Always Wolves
Always Wolves
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Ben Whitehouse examines Wolves performance against Arsenal and the key lessons learnt.
1. Barren run continues
Well, nothing if not interesting isn’t it? Once again, Wolves manage to find a fresh, inventive way to galvanise our spirit in order to make the loss we are beginning to become accustomed to feel even more disheartening despite how inevitable it seems to be.
Going into the game of course, the odds were stacked against us: Arsenal sitting atop the table aiming to extend their lead on home turf; Wolves waylaid with merely 2 points aiming to not finish with the lowest points tally this league has ever seen! You would have been forgiven for not having the highest hopes going into it, although the valiant Wolves fans in the away section (who made what I can empathise with as being an awful journey) showed no signs of such an attitude and sung us proud.
I, like most, was expecting another feeble performance and to be greeted by a resounding 4-0 or even 5-0 battering at the hands of the league leaders, though I was pleasantly surprised by the effort and showing from the boys, who certainly didn’t standby and allow themselves to be walked over, and gave some positive signs.
2. Positives to take
Admittedly, searching for any positives in our performances this season has been quite the arduous task, with so many losses characterised by a complete lack of quality, organisation and discipline – however, Wolves actually gave a performance which fans will be able to take some little consolation from.
Defensively, we were excellent for the vast majority of the match, limiting Arsenal to half chances and stagnating their momentum effectively (although it must be said that they were by no means their devastating selves, firing on all cylinders) and actually carving out some opportunities on the counter attack, however sparse they may have been.
Gomes, Andre and Krejci seemed more like their old selves against a very strong midfield contingent from Arsenal, harrying and pressing with greater intensity than the past few months; they were by no means fantastic, but traces of previous successes were tangible and against a lesser side may have proved more advantageous.
Substitutions must also be accredited – Mateus Mane recording his first goal contribution for the club with an excellent cross and Arokadore with the finish, as well as Tchatchoua and Lopez offering more dynamism and creativity once being brought on. It truly was indicative of how the season is going that such horrendous luck struck us twice to catastrophise an otherwise spirited performance, our best defensively in months.
3. Lack of creativity
Whilst our defence has evidently been absolutely horrific for quite a while now, the aspect which is far more saddening for myself and I imagine many other fellow Wolves fans, is the pathetically limp attacking efforts. The amount of attacking and creative talent which the club has sold in the past few years was always going to be fatal without sufficient incomings being organised to compensate for such losses: Cunha, Ait-Nouri, Sarabia, Neto, Adama, Nunes, Neves even as far back as losing Diogo Jota (may he rest in peace) without properly replacing them is grossly negligent to the squad.
In spite of all of this, if we only take the transfer business done in the most recent summer, selling Matheus Cunha who was – occasional antics aside – one of the most exciting players I have ever seen in a Wolves shirt, who could provide stunningly entertaining moments of skill or take it past three players and create something from nothing in a heartbeat, and then also Rayan Ait-Nouri who had been at the club for a number of years, solidifying himself as a leading wing back and someone who statistically had the best attacking output from a defender in the whole league, only to replace them with the likes of Wolfe and Arias who are completely unproven at this top level and have been uninspiring so far is proof in case of the incomprehensibly poor recruitment which has culminated in this situation.
Whilst Strand-Larsen has been undoubtedly poor this season thus far, it is no coincidence that a striker of his profile who benefits greatly from creative players around him to provide service, who has lost such teammates, has suddenly gone from being a striker who gets 14 non-penalty goals in a debut season to someone struggling to even get 14 touches of the ball in the game. Of the current crop of players, there is sadly nobody who makes you lean into the TV or leap out of your seat in anticipation that they may be able to make something happen.
4. Poor Individual Displays
Sadly, once again, many of the starting lineup gave some poor performances indicative of the distinct lack of quality characterising the squad this season; defensively whilst they were predominantly solid, Mosquera is always a temperamental customer who has a moment of madness brewing at all times – the latest incarnation being the own goal – and seemed far more uncomfortable and erratic than Agbadou and Toti who improved upon prior showings.
Doherty and Wolfe were both massively underwhelming: Doc looks a shadow of his former self understandably being significantly older, losing that half a yard of pace has meant he offers very little attacking output and is routinely blazed past by young, tricky wingers; Wolfe took up some decent attacking positions but was so shaky in the defence (admittedly against a top class winger in Bukayo Saka) but for a Premier League wing back, evidently not good enough.
The midfield was an improvement on what we have seen this season, but still in dire need of reinforcing in January, with at least some depth but ideally a different profile of player, who can break the lines and dribble out of trouble.
Strand Larsen once again looked lonely up front with the lack of service, Hwang too looking isolated and incapable of taking on players and creating a half chance like he would have done a few years ago.
5. Where from here?
Given the current circumstances, we seem damned to a lengthy season of despair and relegation, and given the midweek admissions in Jeff Shi’s horrifyingly oblivious interview, it appears that the sale of the club and improvement by that metric is happening anytime soon.
All that we must do, and I stress this part, is maintain belief and allow second chances. Firstly, for Rob Edwards; the man has just joined the club under intense scrutiny after leaving Middlesborough purely out of love for Wolves, he deserves to have this season largely written off and to be given the opportunity to steer the ship in the Championship.
Secondly, to the players; whilst it is devastating to see the standard of performances slip from where they once were, and I have been first to cite that the players are clearly just not high enough quality, they are still fighting for the club and trying their absolute best. Those who aren’t showing that they are willing to should be sold as soon as possible, because they definitely won’t stick around in the Championship. They should be organising and building a core squad that can survive in that league, which we all know is not easy at all. Ideally, we want a core squad of physical players who will run themselves into the ground for the side, and hopefully bring through some more homegrown talents, not least because we aren’t meeting the quotas.
And finally, for the owners; whilst I am absolutely furious with them for their fatal mismanagement of the club, I still recognise that we would not even be in this league had they not taken over and run us so effectively for so many years. Therefore, I a willing to give them an opportunity to have a do-over over January and in the Championship. They truly must put up or shut up; back the team or sell the club. We as fans have to keep faith and do all we can to repair the fractured relations between ourselves and the club, because without our backing, there would truly be no hope left, so we must fight on! COYW!
I’ve been a fan of Wolves all my life, based in the South-East, making for some fairly awkward school football conversations trying to argue that Kevin McDonald was better than Bruno Fernandes with the endless supply of Big 6 fans around here, just for the fun of it! Hoping to offer a insightful view into the performances, transfers, decisions and everything else our beloved Wanderers throw at us, good, bad and ugly (but preferably good!)
Arsenal 2–1 Wolves: Lessons Learned From Another Painful Defeat