Could have won. Could have lost.
You can say that about a lot of games in the Premier League but it feels a particularly fitting summation of this one.
Burnley started sharply and asked most of the questions but Wolves had played their way into it nicely by the time the home side took the lead.
It was a great finish for them but poor from our perspective with Nelson getting caught under the ball to open up the space at the back post.
Gary deployed some sort of experimental setup with Semedo playing as an outside centre half and at that point you were thinking it had backfired, even though he’d made some superb breaks forward prior to the goal.
But it did pay off giving Rayan Ait-Nouri license to get forward. He was a thorn in Burnley’s side all night and did brilliantly to win the free kick and then get on the end of it to equalise.
It’s a crying shame he didn’t finish that one-on-one in the second half because that would have capped another top showing from the Algerian.
He is now firmly in the ‘prize asset’ group of this squad along with Neto, Gomes and Cunha – all young talents that the elite will be swarming over come the summer.
I’d love to see Wolves rebuff all advances, keep this squad together and see what we can do next season. Yes, we need one or two squad fillers to avoid being exposed by injuries as we have been of late, but we don’t need to break the bank to get them.
That’s surely a faster route to success than shifting one, two or three of these top talents out and going back to the drawing board?
Defensively, we might consider doing some business as without the colossal presence of Dawson in the middle, I do find myself fretting about our ability to withstand bombardment.
We wobbled and creaked a bit tonight so just as well Sa had a solid game, commanding his area well and coming to our rescue when Burnley did manage to get a few shots away.
While we wait to get a couple more of the attackers back in the team and up to speed it’s essential we keep the back door shut to keep the hunt for a top half finish alive and kicking for as long as possible.
A bit disappointing to see Sa wasting time in the 92nd minute. No need. Nice to have Cunha back. I agree Thomas – it would be great if we can keep Cunha, Neto, especially Gomes and Ait Nouri.
Boubacar Traore looked off the pace. I would’ve preferred to see Fraser.
We’re still only 3 points off 7th (4 if Chelsea win their 2 games in hand, which they won’t). No reason not to give it a go. COYW
How they’re keeping going at this point is some sort of miracle. Until we get a few of our forward players back and firing, any point gained is a win.
Our season has pretty much ended so there’s only pride to play for and I’m seeing plenty of that
Watched it on the box,Ref was pretty disappointing gave them everything then made up for it with the
non foul on RAN ,can understand Company being pissed,I was waiting for kavanarse to strike the goal off I think he tried everything by the amount of time he took
Wish Sarabia had a bit more faith in Chiwome a few times he made the run only for Sarabia to pass backwards Traore did well coming on but as soon as he hits the box he gets a nose bleed,points a point
Agree with you on Sarabia. I noticed the same.
I think this was a good result looking back, and considering what the players have been through coping with all the injuries and volume of games, I’m all for taking the positives from this one.
The only player I thought was a little frustrating today was Sarabia. I know he took the free-kick that led to the goal, but other than that, I thought most of his crosses went nowhere or straight to the goalie, and often I thought his judgement was misplaced by not picking the right pass. I don’t think he hassles as much as the others either. I didn’t see him chasing the 50-50 balls enough and often happy to just watch the ball roll to the Burnley player rather than fight for it. Is it just me, or anyone else notice this as well?
Nope not just you I thought chiwome made a couple of good runs and Sarabia just passed it backwards taking the easy option
Just repeated myself must be the altzeimers
Under the circumstances, I was happy with the result. Especially predicting the exact result twice this week. 🙂
Our opponents are finding Ait Nouri quite a handful and long may it continue.
He has found his niche.
Just finished recording
Both teams played well
Don’t understand why Burnley are so far down … neat skillful and clever
So more fun to watch than Dyche dinosaurs
We so miss Neto
Ah well
More claret / blue coming up
Now that would be a good one to win
Hasta pronto
Well done Thomas with your 1-1 prediction, and well done Wolves. This was a classic banana skin. Burnley in a false position and fighting for their lives. They could have nicked a win at the death at Stamford Bridge on Saturday after battling most of the match with ten men. There’s no doubt in my mind about Gary’s genius that he steadied the ship last night. A point was a moral victory.
I feel for Vincent Kompany. He’s been hard done by with VAR this season, and we know all about that! Bad decisions will ultimately cost us a place in Europe. But they could cost Burnley relegation.
Yes Europe still within reach as the current PPG indicator has come down somewhat in recent weeks. Here is the current prediction of the number of points each team will accumulate by game 38.
MAN U 62.89
WHAM. 55.16
NEWC. 55.73
BRGTN. 55.03
WWFC. 53.20
So still in touch for 7th/8th place but a tall order with us having to play the top 3 going for the title. Five of the remaining eight games at home. To reach 56 points it’s 14 required from those eight. Simply put. Five more wins.
Five wins?
Home: West Ham, Bournemouth, Luton and Palace.
Away: Forest.
And nick a point home to Arsenal?
Gives us a possible 58 points. Very unlikely with our injuries. Who knows, the teams above us might go on losing runs. Whatever happens we will probably have a highly credible mid-table finish. Give Gary the support he clearly deserves in summer and we could well challenge for top six next season.
Spot on with your last thought Dances, “Give Gary more support”. He speaks clearly and honestly which is one of his best features, he told the board in January what was likely to happen to his threadbare and overloaded squad but they “were unwilling or unable to act”. We , as mere fans can only wonder whether this was the PSR/FFP monster threatening points deductions. We , as fans support the guys in the gold shirts and the coaching team regardless so where are Messrs Shi and Hobbs when you need to be hearing from them?
On the other points raised, I can’t see many more points coming our way until we have a recognisable forward line, the draw at Burnley was a good result considering the line up, the weather and that we normally get shafted up there.