As one out-of-work manager succinctly put it back in the day: “Our performance today would not have been the best looking bird but at least we got her in the taxi.”
Beggars can’t be choosers in other words, even if this was revolting to look at for large parts against a side we really should be much prettier against.
Or should we? With a misfiring front line once again firing blanks in open play and a quite hopeless attempt at game management after going a goal up, it’ll take a lot more than Ian Holloway to steer this lot away from the threat of relegation.
There were positives in the three points we pulled and the fact this group are clearly committed to the cause, as seen in when Podence collapsed to the floor upon hearing the referee blow up as the clock struck 5pm. Diego Costa’s role as mischief maker was also galvanising, and might just be as critical as the goals he will or won’t score in future. (Oh, and Morgan Gibbs-White did little to suggest we’re missing much and didn’t score against us, thank the lord!)
But our kamikaze attempts at ball-retention from the hour-mark – from players who should know better – was so inept it bordered on the laughable. Befitting of a side unable to win games of football, we looked like rabbits in the headlights with Jonny, Neves, Nunes and Moutinho squandering possession in increasingly maddening ways. And Hwang’s late cameo lacked even more energy than the three fans having a kick through the hole at half time.
Against better opponents, there’d be no Status Quo at the full time whistle, but more league table irregularities and more questions posed than answers.
But as it is, we thank Jose Sa for saving our bacon and can finally tune into Match of the Day for only the second time this season, safe to come out from behind the sofa at long last.
Whether this proves to be a turning point remains to be seen, but I’d suggest we have to play a heck of a lot better. We kept a clean sheet by the grace of god and a litany of errors by Toti, Jonny and Ait Nouri ensured we were on the edge of our seat until we were finally put out of our misery.
The good news is that Collins should now be back and the players will surely be buoyed by the win, however ugly it was.
The bad news is we play Crystal Palace on Tuesday night, so bungling another 3pts into the back of a cab will be a much taller order on bitter experience – even more so if we keep giving the ball away like this.
Karma. There have been times this season (Leeds/Spurs away) in particular when we should have got more than we did. Today was about 3 points. Take the positives. Take away Man City who beat everybody our home record is actually quite good. Only the Maximimus freak goal conceded. Clean sheets v Fulham. Saints. Forest. We need to build on this. A point at Palace. At least 1 v Leicester will be ok. And the new geezer will be in place. Reports suggest it may not be Nuno. All i can say today is at least the players on the pitch looked up for it and put themselves about. Not pretty but the bottom line at Wolves is you go on the pitch and give 100%. I think they did today.
I make you right
World Cup is a blessing for wolves
I hope nuno comes back and we get a striker or two in January’s window and we’ll be sweet again . I can’t remember Nuno and his team buying any bad players .
Get someone in to repair the damage that fucking pillock has done to our team
Sorry to read about Tez mate. He looked an ace dog on the picture. Complete with Wolves scarf !!
Thanks mate … he was an ace dog
Absolutely right…they really put in a shift today. I was also impressed with Steve Davis…well done to him for steadying the ship.
I had to stop and check who’d written this piece before reading on, it seemed like Paddy O’Day again.
Heave a sigh of relief that we picked up 3 points in what is now looking like a season long relegation battle. We have reached the 10 match marker which many have claimed to be a milestone and if anything things look worse than they would have feared.
The only real positive from today was that thanks to the heroic Jose Sa we ground out a victory from another turgid display and are for the moment out of the bottom 3.
But –
We are still at less than a point a match and have the spectacular number of 4 in the goals scored column.
We don’t have a manager and it appears that the job looks to be viewed as a poisoned chalice to anyone we might actually want. The only exception seems to be Nuno who probably feels he has unfinished business here,
I would suggest to Mr Shi that it would be wise to do his utmost to try and make that happen because he seems to be by far the best option to return asap and save his own (Shi) and the club’s skins. It’s not ideal to go back, but then we are far from in an ideal situation. And he (or whoever) will need some more serious support in the January window when he comes.
Best chant today was when Sa saved the pen . South Bank ‘He’s only got one hand. He’s only got one hand”. I did have a chuckle at that.
Agree with the comments above. Utterly unconvincing, can’t hit the back of the net. Nunes faded badly, he’s not come to the party as yet.
Anyone’s guess who’ll take the poisoned chalice. Definitely a relegation battle all season.
Crowd management was disgraceful at Wolverhampton station going back tonight. Football fans are treated like cattle. Jobsworth guards stopping paying customers getting on the train, there was standing room available as well on the train.
But at least a win by the glove of Sa.
2 very poor teams today watching wolves is bad for your heart, better team would have beat us, get the new manager in asp at least subs where used enjoy the weekend , wolves aie we.
Yeah but one team was poor. The other team was fucking shit.
A win
Happy days
Can we finish the season now?
Whoever takes the managers job ……
The fans will certainly be behind you as this will be a battle.
Let’s at least finish above the other Midlands teams.?.
At the beginning of the season there were those of us who recognized the vast shortcoming of Bruno and urged for an immediate change.
Then there were those who preached the wisdom of delay– “let`s wait and see where are after ten games !”
Well here we are. Ten games played. Nine measly points, two 1-0 wins and four goals — two of which were mishits. A team of non performers and with zero confidence, which could well be facing a serious relegation battle.
The running of a football club is no different to running any business. Senior management is there to judge performance at all levels. Under-performers are identified and are replaced in an orderly manner so that results are sustained and crises are avoided.
But the running of our club is abysmal. Having, very belatedly dismissed a coach who was clearly out of his depth, we find that Mr Shi and his cronies have no Plan A or Plan B for installing a replacement. For the past two weeks our team has been left to meander along without real leadership, as our Board flounders around seeking inspiration.
Steve Davis is fully committed and giving of his best, and can take pride in the result today. But the reality is we barely scraped a result against a very poor opponent. Our team needs direction and leadership very quickly if we are to avoid a disaster.
3 points out of the top half of the table. We aren’t the only team who has gotten off to a poorer-than-expected start.
What kind of leadership do they need? These are coaches and they are giving them the strategy. If these are top international players, they should be able to execute the strategy.
4 goals scored in 10 matches and 42 in the last 48 matches.
That’s the problem John.
Directors, coaches, players all culpable.
Just a couple of points John.
Those other struggling clubs to which you refer, didn`t have the luxury of spending 100 plus million over the summer. Shouldn`t we be doing somewhat better ?
Is this the way you want to watch your team playing week after week ? Boring, dull losing football, with a chance of seeing a goal once every third game.– if we`re lucky. That`s precisely why I say that a change of direction is urgently needed. With great respect to Steve Davis, he`s not the man who`ll bring this about. New ideas, and new priorities are long overdue.
I agree with a lot of what you say. But they, the team,are certainly not all non-performers. Neves and Kilman are stand outs!
Maybe, with just a tiny bit of optimism, and three points we can say with just a glimmer of hope that “things can only get better”.
But I do think that things are coming home to roost for our CEO and Senior Management team. Poor planning and decision making always show up on the pitch!
Allen
Neves and Kilman definitely standouts as is Sa but not so sure about some of the rest. And we all know the squad is way short of quality in depth. A lot of our players are arguably journeymen who might well flourish in a less competitive environment but are struggling in the PL,
The old slur thrown at us in Nuno’s heyday of “Portugal B” really used to infuriate me. Now it holds more than a hint of the truth. I fear several of our current squad just aren’t quite up to scratch. Sadly Lage’s revolution looks very much like a downgrade on what we already had. Oh for the days of Captain Coady, Big Willy, Doc, Cav, Diogo not Diego and the superlative pre Luiz Raul.
Wasn’t too long ago everyone was saying what a good job Jeff did with recruitment this past window, albeit late in the window.
Now, he’s horrible and incompetent again.
Fickle fans.
Notts Forest had that luxury if I remember correctly.
We all know that some players just don’t work out. As of now, a large portion of our summer spending – Guedes – is not working out.
Matheus is not performing like one of the best players in the world either.
Some players take time to adapt. Some players are still very young.
Let’s not overreact (too late) and see what the rest of the first half of the season brings.
As I said, we aren’t that far out of the top half of the table.
And I wonder how Liverpool fans are feeling. How much did they spend this summer?
Quite right .Shocking management of the club .Bruno was out of his depth but sadly so is Shi but will anybody do anything about it ? The club desperate need a couple of proper football people in charge .It is going to be a long season that is for sure with very little joy .
So by that comment, I assume you feel that Nuno was out of his depth at Tottenham, too.
Why do people have to insult coaches who don’t work out?
We have all heard rumours that some players just didn’t like what Bruno was doing and didn’t, apparently, give 100% in practice. This is not professional and not Bruno’s fault.
We also know that some players came to Wolves because of Bruno so he seems to have a very good reputation in Portugal.
I think there are some players who just didn’t adapt to his new approach or preferred the old counter-attacking style to what Bruno wanted and just didn’t give their all to adapt. Just a hunch, though.
We won, we didn’t concede a goal, and we beat the shit, what more can you say.
I forgot to mention, we are also just one point behind Liverpool now.
29points from 28 games needed. This was a baby step forward and for that we should be grateful. Although Traore was wayward at times as usual, he makes a difference and I am glad we still have him as an option. A run of games and I can see him establish a similar partnership with Costa to the one he had with Jimenez in his purple patch a couple of years ago. Hopefully this win will also give the players a little more confidence.
Traore was shocking. Counted 9 great opportunities to deliver and he managed 1 to Kilman. The other 8 were balloned or completely overhit. Should have been replaced after 45.
You watched a different game to me. For a start who crossed to ait nouri when he headed over the bar in the first half? Who won the penalty with his shot? Yes he did some wayward stuff as he always does but I’d have him in the team every day of the week over the likes of Guedes. He makes the opposition play differently and gives us an outlet.
After some of the shit we’ve witnessed this season i find it hard to believe you’re slagging off Traore, he’s a marked improvement on Neto.
He probably prefers more of that sideways and backwards passing boring stuff.
While it was doubtless frustrating at times, I don’t think we were as bad as Ben makes it sound. We were clearly the better side for the most part, and played pretty well in the first half but just couldn’t make our dominance count. We were just about good value for the win.
It was surely only ever going to be that way. A side devoid of confidence and goals was never gonna make it an easy afternoon but hopefully this was the boost we needed. The concerns are still there alright. It took a penalty to finally score and there were precious few clear cut opportunities but the front three played well today. They just need to find a way to stick it in the net. Onwards.
I don’t remember too much groaning about Fosun when we were steam rolling through 2018 2019 2020. But hey! No more top 7 finish. No FACup semi final. No Europa league and suddenly Fosun are shite. Jeff is shite. Eveything is shite .it’s football. Leicester won the Prem in 2016.Tonight they are bottom of the table.
Exactly CoD, we big them up when they’re good and we put them down when they’re shite, same as in any other walk of life. Fosun, Shi and Sellars are just business men, why should we cut them any slack, they wouldn’t cut you any slack if you worked for them and were shit at your job, they’d sack you in the blink of an eye. They bleed us for every penny they can get out of us as does nearly every owner in the Prem. Fosun are far from the worst but still a bunch of greedy fuckers.
Probably misread what I was saying. Basically Fosun have given us the best period in our recent history going back 50 years. Nuno most successful manager going back 50 years. Happy to discuss.
That’s indesputable CoD and amongst the Wolves fanbase their stock is high given where we were before they arrived esp with that clown Morgan. Even if we got relegated this season that would still stand but I don’t and never have loved Fosun, why would i, they’re just an investment company and they’ve invested in Wolves cos English football is big business and sexy now. Shi is their business manager chosen to oversee their investment, as for Sellars i don’t even know what he is, some sort of indefinable corporate puppet. They are no more our friends than Ronald Macdonald is our kids friend, they just want our money.
I love Nuno and always will cos he just loves football like the rest of us, his passion was there for all to see and he happened to be very good at his job. As with most managers, it’s not primarily about the money.
The hyper commercialisation of everything related to the PL, every facet of a club now has to have an individual sponser. Very few owners, if any, have any connection to the local community. The Saudi state now own a club ffs and passed a ‘Owners and Directors Test’ despite being publicly condemned for murdering a dissident journalist two years before applying.
If we have to have a new school owner then it may as well be Fosun but i reserve the right to slag them off at every opportunity cos iv invested over half a century in their ‘flagship leisure asset’ and i defend anybody elses right to. They are just faceless owners.
Fosun also sacked that manager before he failed and replaced him with a a manager who’s only success came when he emulated his predecessor’s formation and tactics with the same players. Their decisions over the last couple of seasons have been terrible and seem to be getting worse. I’m not saying they should sell up but we shouldn’t sweep these serial mistakes under the rug.
Whoever said there is no such thing as Winning Ugly – should see the replay of this game. Unfortunately, the position that we are currently in, will make us happy to take Winning Ugly over and over again (until we get to 40 points).
It was a good start for us. Not only keeping possession but going forward and putting pressure on them. You could see the difference Neves makes, providing confidence to the team. I am slightly worried about the lack of action from Costa though. Hopefully he will become a bit more effective as he gets fitter. The number of shots at goal is showing where our problem lies. We seem to mess up on the vital last pass near the penalty area. In the meantime, another crucial (winnable) game is only a couple of days away. Fingers, toes and everyting, all crossed.
Palace is winnable on paper but they are an extremely fit and athletic team with reserves to match and, unfortunately, just the sort of team that we consistently struggle against. A point would be a very good result for me.
We have the base of a good team. Just need to sort out the final third and improve fitness so that we don’t crumble on 60 mins.
Appointing the right head coach is vital. Whoever heard of a successful business without a good leader? Need someone to steer us in the right direction.
Credit to the team for hanging in there during those excruciating closing minutes despite Forest throwing their version of the kitchen sink at us as they tried to snatch an undeserved point.
Credit to the fans who remained consistent in their dislike of VAR ,despite the farce prior to the award of our penalty.
Credit to Ruben Neves once more who displayed rarely seen commitment to the cause and such coolness under pressure for the goal.
Onwards and upwards…..I hope.
Hats off to these two. Quietly going about their business, in a job neither of asked for, without a back room team, not knowing whether they will be needed tomorrow, let alone next week.
Watching Steve Davies being interviewed yesterday after the win, humble, straight talking, open and wearing a smile. A genuine guy, loves Wolves, unfazed by the position he’s in.
We are in safe hands whilst the hunt for a Senior Coach goes on.
UTW
Yes…well done indeed to both of them. A credit to Wolves.
Yep. Wolves through and through. Looks like they have instilled a bit of fight in the fuckers !!
If we had played any other team in the premiership other than Forest(worst premiership team I have ever seen, certs for relegation)on that performance couldn’t have seen us getting anything. Gone backwards big style under Bruno tenure.Next Manager/Coach has to be spot on,no room for error as we’ll be joining them.
Although we were nowhere near our best at times, our attitude was first class throughout and gained us three valuable points at this stage. The lads have to be backed strongly as most of our problems stem from management decisions and lack of real investment to address the longstanding problems up front further mitigated by bad man management leading to the desire of certain players to move on.
I’m a great believer in giving a set up at least ten games into the season before judgement, but, to be honest, the bizarre actions of Bruno had lost me long before attaining such a time.
We are still in the proverbial, but, amazingly, just a win away from a top half position. True confidence and the ability to score still remain a fragile condition, but a closer look at the game gives glimmers of hope providing we add to our squad appropriately come winter.
It was noticeable what clever runs Diego was making early on without the quality of cross or pass finding him. Traore is a one off and we know his crosses can be hit or miss but there were enough for players to benefit from when confident in their play.
It was great to see Bueno blooded and I hope he can make the transition fully as I’ve always liked the look of his game when viewing the under 21s.
The Palace game is on Amazon, so I will be putting myself through Purgatory on Tuesday yet again, hoping for , mostly, the right attitude and a step up in the finishing stakes; yet one more really tough game…
The next couple of decisions on management will secure our fate; do we employ a ‘safe’ pair of hands to see out the season and then decide on where the longer term future of the team lies, or do we install someone longer term right now. My thoughts tend to lie in the former at present, as available at the moment coaches seem to be short of the class we ought to be aspiring to imo. Whatever, we need someone who recognizes the importance of the leaders of the line and their back up at this level along with all other important team needs of course.
It’s so nice to have those three points in what was, in my opinion, very much a must win game. Well done lads; keep working hard. That reminds me that with the World Cup coming up our players did put themselves on the line when it would have been easier for some to ‘look after themselves’ more. Good attitude counts and the fans can recognize who is putting in the effort and will react accordingly.
I don’t really care how we win under Steve Davis and James Collins so long as we lift ourselves out of the nether regions. This season is just about survival, Lage has seen to that.
I only caught the last half hour due to work, lots of lost possession in the middle that would get punished by better teams but the effort was there and i liked what we were trying to do but failing to execute. Collins back for Tues so hopefully scrape a draw, then we have another must win against Leicester. It’s a rollercoaster ride on Prozac.
In my opinion we Wolves fans should be ‘supporting ‘ the team , as the majority of those in the ground indeed did yesterday. I’m not talking about blind faith (good band though) It’s very obvious that the players are feeling the pressure and it’s having an impact on performance. Some posters said it was a ‘must win ‘ (I didn’t agree actually) and Wolves won..come on give them a break. The team selection was much better than under Lage as was the substitutions, Some of the young players look very promising. Adama creates a lot of opportunities for himself and others. Neves is arguably the best midfielder ever to pull on the shirt, Sa saved a penalty for the second time this season. I say we bide our time in selecting a good and the right manager. Yesterday’s performance displayed a lot of heart, effort and togetherness on the pitch and on the touch line.; much more than under Lage. It’s clear the players had lost faith in his methods ( hadn’t we all), the lads will be more confident after getting a win and if we can get something at Palace the Leicester game will be a great opportunity to push on further up the table. Just my opinion. COYW.
We won and bearing in mind the mess we are in that’s all that matters if we can get at least a point v Palace then that will be another bonus.
As daft as it seems we are only 3 points of Liverpool in 10th and 6 from top seven.
If we can remain unbeaten till we get the new manager in that would be an achievement in its self who that will be God and Jeff only know, me I would love to see Ange from Auss who is now working for the green half of Glasgow given the job.
You could sense the mood of the team when the young lad Hodge came on and sythed the Forest bloke down. The fans loved it. As they did when Costa gave the ball to the Forest goalie and said ‘waste some more time mate’. It’s what Wolves are about. Fans love it when we get in their faces. Like I said before. Whoever the new bloke is. Minimum requirement for us fans is give a shit. Die for the shirt. We will put up with almost anything if we see that. Every fan in that stadium would run through a brick wall for the iconic shirt. We expect the same from the team.
Absolutely spot on comment Cheese.
No mention yet of Boubacar Traore’s performance in his too short appearance.
A player we’ve needed for a while I feel, he’s athletic, pacy and great at breaking up play around the middle of the park. One instance I noticed…..he watched as Forest played it around, seemingly not marking anybody. Suddenly, as a forward pass was played, he sprang into action, sprinting towards the intended recipient and intercepting before the guy even knew he was coming.
I think he could turn out to be the window’s most important signing.
Yes mate. You can’t stand still and keep going on about Jota. Saiss. Coady. You have to move on..Change is a big thing. You have to deal with it.
Very true. There’s also a danger in looking back on a player with rose tinted spectacles. Most regular supporters would agree that the three players mentioned, at the time of their departure, were no longer at the top of their game and would benefit from a new challenge. Jota had lost interest, Saiss had lost his consistency and Conor looked several yards off the pace. All excellent servants to the club but all needed a change.
Thank you. I just think there are rose tinted specs towards the halcyon days in those first 2 seasons back. Understandable. But when you are a gnarled old bastard like me and there will be yawns from some , division 4 division 3 etc then the Fosun era is nothing short of brilliant.
So yep 10 games gone and yep a majorly disappointing start to the season.
There’s a big gap in quality between the top sides and the rest but the ‘rest’ all look beatable
Injuries have been a bastard and with no prime Jimenez Neto or the Austrian giraffe , the young Prince living large in Belgium and the realization that Hwang isn’t the answer and a slow Costa neither … well goals will remain a problem for some time to come
Podence is clever and so is Semedo as well as Ait Nouri… and surely Neves is good for 6-7… but if we score 45 I’ll be amazed….however many crosses Traore slings over.
So that says we need a new manager who can keep this team defensively sound
Dunno who that is although Nuno proved capable
Haven’t seen any names that set the pulse racing but then Nuno ‘s didn’t either and what a wonderful surprise he turned out to be
I’m Hoping that Steve Davis and his mate are retained …we need to keep blooding the u 23 ‘s … some will come good surely?
Fosun aren’t going away so we just have to settle for a season of consolidation … in my opinion.
Disappointing yes and plenty of scope for the ‘told you so’s ‘ here on the Blog but I’m thinking that we should have learned a lot of lessons and be optimistic
OODCL
I pretty much agree, except the bit about Steve Davis and his mate. Yes, we’re in for a season of consolidation at least (before a serious attempt next season on the top six). It’s too big a responsibility to give the job to Steve Davis right now, although his card is marked as a rising star and possible future coach for the top job at Wolves. We simply HAVE to stay up by hook or by crook. For me, we need a coach with a safe pair of hands and, essentially, PL experience! We absolutely can’t gamble on another foreign coach from an inferior league in a sunnier land. Poch or Tuchel won’t take the job, so for me it’s Nuno rather than Dyche or Rodgers, with Steve Davis as assistant head coach.
BTW, my 1-0 win prediction for the Prediction League came in. I’m climbing the table now!
Hi Cheesy
I agree
I wasn’t advocating for Davis to get the top job … just don’t think we need a implement clear out when the new manager gets appointed . Davis clearly knows where the talent is.
I meant Dancey!
Honest question. Does anyone know why Semedo isn’t starting? I think he’s one of our best players – and., RAN should be the one playing 29 minute spells off the bench.
Disagree, Al. Jonny for me is the one who should be benched as he’s slow gives the ball away too much and nowhere near the level he was before his first knee injury.