Garry Nelson's Left Foot
Well-known member
Eight of the starting eleven yesterday were from the team that got promoted.
We generally struggle against teams that play an expansive possession based game as we don't have the tactical flexibility to cope. We play 4-4-1-1/4-4-2 come rain or shine. All the players are excellently drilled in it which makes us a very solid team but it also means that when faced with teams that pas and move on a grand scale we struggle to adapt.
If Wolves are smart they'll learn a lesson from yesterday. Namely being pretty gets you nowhere if you don't have a cutting edge.
They dominated the first half against an uncharacteristically passive Brighton performance. They had huge swathes of possession and the ball barely entered their half in any meaningful way. They had the freedom of our left flank for the entirety of those opening 45 minutes. And yet they barely mustered any threat to our goal whatsoever. They had one moment where I thought 'oh, this could be dangerous...' when Doherty got into a good position just inside the box with a clear sight of goal but then passed his shot wide of the post. Other than that they posed no real threat and in fact the best chance of the half fell to us when Duffy somehow managed to miss that header from three yards. My fear at half time was that if we continued to be so lacklustre then sheer weight of possession would lead to wolves creating a decent chance or two.
Turns out that we turned up for the second half, capitalised on some poor defending and then controlled the half pretty comfortably until about the 75 minute mark. It was only then, when we retreated somewhat into our shell a la 2015/16, and with Wolves apparently realising that they actually needed to score and so started playing with more urgency and directness that they became a genuine threat. When they ran at us they caused us problems. Luckily they spent half of those 15 minutes launching balls into the box for Dunk and Duffy to clear. But their added directness did lead to chances being created and therefore Ryan finally being called into proper action.
They reminded me a little of us under Poyet in our first season in the championship.
I would add that Im delighted with how many points we have already and am looking forward to when we actually start playing half decently too. I think we all know there is more to come from us although I suspect we will play considerably better than we did yesterday and lose.
We generally struggle against teams that play an expansive possession based game as we don't have the tactical flexibility to cope. We play 4-4-1-1/4-4-2 come rain or shine. All the players are excellently drilled in it which makes us a very solid team but it also means that when faced with teams that pas and move on a grand scale we struggle to adapt.
If Wolves are smart they'll learn a lesson from yesterday. Namely being pretty gets you nowhere if you don't have a cutting edge.
They dominated the first half against an uncharacteristically passive Brighton performance. They had huge swathes of possession and the ball barely entered their half in any meaningful way. They had the freedom of our left flank for the entirety of those opening 45 minutes. And yet they barely mustered any threat to our goal whatsoever. They had one moment where I thought 'oh, this could be dangerous...' when Doherty got into a good position just inside the box with a clear sight of goal but then passed his shot wide of the post. Other than that they posed no real threat and in fact the best chance of the half fell to us when Duffy somehow managed to miss that header from three yards. My fear at half time was that if we continued to be so lacklustre then sheer weight of possession would lead to wolves creating a decent chance or two.
Turns out that we turned up for the second half, capitalised on some poor defending and then controlled the half pretty comfortably until about the 75 minute mark. It was only then, when we retreated somewhat into our shell a la 2015/16, and with Wolves apparently realising that they actually needed to score and so started playing with more urgency and directness that they became a genuine threat. When they ran at us they caused us problems. Luckily they spent half of those 15 minutes launching balls into the box for Dunk and Duffy to clear. But their added directness did lead to chances being created and therefore Ryan finally being called into proper action.
They reminded me a little of us under Poyet in our first season in the championship.
I would add that Im delighted with how many points we have already and am looking forward to when we actually start playing half decently too. I think we all know there is more to come from us although I suspect we will play considerably better than we did yesterday and lose.
