Wanderers visiting St Mary’s. A month ago we would’ve been expecting nothing
but a battering in this game but a lot has changed in the last month. Put
simply, Wolves are not playing as well as they were earlier on in the season,
which is not a surprise given the amount of games that they have played and a
win for the mighty Southampton today will put us a level on points with them.
Regardless of points tallies, Wolves are one of the better sides of the
division and will finish comfortably in the top half and it wouldn’t surprise
me if they go very close to winning the Europa League. The whole “every player
recruited through the same agent“ thing makes me feel a bit uneasy but if you
forget all that and just look at what they have on the pitch, they are a very
good side. They were a very good side last year though when they turned up at
St Mary‘s and we beat them 3-1 and relatively comfortably so. Last year we put
their defence under pressure and they couldn’t handle it and there is no way we
are not going to do that today given the way we have played the last few weeks.
The goalscorers from last year, Willy Boly is out with a broken leg and they
picked up another injury in midweek when they not only got knocked out of the
FA Cup by Manchester United, they lost Adama Traore to an injury. I never wish
injury on any player but I hope he is missing today.
The manager Nuno Espirito Santo is quite often linked with the bigger clubs
though there are none have come calling as yet. If he carries on as he is doing
so with Wolves then it is only a matter of time. Ralph’s press conference this
week give us a clean bill of health so I am expecting the same 11 that started
last week at Leicester.
The silly season in the transfer window is well underway and it is very very
boring. The Che Adams to Leeds shite, which was never ever going to happen,
didn’t happen which was a major shock considering “we had allegedly given Leeds
encouragement“. Complete and utter shit. I recommend for your personal sanity
that you block any social media accounts for any outlets who suggested there
were any facts involved in this.
Cedric, my favourite boy band member, gave an interview to the Daily Echo where
he basically tried to rectify his last interview where he said he was leaving
no matter what. It looks to me like he may be getting his ducks in a row to change
his mind in the hope of getting a new contract. It is interesting to note that
Ralph gave an interview last week where he basically commented on how Cedric
has improved, simply by being a more active defender. I guess he means actually
putting tackles in and actually closing down the person who is about to cross the
ball. The Cedric interview was quite a decent interview in the Daily Echo which
is nice for them, rather than reporting on the ex-players passing away before
they were actually dead. As I write, George O’Brien still very much alive.
Social media has recently given us daily reminders of the shambles that has
been our recruitment for the last three years. Elyounoussi is now fit again to
play for Celtic, Carrillo has scored a couple of goals for whatever third-rate
team he’s playing for now and Mario Lemina is Instagram modelling what looks
like a onesie designed for an eight-year-old girl. I really hope that
Galatasaray are stupid enough to sign him permanently. These on -loan players
make me think that we should give new one year contract to Shane Long and Maya
Yoshida because at least you can trust those players. They might not be
the best but they offer a damn site more than those clowns out on loan. Why
only one year? Well in Shane’s case, he is 32 years old and has a game that
relies solely on his pace. There is going to come to a point where he loses that
pace so, in my opinion, you can only really risk it one year at a time. For
Maya, we need to bump it on down the line a year so we can sort out what we are
doing with Vestergaard, Hoedt and Danso.
demise were greatly exaggerated as he is in the Wolves line-up and has lined up
against Cedric on our right flank. He
looks like an American footballer with the pads sewn under his shirt and the
thought of him up against Harry Styles is a bit of a worry.
we haven’t really started fast but then we got a free-kick in what looked like a
pretty non-descript area of the pitch on the right-hand side. JWP swung it over
and it didn’t even look like a particularly good free-kick but everyone missed
it and there was Bednarek at the back post to hook it first time over Patricio
and into the far corner of the net. A bit bizarre I’m not sure how much
Bednarek meant it but 1-0 up and we will take it thank you very much.
Straight afterwards we break away down the left hand side with Redmond turning Neves
inside and out 14 different times before eventually making a yard and getting the
cross over which bounced in the middle of the penalty area and was met by
diving Cedric at the back post but he put his header straight at Patricio and
Wolves breathed again. On second viewing Cedric would probably be better off
leaving it to Hojbjerg who was shaping up the volley but it would probably have
ended up in Row Z anyway. Nice to see Redmond beat a player and get a good ball
into the box off of his left foot.
We have a slight let off when we give the ball away on our left-hand side and
Neto curls over a superb cross which is met by Jimenez on the stretch but he
can only poke it wide.
And then came a moment which tells you that football is a very strange game at
times with Cedric picking up the ball in midfield, knocking it to Stephens who
fed Armstrong in on the right. He slid
to keep it in play and knock down the line for Cedric who for once, put over an
absolutely phenomenal cross which was met by Shane Long darting in between two
players to plant a header into the net. Absolutely fucking brilliant goal. It’s
a great cross and an absolutely brilliant bit of movement by Long who left
Dendoncker behind and flicked the ball past Patricio who has absolutely no chance. I tell you what – it’s a shame we’ve given
Liverpool such a start in the race for the title.
Half time, 2-0 up. Not sure it is 100%
deserved but we’ll take it. Got to keep
going and get the next goal and kill it off.
As the teams comes out and line up, it looks like Wolves have struck
Traore right up front through the middle. A big test to see if our center-backs keep on
the front foot or if they start retreating.
The second half starts with Redmond lining up Dendonker on the left-hand side
and he totally does him down the line before standing up a superb cross to the
back post. Long has an unchallenged header and heads it down but it flicks off
the outside of the post and goes wide. It’s not an easy chance but Shane will
feel that he should have scored. Having got away with that one, Patricio then
takes a massive chance by fannying around with the ball on the 6-yard line and
Danny Ings comes sliding in and very nearly gets a tackle in. Unfortunately,
the ball goes wide and with Hojbjerg having collapsed with no one near him, Wolves
break. A long ball forward from Doherty
and Jimenez knocked it off to Traore. It shouldn’t be a problem but for some
reason, Bednarek tries to tackle him with his wrong foot and Traore skips away
and feeds Neto who takes a touch and buries it for 2-1. We’ve been caught out
horribly with too many players forward and Hojbjerg on the deck and our
scramble defence is not good enough. As we used to do before we had this good
run, we get bodies back there but don’t pick up the players and I’ll tell you
one thing for nothing, unmarked space never scored a goal but an unmarked
player quite often does.
As said, Wolves made a tactical switch at half-time and now the American
Footballer is playing right up the middle and sadly, the ghost of Michael
Antonio has come back to haunt us as he bulldozes through the midfield and knocks
the ball of to Moutinho who tries to slide in Johnny who goes in between Cedric
and Stephens and hit the deck. The
referee gives a corner and for a second I think we’ve got away with it but no,
Wolves quickly surround the referee to make sure that this goes to VAR if it
wasn’t already going to do so. In the
four minutes that elapse, the Wolves fans are chanting “fuck VAR“ at the top of
their voices and when the performance is all over and the VAR goons have
decided that it is a clear and obvious penalty and an error by the referee, the
same Wolves fans all cheer. Up steps Jimenez and rolls into the net as easy as
you like to bring the scores level.
Back come Saints and Redmond picks up a Patricio rushed clearance and cuts in
from the left-wing, skipping past a couple of players before unleashing a
rasping drive which pings of the crossbar on its way over. A bit unlucky that.
Saints are trying to win it and Cedric sprays a great ball out of the left-wing
to Redmond who tries to play, a 1-2 with Adams but Adams just passes it
straight to Wolves player. It’s cleared
and we have left ourselves 2v2 at the back which looks like fucking madness. Traore
bundles his way forward down the right-wing before getting his head up and rolls
it back on the ground to Jimenez who scores easily to complete the comeback. Fuck sake…. this has been on the cards ever
since they got the first goal. Oh hang on, we’re going to VAR again to check
for a possible handball. Our own fans chanting for VAR will never fail to boil
my piss. For the idiots chanting that, it’s a small consolation when the goal
is eventually given.
Redmond is off to be replaced by Boufal and it’s to the Moroccan that our last
chance falls as a corner from JWP is missed by everybody and there is Sofiane
at the back post and the man with the best technique at the club lashes it
hopelessly over the bar from about 8 yards out.
Well fuck it. It has to be said that was a bit of a capitulation in the second
half. In the second half Wolves did to us what we did to them in the first half
when we hassled them out of their stride. The whole game turned on the fact
that we didn’t score the third goal. We had Long header that the hit the post
and we had Ings charging down the goalkeeper when the ball really could’ve
rebound it into the net. Wolves breakaway thanks largely to Hojbjerg being
injured in the middle of the field , 2-1, different game.
Where we were solid and compact in the first half, we were strung out and all
over the fucking show in the second with our central defenders being troubled
greatly by a quick muscular striker… again. When the teams lined up I was
terrified at the prospect of Cedric tried to keep Traore quiet but he did a
decent job and then they switched him out to the other wing and again he was
ineffective. In the second half, they played him through the middle and our
central defenders did exactly the same as they did against Michael Antonio of
West Ham and basically shat themselves.
After last week’s game I said that we
have to keep our feet on the ground and today certainly planted our feet firmly
back on the ground. None of our defenders are perfect and if they were, they
wouldn’t be playing for us and today they got showed up again in that they can
be completely bullied out of it if they are faced with physical strikers. I
feel that Ralph made a mistake in the second half and we could really have done
with Romeo being out on the pitch. I thought the same at the time and this was
especially proved with hindsight as neither Djenepo, Boufal or Adams added
anything at all. Adams, in particular, looked very half-arsed and the pressing game at the front notably dropped away with him on. Needless to say, the level of goal threat didn’t increase either. Ralph has dug out the substitutes before for not adding
anything when they came on and today was another example.
I have to talk about VAR as all three of Wolves goals were only given after a VAR
check. The penalty decision for the second goal took a ridiculous amount of
time. The referee was looking straight at the incident with a clear
uninterrupted view and didn’t give the penalty. VAR then took about four
minutes to decide that it was a penalty so there must’ve been a massive element
of doubt about the whole thing. There shouldn’t have been because from one look on Match of the Day in the evening you can see it’s a penalty. I’ve heard some say that Johnny was on his way down before Cedric fouled him. Don’t see that myself but surely if there is an element of doubt then the
on-field decision should not be changed. Four minutes to give that is complete
bullshit.
hearing that it was too far back in the move to be given and the goal disallowed.
The whole move started because of a handball so how the fuck can that be deemed
not relevant. I’m also hearing that there were two passes following the handball so it’s deemed as ok. Again, complete bullshit. I am in favour of VAR but I am not in
favour of the absolute bullshit way which the FA is managing it. No one has a fucking clue how it’s supposed to work. It’s a fucking
joke and it needs to change. For starters, they need to go with the on-field referees decision unless he has totally fucked up
and even then, the referee needs to go to the pitch side and have a look at the
reply for himself and not have the decision given by some fucking wanker sat
miles away.
It’s a bit difficult to talk about the players individually as most of them
were really good in the first half and then pretty poor and the second Cedric
was especially good in the first half as was Shane Long and it was a bit of a
surreal moment seeing Cedric put either a brilliant cross and Shane score with
a really good header. Ryan Bertrand struggled throughout the game and virtually
all of the others went down to his level in the second half when we were
steamrollered.
There isn’t much time to dwell on this as we have another game on Tuesday night
and it’ll be another tough one against Crystal Palace. Maybe the exertions of
the Christmas period of taking their toll a little bit on some of our players
and it wouldn’t surprise me if there are a couple of changes for Tuesday night
as some of our guys seem to be running on empty in that second half. Everyone
has to keep some perspective as it is only one defeat. Anyone who says that
they wouldn’t have taken 28 points at this stage of the season is either an
idiot or a liar. We will be back and bring on Selhurst on Tuesday.
League 1 Minus 10 
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