Dave Porter shares 6 lessons from Wolves defeat to West Ham in the Premier League.
1. Another Game Drifts By
Wolves are in total limbo. With O’Neil’s position now pretty much untenable and out of the club in all but title, this was another game in the season that has just drifted away. Another mark on the games played tally to be added to the first nine that were also seemingly given up without a fight.
It is a total fiasco. O’Neil, for his part at least, has my sympathy. How invested is any person in a relationship when they know their significant other is out on the town looking for their replacement? There is no world where this should be such an open secret. It would be kinder and more beneficial for everyone to have just pulled the trigger rather than subjecting O’Neil to a rather public death by a thousand cuts. And why? It’s solely to avoid a repetition of the equally shambolic recruitment process from last time.
What we are witnessing here is Fosun trying to save the embarrassment they caused before, and in the process, they have created an even bigger mess. Can they do anything right? The Anti-Midas touch that Fosun have right now is turning everything we had from golden to a puddle of mud.
In the meantime, games go by, the gap widens, confidence deflates, and the ill feeling, as evidenced after the game, goes on. Not one person in the away end gave any chance of a victory in this game. The concourse of the London Stadium was quiet, save for a few brave souls trying to muster up some enthusiasm at least. It is an act of complete neglect to allow this to go on any further.
2. Lemina Cannot Stay as Captain
The scenes after the game are the culmination of a number of problems for Mario Lemina. Our player of the year last season is being played out of position, and he looks like a person with the weight of the world on his shoulders. Sometimes players can be captains without having the title. Once you give them the title, it does something to them.
Lemina is a fine footballer, but the captaincy is impacting his own form and, given the scenes last night, you can imagine it is affecting others as well.
Like many of us fans, he looks like he can see the disaster unfolding and is absolutely powerless to do anything about it. The more he tries, the worse it seems to get. He is one of a few players whose efforts remain beyond question but is trying to do too much himself to correct it, and errors are coming as a result. The same could probably be labelled on a post-Fulham Cunha.
Whatever the reasoning for last night, irrespective of the frustrations, you cannot have your captain rearing up to management (such that it is) and fellow players.
Release him from the burden of captaincy. The obvious problem is who would you replace him with. Dawson, the obvious choice, is catastrophically out of form and out of the side. Who else is there? Wolves are a team absolutely bereft of any leadership, and it shows. Someone has to step forward, and at the moment, that person is anyone but Mario Lemina.
3. What System Are We Playing?
We shouldn’t be in a position where, when the team news is delivered, we have no real idea of how the team is going to shape up, and we definitely shouldn’t be in that position after the game has finished. What were we playing?
If I had to guess, it was 3-4-3, but the overcomplicated way Wolves set out makes it impossible for a spectator to isolate, let alone any of the players themselves.
O’Neil’s downfall is more than partly related to the need to overcomplicate what should be a very simple game. Layer on top of this that we have no discernible style of play, no obvious plan A, let alone plans B or C.
The fact we score goals is more owing to good individuals having good moments in spite of, not because of, the system. When the change does come, we must simplify. The basics need to be nailed back to the ground and built upon.
4. Doherty Turning Back Time
The one positive that no one expected was a resurgent Matt Doherty. Watching him finish was reminiscent of a better time, a time when everything made sense. Doherty isn’t a right back, he isn’t a left back, and he isn’t a great emergency holding midfielder, but he is a very productive right wing-back. He deserves some credit amidst the absolute horror show unfolding elsewhere
5. VAR Doing VAR’y Things Again
Even when it goes for Wolves, the universe has to quickly reset the balance heavily against them.
The obviousness of the penalties wasn’t as clear at the time from the depths of the London Stadium, but the videos don’t leave much room for ambiguity. Wolves shouldn’t be relying on VAR decisions, and we know this is a small part of the overall disaster, but games turn on small margins, and sometimes you need something to turn in your favour. It’s so poor but is now a story rehearsed so often that it has completely lost its impact. It won’t be missed next year in the Championship.
6. We’re on Our Way Back … to the Championship
Wolves need a miracle. It’s not just the points position; it’s the whole club. It has a feeling of absolute despair about it. Rotten from the top to its very core. There is no reason to have any confidence that the stewards of this club have any idea how to turn this ship around.
The gap in points is almost secondary to the wider picture of malaise that feels much harder to bridge. It is perhaps related to the shift in philosophy. A club that very publicly asserts itself as one that is content to systematically sell its best players and buy cheap is a club that is ultimately doomed to be relegated.
It is a poisonous and unsustainable mentality that infects the club. It will go down at some point. We may be sinking a year or two sooner than we may have expected, but this mentality has only one destination in the long term. Wolves are going down. They may yet find a way of walking on water this year, but unless there is a complete shift in direction, Wolves will go down and stay down.
It’s a lot more difficult to self-sustain without the TV money and riches of the Premier League, and Fosun might be wise to factor that into their equations now.
ARTICLE BY DAVE PORTER
Wolverhampton born, East Sussex based supporter. Old enough to have seen the descent to the bottom, young enough to not have experienced the days my friend. Not many Wolves fans to celebrate or commiserate with round these parts, so had to find an outlet to discuss the enormous highs, crushing lows and share the frustrations that only come with following Wolves.
6 LESSONS FROM WOLVES 2-1 LOSS AGAINST WEST HAM