Wolves v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[wolfman999]

Putting last nights debacle to one side, this seems to be a recurrence of the last few seasons where we seem to choke in the last few months, after having months of great results. Yes we have had injuries, which most certainly haven't helped, but to have our whole season disrupted because of the loss of a small number of key players is a worrying trend. A major rebuild of our ageing squad is needed to break the cycle I feel.

[Demitri_C]

Buendia, Luiz, Bailey and Watkins should be nowhere near the team next game. We need something different.

And play who? Tammy for Watkins, yes. Then you have Barkley for Buendia, who I want further forward but many people don't like him. Sancho for Bailey, many people don't like him. Bogarde for Luiz? Many people don't think he's good enough on the ball. I think people seem to think we're awash with top players. I can guarantee they'll be people saying the same as your post about the replaced players.

I didn't think Luiz was a problem today, anyway.

Luiz is shite now. He's not the player who had that run during our first Champions League qualification. He couldn't get in to a team in the bottom 5 earlier in the season. There's a reason for that.

We were even worse when luiz went off

Barkley and buendia were absolutely  atrocious

[LeonW]

I not’s unfair to say that this side have not demonstrated yet that they don’t choke when the pressure is on.

[Meanwood Villa]

Putting last nights debacle to one side, this seems to be a recurrence of the last few seasons where we seem to choke in the last few months, after having months of great results. Yes we have had injuries, which most certainly haven't helped, but to have our whole season disrupted because of the loss of a small number of key players is a worrying trend. A major rebuild of our ageing squad is needed to break the cycle I feel.

The seasons don't follow the same pattern, we ended 22/23 and 24/25 very strongly. It seems to be a calendar year issue. Odd years good, even years bad. Or more prosaically, good when Kamara is fit.

[Demitri_C]

I not’s unfair to say that this side have not demonstrated yet that they don’t choke when the pressure is on.

It just seems like we sulk when we pick a injury. A prime example was rashford got injured in cup semi and we played like we did last night. Since the injuries the players have started feeling sorry for themselves and all the belief has gone.

[LeonW]

Putting last nights debacle to one side, this seems to be a recurrence of the last few seasons where we seem to choke in the last few months, after having months of great results. Yes we have had injuries, which most certainly haven't helped, but to have our whole season disrupted because of the loss of a small number of key players is a worrying trend. A major rebuild of our ageing squad is needed to break the cycle I feel.

The seasons don't follow the same pattern, we ended 22/23 and 24/25 very strongly. It seems to be a calendar year issue. Odd years good, even years bad. Or more prosaically, good when Kamara is fit.

22/23: no pressure on us and we got a conference league spot. 24/25, when the pressure arrived in the cup semi final and one game against a sh*te Man Utd side, what happened? And even 23/24, we didn’t perform compared to previous levels latter part of the season (albeit with a small and tired squad) but Spurs choking helped us massively.

[LeonW]

I not’s unfair to say that this side have not demonstrated yet that they don’t choke when the pressure is on.

It just seems like we sulk when we pick a injury. A prime example was rashford got injured in cup semi and we played like we did last night. Since the injuries the players have started feeling sorry for themselves and all the belief has gone.

We had more than enough to do better in the last 5 premier league fixtures against less well resourced sides, even accounting for the losses in midfield. It’s not been good enough.

If we were playing Arsenal, Man City, etc, in that period….but we weren’t. We’ve been playing dross.

[Meanwood Villa]

Putting last nights debacle to one side, this seems to be a recurrence of the last few seasons where we seem to choke in the last few months, after having months of great results. Yes we have had injuries, which most certainly haven't helped, but to have our whole season disrupted because of the loss of a small number of key players is a worrying trend. A major rebuild of our ageing squad is needed to break the cycle I feel.

The seasons don't follow the same pattern, we ended 22/23 and 24/25 very strongly. It seems to be a calendar year issue. Odd years good, even years bad. Or more prosaically, good when Kamara is fit.

22/23: no pressure on us and we got a conference league spot. 24/25, when the pressure arrived in the cup semi final and one game against a sh*te Man Utd side, what happened? And even 23/24, we didn’t perform compared to previous levels latter part of the season (albeit with a small and tired squad) but Spurs choking helped us massively.

We didn't choke "in the last few months" in 22/23 or 24/25. We choked in the big matches last season, but our overall form was great for the last three months of the season at least. The very broad pattern under Emery (with some nuance) is 2023 = good, 2024 = bad, 2025 = good, 2026 = well we all saw last night.

Realise this is a pointless discussion but just giving myself some hope for 2027.

[Baldy]

When needs must, you just have to play 'ugly' football and grind out a result with sweat, blood and tears. We have seen the top teams do it many times in the past.

We havn't got that in our locker and it will cost us.

[Skipper_The_Eyechild]

Buendia, Luiz, Bailey and Watkins should be nowhere near the team next game. We need something different.

And play who? Tammy for Watkins, yes. Then you have Barkley for Buendia, who I want further forward but many people don't like him. Sancho for Bailey, many people don't like him. Bogarde for Luiz? Many people don't think he's good enough on the ball. I think people seem to think we're awash with top players. I can guarantee they'll be people saying the same as your post about the replaced players.

I didn't think Luiz was a problem today, anyway.

Luiz is shite now. He's not the player who had that run during our first Champions League qualification. He couldn't get in to a team in the bottom 5 earlier in the season. There's a reason for that.

I'm aware he's not the player he once was and I wouldn't sign him at the end of the season. My point is, who are you playing instead? I guarantee people would just be saying the same about Bogarde and Barkley. Also, we got worse when Luiz went off.

[Nev]

Having slept on last night, it feels as bad this morning however my gut feeling was that we weren't going to get anything. Bad run, bogey side and ground and some abject displays. The wrong subs were made absolutely but we have been at a low ebb before in this campaign and we will bounce back.

As for Emery, he was sitting down finishing his drink just after half time and was back on his feet prowling the touchline pretty quickly so to doubt his commitment is a bit much.

I think he was wrong not shaking the opposing managers hand but the biggest sore loser the PL ever saw is venerated and has a knighthood.

We'll beat Chelsea.

[Ian.]

Dougie isn’t shit, he’s been thrown into a situation without hardly any matches, into a very disjointed side completely out of form and low on confidence. We had a slump at the start of the season with many players who looked shit, but then picked up and had a brilliant season.

[JJ-AV]

Without McGinn and Tielemans we lack creativity. But we can still be robust and difficult to beat.
I think we will probably get a result on Wednesday when the impetus isn't on us as much.

[Ian.]

That’s the issue, we’re trying to be robust, calm and controlled, but without the energy and craft of these missing players bring we’re just a bit rubbish in the final third.

[eamonn]

When needs must, you just have to play 'ugly' football and grind out a result with sweat, blood and tears. We have seen the top teams do it many times in the past.

We havn't got that in our locker and it will cost us.

We were pretty ugly against Bournemouth second-half, Leeds first-half and ground out a point each. I thought we were absolutely awful against Brighton, not much better than last night, and somehow we won.
Onana scores that chance last night and 1-1 is a poor but probably fair result.

It's a complete collapse in effective attacking play that is costing us most of all.