For someone who apparently doesn’t relish playing as a number 9, Matheus Cunha is rather good.
He channeled R9 with that first goal today, carrying the ball half the length of the pitch, slaloming between tackles and firing into the top corner.
His second wasn’t nearly so attractive, but just as effective, forcing the ball home in a packed penalty area to earn his side a share of the spoils.
Was a draw the fairest outcome? Possibly.
Forest definitely had more territory and spent a lot of the game probing for that opening, but ultimately had to rely on two scruffy efforts of their own to get on the board.
When you factor in the two goals Wolves scored and the other effort that was cleared off the line before Sarabia fired wide, I would say neither side can be too upset.
Obviously Gibbs-White scored and was central to their other goal in an impressive outing that showed – love or hate him – his influence in the Premier League is growing.
But to let him register with a header from a corner is rather galling, probably more so for Jose Sa than his defenders given that it was more or less right at the keeper, albeit with flailing limbs potentially obstructing his view.
An equally messy second looked like it would take the game away from us, so credit to the lads for hanging in there, forcing the equaliser and putting it in to the end to deny an increasingly desperate home side.
With more minutes into Cunha, Hwang back on the pitch and hopefully Ait-Nouri to return by next weekend, we can maybe hope to mount a decent level of resistance against Arsenal.
Standing in the lower tier, 2 thoughts struck me. 1) Hugo bueno should start ahead of docherty if ait nouri not fit. 2) Morgan Gibbs white is a complete bell end.
I’ll take the point, however massive summer rebuilt required, Doherty is finished, kneed a fast cb, new gk ,sorry distribution is awful, too many sidewards passing, we have a opportunity to progress next season,or ad I said earlier will bosun amble along just to survive, also bloggers please watch pep mancity on Netflix, hunger and humanity, God bless u all, mgw player off the match,wolves aie we!
Didn’t Sa get an assist for first goal?
are we watching the same team?
what rebuild ? are you ok?
As ,and fouson sorry!
Good result under difficult circumstances.
This tiny squad is full of quality but not in numbers.
Jeff and Fosun. Miraculously you have survived 3+ years of incompetence since you let Nuno down. You now have pulled another rabbit out of the hat with Gary O.Neil. Don’t repeat the same mistakes this summer and back your man and your supporters this time whatever you have to do,
This squad could become very special with O.Neil at the helm and some wily investment and creative thinking.
And finally good luck to Nuno in Forest’s appeal and quest for PL survival. You are still a legend here Nuno.
Only one of those years was a survival season. And Fosun pumped £153 million in to the squad in 22/23 – top 8 for investment. Not sure how it was a miraculous survival. To me it was recognising we had come up short and funds were made available. Well done Jeff and Fosun. And a decent point today. 43 points. A club of Wolves comparative stature flirting the edge of a Europa place is pretty damn good. Wolves ay we.
COD
Please differentiate between gross spend and net spend.
£153 million net spend
Would love to see a comprehensive list COD.for 22/23. Presumably incomers include star buys Guedes, Kaladzic and Collins.
Google it PJB. It’s there.
there’s always one
As Chelsea have demonstrated it is not how much you spend but who you buy . This is where Fosun have failed badly by not recognizing that Shi does not have the right skill set .
To be fair to Jeff and Fosun a lot more of our signings have been a success compared to duds.
There’s an anti-Fosun/Shi movement which just doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.
A point at the end of the day was a decent result. There is no doubt that MGW is a really talented footballer, he’s also pretty childish.
A fair result at the City ground. Didn’t really help either team – Forest could have put some breathing space between them and the dreaded relegation zone. We could have reignited our outside chance of European football.
Considering this was Cunha’s first start for 9 games, he was brilliant. And he had no right to score that fantastic individual goal. There were 5 Forest players and the keeper before the next Wolves player. Incredible.
It was a performance full of errors but with no lack of grit and determination. Gomes had to be subbed. He was destined to receive a red card, having strayed over the fine line between controlled aggression and losing his cool.
As for MGW. You can’t ignore his ability and his passion for Forest. But his antics and particularly his celebration in front of our supporters after scoring was ill considered, immature and unnecessary.
Great to see some regular first teamers returning.
We need, and will no doubt get some re-enforcements in the Summer – it’s not just a case of what GON deserves. Given the backing and resources, he will build on what he has and make us better. However, we need quality and quantity. Too small a squad and we will run out of steam. We can’t be in a situation where we have to rely on youngsters to field a team.
UTW
I’m happy with the 2-2 draw, especially as I predicted the exact score, three out of the last four games correctly. So I’m chuffed!
And with Cunha’s goal… great effort!
We are still 11th and I’ll take that under our circumstances. I’m happy for us to stay a premiership team for ever, even if it means mid table… top ten would be nice though.
COYW
I think a club like Wolves with some astute signings could be around 8th to 5th. Occasional maybe better. Occasional maybe worse. We have to accept who we are now and make sure we at least secure premier league status .That will do me.
Not me .
Just staying up is no ambition in my book
Nothing wrong with ambition, Nick, but unless you’ve got 60,000 fans turning up at the Mol every other week, it ain’t going to happen in the long term.
I’m an aged supporter and know where I’m best off… 🙂
If we could qualify for the Europa Conference we can win that trophy as West Ham did last season and Villa May this season .That ambition is achievable without 60 k in the stadium .
Bear in mind the year we got to the EuropaLeague quarter final we were 7 th in the league with a small
Squad .
I am pretty sure we would be top 10 if not for all the awful VAR decisions.
I had already written off Cunha’s second goal when VAR got involved. I now treat it as a pleasant surprise when VAR DOESN’T take it away. Cynical I know, but you can only judge by history.
I fully expect GON will be backed in the summer. Jeff said as such in his statement at the end of last season. Maybe the spending will not be quite as reckless as previous. And tailored and maybe factoring in some who go to pastures new. It’s normal.
But what credibility can be given to anything Shi actually says ? Ask Lopetegui !! What he says and what he dses rarely seem to match up
Loppy surely knew the situation pretty quickly, He just didn’t like it much. Some managers only work with stars who will burnish their cv and ego, some really develop players. But in the end he did us a big favour. However much/little is available, it will be better spent than in the past and any new player better integrated and properly developed. Our main aim is hanging on to GON.
Call me cynical fellow bloggers, a question for u lovely people, wolves have no chance next season off getting top 6, let alone winning the leauge, all we can hope for is a good cup run and survival, where is the level playing field, that’s not fair, premier leauge is a monster bubble, what happens to bubbles, man city Rodrie complains off burnout, I agree with him demands off the body, yet they have 2 world class teams as cover, wolves are in my dna, sorry about the rant, wolves aie we!
Why have we no chance of a top 6 Finnish?
I would say with GON and a few players in for depth , then we have a great chance . We’ve beaten all but Arsenal in that top 6 recently and with limited numbers .
I’d call it an outside chance but I do get the comments re where we stand in the pecking order.
With our turnover, if you were to take 10 seasons we might push for a top 6 maybe once or twice.
It’s not impossible but very difficult.
Would anyone on here cash in on Kilman in the summer?
He always appears the game is too easy for him , hence his mistakes. Outshone by S Bueno yesterday.
If silly offers appear sell, huge profit on 60k,looks better with old head next to him,oh for a george Berry and Floyd Street, sorry young wolves bloggers, wolves aie we!
I don’t understand all this talk of Fosun not backing us. They have spent up to the limit that the rules allow without incurring sanctions (in fact didn’t we get a sanction for over spending?).
The debate should surely be “if the sanctions are worse than the points deductions” and “would we have been better off with 3 extra players and a 3 point deduction?”
We have been the 13th biggest net spenders over the last 5 years, that’s not bad.
Also, the accusation that we spend badly is just wrong. Yes we have paid over the odds for a couple of players, but who hasn’t? The only really terrible signing has been Fabio Silva, the others that went bad like Cutrone and Guedes, made sense on paper but didn’t work out in reality. Again, this happens to every club.
People forget that for every Guedes there is a Jota, for every Cutrone there is a Jimenez.
Who expected to see a player as good as Neves in a Wolves shirt when we couldn’t get into the Premier league in the 90’s and Steve Corica was our “marquee” signing of the summer.
Just think of all the terrible players we’ve had to endure over the years. Sometimes the atrocity of our signings has been the best bit about supporting Wolves, it’s been a constant goldmine of humour. I’m still not finished laughing about Freddy Eastwood, Stephan Maierhoffer, Roger feckin Johnson and the footballer seen less than the Lock Ness Monster, Paul Gladon.
But no longer, we’ve made some fantastic signings recently. Gomes, Lemina, Cunha, Hwang, Dawson just in the last 18 months. Do the people slating Fosun’s transfer acumen think Neto, Ait Nouri and Semedo were signed under Steve Morgan?
Yes I’d love a trophy or 2 to sing about, but footballs changed, it’s a closed shop now. FFP has sealed the deal. The ceiling for a club like us isn’t far from being reached. We’re in with a shout of a cup and with a larger squad we could get European football again.
I agree we have signed some great players. Right now though the squad is very short and GON is publicly disappointed and frustrated. Will he walk on the eve of next season if promises this is not seriously addressed?
Season tickets out soon, expect promises, if they are not kept then what?
I do agree that the squad is thin. Unfortunately due to the current set of rules that’s the way it has to be. We can’t have a big squad full of quality replacements , so we opted for a small squad full of top quality international players. We have 2 Brazil internationals in the squad and people (not you) talk about a lack of quality…
I’m sure GON understands the situation, he joined the club after Lopetegui quit because of a lack of funds so it’s no surprise to him. If we lose no players in the summer (very unlikely!) I’d be happy with 3/4 incoming, anymore than that and you’ll have people sat around not playing which helps no one.
We are not that far off and I do trust Fosun to do well they haven’t really let us down yet.
Sensible and very balanced post Neil. Thank you.
well said Neil
top post
I agree, excellent post Neil.
With Silva having an indifferent loan spell at Rangers, a part of me wishes that the given our recent dearth of strikers, had we not sent him out on loan, we would have found out once and for if there really was a £30+m player in there somewhere.
Neil. Magnificent post. How any sane Wolves fan can criticise Fosun is beyond me. The amount of investment is astronomical compared to years gone by. We are talking huge amounts of money. What do they want? Will anyone else be able to spend huge amounts of money without restriction (see Newcastle). Better the devil you know. For the record Fosun have respected the fans. Respected our traditions. Respected Wolverhampton Wanderers. Mistakes . Sure. Jeff admitted it last week. He said we need to continue learning. If you think we will get a better owner than Fosun then think again.
Looked like a fair result from what I saw on MOTD. And what a goal from Cunha – probably our goal of the season. Nice to see Hwang back again too, and we are perhaps starting to look a bit more like our normal selves.
As for Morgan Gibbs-White, I always feel that players who are too cocky always end up getting their comeuppance some time in the future, karma being what it is. I don’t want Forest to go down as of course we all still love Nuno, but if it wasn’t for him I’d be rooting for this badly-run club to drop into the Championship. Then MGW could take his fingers out of his ears for a few seasons – unless his loyalty to Forest is only Premier League deep, of course.
Also at the end of the day I don’t mind too much if we don’t get in the Europa Conference League next year. It’s a bit of a tinpot competition and we’re likely to stay in it till at least the quarter finals, and with our squad if we had to play on Thursdays and Sundays for half the season I don’t think we’d manage it – look how Brighton have struggled this year. So, best to have a strong finish – I strangely fancy us against Arsenal next week – and be happy that we’ve finished half way up, which we’d have all taken at the beginning of the season. It’s just a distraction from the horrors of the world at the end of the day.
We got to the quarter final of the Europa League in the same season we were 7 th so it certainly can be done
We all knock MGW, he is certainly not easy to like, a bit of a dipstick and loves winding up the Wolves fans, but he’s a talented lad who was never really given a fair chance at Wolves.
Having Ruben Neves as the midfield general was naturally going to limit his game time, but I wonder what GON would have made of him if he had stayed.
I think a draw was a fair result yesterday, and what a joy to see Cunha starting the game, scoring a belter and producing such a great performance.
I actually don’t mind MGW’s pantomime dame theatrics.
He was given a tough ride by a good few supporters at Molineux so why not dish it back?
And Cunha’s response was hilarious and in the right spirit.
Let’s not get too outraged by a bit of banter.
I haven’t heard many people say it – but, how foolish and weak does Lopetegui look right now. Not to take anything away from GON – who, I think has been fantastic.
But, JL griped about the squad and not getting backed and walked away – afraid of having his rep tarnished by a team he didn’t think worthy of his talents. And, they’re just outside of the European places.
If you’re an owner considering JL – isn’t that a major factor in your head? He walks away when presented with a challenge? And, as it turns out, there was enough quality to be more than relegation fodder (much of it from players that came in when he was backed in his first window – Cunha, Dawson, Sarabia).
Stating the obvious here. But, if I’m an owner, I’ll take a coach who believes in his players – like GON or Nuno – over a guy who walks away from a challenge. Some clubs will still hire JL (over GON and Nuno). I can’t understand why.
I agree Lou and it could be a reason why he remains unattached still, if indeed he is.
But I think he sees himself as a top six coach and even mid-table would count as failure in his book.
Upon reflection, it was possibly a lousy appointment anyway given our inherent financial constraints like crowd capacity.
A poor “marriage” that had FFP implications written all over it now when you look at it.
Greetings All,
Feeling better about the PL and our point at Forest after ‘Pool and Arsenal Nil both got their tails tweaked today. Even at the expense of some insufferable Villa fans, it does give an ‘up for grabs’ feel to the end of the season, and with troops returning we can feel a bit more positive. Wow have we missed Mr Cunha. What a solo effort that was. Brilliant. Nice touch squeezing the MGW melon too.
It also highlights the Citeh juggernaut as being ripe for some serious sanctioning though. I reckon Pep and the Arabs will be off well before the axe falls and Citeh will return to their proper place in the 3rd tier. Only joking.
1 lv & COYW
A draw away from home is always a good result in the premiership. However as I said on here before the match our game management can improve. The opposition will always tweak things if it’s not going their way particularly at half time and we don’t seem to realise or respond (on field). Tommy Doyle says as much post match on the Wolves website. Nevertheless the lads as ever gave their all and I am not suggesting for a second that I have spotted something that Gary O’Neil isn’t completely aware of. As regards the debate about the wisdom of the club’s player investments , I would say since the start they’ve got it 90% right and the majority of the players they’ve brought in are worth more, some a heck of a lot more, than we paid. Plus those players continue to give us plenty to entertain and be optimistic about. Fabio and Guedes being obvious exceptions of course. O’Neil has stated that he only wants players who want to play for Wolves. Guedes never did and I think Fabio wants out too. Good riddance.
If Fabio wants out, where’s he going to go to? Rangers seem to be having second thoughts about him. Like a bad penny, he might be back with us this summer. He should be scoring for fun in the SPL but he’s not. He’s right up there in my opinion, with Roger Johnson, in the running for worst-ever signing this century. Maybe Jamie O’Hara in third place. Forgot about Guedes, maybe a tie with O’Hara for third place.
Jack Grealish and his ridiculous hair. Back in the day when I had some I would go in Bill the Barbers in Gornal and request something like the ‘New Order’. Which he could cope with because it was basically leave it alone on top with grade 1 on the back and sides. Bill passed away last year God rest his soul. But God knows how he would react if I went in and said ‘I’ll have the Jack Grealish Bill’.