Wolves v Aston Villa Post Match Thread

[SoccerHQ]

The only possible good thing that can come out of that performance is if it leads to a complete rethink about personnel and formation.

Hopefully Dean Smith will accept that the current formation isn't working, that Wesley is isolated up front and that the midfield is being overrun by adopting 2 wingers who are in no way doing enough to justify their places in the team.

The selection and formation against Newcastle in 2 weeks time will tell us all we need to know about what Dean has learned from this defeat and our general lack of coherence and cohesion in our play.

All yours Dean....

The formation was changed a few weeks back and we looked much better for it.

I wonder if Jota was deemed match fit whether he'd have started in that inside forward role. Didn't even make the bench so clearly not up to speed yet.

[themossman]

I think we’re seeing the results of having such a disparity in quality within the team. McGinn looks shagged, Mings looks like he’s given up on bollocking players for not tracking back. We need to take the pressure off our better players or they’ll all be knackered, fed up or injured.

[Clark W Griswold]

We were poor first half but certainly acceptable second half. The attacking players aren't going to set the world alight admittedly but they just seem too spread apart. The midfield looked pretty powderpuff and our passing was a big problem today, it was no where near accurate enough and we just kept giving them the ball back. We defended fairly well, and Konsa was a big plus today.

I accept that we're going to struggle at this point, so many new players and so little experience but i see a lot of potential in most of them individually. Moaning about Smith is barmy, i do agree with comments suggesting looking at different formations though. As i say, we're too spread apart when we attack. Grealish helps with that as he links the midfield and attack when he's playing well and no one else in the squad does that.

[SoccerHQ]

One of the toughest things to stomach relative to Wolves is just how fast it all happened to them and just how fast they became this strong. Yes we pulled off an absolute miracle to go up and that in part is why it's been so challenging getting all the pieces right and to work together. But the core of this Wolves team destroyed the Championship, they added great pieces last summer and got into Europe and now are continuing to develop. Truth is today proved that there is quite a gap that will take us a year or two and countless millions to close. We averaged 10m a player this summer to essentially replace players who were barely Championship level anymore. In the PL, it's not 30-40m for anything of the required quality and when our record buy is a 20m pretty unknown and untested Brazilian kid from Belgium we're all probably asking a lot. It's hugely frustrating to, but the posts reminding us just where we were 12 months ago adds required perspective.

Mendes link helps but they've simply brought well. Weren't just content with their options when they came up which were excellent but added Moutinho (just checked and he actually has 119 caps for Portugal), Raul Jimenez (one of best all round central strikers in premier league imo) and other guys like Johnny who was regular in La Liga.

It's what we need to do in next two windows. Sign proven international players from la Liga and Italy.

That will keep us up and hopefully in a years time we can start competiting with them in the top half of the league.

[PeterWithesShin]

I view it as we ended up a year ahead of how it went for Wolves, with how things were last summer and for most of the season, this season should really have been the season we were smashing division 2 having spent the summer buying players that were too good for it. Which in turn would have meant less surgery needed when promoted.

[myf]

thought El Ghazi was best player and only threat. Wesley doesn't create any problems, half the time he's in midfield. Luiz was shite and let Traore have a free run for second goal (marking non-existent for it as well).

admittedly we were weakened through injuries but with them playing on a Thursday night that was a good opportunity for at least a point.

[GemSaloon]

One of the toughest things to stomach relative to Wolves is just how fast it all happened to them and just how fast they became this strong. Yes we pulled off an absolute miracle to go up and that in part is why it's been so challenging getting all the pieces right and to work together. But the core of this Wolves team destroyed the Championship, they added great pieces last summer and got into Europe and now are continuing to develop. Truth is today proved that there is quite a gap that will take us a year or two and countless millions to close. We averaged 10m a player this summer to essentially replace players who were barely Championship level anymore. In the PL, it's not 30-40m for anything of the required quality and when our record buy is a 20m pretty unknown and untested Brazilian kid from Belgium we're all probably asking a lot. It's hugely frustrating to, but the posts reminding us just where we were 12 months ago adds required perspective.

They're a couple of years and a hundred odd million spent ahead of us. I'm sure Mendes will be waiting for the right time to cash out on all his players (pretty sure some of their players like Jota, Adama, Jonny have buy back clauses too) , I doubt he moved them all to Wolves because of a deep passion for the club. I wouldn't be surprised if that team is ripped up and sold off this summer if they do well in the Europa.

[PeterWithesShin]

Unless Boro put one in then Adama doesn't. Any clause we had with Barca ended as soon as we sold him.

[GemSaloon]

Sorry not Adama, the other Portuguese kid they got in the summer. Neto?

[ktvillan]

Their second was down to an awful pass from McGinn and a woeful challenge from Luiz. Blaming Taylor for it is pretty bizarre. He's got a lot of faults to moan about, but that goal ain't one of them.

Yes actually, my mistake, for some reason I saw the challenge as being Taylor and not Luiz.  I therefore upgrade Taylor to 'mediocre'. 😉  And to be fair, he was a huge improvement on Targett, who really was terrible.

Taylor lost the ball which led to the breakaway.  I don't think Targett was particularly bad especially as he had fuck all help from Trezeguet, certainly no worse than Taylor who did bugger all except give the ball away.  He's usually just about ok defending but shits himself when the ball is passed to him.  You need way more than that at this level. 
   

[wince]

Wolves are sadly in better shape than we are. Injuries are a worry but squad looks like it’s given up even compared to last week. Let’s hope we come back off the break and show some fight

[PeterWithesShin]

Taylor didn't lose the ball at all as he never had it as it was a hospital pass from McGinn. I want us to have better than Taylor but I don't see how he get blamed for that goal.

[brontebilly]

Their second was down to an awful pass from McGinn and a woeful challenge from Luiz. Blaming Taylor for it is pretty bizarre. He's got a lot of faults to moan about, but that goal ain't one of them.

Yes actually, my mistake, for some reason I saw the challenge as being Taylor and not Luiz.  I therefore upgrade Taylor to 'mediocre'. 😉  And to be fair, he was a huge improvement on Targett, who really was terrible.

Taylor lost the ball which led to the breakaway.  I don't think Targett was particularly bad especially as he had fuck all help from Trezeguet, certainly no worse than Taylor who did bugger all except give the ball away.  He's usually just about ok defending but shits himself when the ball is passed to him.  You need way more than that at this level. 
 

Don't rate Taylor in the slightest but at least he made it a contest on our left flank in the second half. Targett was utterly useless and frankly gutless. Scared stiff of getting tight to an opponent from their first attack, was it Doherty who checked inside him like he wasn't there and shot with his left? 15m for Targett, we were sold a pup there it seems. The second coming of Nicky Shorey.

[phantom limb]

Taylor worried me when we were in the Championship, he’s not the worst player I’ve ever seen but he’s been at fault many times this season, is very weak and offers absolutely nothing going forward. It’s indicative of the lack of squad depth that we’ve had to rely on on him so much so far. I can’t understand why we didn’t bring in another left back in the summer as Targett was injured for about six games or so, and has only lasted 90 minutes a couple of times.

[Steve67]

The game is all about attitude and ours was very poor in the first half.  It seems that AEG only plays well after a bollocking or being dropped.  Key moments today, Luiz ducked under the Neves shot but why the fuck did no-one stand on the edge of the box?  Terrible pass from McGinn and crap, weak tackle from Luiz for the second goal.  Some poor decision making, poor passing and crap attitudes cost us the first half.  A half-time rollocking and we couldn't possibly be any worse second half, we played a lot better but still didn't look like scoring.  Wesley should have done a lot better with the side foot. Wolves wanted it more than us and that is unforgivable.  I think Dean will be in trouble if there are too many more of these types of performances, regardless of injuries.