuries really hurting us
Everton are bang average
We are clearly a team on the slide at the moment – Nuno and his team have to do something about that quickly. The danger is that we become a club on the slide finding it difficult to move forward and with fewer players wanting to join. Jeff Shi plays a crucial role in avoiding this by authorising some immediate recruitment.
Wolves have made a brave decision in backing youth but at present both Ait Nouri and Silva look like schoolboys and mostly play like schoolboys making schoolboy errors which are costing the team. Ait Nouri did show improvement last night and had a great assist for the goal but he still gets knocked off the ball far too easily. I’m struggling to find many positives regarding Silva . He holds the ball up okay but doesn’t seem to have the pace or aggression to worry Premier League defenders.
I hate to say it but I’m also not sure about Patricio. He’s only been rated as a 6 or 7 out of 10 in games over the last six months and you need regular star performances from your keeper.
Whilst he can’t be blamed for many of the goals conceded he might have prevented some of them – the recent Brighton game springs to mind. A goalkeeper who regularly rates an 8 of higher will gain points for his team. I don’t feel that Patricio has saved us many points at all this season.
The good news is that in Pedro Neto we have one of the best 20 year olds playing in Europe at present. He will be on the radar of lots of big clubs. – I hope we can keep him.
They say you don’t miss the water till the well runs dry: see Jonny great player the new Dennis
Irwin !
Not normally being a massive contributor to the blog post match ,after last nights result I felt compelled to post some thoughts after having finally calmed down
There are 8 or so of us that group text during a game at the moment with comments of abuse and praise for players /systems/ opposition performance etc.. Light hearted banter mainly , however the sense of frustration and eventual anger with what was displayed by the management with the continued application of ‘Bambi’ ,wide left initially and then leading the line got to us all eventually. My partner ,a primary school teacher ,came in to see how the game was going half way through the second half , she had never seen the lad play before and although no officionado of the game immediately commented on his short comings and was extremely puzzled by his apparent inability to run like an athlete, an adult even .
At this point it occurred to me that something is going on at my club ….if the lead strikers ‘ skill set I is so obviously lacking to my lovely albeit football ignorant girl why do they persist in playing him ? Surely the other kids up front in the under23 set up cannot be any worse and step up to the plate more effectively
We have dropped possibly 10-12 points through fielding what has in my opinion a 10 man team irrespective of the sometime inadequate performances of some of the other new recruits but they have individually at times shown what they can do .
At 18 Harry Kane was on loan all over the country , Jamie Vardy was still I believe holding down a proper job as well as playing non league football and yet the management persist in playing the lad .
It just doesn’t add up
Well said Shrewd !
I bet the recently installed Baggies manager is licking his lips at the prospect of playing us on Sat. Bang in lots of crosses `cos we have no height to defend these, and a keeper that stays on his line – a recipe for the late goals and losses we are currently enduring.
Arsenal, Brighton, Man Utd, (when they hoofed a late long ball forward), and others, and now Everton and still we pick Saiss to play centre back with Coady who is really a converted midfield player, as a pairing those two just are not up to it, not specialist defenders with height, pace and physical presence.
If Boly is not ready for the weekend, then surely Kilman, at 6`4″ should play, and revert to a back 3 with wingbacks – don`t conceed and we may get some points. We may have played ok but we lost, again. The Baggies only need to crock Neto early then we will have a problem. Not optimistic for Saturday I`m afraid.
Penny wise pound foolish! Perhaps Fosun should look up the meaning! We are crying out for a new C.F. as neither Fabio or Cutrone have the ability, but it seems that no transfer is likely. While parts of last night’s performance were o.k., the results are relegation form. A loss against the lot down the road, will put us all in a very negative and extremely critical mood, to say the least, never mind the position in the table.
Hopefully Cody will explain the true meaning of Saturday’s game, and it will possibly be physical, so please, no lightweights! I would go to a back 3, and bring in Killman and the American chap!
The American chap might be injured as he wasn’t on the bench last night.
No, I’m still here!
whilst stretched out in my sauna listening to talk sport about an hour ago i had the misfortune to witness that self opinionated twat adrian durham claim beyond belief that Evertons performance last night against Wolves was without doubt the greatest performance of any team in the premier league this season. Yes this season !
Masterminded by the magnificent Carlo Ancelotti and with five yes five of their regular first team squad missing they comfortably beat wolves with a magnificent display of discipline ,skill and determination .
Not once did that ignoramus mention that we also had five first team players out injured had over 50% possession more shots on goal more shots on target and we scored a super goal.
Christ me i nearly fell off the top shelf …what a complete dick head that bloke is !!!
Gave up on that shite radio channel yonks ago.
BTW Adrian Durham tipped Wolves for relegation at the start of the season. To explain to his astonished co-presenters he said Nuno would leave and take his select players with him as the reason for the forecast. 1. He’s a tosser 2. He don’t like Wolves and 3, He’s a tosser. (This dementia I suffer means I forget what I typed a sentence ago)
You forgot to say he’s a tosser.
October/November 2018. Premier league. P 6 W 0 D 1 L 5 F 4 A 11 Pts 1.
Wolves 0 Watford 2
Brighton 1 Wolves 0
Wolves 2 Spurs 3
Arsenal 1 Wolves 1
Wolves 0 Huddersfield 2
Cardiff 2 Wolves 1
Final position = 7th
nice one …lets all calm down .
Living in the past will not solve the problem
It’s a demonstration that during a season there can be good spells and bad spells. Short memories. Nuno was named Premier League manager of the month in OCTOBER. After a run of 14 points from 7 games. We are now on a sticky run of 5 points from 8 games. Things can turn around.
For those who were not following the Cutrone saga closely while he was in Italy, I would like to give some info.
Near the end of his stay at Fiorentina, he or his agent said something about playing time or something and their new coach said if someone doesn’t want to be at Fiorentina, they can leave.
He didn’t travel to their last one or two away games with the team, I think.
Also, one of their executives said publically some solution to the issue had to be made with the help of Wolverhampton.
That solution ended up being that Patrick returned to Compton to practice with the senior squad.
Nuno did not ask for him to come back to add depth to the squad and neither did anyone else at Wolves as much as they had to make the best of an increasingly deteriorating situation.
I’m surprised Nuno let him even practice with the senior team, let alone play.
Note I: The details might be a little off but this is essentially what happened.
Note II: He changed his agent at around that time so, presumably, he took the heat for what happened.
Just had a little chat with me old mucker Newark Wolf.
He brought home a little message that put’s it all into perspective.
It’s three years to the day that about 15 or 20 of us bloggers met up in the away end at Oakwell on a freezing, cold, wet & windy day, to see us really struggle against Barnsley with a 0-0 draw.
We had that horrible obese foul mouthed woman and her equally foul mouthed hubby swearing all match in front of their grandson. She made our ears bleed.
I believe we went on to win the league that year with 99 points, Nuno playing a very weak team against Sunderland last game of the season, (bloggers bash in the Italian in Sunderland)
Give my best to Newark next time you chat please Stu
And of course Mrs Newark
I’ve calmed down from last night, full backs good attacking, but leaving too much space which good players will exploit, first goal Nelson again, Hoover is better end off, Silva sorry would not get in my sixes indoor football team or Dudley cradley team should have been a draw, goalkeeper is Dracula scared off crosses, wolves will be out if we lose Saturday, this season we will finish near the bottom, 60 milli9n wasted, no activity in jan, time to get wasted again, wolves aie we.
Given we lost to a mediocre Everton side who imo didn’t deserve it, that said they had a chi in the second period and got the winner.
We had more than enough chances to have won the game before they got their winning goal.
We all know we’re struggling to score atm, but we are creating chances, That brings me on to the lack of striking abilities we have in our strikers . The young lad Silva just isn’t good enough at the moment, he’s just a bit of a light weight and light years away from doing the business in the premier…Cutrone maybe is a better choice but not the answer to our goal scoring drought up front.
That’s why it’s paramount we get a proven striker in NOW Nuno and Fosun must bite the bullet and do it or else all the good work done in the last three years will all go down the pan.
Injuries all teams get them but with us having a small squad has impacted greatly on us and it’s come back to bite us on the arse.
Did anyone see the peno we should’ve got in the dying minutes elbow in the neck by Mina,No Var check just sums up our season of bad luck.
If we can’t beat the baggies we are in deep shite.
Nuno must come up with a plan.
The trouble with getting a ” proven goal scorer” John is they can turn out not to be the goal machine expected. Veron, Birtles and Forlan for example at Man U, big money paid but couldn’t score. Sutton at Chelsea and latterly Timo Werner. The list goes on and all of you could name lots of similar examples. Fosun’s hesitation might be they know this to be the case and of course January is a notoriously tricky window to buy in.
In addition you need to persuade this top player and his family to swap say Madrid or Milan or Paris for Wolverhampton. Much as we may love the place it may not appeal to the player and more importantly his partner and possibly his teenage children.
Just deciding we need a goal scorer ain’t the same as getting one is all I ‘m saying.
Teenage children? I assume that you are looking for someone with a wealth of experience?
I did say possibly, personally if we can get anyone who scores goals they can be any age.
Austin Samuels is coming back to help the forward line?
I had one of them back in the late sixties, my first car!
Just seen Phil Foden on the box for Man City..our guy Fabio so much better…and then I woke up..
Nuno you wake up
This season becoming slightly tragic
talk about clutching at straws..Mendes you owe us £35M..
Need a huge win against WB
Another write off yesterday..
So if fabio gets the winner on Saturday, you’ll be the first one to post ?
No, he’ll probably wake up again. But…. strange things do happen like that twat Ewan Roberts getting a hat trick.
He’s a twat because he hates the Wolves for those of you that don’t know.
Yep no prob! ..but he is in the box against WB for a tap in that I could score..
The wolves v Albion fixture has an uncanny knack of throwing up the occasional unlikely hero for us…..the Danny Crainie hat trick, the iwan roberts hat trick, the Rob hindmarch last minute equaliser, the Jamie Ohara screamer, George ndah’s game of his career………..oh for Fabio Silva, nelson Semedo , mgw or cutrone to come from nowhere to make a name for themselves in the annals of wolves history!
Appreciate that Marnhull..
That actually wasn’t a spell check for once..just a play on words lol
Yes ..a ride out…that Really sounds a plan ? ?
Love it…. once the covid stuff dies down a ride out is on!
According to The Sun, Mendes was in talks with Arsenal for Nuno take over from Arteta. Apparently Nuno is looking for a new challenge!
If that does not wake up Shi and Fosun to loosen the purse strings, nothing will! This is awful news.
And The Sun never makes stuff up? Just ask anyone from Liverpool about that (regarding Hillsborough for those under forty).
Isn’t the world flat according to The Sun?
Not just The Sun it’s all over the press.
That the world is flat ??
Didn’t he say when asked before that he was under contract. I thought he was a man of honour.
Mendes constantly looks to move people on sooner or later, that’s his ( and other agents’) business model. I think we’ve already seen how we can be both the beneficiaries and victims of this but I think there is a large element of recycling old news in this particular article
Let’s move on and up the ante…
Our odds against shite 9/20 incidentally.. them 7/1…
That’s £45…?
What ‘s £45.00?
£100 bet pays £45 prob get better odds actually
Nuno has had a hand in choosing the entire Wolves squad. If he goes elsewhere, he is going to have to play players not of his choosing.
We can see how incapable he is of doing that when looking at his relationship with Cutrone.
If he goes to Arsenal and doesn’t play expensive players who have been getting regular game time and are fan favourites, then he is going to feel some heat.
Nuno doesn’t apparently like heat too much.
An observation….
Not a conspiracy theory .
Nuno like all Portuguese (well to be fair, Europeans) is very religious, anyone recall the Black Cat running on the pitch at Everton, they were shitting theirselves and running around crossing themselves like it was going out of fashion. Europeans if they get man flu are certainly going to die, they will pay hundreds in over the counter products to stave off a chill or flu.
My best mate in Bulgaria was a top Abdominal Surgeon of amazing skill, I class surgeons as the closest thing to a God you can get, but even he, with his amazing skill and true handle on the frailties of life, Shits a brick if he starts sneezing.
My take on Nuno at this period in his life is not a desire to move on, I firmly believe in his integrity, honesty and desire to see this plan of his through to the end. If you listen to his interviews in the last few Months or even throughout Covid, Nuno is terrified of Covid 19, he repeatedly rams home the seriousness of it, the problems it is causing Wolves, the team and him personally. He said in one interview, “how much he feels so helpless with the situation at home”, his family is in Portugal and he really has to be here.
If I was a betting man, I would say, “poor old Nuno is slightly depressed”, his family are all having to make do without him and he cannot fulfil his family obligations being stuck here.
Look at your own lives, how many of you have partners over the age of 65 years, of those who do, how many of you are desperate to have them vaccinated to relieve the stress and worry of having to wash your hands, wear a mask and keep away from loved ones.
Sam Alladyce was calling for all football players to get the vaccine, I thought, “you selfish arrogant twat”, but then after thinking about, it he may well have a point.
The Government bowed to pressure from football clubs and also US, and let elite sport continue. Why, because it is good for peoples mental health, to have something to look forwards to. I have Sky, BT Sports and now I even have Amazon Prime. There are very few games we miss, we even record those that clash and to be fair, it has been quite a lifeline in the mundane existence of lockdown.
I am led to believe, Nuno either still lives in the Mount Hotel or maybe that he has a flat now up Tettenhall way, very nice if you can get it. But, when your’e training under the Covid guidelines which I’m sure they are adhering to (religiously) as we have had zero Covid up to now at Compton or the club. After work he is then going back to an empty flat or Hotel room, this has to be a drain on his life and a strain on him personally.
Just look at his face, his lack of the old bubbly Nuno and throw in these injuries which we are not accustomed to but we have had to endure over the last three years. There’s all the ingredients for depression in there.
And watch his shit – eating grin return after we stuff the shit on Saturday!!
Let’s hope that when he gets home , he doesn’t look on social media and see all the fat old blokes with mango chutney stained jumpers telling him what a shit job he’s doing picking the wrong team every week.
It may push him over the edge or encourage him to get the feck outa here .
Utw
Yet another good post Stu, intertwined with your excellent knowledge of all things health and football.
I agree 100%, Nuno is a long way from home during a pandemic. Surrounded by Portuguese talkers, which is also having an impact on missing home and family.
If he has plans to go anywhere I would wager back home to his family and take a break from football.
With all the negative press around footballers not respecting social distancing when scoring, how do the FA counter SD on corners, free kicks etc… despite the good feel factor it does generate, the government must be under increasing pressure to stop all games.
Whilst this could be a disaster, it would allow Nuno and guys to go home and recharge.. Would help our injury crisis too. Lots of plusses and minuses for this. Self isolation, getting the season finished, the root of all football evil – TV money etc… etc…
But, are lives less important than football?
I don’t the answer and have no clue on what will happen, just having random thoughts.
If he wants a break from football, he could go down the poorthorns and watch them train!!!
Now that would send him into depression. Lol 🙂
Looking forward to seeing you on Saturdayz zoom footie show!! Clive.
? “It’s the toughest season so far.”
? “I want to visit my family, but I cannot,”
? “Football may never been the same again.”
? “Without fans, it has no meaning.”
Posted on tw@tter by Tim Spiers, quotes by Nuno.
Backs up StuWolf post.
Blimey Stu, you don’t half generalise. The other day you claimed that the Portuguese are an arrogant nation and now all Europeans are religious.
I’m European and have yet to meet a more committed atheist while there are plenty of countries in Europe where over half of the population are atheists according to surveys with the Czech Republic and UK top of the list. Interestingly, however, surveys do show that the Portuguese are towards the top of the most religious list so your argument holds some water if just referring to the Portuguese.
I worked extensively in Bulgaria, Macedonia, Albania and Romania, they are all super shit scared of d ad very religious.
Just got one of those emergency messages over the phone telling me to stay at home unless I need to go for food, work, exercise and heath care.
I do that anyway.
Does beer count as food?
Maybe not but I’ve always found it very helpful for my mental health care so,,,, yes
I’m a bit surprised to read some of the hostility towards Nuno on this blog. From where I am sitting, (in terms of re-balancing the squad), his hands are tied by Fosun’s refusal to release any more funds. Somewhat understandable given that they stumped up for Cutrone (who returned to Italy fairly quickly), Vallejo , Mir (who were rubbish) etc. He’s also getting criticised for running a small squad – but that is how Fosun keep the wages bill down; so again, maybe his hands are tied more tightly than he would like ?
As for the Everton game, we played well given the resources available, but again didn’t get the rub of the green – no offside for their 2nd goal, no penalty for Mina’s assault on Hoever etc. Performances are generally good and results will surely follow if we can find someone to stick the ball in the back of the net.
Speaking of which, big game on Saturday. The general consensus seems to be Cutrone for Silva, but maybe we should start with both ? Silva prefers to play a bit deeper, Cutrone likes to be on the last shoulder, so our midfield and defence would have passing options. and we would at least have bodies further up the pitch. Add Neto or Adama in there (assuming one or other is fit) and go with 3-4-3.
I like your suggestion Jack regarding fitting in Silva and Cutrone.
I agree with much of this. For those who have watched the last few post match interviews
with Nuno , it is blindingly obvious that he is really hacked off .
We can all speculate on the reasons for that. Performances, injuries, press speculation about him leaving, Fosun’s position etc…I can understand all that. But some positivity and optimism would not go amiss. However, in these interviews he says nothing beyond
the obvious and clearly cannot wait for them to end. I have said before how often the questioners and their questions are weak, but really, fans deserve better than this.
In my opinion, playing both Silva and Cutrone is like starting with nine and a half men but that may be necessary if Neto is injured on top of all the rest.
We need Silva for the last 3 minutes of the game.
So I have a question. Many people are saying we could use Luka Jovic because Patrick Cutrone is a flop.
Patrick cost us around £16MILLION. He scored 4 goals last season in Serie A while on loan. I think it was 19 games (9 starts).
Jovic cost Real Madrid around £62MILLION. He has scored just 2 times in 32 games.
Neither has scored at all this season.
So why is Luka less of a failure than Patrick?
Why do people want Luka so bad?
By the way, 4 goals and 1 assist in 927 minutes ain’t bad.
Sky are reporting that Wolves are considering sending out Cutrone on loan again. If that’s true then, reading between the lines, Nuno has told Jeff that he still doesn’t think he’s good enough and Jeff has said we’ll only get someone in as a proper Raul replacement if we can offload him. Possibly short sighted but there you go.
I also get the impression that we are shovelling players out to Grasshoppers to get them off the wage bill, thus freeing up cash for someone else’s wages. For Tim’s info, Jovic has gone back to Frankfurt.
Yes, I saw that and that is where I got some of my statistics from. Just saying that he is a flop in Madrid but some fans are drooling over him.
And where do Sky get their info from?
The Sun?
All paper talk and all b.s.
Sky are a bit more in the know than The Sun to be fair.
Just a thought for the true Wolves fans out there and you great guys & gals of the blog.
When Marine FC played Spurs loads of Spurs fans bought Virtual tickets on their site which helped raise £300k for Marine a struggling club. It has set them up for a good few years.
Newark wolf has bought one and I’m just going on their site to get one too, a little gesture for a true footy club in Lockdown.
Let’s get behind them and help the little guy, not so long ago we were the little guy and when we played them last we were dare I say even worse off than them.
Come on guys and gals let’s buy a ticket and then watch it for free, because if it were not for Covid we would have been there in our thousands and cheering them on, providing income in their pubs, eating houses and hotels.
Do your bit for the little guy.
Only a tenner.
Already done it Stu, partly because I have a distant connection to the town. My parents went to Chorley Grammar decades ago and I narrowly avoided being brought up ” oop North.” God knows what team I might have ended up supporting, could have been Chorley or dog forbid Man U!
Regarding Nuno, he looks like he’s lost a lot of weight.
If anyone fancies helping Chorley, here’s the link.
https://chorleyfc.ktckts.com
Got ours. 🙂
As some know we are having a zoom thing for the A@@@@# game on Saturday
I know nothing about this tech but the wife has set it up . Apart from a couple of people I have initially just asked the people who I already had contact details for ( away from the blog ) as the wife says if there’s too many it gets messy . I know that a few of the people probably won’t join… I think Bromton s fly sheet interferes with his signal etc .. the last thing I want however , is for people to think that they’re not welcome , as already said its just a numbers thing . The best I can saY is that on the day if there’s space I will put something up on the blog and hopefully we can fit others in and people can say hello .
UTW AND FOWB
Thanks London, I was wondering how it would work if there were loads trying to join in !
You have my details but I’m more than happy to miss this one and let you guys who know each other much better enjoy the (pilot) first one if it’s going to get too hard .of course let me know if you have plenty of spaces , otherwise maybe I can try it next time.
3-0 to the boys btw
Utw
Tragic