Wolves Blog

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League Cup

Nottingham Forest 1 Wolves 1 (Forest win 4-3 on penalties)

Blog, League Cup, Nottingham Forest

Had we won the game in normal time, which we should have done, the predictable misery of the shootout would have been avoided.

That’s one positive to extract from another painful evening of cup football at least.

Some class in the performance but little afterwards

Wolves were the better side and showed a lot more quality in the game, even if, as we’ve seen so many times this season, we didn’t convert that superiority into a result.

Henderson was the hero, saving from Raul and Hwang in the first half and then keeping out two, albeit soft, spot kicks to take Forest into the last four.

They didn’t do a lot from open play, other than force a corner in and benefit from the mother of deflections for the shot that came back off the post in the second half.

But then again, for all our possession, we failed to really convert those give and goes into meaningful output, other than the fine goal that was finished off by Raul for the equaliser.

I felt Wolves should have pushed harder to get the win in the regulation 90 because the game was there for them with the right decision making in the final third.

Lopetegui was ringing the changes throughout and it’s hard to know if they benefitted the team or hindered progress.

Traore was erratic and poor overall but by contrast, Cunha did a lot of good things, including the cross for Raul’s goal and scoring his penalty in the shootout.

I like the look of our new forward and was surprised he wasn’t handed a start in this game. The manager has a big call to make on Saturday.

With Nunes starting to find his feet and plenty of others enhancing their reputations in the last week there are options everywhere for Julen to consider.

The performances are coming under his leadership, but we’ve got to start collecting results.

Wolves 2 Gillingham 0

Blog, League Cup

If it wasn’t for a world class coach now leading the Wolves ship, I’d struggle to make a case for surviving the drop.

Raul back in a gold shirt and scoring

We’re a team leaking goals at one end and allergic to scoring at the other. The latter reached absurd levels, though, against a Gillingham side sitting bottom of the Football League (though if I was online betting, I don’t think they’ll go down based on this stoic performance).

For too long the passing and movement was painfully slow and in front of a Gillingham defence that sat deeper than the Titanic. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

Wolves were crying out for someone to take a risk and play a ball through the lines or make a run into space. But that’s the problem with this team – they want to do it the easy way. They expected Gillingham to roll over and panic at the first sign of some pretty but ultimately risk-averse passing.

And when better outfits need to be pressed, Wolves can’t be bothered and expect the opposition to give the ball back. We’re predictably picked off.

On his day, Podence is Wolves’ most creative outlet, but tonight he was infuriating. Rather than producing a killer pass or making a clever run, we were treated to aimless flicks. As for Guedes, he didn’t look interested, neither did Costa.

It was pleasing to see Lopetegui take a proactive approach with his substitutions but Adama should have been busting a gut to show Guedes and Podence how it’s done. Frankly, he couldn’t summon the energy to take on his man.

One positive was Hwang continuing his World Cup form. There’s an air of confidence about him, and I wouldn’t hesitate to start him at Everton.

But make no mistake, if Julen wasn’t already aware, he has a massive task on his hands keeping Wolves up when we look so toothless going forward.

Lopetegui and the promise of a host of January signings is our last hope.

Wolves 1 Leeds United 0

Blog, League Cup, Leeds, Uncategorized

In a game already lacking quality it was even more difficult than usual to see where the always elusive Wolves goal was coming from in those final moments.

Sky high – a brilliant moment

Neves, Guedes and Traore were withdrawn and the team looked too disjointed to conjure anything meaningful.

Credit to Collins for stepping forward, winning possession in their half and setting Podence away. It was a lovely reverse pass to find Boubacar and a sweet finish to send us through.

Let’s not forget Traore also assisted Guedes for his goal against Brighton at the weekend. He probably wasn’t brought in for attacking returns but they’re welcome all the same. He’s been a positive in a season that’s so far given us few.

It might have been nothing more than a 10 minute cameo but I also liked the look of Dexter Lembikisa. He’s only just turned 19 but like Bueno seems to have the physical attributes and the intensity to play at first team level.

That’s another youth product Steve Davis has blooded on a night when Hodge and Ronan were both handed starts and performed admirably in the midfield. The latter unlucky not to find the net himself in the second half with the keeper producing a fine save.

It was far from smooth sailing though and as Leeds fans have been at great pains to point out, they deployed an entirely second string side and could easily have snatched the tie themselves with momentum constantly shifting from one end to the other.

Sarkic made some important early saves in a panic stations five minutes and surviving that storm allowed Wolves to work their way into the game.

Considering it was a first choice back four we looked more vulnerable than we perhaps should have done but restricted Leeds to little after that initial onslaught.

Wolves didn’t produce much themselves prior to the goal but Guedes again looked sharp and Hwang did well enough in a thankless lone forward role that doesn’t suit his game.

It wasn’t a performance to give us belief we can take the game to the league leaders on Saturday but the result in isolation will be a handy boost to morale.

In the current climate that will do for me.

Wolves 2 Preston North End 1

Blog, League Cup, Preston North End

The victory and two wonderful goals mean I’ll blunt my criticism over some of the less pleasing aspects of this performance.

It couldn’t have started much better with Raul lurking at the back post to convert a devastating move that saw Ait-Nouri register a long overdue assist from all that incisive running.

Deserved adulation for a wonderful strike

With Traore blasting in a Goal of The Season contender on the half hour and Nunes teasing moments of quality that show what he could deliver in a gold shirt, it was all going splendidly well.

Then the failure to convert the penalty (which Raul clearly should have taken) and a sloppy sequence of play that saw Preston pull a goal back changed the game.

Wolves were still largely in control through sustained spells of possession but the visitors tightened up defensively and on the occasions they did get forward threatened to complete the comeback.

Well done to them for taking it all the way. For Wolves, holding on and making it through at least gives them some sort of foothold in this jittery start to the season.

Nunes was the main positive with those incredible slaloming runs through tackles combined with the physicality to be as effective without the ball and dominate opposition. He certainly has qualities we’ve been lacking, as if we didn’t know that already.

I think Traore deserves a hearty pat on the back too for diversifying his game, looking for those inside passes and not just running down the line to cross.

There were murmurs of discontent in the crowd for his reluctance to continually attack his full back but you can’t criticise him for lack of end product and then also moan when he attempts (successfully) to alter that narrative.

There’s probably a strong chance he leaves in the next week but I hope he stays and I’m certain it would be to Wolves benefit.

The strength of the starting XI combined with the quality of the substitutions Lage was able to introduce show that the squad is shaping up nicely. With some luck we could go far in this competition so I hope he continues to take it seriously.

Man City 0 Wolves 0 (Man City win 4-1 on penalties)

Blog, League Cup, Man City

Bright Enobakhare is a special talent.

Embed from Getty Images

 

It’s 20 years since Robbie Keane summersaulted into the spotlight and this is the first time since a genuine attacking star has been unearthed.

We’ve got to love him, protect him, accept his shortcomings, forgive missteps and just keep encouraging progress. It will come.

Last night was an at once uplifting and chastising experience for the 19 year old, leading the line exquisitely against high calibre opposition but falling at the last with hero status agonisingly within his grasp.

Had he taken the final and most glaring of all his chances in the dying seconds of normal time we’d be talking about a win to eclipse anything Paul Lambert’s team achieved in last season’s FA Cup.

As it is we’re left nursing the mother of all hard luck stories as our brave warriors achieved the impossible and shut out Pep’s unstoppable juggernaut for over two hours of absorbing football.

They threw the kitchen sink, the bathroom sink, the downstairs toilet and about £500 million of players at our second string and still couldn’t get through.

The excellent Will Norris only made two meaningful saves all night and one of those was a result of his own misplaced pass to Sergio Aguero, which says much about the efforts of the wall of old gold erected in front of our young goalkeeper.

Batth, Hause, Coady and Bennett (who more or less played at the back and rarely ventured above halfway) blocked everything and denied City any room inside the 18 yard box.

Price and N’diaye did an equally important job ahead of them, preventing the assembled masses from unloading in those pockets of space just outside the penalty area.

The one criticism of the first half was how cheaply possession was surrendered, but as the Etihad zolpidemsleep.com grew increasingly agitated Wolves began to acclimatise.

Costa, Marshall and the sensational Vinagre (who contained Sterling and manipulated the ball under pressure superbly) all marauded forward and were only a final ball away from kicking down the door.

Bright will take the flack for his hat trick of failures but Costa frittered away an equally presentable opening that he was unable to lift over the inspired Bravo in the City goal.

Our flying winger still looks well short of match sharpness but this was a step in the right direction. The minutes and the confidence garnered will hopefully be the launch pad for his season.

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His replacement down the right Connor Ronan, another player still months shy of his 20th birthday, belied his years with a performance of true maturity.

Yes there were a few misplaced passes when the out ball wasn’t always on but his overall contribution was huge. The awareness to know their left back’s legs had gone in extra time and continually run in behind shows his intelligence.

And intelligence is something that summed up this team performance along with grit, determination and a relentless desire to compete.

But those latter adjectives all suggest effort rather than ability and this monumental effort was as much about footballing capacity as any of those raw materials.

We should all have woken up buoyant this morning, safe in the knowledge we already have the depth and quality any team could ever need to compete in the Premier League let alone campaign to get into it.

We’re going places, make no mistake about it.

Wolves 1 Yeovil Town 0

Blog, League Cup, Yeovil Town

Contemplating a ‘Plan B’ after two games of the season might sound a little churlish to many, not least when they’ve both ended up in 1-0 victories.

Embed from Getty Images

But during spells of last night’s unnecessarily burdensome League Cup win, you were wondering what we wouldn’t give for a physical presence up top to hammer home all that intelligent interplay behind.

Don’t get me wrong, ‘Plan A’ looks extremely encouraging and the yearning for a Chris Iwelumo-type probably misses the point completely in this principled new age of possession based football.

(And imagine a scenario if we score an early goal and teams have to attack us. Then we could really have some fun!)

But for all the quite brilliant passing and moving, the hunch is that we’re still missing that final piece of the jigsaw to convert our undoubted dominance up to the edge of the penalty box.

Bonatini – who cuts the jib of Cedric Roussel in my mind – is still some way from being fit, while Nouha Dicko is still to completely convince following his injury, despite his well-taken winner.

If not a big man, then someone with that bit of devilment to fashion a chance from clever positional play. Jordan Rhodes anyone?

In any case, I couldn’t help but be impressed with this performance, which was laden with quick, incisive interplay in what appeared to be a 3-5-2 formation.

The personnel was almost entirely different to the Middlesbrough XI, save for Boly and Bonatini, but you could tell this was another Nuno side at work with Connor Ronan and Jack Price looking particularly easy on the eye in the middle of the park.

Danny Batth and Ryan Bennett looked competent alongside Big Willy, while our wing backs Vinagre and Jordan Graham were exactly what you’d expect; cool and calm on the ball with no little inclination to attack. If anything, they could have done this even more, with Vinagre seeing a lot more of the ball in the second half, lacking only in a telling final ball.

Without doubt, Dave Edwards struggled, shanking the ball out of play in the opening seconds and generally looking ill at ease when asked to recycle the ball in the pinball game mode we now adopt. His early substitution was telling, as was his reaction to it, shaking his head, kicking a water bottle (albeit apologetically) and throwing some energy bar/snack back at the lad who lobbed it his way.

The times, they are a changing, it would appear. (Bright Enobakhare looked so exciting when he came on, with Jota also impressing.)

But not enough to stop a familiar lapse in concentration when a Yeovil striker was afforded oceans of room in front of goal before we scored, only to shoot wide.

Had that have gone in, then we could have been looking at another League Cup embarrassment. Thankfully it didn’t, Nouha Dicko planted home a close-range header and we all move on.

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