Wolves (H) Post-Match Thread

[Marvin]

I’ve never liked Gundogan, was hoping he wouldn’t sign a new deal and we’d sell him last summer. Just doesn’t fit in our team

Gundogan is a very good player. Individually all the players in our squad are. Unusually Pep got his midfield selection entirely wrong when he had Foden and Bernardo.

I wonder whether he felt Bernardo was upset, or not mentally right to play after such a hard week. if it was me, I'd want to score a goal so bad, but that's easy to say.

I think everyone can agree that Pep does not trust young players. Foden absolutely should be playing more games. And I too would have gone with Garcia and or Harwood-Bellis instead of Otamendi but if they had played behind that midfield yesterday, I don't think they'd have done much better one on one against Adama Traore.

A few weeks ago, Pep was saying something like Foden was the most talented player he had ever seen, and he will play a lot of games. Play him then.

The cogs are good. They grind if they don't match. The tinkerman messed up. Thing is he's a stubborn tinker-man and he's quite likely to try it again, and prove they can play together.

 

[Deleted member 77198]

The mass evacuation when Wolves scored the first was embarrassing.

Correct!

But it’s been the same with so many of our fans going back to big games at the start of this decade like Spurs back in 2010 when we were both going for 4th and Crouch scored on 82mins.

It’s like a collective “nice one, I can go now”. And it was a mass exodus.

With so many of our fans it doesn’t matter how big the game is, what time of the game it is, or what lies at stake, they will just leave no matter what.

I thought we let the team down yesterday. They are clearly struggling with injuries, players playing out of position, and form and consistency is up and down like a tart’s knickers with most of the team. But from the start right up to the exodus, our atmosphere was absolutely pathetic! We didn’t get behind them, we didn’t support yesterday.

We only made any real noise when the ref called a foul on David Silva when he won the ball, that was about it in 95 minutes of game time.

 

[Deleted member 77198]

Number of observations from yesterday and from reading on here.
Cancello didn't have a bad game, but as a left back he kept coming back onto his right foot, as right back he did ok.
Otto is and never has been anything but shite in 1 on 1s.
Gundog for us, is at best a back up 6, or at a pinch an 8 if paired with KDB.
Mahrez is not the right fit for City, refuses to pass to overlapping fullback, refuses to take on fullback, not that good at coming inside.
Our defense struggles when the midfield do not give them options to pass to.
Without Sane, KDB, or Bernard we have only got Sterling who can speed up the play.
Sterling has good and bad games.
Silva never had pace and as such hasn't lost it, however he needs runners to pass to and space to work his magic, yesterday he had neither.
We are a team lacking in height, whip crosses in low and we might have a chance anything in the air, forget it.
I like Rodri
Aguero needs service.

And everyone on here is an expert, despite no real experience of managing a premier league team

A lot of football fans are indeed thick as fuck know-nowts, you only have to listen to them at the game to hear what tripe some people come out with.

However, the knowledge of the game, its tactics and what works from many fans should not be played down just because thry aren’t managers.

You see it time and time again that fans will point out things, offer good tactical knowledge and warnings that a coach is doing wrong or not seeing and in the end the fans are right, the coach is wrong and the coach gets bitten and his team concedes goals, loses, are relegated/miss out on something or the coach is sacked... all down to what fans can see is going or not going on.

Many fans have watched thousands of football games. While some fans don’t have the capability for that to mean anything, for many fans it will, and the level of knowledge of the game with a hell of a lot of football fans is very very high and should not be dismissed just because they aren’t a coach.

You can‘t watch, read, study, obsess that much of anything and not have a level of expertise if you’ve got something about you!

Loads of football coaches are well out of their depth or even clueless. You could definitely pluck fans out of a crowd and get them to do a better job than many managers down the leagues do with their ineptness and struggles. And even the very very best make mistakes that fans can see. They can still be right and the coach wrong even at the very highest level.

 

[bluemoon32]

A lot of football fans are indeed thick as fuck know-nowts, you only have to listen to them at the game to hear what tripe some people come out with.

However, the knowledge of the game, its tactics and what works from many fans should not be played down just because thry aren’t managers.

You see it time and time again that fans will point out things, offer good tactical knowledge and warnings that a coach is doing wrong or not seeing and in the end the fans are right, the coach is wrong and the coach gets bitten and his team concedes goals, loses, are relegated/miss out on something or the coach is sacked... all down to what fans can see is going or not going on.

Many fans have watched thousands of football games. While some fans don’t have the capability for that to mean anything, for many fans it will, and the level of knowledge of the game with a hell of a lot of football fans is very very high and should not be dismissed just because they aren’t a coach.

You can‘t watch, read, study, obsess that much of anything and not have a level of expertise if you’ve got something about you!

Loads of football coaches are well out of their depth or even clueless. You could definitely pluck fans out of a crowd and get them to do a better job than many managers down the leagues do with their ineptness and struggles. And even the very very best make mistakes that fans can see. They can still be right and the coach wrong even at the very highest level.

And fans aren't paid multi millions , like coaches, to get it right

 

[mosssideblue]

And fans aren't paid multi millions , like coaches, to get it right

And there is a reason for that :)

 

[Lovebitesandeveryfing]

Well said, @Psychedelic Casual.
A forum is for people to express their opinions. Some may seem to you or I, or Tom, Dick and Harry, to be ill-informed, or ill-expressed. Some may seem to be downright dickheadish. It appears to be the case that some posters come on here as agent provocateurs, posing as blues,especially on the rare occasions that we lose. That utterly bemuses me, to think that some people have so little of a life that they fill it by doing that.
I happen to think that people posting on here that the title is over (in October!) are pretty silly, but they may be genuinely convinced of that. Some posts will seem to be spot on. And they're not always the posts that you might have agreed with at the outset. That's the game on a forum. That's the way a forum works.
People are not to be rebuked because they express something other than “Pep is the messiah and the team are gods.” Neither was true yesterday. My take is that that's arguably the worst match we've played since Pep's arrival. The reasons for it are manifold, and from what I've been reading on here, the crowd must take its share of responsibility – but I wasn't at the match myself, so I can't really say anything about that.

 

[give it to gordon]

Number of observations from yesterday and from reading on here.
Cancello didn't have a bad game, but as a left back he kept coming back onto his right foot, as right back he did ok.
Otto is and never has been anything but shite in 1 on 1s.
Gundog for us, is at best a back up 6, or at a pinch an 8 if paired with KDB.
Mahrez is not the right fit for City, refuses to pass to overlapping fullback, refuses to take on fullback, not that good at coming inside.
Our defense struggles when the midfield do not give them options to pass to.
Without Sane, KDB, or Bernard we have only got Sterling who can speed up the play.
Sterling has good and bad games.
Silva never had pace and as such hasn't lost it, however he needs runners to pass to and space to work his magic, yesterday he had neither.
We are a team lacking in height, whip crosses in low and we might have a chance anything in the air, forget it.
I like Rodri
Aguero needs service.

And everyone on here is an expert, despite no real experience of managing a premier league team

I wouldn't disagree with you only to say I think Foden would add pace to our midfield. I think Foden would add that uncertainty to our midfield, as I think most clubs have worked out how our players play. With Phil they wont know that....

 

[mosssideblue]

A lot of football fans are indeed thick as fuck know-nowts, you only have to listen to them at the game to hear what tripe some people come out with.

However, the knowledge of the game, its tactics and what works from many fans should not be played down just because thry aren’t managers.

You see it time and time again that fans will point out things, offer good tactical knowledge and warnings that a coach is doing wrong or not seeing and in the end the fans are right, the coach is wrong and the coach gets bitten and his team concedes goals, loses, are relegated/miss out on something or the coach is sacked... all down to what fans can see is going or not going on.

Many fans have watched thousands of football games. While some fans don’t have the capability for that to mean anything, for many fans it will, and the level of knowledge of the game with a hell of a lot of football fans is very very high and should not be dismissed just because they aren’t a coach.

You can‘t watch, read, study, obsess that much of anything and not have a level of expertise if you’ve got something about you!

Loads of football coaches are well out of their depth or even clueless. You could definitely pluck fans out of a crowd and get them to do a better job than many managers down the leagues do with their ineptness and struggles. And even the very very best make mistakes that fans can see. They can still be right and the coach wrong even at the very highest level.

Indeed there are many knowledgeable fans out there but for me, most of these fall into the category of "getting it right" after the event, and then have to use such hyperbole/vitriol to try and make their point.

 

[shevtheblue]

IMO the defence isn't the biggest issue at the moment, the amount of times that the opposition is getting through the midfield (and with relative ease, rather than some beautiful play) is worrying. Otamendi isn't the best at one of one's anyway, but the number of times that him and Fern are on 1v1 now seems to have increased a lot. I think Pep has recognised that Rodri is brilliant but he's not plugging holes like Fern could do and to combat that he's tried playing Gundo has a double pivot. I think this would work but it's affecting our forward movements because Gundo doesn't have the driving style like De Bruyne does, as i believe Kevin has also been asked to play something similar.
Hopefully Pep can use the week off the analyse tape and come up with something.

 

[Sergio<3]

Can't wait to read all the "we will fight to the end" quotes from the players this week...

 

[Gray]

Can't wait to read all the "we will fight to the end" quotes from the players this week...

Bring back Vinny.

 

[LeeJay]

We were lacking and Wolves took their chances.

We need to improve front, center and back, but it's not easy with players out of action.

Any other day, the 'team' on the bench is a match for most teams, but we need to strengthen across the park, finish the chances we get and push attacks back - we did neither on Sunday, and Wolves took advantage of their chances.

They've always been a tricky team for us, shut out as much of the goal as they can, and that tactic works for them.

 

[TommyBenarbia]

Can't wait to read all the "we will fight to the end" quotes from the players this week...

I always find that really cringeworthy too. I just want them to get on with it.

 

[OB1]

Haha! I didn’t expect to see you in my net when I logged on today, or @Psychedelic Casual. Impressive haul.

You can't claim a catch for that. I added the ;-) to indicate my response was tongue-in-cheek.

 

[ArmchairPundit]

Another bad day yet again for us. We must pick ourselves up and get going again, like most on here have mentioned already we've not really been sharp and alert all season and I don't quite know why, my best guess is the shit pre-season has something to do with it.

I pray and hope that they don't smash or 100pts total as that would be just too much to take.

Some of these players that have lowered their levels are making it easier for the club to release them at the end of the season.

 

[Zenmanc]

A game we expected to win and approached as such. Wolves took advantage, game plan matched perfectly and honestly we're lucky it wasn't 3-0 by the half.
Looked was like Cancelo was more effective / dangerous 1st half however that likely due to shooting off the right foot and pressing into positions to be able to do so which may have made him look better than he actually was.
There were clear errors from D but I don't think the blame lies squarely there- the impotence or more accurately the virtual absence of anything representing an attack save the final scrambling 15 min or so put more pressure on a lethargic midfield which only begged for mistakes from the defense.
We've won 2 in a row in style. If they were easy who'd follow with the fervor and passion that some of this team's true supporters do. I'm still pissed (sober by now) and the only consolation and hope is that losses like this can galvanized a squad. I realize it's a long road, but given the circumstances thankfully we have time to claw it back. What other choice is there when you bleed blue.
The lucky bastards looking down at us will have their slip ups. They are not the dynamic juggernaut their fanbase seem to want to convince the rest of the world of.

Fight til the end boys. We aren't giving the league to this lot so easily.

 

[Deleted member 77198]

Indeed there are many knowledgeable fans out there but for me, most of these fall into the category of "getting it right" after the event, and then have to use such hyperbole/vitriol to try and make their point.

Indeed, hindsight is a wonderful thing, but it’s the hindsight that we learn from. We’ve all been saying for weeks that the midfield of Rodri Gundogan and Silva shouldn’t play together again after the Norwich game. Yet Pep did it yesterday.

I was on the Met when I saw the team announced on my phone and in my head the song “hello hello hello, we’ve got the slowest midfield in the world” (to the Pep and Arteta Treble chant) popped up.

 

[Fordyboy46]

That is not what I saw on the bench today. He was totally immersed in the game. I sit opposite and he was in deep discussion with Arteta with both his arms outstretched pointing out what look like gaps or distances. This conversation went on a while. Besides the the key long term injuries he cannot ever rely on Mendy. Stones is always injured and now Kevin also picking up injuries. I think the expectations at the club are such that he cannot play the youngsters. Thus leaving him playing a side he probably has doubts about. The Cancelo experiment at left back was rectified at half-time, quickest I have seen him react. So, think this leaves him in a difficult place right now. There is also no leader out there right now or suspect possibly in the dressing room. The issue now becomes if, and I say if we don’t have a great session, which can happen to any top team, what happens with one year let on his contract. Does he rebuild for that one season? Pep is too proud a man to be letting his intensity drop, and I believe would walk away rather than give us his all.

Exactly, the no leaders in the squad is a big concern. Giving the armband to David for pure sentimentality reasons is ridiculous, he's probably the least leader we have in our squad. I'm not sure who is the best choice tbqh.

 

[Keeper!]

We were lacking and Wolves took their chances.

We need to improve front, center and back, but it's not easy with players out of action.

Any other day, the 'team' on the bench is a match for most teams, but we need to strengthen across the park, finish the chances we get and push attacks back - we did neither on Sunday, and Wolves took advantage of their chances.

They've always been a tricky team for us, shut out as much of the goal as they can, and that tactic works for them.

The scary thing is Wolves missed a lot of chances as well, it could have been far worse.

 

[mosssideblue]

Indeed, hindsight is a wonderful thing, but it’s the hindsight that we learn from. We’ve all been saying for weeks that the midfield of Rodri Gundogan and Silva shouldn’t play together again after the Norwich game. Yet Pep did it yesterday.

I was on the Met when I saw the team announced on my phone and in my head the song “hello hello hello, we’ve got the slowest midfield in the world” (to the Pep and Arteta Treble chant) popped up.

But unless you know why he did it, you are having to use hindsight again