I had a feeling that this wouldn’t be quite as straightforward as others seemed to think.
Norwich might be entrenched in the bottom three, but they’d won two on the spin heading into this and are full of the new manager bounce.
They certainly edged this contest, with Jose Sa making a couple of key saves to keep the Canaries at bay.
Our number one is growing in stature with every passing game and was a clear man of the match on a day when his teammates underwhelmed.
Wolves were tidy enough in possession, but failed to create clear-cut chances.
That may be due in part to another anonymous showing from Trincao, who failed to justify his selection.
The Portuguese is undoubtedly talented but appears far too lightweight to cope with the rigours of English football.
Traore would surely have been a better choice from the off, especially given the Norwich defence’s propensity for playing themselves into trouble.
Whatever you may think of the Spaniard, he can’t be expected to turn a game when he’s played out of position. Seeing him shifted out to right wing-back was probably the most frustrating thing about this game.
Alas, Bruno has more than earned our trust at this stage and can count himself unlucky to be deprived of the services of Podence after his standout showing last weekend.
And there’s something to be said for a team that can grind out results when under par. We might not always be pretty, but we’re proving a tough nut for teams to crack.
Still, with some really tough games on the horizon, it’s hard to shake the feeling that this was an opportunity missed.
Lots of possession, but no final telling through balls.
Ait Nouri had a shit game, cannot cross for toffee.
Trincao is a waste of space, needs to learn how to go past defenders, tackle, pass, get stuck in, and a lot of other things,
he should be nowhere near the first team.
Traore was brought on too late to do anything meaningful, and Hwang was pretty much anonymous.
Still, a point away from home is always good, bring on Shorn Dick and his anti footballers.
So Clive Ait-Noori, Trincao and Hwang were all useless. Traore wqs brought on too l late but you constantly say (rightly) that he’s crap. Yet whenever I (and others) dare to opine that the club has underinvested in the squad you castigate me for being negative.
So who is going to replace these and other under performers who didn’t come home with the 3 points today.
Answers on a postage stamp please.
Thats up to Bruno and Jeff, not me.
Of the current squad, Traore should be given a start to see what he can do, and to put him in the shop window, so someone, anyone, will take his miserable attitude and petulance elsewhere.
Ait Nouri is better than Marcal, but him and Hwang had an off day.
In my opinion.
And what have you done with your mate, Paulad67?
I think it’s what you’ve done with him Clive.
I suspect he’s followed the example of others over the last couple of years who decided if you don’t fit the mould and toe the party line it’s not worth the hassle.
Well, his loss.
Anyone who takes this blog as more than a bit of fun, and gets upset by others who have differing ideas, needs to get out more.
And before you have a go at me, let me say I enjoy all the insults and piss taking through the years, and just occasionally have a new one thrown my way, which I can use down the road.
And, as I’ve said before, if I ever make it back to England, I would love to meet up with you and Paul, and let you buy me a pint, or two!
Have a nice day, whats left of it.
I don’t know about Paul AD67 in particular but there is a depressing tendency for certain bloggers on this and other sites to be very active when things are going badly. Doom mongers. They often mention relegation. When things then improve, they disappear. There is not a ‘party line’ or a mould on here. Bloggers are meant to be supporters and that generally means for better or for worse, in good times and in bad.
We have had a lot of players recently – I’m not going to list them, we all know who they are – who flatter to deceive.
Trincao appears to be the latest.
There is a hell of a lot more to being a successful Premier League player than just the occasional shoulder dip or step over.
And he seems to lack it.
Having said that, when the two best players for us were probably Sa and Kilman, it doesn’t say a lot for the general performance.
Bruno has done a lot of good since he came to The Golden Palace and has got us playing entertaining and hard pressing football – sometimes.
The biggest thing that we still lack, is…
…Consistency.
Over to you Mr Lage.
A poor display .
I agree Trincao hopeless . Sadly Lage seems to have a blind spot about him .
If he is not going to play Traore it is not surprising he will not sign . Better to sell him and reinvest the money . If Podence cannot play it is obvious to me Traore should play
Well pretty underwhellming how can we play West Ham of the park and then struggle against a team in the bottom three. I don’t blame Bruno all accept three of these players have been at Wolves for 3 or more years and still have Nunos style of play in them. We need a Change of personal 3or 4 additions in Jan should help but that’s upto Mr Shi and Fuson.
It was an ok performance and we picked up a point but I think it just reinforced that as well as Bruno and the team have done so far under quite difficult circumstances, we are still quite a distance from being a proper top six side. I hope he is properly backed in the transfer window this time . My expectation at the start of the season was mid table at best and so the position in the table with a third of the season gone is a bonus.
A disappointing performance, with the draw barely deserved.
Pondens was certainly missed. His ability to look up and identify the pass, as demonstrated to great effect a week ago, is a skill that neither neither Trincao nor Traore seem to possess. In my eyes Trincao appears very lightweight and over-rated, whilst the fact that he is preferred to Traore appears to indicate that the latter will be leaving us in January.
But we do have another viable option. Ryan Giles. This kid has really matured through his loans spells, and now is showing himself to be a special talent. He`s quick, has great ball skills but, perhaps most importantly, he is a terrific crosser of the ball. The majority of Cardiff`s goals this season have come from Ryan`s crosses. Raul and Hwang would surely relish the service that he is able to provide.
Compare this to the fact that Trincao nor Traore have so far this season contributed a single assist between them
The only purpose of an Academy is to groom young talent for the first eleven. So come on Bruno, give this kid a chance. He thoroughly deserves it.
The only purpose of an academy is to produce players to sell on.
If you keep one or two along the way it’s a big Brucie bonus.
Point away from home in the Premier League. In the top six. Looking solid enough defensively but probably need more focus offensively. Perspective required. Just watched a bore draw 0-0 Brighton v Leeds. The famed cavalier approach from Leeds resulted in literally 0 shots on target. Sometimes we don’t give our team and manager the credit they deserve. No easy games in the Prem. Games coming up Burnley Liverpool Citeh Brighton Chelsea Arsenal Yanited. I think 7 points from those would be a decent return.
7 points from 21 available…..umm??! But probably not far wrong and we’ll know a lot more about our real position after that.
As long as three of them come next Saturday!!
Agree, halfway to the safety level of 40 points with quality players hopefully returning and regaining their levels of form sometime after this run of 7 games. It will be fun guessing which games produce results. Expecting nothing from Burnley, Dyche has had our number for the last couple of seasons and are due a result.
Perhaps a tad disappointing coming away with just 1 point… that said Norwich have certainly picked up some momentum, so maybe I shouldn’t be too critical.
I was more than surprised to see Trincao start ahead of Traore, maybe he’s got a minimum of starts written into his loan.. but he didn’t disappoint with a minimal impact on proceedings.
Was disappointed with Samedo as he constantly gets into blind alleys only to lose the ball.
Burnley Dinosaurs up next and no Neves for that game… never an easy game made even more difficult without him.
I’d certainly take 4 points from these past two games but may have to settle for two draws.
Poor. Norwich were absolutely average. At best.
Sadly, so were we. I’ll be honest, I slept through the first half (partly by choice, mainly because I’m recovering from a nasty bout of Covid)… So, the second half. Where was the performance from last week where we “did a job” on Wet Spam?
There was a lot of passing backwards and sideways from the defence, Saiss looked as effective as ever, Kilman showed he can knock a cracking ball 50 yards but only if the opposition let him inside on his left foot and Coady did what Coady does… I do wish he’d set off on more Neil Emblenesque charges down the middle of the park to break up play though. He’s got it in him, and he’d only have to go 25 yards to be within touching distance of the front 3.
Semedo was below average, and still offers nothing to explain why he was signed as an “upgrade” on Doherty… I know who I’d rather have in the team. I like the look of Ait Nouri, but I don’t think today was his finest day.
Ruben and João recycled the ball but didn’t really create anything special, and I felt HHC and Raul were at least trying. Trincão was poor, and Adama managed to do even less when he came on. I’d be withholding most of his wages after that… He seemed to be doing nothing except to bring his own transfer value down. I was shocked to see Hoever brought on for Hwang, I’d have taken Adama off just to kick him up the rear end and to make the point that effort is the minimum requirement. He can leave for anything if we can get a decent offer in January, and I’d let Trincão go home as well, he isn’t cut out for this league. Neto and Podence fighting it out to play alongside Raúl and HHC doesn’t sound too bad to me.
I know today was a bad day at the office, and we’ll have others, but there’s also a lot that was on show which we need to sort out before the end of the transfer window, if Fosun back Bruno, we can do well. If not, well, we’ll struggle more.
I would take Semedo over Doherty in a heartbeat. Different levels in my opinion
Well said Lou. Semedo is definitely a major step up over Doc. Maybe he wasn`t at his best today, but over the course of the season so far he`s been very good, and has consistently improved once he got into Bruno`s methods.
By the way isn`t Doc currently sitting on the bench of a very average team in London somewhere or other ?
Semedo flatters to deceive. Simple. At least Doherty contribted to the goals and assists tally. Something that a wing back is expected to do. Semedo has improved the defensive side of the game but is far from the finished article and was way overpriced at £35m+.
Fully accept your opinion Lou, and all others, but I just feel Semedo slows our play down on the right and constantly looks inside and backwards. Wherever the Doc is now, doesn’t stop him having scored a solid handful of goals and creating chances for us when he was here. For me, Semedo doesn’t offer us that.
With respect 🙂
Me too
Slightly ironic that the term used is ‘struggle’. We are in the top six chap!
TheDOOGooder said we lack consistency. We are consistent though, consistently inconsistent. That is a major concern for me and Thomas and Co should be applauded for reading it so well to predict a draw. Until we rid ourselves of that trait I feel we will struggle to press higher up the league.
For me today I thought Ait Nouri had his worst game and was surprised he did not get replaced. Nothing was working for him. He is normally better than that.
Not too upset though as any point away from home, regardless of the opposition is a positive, in my opinion.
Must do better against Burnley though.
Terrible display and misjudgment of Norwich who had 6 chances to score..
Why traore didn’t play from the off I don’t know but when he did come on he was hardly on the ball anyway..
We were lucky to get a point..
Traore played like he always does. Totally disinterested. In his mind Wolves are simply not good enough for him to show his abilities
The reality is he can rust fast, but is completely unable to look up and make a telling pass. As far as I`m concerned he can`t leave us soon enough. Time for some other avid fans to get frustrated.
Traore did the same at Middlesbrough. Went on a go slow until .we met the price of his release clause. In his head he saw us as a stepping stone back to the Nou Camp or Real Madrid.
Interesting how all these people know what is going on in Traore’s head when he probably doesn’t even know himself! Who will the next scapegoat be?
Telepathy and a dislike of Traore seem to go hand in hand. People even hate on him when he’s on the bench, he can’t win. He should leave us just to shake off these miserable trolls constantly slagging him off.
Probably want a team of big Dave’s (sorry Dave).
Think we already have Semedo, Dendonker, Ait, Trincao, Saiss, Silva. I don’t think there’ll be a shortage. Amazed we are top 6 with such rubbish!!
Along those lines I though we closed down the midfield when the Donk came on – something we had failed to do for the rest of the match.
And people regularly accuse me of being negative.
20 points from 13 games with a new manager unfamiliar with his players and a horrendous opening fixture list. Throw in long term injuries to key players. What more could we have expected.
Clearly this wasn’t a sparkling performance but let’s stick with the big picture. It’s a huge achievement.
But I’ll stick with my constant theme that the squad needs serious investment in quality and quantity to maintain the momentum. Back your man Mr Shi.
Spot on PJB. I for one would readily have taken this position after the first three games of the season.
The fact is that Bruno inherited a squad low in numbers , and with known deficiencies in key areas, so that his achievements so far can only be regarded as being outstanding, particularly since he has received minimal support from the Boardroom. In this context, the grinding out of results such as the one today at Norwich represents solid progress by Bruno.
As you say, time for Mr Shi to stop procrastinating and to support his man. Activity , or the lack of it, in the January window, be very telling as to Fosun`s real ambition
Let’s say it as it was. We were poor today. We mustered five shots against the team second bottom in the league. In the grand scheme it’s a point away and if we beat Burnley it becomes a decent week.
But these away performances are becoming a pattern. Struggling to remember the last time we played well away and it’s alarming that we’re not even creating changes. Leeds, Palace and now Norwich. These aren’t event stellar sides – we’ve got to go to the Etihad in a couple of weeks. Christ only knows the hiding we’ll get it we play like this.
Tough run of fixtures coming up, it could be a very difficult December.
It’s no wonder Traore’s head drops if the manager just won’t start him – today was a perfect opportunity missed….
He has had many opportunities. The manager not starting him may be due to him failing to respond to those opportunities.
Shame podence couldn’t play, he would have been the difference today when we rarely had more than one man in the box to pick out.
I think ait was less effective for the same reason too, when he found himself in good positions, there was nothing to play to and so the ball came back to be RE- cycled.
Always good to get a point away so I’m not too disappointed.
Just as we thought palace and Norwich were good opportunities for three points, so will our opponents in December think they will be able to pick up the points against us- like west ham did!
Burnley will be as tough as any of the next 6 games IMO
Come on you wolves
Yes, a bit of a shit show and I get rather nervous at the prospect of Ait Nouri and Semedo defending the flanks during December….Hoever and Boly instead??? We need reinforcements! Come back Jonny.
As for goals ….we need folk who can pick a pass….Podence for sure and maybe a return for MGW who has impressed enough at Sheffield to get an England U 21 recall?
Unlike most here I’m not for parting with Traore unless he wants out…but bringing him on with 15 mins left and putting him out of reach is pointless…..but I guess there’s some
body who believes they can transform his efficiency.and will stump up 30 million..Geordies?? Will still be sad if he goes.
So lets batten down the hatches for DECEMBER. By this time next week will hopefully be celebrating an heroic 90+ minutes vs Liverpool that helps today’s non – performance recede into the memory.
UTW
Disappointing and very much shades of the Palace performance for me, with no real forward momentum at all. How can we be so good one week and so poor the next – it’s so frustrating. Whatever you think of Traore, bringing him on with 15 minutes to go was just too late. He should have been on from the start, or at least a hell of a lot earlier – Trincao was clearly poor. Come on Bruno – give Traore a decent chance – we will need some muscle against Burnley.
Whats with all the moaning, take the point, beat phil mitchel wednesday, this is still nunos players, in jan are fosun serious, on adama he is no wing back, im drunk as a skunk, wolves aie we.
Personally I didn’t feel we were as poor as a few make out, yes we were not slick Citehesque, but a clean sheet away from home = another point on the board. Teams fighting for survival are more canny and difficult to break down, period. We don’t have the squad that billion pound teams have that can bring one or two real game changers, so for me ayes below par, but we didn’t lose.
Just watch us, in our inconsistent, consistency beat the Scallies and get a point at Citeh.
Just my opinion on today fellow bloggers.
Point, move on xx 🙂
It was pretty awful to watch. A lot of huffing and puffing. With no end result and against a team who every now and again seemed to want to help us to score.
The difference between the team many of us think we are and the one we actually are is consistency..
Too many of our player don’t seem to be able to string two performances together back to back.
I struggle to understand many of Bruno’s decisions but in fairness its hard to criticise him right now.
Thankfully Norwich don’t possess a PL quality striker, otherwise we would have come away with nothing which is probably what we deserved. We lacked creativity but can possibly consider ourselves unlucky to have lost Podence this week as he was clearly the brightest light from last weeks stellar performance, he would have provided that.
Baffled as to how Trincao gets the nod over Traore, he definately didn’t earn that place in the starting 11, Lage clearly doesn’t see Traore fitting in with his style or plans. I’m think he will leave us in Jan and i think it’s a crying shame Bruno hasn’t been able to utilise his talent.
Sa is immense, he kept us in the game. Another clean sheet, we have the fourth meanest defence in the league but we are joint fourth lowest scorers too.
Not long been back from a fab weekend in Norwich and I have to say, football aside, it is a really nice friendly city, an away fixture that we always look forward to. A lovely 110 mile drive in glorious sunshine but I think we were lucky as we were told that the weather in the West Midlands was crap and some coaches were cancelled, hence the fact that there were loads of empty seats near us. As for the football I actually enjoyed the game, I know some have said that it was a bore draw but there was always something happening and I never for one minute thought that we would lose. We spent the weekend with Norwich fans and over breakfast in Wetherspoons this morning I loved it when one of them said that they were happy with a point against a top 6 club – that’s us , little old Wolves – TOP SIX, the mighty Liverpool have actually only won 2 more games than us. Unfortunately we will miss the Liverpool game as Mrs Wing (who has a hangover from our Norwich weekend) has booked tickets to see The Human League, The Thompson Twins and Altered Images in Birmingham on Saturday so our next journey on the rollercoaster that is supporting Wolverhampton Wanderers is the Chelsea game so hope to meet up with some of you then.
Methinks Mrs. Wing needs to get her priorities straight!
My Dad used to tell me about them three bands!
If you gathered all the band members together to form a Human League and you two Twin up with them, and then in your mind Alter their Images and look in the Mirror Man you could Think That it Might be 11 wolves players and it feel like If You Were Here. Just saying.
It’s okay, I already have my coat
Sad, sad, sad.
You deffo gotta get out more!
Come see me in Texas!
Knowing Wolves we will lose to Burnley and beat Liverpool. It’s a very Wolves thing to do.
Speculation fills the void when no information is forthcoming so we won’t know what Bruno thinks or knows or whether Traore even thinks or if Trincao knows what we think, if you follow me. As for Jeff Shi’s thinking, who knows?
A point away from home is not to be sniffed at, 20 points accumulated gives you a platform to push on, attract good players, build the squad…….dream on folks we’ve been saying that for donks, but it also gives you a bit of cushion should we lose three on the bounce ……more likely given December fixtures.
I predict a recall for certain loanees and a commitment to buy Hwang in January, I’d rather see Traore in our team than anyone else’s but it looks like adios, at least give him a blast up front before he goes. Eight subs including two keepers tells everyone what’s needed.
We had a clean sheet on Saturday and we’re still sixth in the PL. Both statements are true but clearly we’re all feeling a bit underwhelmed. I’ve said before that we’re not top six material on merit. We are lucky to be sixth. Luck works both ways though. We played well in our first three matches of the season and got zero points. Clearly to my mind we are improving under Bruno. Norwich have taken seven points from three games, which indicates they might have turned the corner. I was at Stamford Bridge yesterday for the Man U game. Just like the home match against Burnley, Chelsea played them off the park, but still dropped four points in the last two PL fixtures. Puts our away point at Norwich into perspective.
With more Bruno signings in January I see us achieving Europe on merit this season.