Ben Rasmin

Wolves 1 Burnley 0

This probably wasn’t what Amazon Prime had in mind to launch the first round of their Yuletide festival of football.

There was more than a touch of midweek Championship football about this forgettable fixture, which saw Wolves conspire to win despite being well off the pace for the most part.

Still, winning when you haven’t played well isn’t a bad habit to master and is in stark contrast to what we’ve gotten used to in seasons gone by.

I was initially surprised by how effusive O’Neil was about his player’s efforts at full-time, especially given his agitated touchline antics throughout the game.

However, in hindsight, I can understand why the gaffer was pleased to get through this one unscathed. Burnley had their tails up after routing Sheffield United last time around, meaning this bout had ‘potential banana skin’ written all over it.

Indeed, the script may have read differently at full-time were it not for a solid performance from the Wolves rearguard.

Bentley deserves credit for the terrific double save that prevented the Clarets from opening the scoring, and Dawson and Kilman were both terrific throughout.

We were less impressive in midfield, where both Gomes and Lemina were both well below their usual standards. Although both improved after the interval, they were completely overrun in the first 45.

Up top, I thought Sarabia was mightily impressive. The Spaniard is definitely one to file under the ‘luxury player’ moniker but made the most of his opportunity last night.

Cunha and Hwang were less inspiring but still combined well for the winner, further underlying the burgeoning potency of their partnership.

All in all, we got the job done and are a tidy 11 points clear of the drop zone heading into the congested festive period which, given the gloomy pre-season forecast, isn’t to be sniffed at.

Wolves 2 Newcastle United 2

Blog, Newcastle

Life has taught me not to cast judgment prematurely.

Top quality finish as Hwang scores at Molineux again

But I jumped the gun when we appointed Gary O’Neil and am happy to find myself being proven wrong. Impressive cameos on Monday Night Football aside – Wolves are playing well.

Moreover, our head coach seems to have an innate understanding of what our fanbase want to see from the team and his players are delivering.

Unlike recent incarnations, this Wolves side are hard-working, well-organised and dangerous going forward.

The result is a rocking Molineux, with tonight’s crowd being one of the most raucous in recent memory.

With so much to admire it’s a shame that Anthony Taylor did his utmost to swing the result in Newcastle’s favour.

If it was a blundering Sa who gifted the Toon Army their opener, the second had Taylor’s fingerprints all over it, as the man in black elected to award the away side a ludicrous penalty.

Hwang made contact with the man, but that’s only because he came across him after he had kicked the ball. Common sense and a monitor check should have spotted this, but those things seem beyond the Premier League.

It’s just another in a long line of injustices that have gone against us since we returned to the top flight.

Thankfully, the energetic and purposeful outfit O’Neil is moulding managed to find a way back into the game courtesy of some stellar work from Toti and a sumptuous finish from man-of-the-moment Hwang.

Incompetent officiating aside, the only downside to the game was the injury to Neto, which we can only hope is not serious. A lengthy lay-off would be a cruel twist of fate for a player at the top of his game.

But when you’re five unbeaten it’s best to focus on the positives, and right now there is plenty to celebrate.

Long may it continue.

Wolves 1 Liverpool 3

Blog, Liverpool

You’d have to be a gloomy forecaster to have predicted that outcome at half-time.

Wolves made an in-form Liverpool look ordinary in the first half, with Neto and new signing Jean-Ricner Bellegarde proving a handful for the visitor’s makeshift defence.

It was the former who created the opening goal all on his own, before handing the otherwise impressive Cunha a gilt-edged chance to make it two.

When the Brazilian somehow conspired to miss, a buoyant Molineux was left hoping it wouldn’t come back to bite us on the backside.

Alas, it did, with the old gold continuing the trend of missing chances and then falling apart the minute they come under any sustained pressure.

Granted, Jurgen Klopp had the luxury of being able to sub in two players with a combined market value of more than £120m, but the drastic drop in our levels was unacceptable.

We showed none of the intensity or positivity that made the opening 45 so entertaining, retreating into our own half and squandering any possession that came our way.

O’Neil’s substitutions didn’t help matters either, with Silva churning out the sort of anonymous showing that we’ve sadly come to expect from him.

Surely Kalajdži? should have featured?

The less said about Sa’s exploits for Liverpool’s second the better. His world-class save at Everton aside, the Portuguese is becoming a liability. Bentley must fancy his chances of dislodging him from the eleven.

Although these aren’t the sort of fixtures that will determine the trajectory of our season, we are going to have to smarten up if we’re to keep away from trouble.

At this level, you cannot expect to be as profligate as we are and not be punished for it.

The trip to Luton already feels vital.

Crystal Palace 3 Wolves 2

Blog, Crystal Palace

Given our frenetic end to the transfer window, it was perhaps too much of a stretch to expect a coherent performance today.

Nonetheless, we certainly started the better of the two sides, playing on the front foot and asking questions of a Palace side that looked uncharacteristically ragged.

Neto was our biggest attacking threat, delivering the sort of swashbuckling performance that was routine prior to his injury woes.

Sadly, the same could not be said of the rest of our attacking contingent, with Cunha and Sarabia both anonymous for large parts of the game.

Silva, on the other hand, showed plenty of willing but continues to offer no end product, a shortcoming that ultimately proved to be our undoing in this fixture.

Though Palace were unquestionably the better team in the second half, the gulf in class was marginal on the whole, leaving us to once again bemoan our lack of potency in the final third.

Gary O’Neil is in plenty of credit for his early conduct in trying circumstances, but should be questioned all the same for the timing of his substitutions.

Although Hwang came on and scored, the game was crying out for Kalajdzic long before he emerged, with his absence allowing the home side to wrestle control of a fixture that otherwise could have gone either way.

Regardless of our tactical manoeuvring (or lack thereof), the defensive efforts of our backline left a lot to be desired, with all of Palace’s goals being arguably preventable.

On today’s evidence, Santiago Bueno will certainly fancy his chances of ousting a below-par Dawson from the starting eleven, and the same can be said of Doherty, who continues to miss out at the expense of the endlessly hapless Semedo.

While things can never be doom and gloom at this early stage, an inability to score goals or keep them out is certainly cause for concern.

One can only hope that the international break has come at a good time, and that the new signings will provide some much needed impetus in a fortnight’s time.

Wolves 1 Aston Villa 0

Aston Villa, Blog

Today might have marked the coronation of a new monarch, but there was only one king being toasted at full time.

Gutsy – another home win, another cleansheet

Julen Lopetegui has completed his rescue act with three games to spare, and thoughts can now turn to next season.

Given the impact the Spaniard has had during his short time it’s intriguing to ponder where he could take us after a full pre-season and another transfer window.

And while memories of last week’s mauling at Brighton (or the many other miserable afternoons we’ve been made to endure this season) shouldn’t be erased entirely, now is a time to praise the stellar job our management team have done.

That’s eight clean sheets in the book since Jeff Shi whisked King Julen into Wolverhampton in his Lamborghini, and a ninth league win to boot.

Of those successes, there can be no doubt that the last four have been crucial. To put Chelsea, Brentford, Palace and Villa to the sword without conceding a single goal is no mean feat.

Today’s result was probably a tad harsh on a Villa side that certainly played the better football, though their persistent gamesmanship makes it easy to withhold sympathy.

Every player in gold and black put in the shift that’s necessary to see tight games out, with Lemina and the matchwinner Toti particularly imperious.

It was disappointing that we couldn’t create more in the final third, but a front three of Costa, Cunha, and a re-energised Neto at least offered energy.

One final shoutout ought to go to Jose Sa, who recovered from a miserable time last weekend to help ensure we took the points. That first-half save was crucial.

But the crown belongs to our knight in shining armour.

Arise, King Julen.

Operation Reset

Blog

It’s not often I leave Molineux before the final whistle.

But one of the advantages of being part of the North Bank contingent is the on-site pub that provides perfect respite when events on the pitch take a turn for the worse.

More fight on the touchline than the pitch

When we were mercilessly drubbed by Brighton last season, we skulked away for a conciliatory pint of Guinness and did the same the other week when Leeds netted their third.

I never like to throw the towel in on the old gold, but it’s becoming increasingly easy.

And that’s because our current crop of players, while nowhere near as derisory as the dark days of the Johnson and O’Hara, are completely devoid of character.

With the exception of Ruben Neves, Hugo Bueno, and some of our January recruits, the collective efforts of the team just haven’t been up to scratch.

How often have you agonised over Jose Sa’s desperate attempts to play out from the back? Or sighed at Nelson Semedo trying and failing to grasp the basics of his role?

Similarly, I’ve lost count of the number of aimless passes I’ve seen our midfield conjure up, or the amount of times I’ve seen our wingers collect the ball, turn onto their other foot, and send the ball backwards.

That’s before I attempt to summarise the ludicrously dismal efforts of our attackers, who are perhaps best characterised by Daniel Podence’s infuriating propensity for amateur dramatics. Or the frequency with which the laughably pedestrian Diego Costa bundles opposition players over, before picking them up and giving them an apologetic hug.

No manager in this league, with the exception of perhaps those belonging to Everton, Bournemouth, and Southampton, would envy the hand dealt to Julen Lopetegui. The fact we are currently outside of the bottom three is undoubtedly down to the capability of both he and his coaching team and little else.

Put simply, these players are just a big bundle of nothingness. They can’t defend especially well, they’re clueless in possession, and they most certainly cannot score goals.

I’m tired of players with lovely hair and well curated Instagram profiles. I want to see a Wolves team that warrants the unflinching support its fanbase offers to them, one that is prepared to fight for the shirt and have a little pride while doing so.

If we could start to see that at Forest on Saturday, that would be great, but I’d gladly take an ugly, desperate slog to the finishing line if it’s then followed by a summer revamp.

Heck, I’d sooner see us get relegated and have to undergo a complete rebuild if it stopped us from shopping at Jorge Mendes’ seemingly never-ending carousel of ordinariness.

Whatever the outcome of this miserable season’s final act, I sincerely hope that Lopetegui and co are given an opportunity to oversee a much-needed cultural reset at Molineux.

The Spaniard has shown enough nous in the early days of his tenure to suggest he can bring the good times back to the golden palace, but I’m certain he won’t get far trying to do so with his current charges.