WOLVES FANS SHARE THEIR THOUGHTS FOLLOWING THE 1-0 DEFEAT TO NEWCASTLE
GEORGE LAKIN
Needed to make the game far less open than it was end of first half, or it would’ve gotten away from us before the hour. We actually did that well but it came at the expense of any attacking threat.
Thought we were defensively sound second half and despite the gloom, there’s surely something to build on there. Krejci makes a difference, looks suited to the Premier League.
Difficult to be overly critical of the lads today in my view. Newcastle are a phenomenal side, seriously, let’s not pretend otherwise.
We competed well physically and there was no issues with desire out there. We just didn’t have enough hurt them, as many teams won’t this season.
JOHN TARAS
Five changes from last time.
Johnstone in for Sa had a good game with some key saves and good distribution.
Rodrigo Gomes nearly scored in the first minutes forcing Pope to save. Mosquera came in for Bueno and added some steel. Two new signings Krejci and Arkodare were Wolves best players. They’ve both got to play against Leeds next week.
We could have been three goals up inside five minutes on another day. But once that purple patch had passed Newcastle took over. It didn’t work with five in the middle. The time has come to break up the dynamic duo. I know they’re Brazilian and played well last season but this year they’re chasing shadows or committing fouls. They also lack the creativity to set up attacks.
Arias doesn’t seem to know his role yet but I believe we’re missing the creative play of Lopez. He has time on the ball and can make a pass. Even if Vitor Pereira insists on playing him with Gomes and Andre as enforcers. Krejci must replace Agbadou, who’s causing problems for Toti and Mosquera.
Johnstone has to keep his place, he had no chance with the goal. He did well under the aerial and physical barrage of Newcastle attacks.
Next up is a 6 point game against Leeds. Points are essential. If Larsen is fit i would play him with Arkodare. Goals are a must.
The result could have been different today had either Gomes or Hwang’s efforts gone in, but once Newcastle scored from another lapse by Agbadou the result seemed set.
The longer the number of defeats goes on the worse the pressure level will be.
I’m not going to discuss Referees decisions today except for one amazing foul by Burns who wrapped his huge leg around the Wolves players head but didn’t concede a foul according to Chris Kavanagh. Seemed to count often enough when Newcastle players fell down unassisted!
Four down, four defeats. Next week has to count!
PAM WELLS
I wasn’t very hopeful after hearing Vitor”s news conference yesterday and when I saw the line up, it didn’t really help my fears.
We actually dominated playing for the first 10 minutes and could have scored in the first and second minutes, but as usual we didn’t and gradually, Newcastle took control. Helped a great deal by the awful refereeing. Krejci played well on his debut, as did Tolu when they got the ball to him, which wasn’t very often.
Half time 1-0 no subs made for start of 2nd half. Although Vitor made subs they didn’t help much. Krejci who had moved into the back 3 and Bueno played well. We only really got into the game when Lopez came on. We were 2nd best for most of this half and to finish without a striker on the pitch says a lot for us
Man of the match was Johnstone, who kept us in the game with some good saves.
Performance rating 5.
A hard watch.
KARL WHITEHOUSE
Before the game kicked off, I was surprised by the lineup Vitor put out. Was this him trying to pick a side to cause issues and make Newcastle make mistakes?
We started the game with a good tempo. In the opening moments, our wing backs caused problems, and we could have scored straight from kick-off. That would have been a great start. Newcastle were struggling to get going.
We have an issue in our back line, with Agbadou and Toti out of form at the moment. They are either losing confidence or not playing well, and we allowed Newcastle to score when we were having good moments in the game.
We then chased an equaliser in a game where Newcastle were dominating us, and our team struggled to build attacks.
The press in this half looked okay, but not at the standard we saw last season.
The second half started, and Vitor should have made subs to make us more competitive. The game plan he employed was not working, and our identity was not clearly on show.
Newcastle were there for the taking, but we were not clinical enough with our shots on goal. This is a concern. When the game-changers came on, we got back into the match, but we did not cause problems for their back line because our finishing was not up to standard. One fundamental error stood out: after the subs, we had no strikers on the pitch. That was a problem. We then lost confidence, and our play looked poor. I am concerned about when we are going to get a win and get this group working together as a unit to deliver the results we need. We have to see what next week brings, as that fixture will be important for us.
Player of the Match: Ladislav Krejci. He had to fill two positions today. Being a makeshift midfielder and then a defender gave us some much-needed versatility.
Match rating: 6, based on the chances we had.
WOLVES FANS TALK: NEWCASTLE 1 WOLVES 0