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[Albion] Wolves verdict.



Garry Nelson's Left Foot

Well-known member
Jul 7, 2003
13,056
tokyo
Eight of the starting eleven yesterday were from the team that got promoted.

We generally struggle against teams that play an expansive possession based game as we don't have the tactical flexibility to cope. We play 4-4-1-1/4-4-2 come rain or shine. All the players are excellently drilled in it which makes us a very solid team but it also means that when faced with teams that pas and move on a grand scale we struggle to adapt.

If Wolves are smart they'll learn a lesson from yesterday. Namely being pretty gets you nowhere if you don't have a cutting edge.

They dominated the first half against an uncharacteristically passive Brighton performance. They had huge swathes of possession and the ball barely entered their half in any meaningful way. They had the freedom of our left flank for the entirety of those opening 45 minutes. And yet they barely mustered any threat to our goal whatsoever. They had one moment where I thought 'oh, this could be dangerous...' when Doherty got into a good position just inside the box with a clear sight of goal but then passed his shot wide of the post. Other than that they posed no real threat and in fact the best chance of the half fell to us when Duffy somehow managed to miss that header from three yards. My fear at half time was that if we continued to be so lacklustre then sheer weight of possession would lead to wolves creating a decent chance or two.

Turns out that we turned up for the second half, capitalised on some poor defending and then controlled the half pretty comfortably until about the 75 minute mark. It was only then, when we retreated somewhat into our shell a la 2015/16, and with Wolves apparently realising that they actually needed to score and so started playing with more urgency and directness that they became a genuine threat. When they ran at us they caused us problems. Luckily they spent half of those 15 minutes launching balls into the box for Dunk and Duffy to clear. But their added directness did lead to chances being created and therefore Ryan finally being called into proper action.

They reminded me a little of us under Poyet in our first season in the championship.

I would add that Im delighted with how many points we have already and am looking forward to when we actually start playing half decently too. I think we all know there is more to come from us although I suspect we will play considerably better than we did yesterday and lose.
 




smillie's garden

Am I evil?
Aug 11, 2003
2,586
I think we are morphing into Burnley and the way they set up and grind out results.
For all us old farts it's like watching the Mike Bailey side from our last stint in the top league and he got sacked for not being entertaining enough !!!

Sent from my EML-L09 using Tapatalk

I hope not - they've already conceded 21; joint 3rd worst in the league.
 


Invicta

Well-known member
NSC Patreon
Nov 1, 2013
3,196
Kent
Reading their board, you'd think they had been in the Premier League for ever. Not that long ago we relegated them to Lge 1 !!
 


Weststander

Well-known member
NSC Patreon
Aug 25, 2011
63,428
Withdean area
Reading their board, you'd think they had been in the Premier League for ever. Not that long ago we relegated them to Lge 1 !!

Because they decided to spend colossal sums (including wages) overnight in acquiring a squad full of stars of european football. Football writers predicted their immediate path to top 8, with even higher in the next couple of seasons.
 






Napper

Well-known member
Jul 9, 2003
23,858
Sussex
Got to say the arrogance of this lot ( spoke to a few after ) especially towards money , I think they would be a great fit for a top 6 side. Self entitled , moany , chips on shoulders.

OK so Wolves used to be a big club but the way this lot talk you would think they are Barcelona or something.

Expect it off someone like Villa but Wolverhampton Wanderers !!? Do me a favour love
 






Muzzman

Pocket Rocket
NSC Patreon
Jul 8, 2003
5,196
Here and There
Got to say the arrogance of this lot ( spoke to a few after ) especially towards money , I think they would be a great fit for a top 6 side. Self entitled , moany , chips on shoulders.

OK so Wolves used to be a big club but the way this lot talk you would think they are Barcelona or something.

Expect it off someone like Villa but Wolverhampton Wanderers !!? Do me a favour love

Reminds me of the way Portsmouth supporters were when they 'were in the money'. Pride comes before a fall and all that. Lets see where they are in 5 years. You can't blame them for being a little over-excited. They've been bloody awful for years.
 


Weststander

Well-known member
NSC Patreon
Aug 25, 2011
63,428
Withdean area
Got to say the arrogance of this lot ( spoke to a few after ) especially towards money , I think they would be a great fit for a top 6 side. Self entitled , moany , chips on shoulders.

OK so Wolves used to be a big club but the way this lot talk you would think they are Barcelona or something.

Expect it off someone like Villa but Wolverhampton Wanderers !!? Do me a favour love

Trouble is, new money can change a club's fortunes up several notches in an instance. Obvious examples: Chelsea (previously 1 title in a century), ManC (yoyo-ing between divisions, last trophies 2 league cups in the 70's), Bmuff (lower leagues tiny club).

Wolves with their owner and an embedded superagent, have gone from a middle of the road club for 50 years, to a club buying/borrowing internationals. And it's going to accelerate there.

Shame it's like this and permitted, but without it Manure would buy 75% of all PL titles, because of their commercial income advantage. At least it prevents the horrendous domestic title monopoly's each May by PSG, Juve, Bayern and Celtic.
 


Papa Lazarou

Living in a De Zerbi wonderland
Jul 7, 2003
18,840
Worthing
Got to say the arrogance of this lot ( spoke to a few after ) especially towards money , I think they would be a great fit for a top 6 side. Self entitled , moany , chips on shoulders.

OK so Wolves used to be a big club but the way this lot talk you would think they are Barcelona or something.

Expect it off someone like Villa but Wolverhampton Wanderers !!? Do me a favour love

Whilst waiting to go up the stairs to coach park I got chatting to one of their fans. He thought they battered us and should have won easily. He also said that they weren't in any risk of relegation, and were aiming for top 10 as a minimum. His justification was they are a MASSIVE club - I did point out that there are many many BIG clubs in the Championship all of which could claim to deserve in the top 10 in the Premier League.

I just got the sense that the feel they should be beating teams like Brighton, because they're richer, bigger and better than us.
 




Nixonator

Well-known member
Feb 8, 2016
6,733
Shoreham Beach
Got to say the arrogance of this lot ( spoke to a few after ) especially towards money , I think they would be a great fit for a top 6 side. Self entitled , moany , chips on shoulders.

OK so Wolves used to be a big club but the way this lot talk you would think they are Barcelona or something.

Expect it off someone like Villa but Wolverhampton Wanderers !!? Do me a favour love

At least they are more than half filling their stadium now.
 


Nixonator

Well-known member
Feb 8, 2016
6,733
Shoreham Beach
Trouble is, new money can change a club's fortunes up several notches in an instance. Obvious examples: Chelsea (previously 1 title in a century), ManC (yoyo-ing between divisions, last trophies 2 league cups in the 70's), Bmuff (lower leagues tiny club).

Wolves with their owner and an embedded superagent, have gone from a middle of the road club for 50 years, to a club buying/borrowing internationals. And it's going to accelerate there.

Shame it's like this and permitted, but without it Manure would buy 75% of all PL titles, because of their commercial income advantage. At least it prevents the horrendous domestic title monopoly's each May by PSG, Juve, Bayern and Celtic.

Blackburn aswell.

Thing is, Wolves have missed the boat in my opinion. I don't think it's possible for them to replicate a Chelsea/Man City by throwing endless cash at it.

There are regulations now which hinder this sort of thing, like not being able to increase your wage bill significantly each season.

The top 6 are embedded now, and it'll only change if some/all of them sod off to some pseudo elite league.

Wolves have sold themselves out and it's sad how they're all lapping it up for a chance at a bit of success, Mendes cares only for the accumulation of wealth and god knows about their new owners and his ties to them. Think there will be some eventual lessons learned.
 


Blues Rock DJ

New member
Apr 18, 2011
4,007
Dorset
Whilst waiting to go up the stairs to coach park I got chatting to one of their fans. He thought they battered us and should have won easily. He also said that they weren't in any risk of relegation, and were aiming for top 10 as a minimum. His justification was they are a MASSIVE club - I did point out that there are many many BIG clubs in the Championship all of which could claim to deserve in the top 10 in the Premier League.

I just got the sense that the feel they should be beating teams like Brighton, because they're richer, bigger and better than us.

hopefully you also asked him when was the last time they beat us ??
 




Steve in Japan

Well-known member
NSC Patreon
May 9, 2013
4,417
East of Eastbourne
I tried to be offended by some of the Wolve's comments but there's not much there to argue with. They did indeed batter us in the first half. Our goal was against the run of play. Maybe they should have had a pen. And they are "considerably richer that yeow".

But as wiser people have noted above, there's only one stat that really matters. Thats the one that says 1-0. Thank yeow.

I think Hughton summed it up nicely when talking on MOTD. When Lineacre says how well our defence is playing, CH effectively say's that's just as well, because other bits aren't working at the moment. There's an honest man.
 


Simster

"the man's an arse"
Jul 7, 2003
54,110
Surrey
Blackburn aswell.

Thing is, Wolves have missed the boat in my opinion. I don't think it's possible for them to replicate a Chelsea/Man City by throwing endless cash at it.

There are regulations now which hinder this sort of thing, like not being able to increase your wage bill significantly each season.

The top 6 are embedded now, and it'll only change if some/all of them sod off to some pseudo elite league.

Wolves have sold themselves out and it's sad how they're all lapping it up for a chance at a bit of success, Mendes cares only for the accumulation of wealth and god knows about their new owners and his ties to them. Think there will be some eventual lessons learned.
History suggests otherwise - Newcastle and Leeds have been up there in the last couple of decades, and Everton and Villa both threatened to do so as well, not that I see Wolves joining them any time soon - Everton, Newcastle or West Ham are ahead of them in that particular queue. What will probably happen is that Wolves will stabilize as a top 10 team along the lines of Everton and their ground will be expanded to 40,000. However, if they ever try to overreach themselves or their owner ever gets bored, then I think they are more likely to end up struggling against relegation than kicking on to challenge the top 6.

None of this changes the fact that Wolves fans have never properly understood their position in football's pecking order, with ideas way above their station. Yes, they are a bigger club than us or Bolton or Blackburn, but they're not even the biggest club in the west midlands, as clearly Aston Villa are MILES bigger. In fact if you take the whole of the midlands, I'd say Derby are probably a bigger club than them too.
 


Hotchilidog

Well-known member
Jan 24, 2009
8,645
If anyone had been paying attention to Wolves' performances this season Saturday's game was actually pretty predictable. Wolves consistently rack up over 20 chances. game but have only scored 9 times (with 8 different scorers I believe). There is no doubt that they have a fine defence and midfield, but they are utterly toothless upfront. More Gummy Bears than fearsome Wolves.

Whilst I'll admit it was not pretty viewing Hughton had set us up to contain first and then hit on the break, and whilst we should have done better with the little possession we had, the strategy worked. Not pretty but a sound job by the team and management.

Ultimately Murray was the difference, we had a goal scorer and they did not. Should Wolves sort that out in the transfer window they could well be a top eight side, but until then they may have to enjoy a few more 'moral' victories than actual ones.
 


dazzer6666

Well-known member
NSC Patreon
Mar 27, 2013
52,030
Burgess Hill
I tried to be offended by some of the Wolve's comments but there's not much there to argue with. They did indeed batter us in the first half. Our goal was against the run of play. Maybe they should have had a pen. And they are "considerably richer that yeow".

But as wiser people have noted above, there's only one stat that really matters. Thats the one that says 1-0. Thank yeow.

I think Hughton summed it up nicely when talking on MOTD. When Lineacre says how well our defence is playing, CH effectively say's that's just as well, because other bits aren't working at the moment. There's an honest man.

It's brilliant, it really is. Three games, 9 points, 3 clean sheets and even the manager says we're playing crap. Happy days :D
 




BN41Albion

Well-known member
Oct 1, 2017
6,356
Whilst waiting to go up the stairs to coach park I got chatting to one of their fans. He thought they battered us and should have won easily. He also said that they weren't in any risk of relegation, and were aiming for top 10 as a minimum. His justification was they are a MASSIVE club - I did point out that there are many many BIG clubs in the Championship all of which could claim to deserve in the top 10 in the Premier League.

I just got the sense that the feel they should be beating teams like Brighton, because they're richer, bigger and better than us.

A quick look at their average attendances over the years would suggest they're not as huge as some of them think they are. Hovering around 20k until improving last season when doing well and selling out again now they're in the prem
 


SUIYHP

The King's Gull
Apr 16, 2009
1,899
Inside Southwick Tunnel
To be honest I think people are giving Wolves too much credit. You could say they were all bark and no bite (Boo! Hiss!) Brighton might have been passive but I think I remember there being only one moment where wolves actually caught us off guard with Doherty’s wide shot. Wolves just kept running at us and then nothing happening from it. Brighton were passive but stubborn and took a few of their chances when a Wolves attack lapsed, in fact we seemed to be far more dangerous in the occasional moments we did go forward than Wolves did all match.

Can’t knock them too much as my partner’s family are from Wolverhampton, and to their credit they did have quality, but did they deserve a win? I don’t think so.
 



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