I didn’t like that second half against West Ham.
They stepped onto us, condensed the game and there was no Plan B forthcoming.
It’s laudable to keep building up from the back, but after you’ve tried a dozen times and are persistently getting yourself into trouble, you have to mix it up.
Matheus Cunha gave the ball away several times in our defensive third of the pitch, culminating in the penalty that got West Ham level. That’s our one and only striker, dropping back to the edge of his own 18-yard box to join in the play, when we’re winning the game. I don’t get it.
There’s nobody in football that will convince me that some measured diagonal balls forward, just to force the opposition back, disrupt their press and open the game up a bit, wouldn’t be a preferable tactic in that situation.
If that sounds overly negative, it’s only down to disappointment following such a vibrant first half that promised so much. I couldn’t believe the cliff drop after the break.
Forest
Speaking of tactics, it seems like Nuno is playing a back four these days, which is mind-blowing considering his strict adherence to the back five in his glory days at Molineux.
Every time he strayed from that tried and tested formula the results were spotty at best, but maybe he just didn’t have the personnel?
Forest haven’t managed a single cleansheet in the Premier League since he took over, which again seems like a big departure from his time at Wolves where defensive resilience underpinned everything.
Despite the points deduction and no significant upturn in results since he took over from Steve Cooper, I think they’ll stay up – just about. They’ve got more quality and firepower than Luton, which should be enough.
Chris Wood is bang in form, save for one bad miss at Spurs last weekend, and that spells trouble for us given his persistent knack of finding the net against Wolves.
Morgan Gibbs-White is being linked with a champagne move in the summer and despite Forest remaining firmly in the relegation mire for the duration of his time at the club, I think you’d still say he’s developed at the City Ground.
Wolves
I’ve seen footage of both Hwang and Dawson joining in with training so that bodes well for tomorrow.
Santi Bueno hasn’t done a fat lot wrong, but we’ve missed the presence of Dawson in that back three so I expect to see him in the team if he’s fit to start.
Hwang won’t be thrust straight back in, but between him and Cunha, we should have some options to go after the game in the mid-to-latter stages.
A player I didn’t see in training was Ait-Nouri, but hopefully, he has recovered from the knock that saw him go off against West Ham. He’ll be a big miss if he’s not available.
Predictions
Well done to Peterobbo, Pete dunbar and Debenham Wolf for correctly predicting the 1-2 defeat against West Ham.
I smell defeat tomorrow. The long and short of it is we’re not strong defensively and without our primary front line we don’t do enough the other way to compensate. They will score and I’m only 50% sure we will. 2-1 Forest.
As always, if you’d like to join in with the Prediction League this season, it’s simple – just leave your prediction in the comment section below using the boxes provided. Then repeat for every preview article throughout the season, making sure you always use the same email address to make your prediction. Your email is what ties you to your overall score.
Up The Wolves!
Tomorrow is a must win! I say that coming from no wins in the last 5 games and with six games remaining, three of them involve Aresnal, Man City and Liverpool! We don’t want the great season to end on a whimper!
Over the summer, Neto will go. Killman is being targeted, but he has put in his time with us as has Ait-Nouri. Gomes needs to give us one more year at very least, no sale for him and only two of the above four should be allowed to go!
Gary’s record for purchases is unknown and untested, but hopefully they will be rewarding and fit his system!
Nottingham Forest cannot defend very well so we should score. However, Nuno and Gibbs-white will be desperate to beat us and Chris Wood always scored against us means there are no guarantee s for us to win! And they are fighting for survival!
Yes, this is a must win!
Despite the awful display in the second half, which matched the opposition’s first half display, i thought we deserved to share the points. Thank you, incompetent officials yet again. we finish the season as we started apparently.
I can’t see us winning this game but hope for a draw.
However, I am going for another 2-1 loss as GON, whom I value, keeps playing boys against men up front and insists on playing it short at the back even when the opposition are excellent in their press.
If we were to address these weaknesses I would be far more positive. Also, if Ait Nouri is absent, we will struggle even more. Hoping I am completely wrong, not for the first time, as football ” is a funny game”, but not at all confident in our bunch of good lads who deserve much better in personnel available…
Rayan out. Surely Cunha not 100%?
Bad vibes for me.
COMBs!
Forest have been a mixed bag lately. They tend to be stronger at home but never really know what to expect. I’ll sit on the fence and say draw.
Gonna go for an away win, against all the odds. Hopefully Woods will fluff his lines again and MGW has an off game. Would be good to see Daws back in his rightful position.
Got a few tough games to finish; however, l look at it this way, we can really screw up the chances of who gets the title. We’ve also got some really winnable games if our returnees come back as expected. Could be an exciting run up the season end.
The pressures on Forest , I can see us grabbing a win
I’d take a draw all day long but I’m going to be positive.
As with above comments I can’t really see a win and hoping for a draw.
Wolves have a chance to win this game if we play are best football like in the first half against West Ham. But we have to play for ninety minutes not 45 why we can’t do that I don’t know what the problem is this has been going on since Nuno.
Probably because we don’t have the players on the bench to change things around as required. As the Wham game demonstrated all too clearly.
LETS NOT LOSE AGAIN !!
Momentum seems to have evaporated from the season unfortunately
Fixtures that 6 weeks ago looked winnable for European football next season, now look tricky to gain a point from never mind a win
ODCL
This looks like it’s going to be a very close affair. There’s more pressure on Forest than ourselves obviously, which will help. At the same time however, Forest seem to have the edge with respect to the figures for their home form compared to our away form.
There are rumours that we might have more chance of bringing on some of our first choice strikers as the game progresses, but we’ll also have to watch Morgan, who’s been playing really well for Forest predominately.
Nevertheless, I’m going for a low scoring affair. I’d be very happy with a draw and we might get one. But our difficulties when it comes to scoring recently, because of the missing first choices up front, leads me to go for the narrowest of defeats.
Sorry y’all. I hope I’m wrong for sure.
Chris Woods is wolves bogey man, I hope Dawson is back, makes us more solid, I’ll take a draw, hope Lionel Ritchie has a poor game, I actually rate him, however we got good money for him, fosun have a big decision to make, amble along and finish 12th every season. Or back the manager to go for 7th, I’m sorry we will never get top 6, also this blog is a great comfort to me, I suffer with poor health, it keeps me going, I love cheese burger, God bless u all, wolves aie we!
Sorry to hear about your ongoing health problems mate. Sue and I both send you positive thoughts and virtual hugs.
Not so positive about the end of our season though.
European ambitions gone and the thought of maybe losing our best players in the Summer casts a bit of a cloud over what has been a pretty successful season.
Hoping for 90 minutes played like the first 45 against West Ham.
If that’s the case, barring a VAR cock up (well there’s always a first time, ha! ha!) I think we’ll win.
Thank u for your kind words sir!
Thanks for your kind words Binda. If my silly blogs give you a smile and help you along that’s great. Wolves ay we!
I was overawed by the 1st half display last week
commitment , energy levels, everything we have been working to achieve. there in 45 minutes . 2nd half ….Meh!
Really don’t want to lose this one but we are struggling with injuries up front
Gibbs-White will want to run the show and get a goal or assist and Woods is a nemesis of old. Respect for Nuno means I hope they don’t get relegated so I actually hope this game is a well fought draw. Please no VAR bollocks either. The first half against West Ham was brilliant stuff but how and why we seem to be taken by surprise when an opponent predictably changes things with substitutions and changes of tactics when they’re losing is poor game management from us. I’d say the defeats to Utd, Cov and the hammers could have easily been avoided with better game management on the pitch. Nevertheless I continue to state that it’s been a good season. I hope it doesn’t peter out but actually I am not at all sure we’re ready for Europe.
This game has DRAW written all over it. Going for the standard 1-1.
Hopefully, Dawson and Ait Nouri will be available. I can see Doyle behing Cunha and Sarabia up front in a 3-4-1-2 formation and the rest of the team picks itself.
Santi hasn’t done much wrong, but Kilman seems so much worse without Dawson at his side. I’m hoping Dawson’s return, a Cunha start, and a Hwang cameo are enough to get the Wolves back on track.
If Dawson is playing, he is going to be extremely busy.
Every time I hear Chris Woods’ name in the team that plays us, my guts quake with fear.
I’m also a bit worried that we’re in for another end of season nosedive… I get annoyed with myself for not being positive, but we are not a top ten team at the moment and some really heavy last fixtures coming up.
To be honest, I’d be more than happy with a draw, so that’s what it’ll be.
Its gonna click tomorrow
If we have Lemina and Gomes as a centre two
It’s all going a bit tits up I’m afraid
Rather early for a season post mortem but…
Rotten decisions against us
Rotten luck with injuries
Blossoming talents in RAN Cunha Gomes and …Hwang best season yet
Coaches have transformed us
On our day we can beat anyone
… but lose to anyone
It feels like we are real PL club and our alumni go on to better things like Jota … and MGW
(I guess Pedro will too)
If MGW plays tomorrow he will be like a man possessed
A draw then…and let’s win vs Bournemouth and Luton and stick it to one of top3 …don’t care whom
Lots to celebrate at home to Palace
Still
Happy days
.
Haven’t got a clue who’ll be in the team… Dawson, Hwang off the bench, Cunha start ..?
What I have got a clue about is that our European dream is just that .. a dream ..
It’s a step too far in the current climate .. and getting whacked with a baton wielding riot police knobhead in Braga .. makes Europe look like an unwanted toothache.
Chris Woods won’t get with 1/2 mile of our goal and Gibbs White will get robbed of the ball by Gomes who slots it through to Lemina to score the important first goal .. after that .. there’ll be chants of .. ‘Nuno out’ before we finally nail them down with a second goal from Cunha ..
Europe Europe here we come ..
Apparently Forest fans sing “Mull of Kintyre. Oh mist rolling in from the Trent”. The f**kin mist travelled 450 miles to get to Nottingham then? Why on earth would it go there. Good job the mist didn’t roll up in West Bromwich. They would have thought it was a bunch of chavs with bad teeth vaping. Wasn’t Mull of Kintyre that one where Paul and Linda McCartney were half way up Ben Nevis playing electric guitars ? A bit like Eddie Grant on a sun lounger in the middle of the Carribbean sea strumming along on his electric guitar. With Binda Spain sipping a cocktail on the beach in his Wolves top. Amazing what you can do without electricity. This match tomorrow is not going to be pretty . A Wolves team seemingly with the pressure off in mid table against Forest desperate for points. WWFC due a win. Best thing that can happen is that mist comes down in the Wolves goalmouth so Chris Wood can’t see. Stop him scoring and with a couple of reinforcements in our team we will sneak this. 1-0. Yes. Mull of Kintyre 0 WWFC 1. CUNHA ! De de de de de de de de………….
G’day Cheese, Thought I heard the Forest fans sing….
‘Where’s my car tyre? My Jags rolling into the Trent’,
or something. Anyway can’t be any worse than the Macca penned Crimbo school disco last dance snog fest wailer I remember. What was the Ex Beatle thinking stuck up a Scottish mountain with a couple of goats, chewing on a half cooked haggis to the sound of 20 pissed bagpipers?
1 lv & COYW
No idea Rasta mate. But the scenery looked lovely. Lakes and farms and mountains and everything.
Since it was first introduced, VAR has been nothing but a pain in the arse.
Against Wham, sure we were robbed again at the end, but that’s not the point. Time and again during the game I found myself sat impassively in the North Bank looking down on the players and my fellow football fans waiting for the faceless morons who now run and ruin OUR game. The worst part is, by the time they’d made up their minds, I didn’t really give a damn what they decided. It’s not about the game anymore, just the result and I can hear that on the radio.
My love for the game as it is is dying. Death by a thousand cuts, you might say. I travel a long way to games and have plans for a couple more before seasons end. But if nothing changes over the summer, I’ll not be bothering myself next season. I’m sad about it, but not as sad as a sad geezer spending a lot of time and money on something that used to be but is no more.
Know what you mean Wolfie. I was actually making my way down the steps to the bar area when I heard the roar go up for our corner. Naturally I ran back up to see the corner. Kilman. Goaaaaaaaallllll! But no. The fuckwits in Stockley Park ruin it. The game is supposed to be about goals. Elation. Emotion. They do all they can to stop goals. Clear and obvious last week? Bollocks was it. Why don’t they just piss off! Expect a Forest goal given tomorrow for exactly the same as ours was ruled out.
As ever Cheesey, you sum it up perfectly.
Ain’t got a Scooby what’s happening or going on anymore so we’re going with our new prediction formula 2-1
A very negative 2 – 1 to Forest for ant number of reasons.
Chris Woods is something that we don’t have.
Forget Europe’s, this season going to fizzle out with a dull thud with our patch up ,under staff squad , farcical Var nicking our points and no youngsters capable of being able to step up to premier league standard.
With injured players gradually coming back and taking time to get up to speed ,don’t think we will get many points out of the remaining games.
And the usual vultures circling ready to pick off our best players in the summer .
Hope I’m wrong, I usually am .
Greetings,
I know weem all feeling a tad negative after last game for all the reasons listed above, and confidence is in short supply.
Forest are hardly bouncing but the Nuno, MGW, Woody axis of attack is enough to conjure up foreboding. If there is one legacy Conor Cody can be proud of, it’s the gob on MGW.
Forest may have overspent but at least they still have a functioning team. Only 4 points off when Toffees get 10 -4+2 = 8 points deducted. Wtf is going on with this PSR malarky?
On the basis that it would be nice for Gazzbo to finish above Bournemouth, I agree we could do with a win. Don’t know how that’s going to happen. Witchcraft may be useful.
1 lv & COYW
I see that Gary O’Neil has been charged by the FA with ‘improper and/or threatening behaviour’ for saying what virtually every Wolves fan has been going on about for the last few seasons.
Perhaps someone should charge the FA with ‘incompetent and/or corrupt behaviour’ for being… well, incompetent and/or corrupt.
You couldn’t make it up!
Still waiting for an opposition manager going bonkers at the end of a game thanks to a highly controversial goal awarded by VAR in Wolves favour. Since 2019. Still waiting………………………
Really dislike Gibbs White. Arrogant like his girlfriend. So desperate for us to win tomorrow although I think it unlikely. Still hoping though.
Thanks for the memories Nuno.
MGW seemed a bit low key when they last played. Maybe he’s saving his anger for our match. Not we give a fig.
Not much to add to what has already been said by others above. I just feel a great sense of being cheated by those who run the game. Given that every place in the PL is worth around £3 million, Wolves are down a fair bit. Injuries to our, already small squad suggest Wolves are fighting with one hand tied.
That said, GON and Wolves will fight on to the end.
Momentum is often the telling factor in games, so I suspect VAR will be on a roll and worth 2 goals against us.
Have to hope that is wrong and we can overcome.
A few of our injuries our starting to clear up so that can only help. I would bring Dawson back for this game to handle the physical threat of Wood who always seems to turn into prime R9 against us.
The omens aren’t good for this one. A win would be good but I think I’d be happy with a draw. I’m just hoping VAR isn’t going to ruin yet another game.
We seem to be running on empty at the moment and with Forest needing the points, I think they smell blood. Hope we surprise them.
UTW
Don’t think we’ve got the personnel or momentum to do better than a scrappy draw.
Given that I thought finishing 17th and avoiding relgation was the primary aim the lads and Gary O Neil have over performed this season. I think reality is now catching up with us. A tiny isquad with inexperienced youth and a fatigued main team. Past decisions , and may I add some mismanagement, and FFP are now catching up with us. To an extent the decline was more or less inevitable. Don’t kid yourselves, a lot has been achieved with very little. Let’s try not to lose games, blood some more youngsters and work on tactics and personel for next season. I obviously want wolves to win every match but that’s not going to happen due to the above. For this match I’m going for a 1-1 draw.
Can only hope for a draw here. Can’t see us beating a forest team who are desperate for points with our thread bare squad.
Channelling the optimism of Wolves TV, especially Thommo, I’m going for a Wolves win.
utw.
Can’t see us beating a team 17 points below us in the table.
WHAT????