Dave Porter dissects Wolves performance against the Cherries and shares his things learnt
1. Merry Christmas to Bournemouth, Love from Wolves.
As most people used the weekend to put up Christmas decorations, Wolves were obviously feeling very festive indeed, gifting three penalties to Bournemouth. Make no mistake, all Bournemouth had to do to win these penalties was run. All of them were totally avoidable and were directly caused by quite ridiculous errors you probably wouldn’t see even in the lowest of Sunday Leagues.
Toti was the first to deliver his present, wrapped in madness and ill decision. There is no explaining what was going on here, and while it was only the slightest touch of an inadvertent knee, the gift was gratefully received and dispatched with barely a minute on the clock.
Not to be outdone, Jose Sa wanted to get in on the act. Again, all Bournemouth did to earn the penalty was run. The touch was too heavy, the slowness of action painful, and Sa knew the moment he swung his boot exactly what he connected with—and it definitely wasn’t the ball.
Dawson was the last of the wise men to deliver his gift. Evanilson once again donned his cloak of invisibility to avoid Dawson’s gaze and ran onto a dreadful back pass. All three presents were accepted, with Bournemouth probably embarrassed that they didn’t bring anything in return.
2. O’Neil's Gamble: Bold but Foolish
The decision to stick with the team that overcame Fulham was a bold one, and whichever direction he went in, if they didn’t win, it was likely to be seen as the wrong choice. The safer option would have been to return a centre back to the starting eleven, so the decision to stay with Lemina at the back was the braver choice. It looked like the wrong one even before the first-minute penalty, with Lemina caught almost immediately on the wrong side from the very first punt upfield. While Toti’s decision to go to ground was horrendous, he was covering for a player again caught out of position.
There is an appeal to playing a midfielder at the back—the passing and control of the ball—and in this specific case, it enables Wolves to get Lemina, Gomes, and Andre on the pitch together. However, midfielders suffer two major drawbacks when playing at the back, particularly in a four-man defence. Firstly, positioning. This is an underrated skill picked up by years of football experience and intuition. If you don’t have those abilities, you will be exploited, and Lemina was caught out several times, particularly in the early part of the game. Secondly, midfielders have a tendency to move away from the ball, whereas centre halves move towards the ball. This was something that Coady never got over. Evanilson should have scored when free in the six-yard box because Lemina, as a midfielder, waits for the ball. Sharp strikers move towards the ball. You can’t fix this. It is instinctual and comes through decades of lived experience.
3. Believing the Hype
This was one hell of a reality check. For anyone thinking that Wolves were suddenly going to dominate teams and move quickly toward the security of midtable, this was an abrupt wake-up call. Wolves were barely competitive and looked like a team that believed it didn’t have to match Bournemouth’s work rate to win this game. Bournemouth were sharper, ran further, were more deliberate with the ball, and looked like a team with a plan. Regardless of the way in which the goals were given to Bournemouth, they fully deserved the victory. The team (not for the first time this season, lacking two of their better players) just looked like a better, more enthused collective. Wolves, by contrast, looked ponderous, slow, and scared to deal with an aggressive press. You have to earn points in this league; they are seldom given to you, and the minimum part of that equation is to match effort and work rate. Wolves looked like a team that were at the top of the league, believing that they just needed to turn up. Wolves are in a battle that they will probably remain in until the end of the season. Effort and work rate are non-negotiables.
4. Stop Cunha, Stop Wolves
The world has woken up to Cunha; he isn’t a surprise package anymore. One of the league’s most admired players he may be, but with that comes issues. Opposing teams are now aware of the threat he poses and are making provisions to negate it. Cunha was quiet today and kept at arm’s length by Bournemouth. What that should do is open doors for others to benefit.
Wolves have a problem with wide players. Not in terms of volume—Wolves have plenty—but none of them are in any kind of form or look ready for this division. While a centre back is, for many, the most pressing need for Wolves, there is an argument to suggest that it is in both wide forward areas that Wolves are really lacking the required quality. At the moment, a resurgent Guedes looks to be the most in form, but that might only be in comparison to the other options that look markedly worse.
It seems a bizarre statement given that Wolves are still scoring goals quite freely, but these areas stand out as being objectively weak. It’s no surprise that opposing full backs are regular goal scorers or providers against Wolves, as there is no threat at all from the wide players. With Lemina now an option at centre half (not a first-choice option but an option all the same), Wolves may feel it wiser to strengthen in attacking areas rather than at the back.
5. Jorgen Strand Larsen is a Hidden Gem
There is plenty to be annoyed by with Wolves at the moment, but Jorgen Strand Larsen is definitely not one of those things. The Norwegian forward seems to be getting better with each game. His work rate and movement, unlike the rest of the team, is phenomenal. He is an archetypical target man with some very quick feet and deft touches. Above all else, this guy knows how to finish. Wolves have unearthed something special here. For all the talk of Cunha, Strand Larsen is quietly becoming one of the standouts in a difficult season. If we had wide players in any kind of form or quality, you would think his impressive tally would be higher than it is. He was one of the only Wolves players to leave yesterday with any credit and can be rightly annoyed with his teammates.
6. The Booking Tightrope is a Hidden Problem
Wolves have had a collective of players on four bookings for a few weeks now. Is it playing on their minds? Semedo inexplicably managed to alleviate some of the problem with a mindless first-minute booking for dissent yesterday, meaning he will miss the midweek game with Everton. But are the others just a fraction slower or hesitant, knowing that with another booking comes a suspension? It feels like a cliff edge that some players are overly conscious of.
Bookings will happen. There is no way they get through the remaining games without picking up another one, and it might be better to get the monkey off their shoulders and play without the fear of a booking. Not, of course, in the brainless way Semedo did, but playing their natural game might be that missing percent for some.
7. The Wolf Remains at the Wolves' Door
I think O’Neil gets away with this one. Not only had the recent run of form put enough credit in the bank, but it is also hard to legislate for the individual errors that were made in this game. It was freakish. Three penalties scored in one game has NEVER happened in the Premier League before. You can argue that the overall performance remained poor regardless of the errors, but they were at match-defining moments. The decision to pick Lemina at centre half was retrospectively the incorrect one, but most will understand why the team was unchanged.
What it has done, though, is put the pressure right back on the club and him personally. The next quartet of games will likely require a minimum of seven points for Wolves to even keep their heads above the relegation parapet. This performance, however, cannot be tolerated and it cannot be replicated. Wolves will need something against Everton; an ugly defeat may see the Wolf blow the Wolves’ house down.
ARTICLE BY DAVE PORTER
Wolverhampton born, East Sussex based supporter. Old enough to have seen the descent to the bottom, young enough to not have experienced the days my friend. Not many Wolves fans to celebrate or commiserate with round these parts, so had to find an outlet to discuss the enormous highs, crushing lows and share the frustrations that only come with following Wolves.