comment by Spangles (U17289)
posted 5 minutes ago
Good result for Wolves U23 side today by 2-1 at Man City with goals from Jordao and Shabani
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Get them in!

Norwich play the most attractive football outside the top three or four. They have replaced Wolves as the 'surprise package'.

Wolves are absolute tosh. Can't defend, can't pass, can't create. Hoof.

Not sure if anyone’s watching the Norwich v Man City game. Looks like it’s not only the Wolves players with fatigue after the Internationals.

Norwich play great direct football. They look like they have decided just to have a go. If they keep it up all season, they'll be a pleasure to watch and they'll deservedly stay up.

Great result for Norwich who have continued to play the positive football that got them promoted and credit to them for that. Just as teams that get relegated from the Premier League are in the habit of losing and often struggle to get back, then promoted teams that stick to largely the same squad will benefit from being in the habit of winning

Certainly today was the most disheartening Wolves performance at Molineux under Nuno. Started off quite well and for half an hour it was a very even game. Then a worldly goal out of the blue and it suddenly became a totally different game. Chelsea started getting in behind Traore, and the back three who were looking so comfortable and playing well were suddenly disorganised and nervy. Having a different back 5 every game is certainly not helping but there is something about teams having sussed out how to play against us by pushing up onto the back three and Coady who last year was sweeping up behind the defence is now being faced up to by strikers and today came up short. Having quickly gone from 1 down to 3 down our passing fell apart and it was all too easy for Chelsea.

We need a league win badly, and getting the first goal in a game would make a big difference. But with the fixtures still coming thick and fast Nuno has the difficult task of keeping players fresh while trying to arrive at a settled side that was what served us so well last season.

We are the only Prem team not to have been in the lead at any stage so far this season.
Speaks volumes.

comment by Sir Halfy.European Thread Master #Passports (U11570)
posted 6 hours, 19 minutes ago
Wolves the better side, Chelsea not a patch on their more recent teams. Jose wouldn’t have let this happen for sure
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oops

Oh dear Dingles....
Next to bottom?
Might this be the start of the Mighty Baggieman’s prediction - the Dingles bubble will burst?



Dingles Prediction Thread Revived

We shipped 4 goals in 24 minutes and, guess what, we lost.

Was at the match and it was weird in the sense that for half an hour we matched them, and for the last 35 minutes I thought we were the better team, but that 24 minutes in the middle was nothing short of disastrous.

Not sure who was at fault for the goals, will have to look at the highlights. Don't think we'll have a 24 minute spell like that again this season. If we do we might be in very big trouble.

I see another top club (Man City) lost to lesser opposition today ?!?

Just an anomaly I guess

No drama

Hx

Ho, Ho, Ho.....

http://www.ja606.co.uk/articles/viewArticle/397394

Baggyman strikes again!!!!

when i said celsea would win 2-1 i meant 5-2.
👍😄

Thought I'd sleep on it before airing any views. Terrible result but wouldn't say it was a terrible performance. Some individual battles were lost and some excellent finishing from them did for us.

Tired minds and probably some tired bodies didn't help. High pressure games left right and centre is a test and we're coming up a bit short at the moment. 4 points from Watford and palace though should put us back on track.

I thought we were rubbish and our current tactics are a big part of the problem.

I think teams have sussed us out. Nuno is pretty rigid tactically and has gone really negative. There is no attempt to control possession or build up periods of sustained pressure; we rely solely on the counter and the opposition know if they can nullify that then they can control the game.

Even in possession, our defence sits so deep and it leaves huge gaps between the lines of defence, midfield and forwards that as soon as we lose the ball it is easy for the opposition to retain possession. I lost count of the number of times we won a free kick or throw in well within the opposition’s half, only to then have Coady and Neves passing it between each other halfway in their own half allowing the opposition to push out.

I haven’t really enjoyed watching us with this style this season. We can’t keep allowing the opposition to control the game and expect to be challenging higher up the league. Nuno really needs to start becoming more flexible with how we set up or we will be in for a long season.

That said, I thought the second half was a bit more positive when Cutrone came on and we switched from the standard 3-5-2 to more of a 3-4-1-2. A full strength backline would probably have meant we won that half (Nuno has to take some blame there for dropping Bennett too, when we are already without Boly; baffling decision). Hopefully, Nuno has learnt from this, like he did in the juncture last season when he introduced Dendoncker and set us up in the current formation. The worry is that he is never pro-active or flexible and that the system he finds next to solve the problem will just be used again until ineffective due to his stubbornness.

I think in the Premier League we need to get a settled team and at Palace, with Doherty and Boly available, I would play the same 11 we used in the second half of last season. And the other thing we need is to get the first goal in a game. That results in the opposition coming out and our counter attacking being more effective.

I was surprised too that Bennett was left out for a game where Boly wasn’t available. There was some promising signs from Vallejo but I would keep him for Europa and cup games for now. A right sided defence of him and Traore was one I didn’t like the look of before the game started and three of Chelsea’s goals came from that side.

There were positives and we played quite well for half an hour and showed some character in keeping at it when we were 4-0 down. But if we don’t get a couple of wins soon this league season could be a massive disappointment

Jumilla, the Spanish team Wolves partnered with last season, have done a Bury and gone out of business

comment by Tamwolf (U17286)
posted 3 hours, 39 minutes ago
I thought we were rubbish and our current tactics are a big part of the problem.

I think teams have sussed us out. Nuno is pretty rigid tactically and has gone really negative. There is no attempt to control possession or build up periods of sustained pressure; we rely solely on the counter and the opposition know if they can nullify that then they can control the game.

Even in possession, our defence sits so deep and it leaves huge gaps between the lines of defence, midfield and forwards that as soon as we lose the ball it is easy for the opposition to retain possession. I lost count of the number of times we won a free kick or throw in well within the opposition’s half, only to then have Coady and Neves passing it between each other halfway in their own half allowing the opposition to push out.

I haven’t really enjoyed watching us with this style this season. We can’t keep allowing the opposition to control the game and expect to be challenging higher up the league. Nuno really needs to start becoming more flexible with how we set up or we will be in for a long season.

That said, I thought the second half was a bit more positive when Cutrone came on and we switched from the standard 3-5-2 to more of a 3-4-1-2. A full strength backline would probably have meant we won that half (Nuno has to take some blame there for dropping Bennett too, when we are already without Boly; baffling decision). Hopefully, Nuno has learnt from this, like he did in the juncture last season when he introduced Dendoncker and set us up in the current formation. The worry is that he is never pro-active or flexible and that the system he finds next to solve the problem will just be used again until ineffective due to his stubbornness.
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Agree 100%

I thought we were shat at the back, you can’t change 66% of your back line and expect to get something out the game !

The was a shocking defensive performance however, it should be the end of ‘Coady for England’ bollax

Hx

In reality we all knew Halfwit wouldn't be able to cope with the demands of posting every Thursday and Sunday. His tactics have become predictable and boring to watch.

We need (and deserve) better.....

It was Saturday Herb

How did you get on? Guaranteed home win surely against a team on the wrong end of a transfer embargo!

A heavy defeat to the Europa League winners, the first at home for 16 matches and the armchair tacticians are out and on Nuno's back. And as Im now comfortably settled in to my armchair, here's my take

I agree that leaving out Bennett with Boly suspended was strange and the sooner we get back to our settled first choice back line the better. For all his pace we looked more threatening when Doherty replaced Adama. Bizarrely Traore actually slows things up more often than not when in attacking positions, relying on his burst of pace to get past defenders but he always delays standing up the defender first before turning on the speed, which negates his worth as it allows time for defences to align and mark up. Doherty is more adept at taking the ball in his stride and keeping the flow of a move going moving defenders out of position and creating danger, I think this is what we've missed most. And of course he's much more defensively aware. Traore can be very dangerous, just look at the first goal against Everton when he took on the defender without slowing the game up first.

Also teams are trying to isolate their forwards against Coady, Abraham absolutely bullied him on Saturday as did Iwobi at Goodison. Coady seems to have lost that bit of sharpness and awareness that allowed him to block so many chances at source in previous seasons, he probably needs and deserves a rest.

comment by Oldgoldilox - 1 Carl Ikeme (U17303)
posted 47 minutes ago
A heavy defeat to the Europa League winners, the first at home for 16 matches and the armchair tacticians are out and on Nuno's back. And as Im now comfortably settled in to my armchair, here's my take

I agree that leaving out Bennett with Boly suspended was strange and the sooner we get back to our settled first choice back line the better. For all his pace we looked more threatening when Doherty replaced Adama. Bizarrely Traore actually slows things up more often than not when in attacking positions, relying on his burst of pace to get past defenders but he always delays standing up the defender first before turning on the speed, which negates his worth as it allows time for defences to align and mark up. Doherty is more adept at taking the ball in his stride and keeping the flow of a move going moving defenders out of position and creating danger, I think this is what we've missed most. And of course he's much more defensively aware. Traore can be very dangerous, just look at the first goal against Everton when he took on the defender without slowing the game up first.

Also teams are trying to isolate their forwards against Coady, Abraham absolutely bullied him on Saturday as did Iwobi at Goodison. Coady seems to have lost that bit of sharpness and awareness that allowed him to block so many chances at source in previous seasons, he probably needs and deserves a rest.
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I am a Chelsea fan so I admit my bias up front - but I agree with you - I think Chelsea were just too good on Saturday. Our team is a work in progress but we have players like Willian and Azpilicueta, Alsonso etc who have won leagues. Our youngsters are playing alongside top players which means we have periods when we are outrageous, and times when we are awful. We were excellent for 60 minutes of the game and Wolves were unlucky to find a rampant Chelsea team.

However, people should be careful about criticising Wolves too much. They are a very good TEAM built on their collectivity - they did exceptionally well last year and they have the Europa League this year. I think a certain amount of patience and understanding are needed for a team that do not have the resources we do.

Chelsea are also frail - notice we did not concede while Rudiger was on the pitch! We concede two from three shots on target.

The league will be interesting this season (obviously aside fro Liverpool and City).

Pretty much agree with everything you said there Oldgold.