Always Wolves
Always Wolves
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Leeds MATCH REPORT Wolves by Always Wolves 1 minute ago
Leeds 3 Wolves 0, A Game That Reflected Everything Wrong With Wolves
Stretch reports on another Wolves defeat - A Tough Day Was Always Likely
After a vibrant performance at Old Trafford Leeds would head into this match very confident of getting the three points that would likely see them safe.
For Wolves there was little more than pride to play for, especially after such a tepid display at West Ham. Such a poor performance last week should have offered a pretty good reason for making changes. A chance for some fringe players to be tested or a change of formation, that would have at least given some interest for Wolves fans. In the end it was just Bentley for an in injured Sa and Toti Gomes in for the banned Mosqurera. Same approach surely the same result.
It was a day when, if results go against Wolves, their relegation would be confirmed and supporting your team on days like this is not easy.
In truth the home defeat earlier in the season to Leeds 3-1 after leading, which had closely followed a home defeat by Burnley, had already set In stone the inevitable drop. The manager has changed but little else, whatever the deep seated reason is the team have simply not been good enough, the league table does not lie.
Starting Line Ups
Wolves
Bentley, Krejci, T Gomes, S Bueno, H Beuno, J Gomes, Andre, Tchatchoua, A Gomes, Bellegarde, Armstrong
Leeds
Darlow, Struijk, Bijol, Justin, Gudmundsson, Tanaka, Ampadu, Bogle, Okafor, Aaronson, Clavert-Lewin
Two Quick Goals Set the Tone
It was evident from the first minute everything was going to pan out how it seemed it would on paper. Leeds completely dominated from the first whistle and created the first chance on 30 seconds. Leeds pushed and pushed and the first goal seemed an inevitability.
All Wolves could offer was a long ball for Tchatchoua to chase and even when he did get free his crossing is a long way short of premiership standard. It was no surprise that eventually a corner led to a scramble and a goal. And when you see one bus another often follows and it does with Wolves. Wolves had barely kicked off when Toti completely missed his kick and Leeds clinically broke and a good ball in was easily finished. As with West Ham the game was lost within a two minute spell.
Leeds were effortlessly controlling Armstrong and with both Bellegarde and Angel Gomes completely ineffectual the likelihood of Wolves scoring 3 was a long shot. On 38 minutes Angel was replaced by Mane having picked up an injury. Wolves did not raise a glove on Leeds in the first half their first attempt coming after 40 minutes. At one point Wolves fans were chanting Ole sarcastically when we kept the ball, it was a fair comment.
So half time arrived as a sense of relief, it was dreadful to watch.
Wolves Showed a Bit More, But It Changed Nothing
The teams came out with one change Lima replacing the hapless Tchatchoua a pleasing change but surely we needed to supplement the attacking force.
Leeds reverted to a slower pace happy to play on the break. This gave Wolves a bit of a foothold in the game with Mane involved in anything meaningful. A Wolves corner was met by Krejci and looked destined for the net but a brilliant save kept it at 2 nil. Despite having more of the ball little was created and it was becoming evident Leeds wanted it more, too many fifty fifty challenges were going their way.
60 minutes in and we had not created a chance from open play surely it was time for Tolu but all that came was Rodrigo Gomes for Bellegarde and eventually Hwang for a dazed Krejci. It was Rodrigo Gomes who had the first clear chance, and only clear chance from open play, but he dragged it wide. Armstrong did put the ball in the net but he was offside.
There was so little to talk about with the Wolves play and they finished with 2 shots on target. Of course Leeds added a third goal through a penalty, which surely should never have been given. Hugo Bueno getting to a loose ball first and Calvert Lewis causing a clash of legs. It really didn’t greatly matter we were never going to get anything here.
The Bigger Picture Is Hard to Ignore
I managed to watch all of this horror show purely because I had to write a report ,otherwise I would have left early. We are down and this may be confirmed by Spurs later. It has been a dreadful season, one of the worst in my time. It has been important to show fight and get some confidence and before West Ham there were green shoots but having played two teams battling to survive and conceding 7 goals and creating so few any chances, let alone scoring, we are back where we were.
Next year offers games we might win, no VAR and some new grounds to visit but the certainty of a return is looking a long way off. I doubt more than 5 of the players on the pitch will feature next year and indeed a complete change is needed. Individually most of these players are decent but as a team they are not good enough. We categorically needed some tried and trusted premiership players and that failure alone has been costly.
Leeds 3 Wolves 0, A Game That Reflected Everything Wrong With Wolves
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