BEN WHITEHOUSE SHARES HIS THOUGHTS AND KEY LESSONS FROM WOLVES DRAW AGAINST SPURS
1. A Well-Fought Result
I think we all thought that maybe, just maybe, a first win of the season was on the cards here; holding a lead for longer than 20 minutes hasn’t been something Wolves have been accustomed to for quite a few years now, so as the minutes trickled over into the 90th minute, a sense of impending doom was upon many of us fans. An equaliser felt inevitable, but I was clinging onto the hope of taking home all three points.
However, we ought not to feel disheartened by the result and should be mightily impressed with both collecting our first point of the season and the calibre of performance we displayed. Tottenham away from home would be a match that teams such as Manchester City and Liverpool mark down as one that could cause issues, making the task seem all the more insurmountable for a side yet to record a point five weeks into the season, so for us to take the game to Spurs in the manner we did and at least get some share of the spoils feels like a pivotal moment in the season.
Obviously, conceding a last minute equaliser is always difficult to stomach as we were so close and had finally managed to generate a performance worthy of three points, but we have to take the positives from the game of which there were staggeringly more so than previous game weeks’ drab, uninspiring performances.
2 Change of System
Whilst early on this season, Pereira has had his critics (and rightfully so, no one is immune from criticism!) for some of the awful performances at both ends of the pitch from Wolves so far this year; however, credit where it is due, his decision and ability to recognise the need for a change in system has proved a decisive one in the early weeks of its use, giving us our two most positive results and encouraging performances within the space of a week.
The 5 back system which hypothetically has much more organisation, defensive solidity and strength on the counterattack has evidently proved itself extraordinarily one-dimensional and predictable for opposition sides both to press and win the ball back and quash attacks before they even materialised.
Moving to a 4 back has been a bit of a revelation: the addition of another man into the midfield was vital to improving both the midfield and attacking performances, allowing Gomes and Andre to flourish more than they have done so far this year and allowing our attacking, creative players to get on the ball more often, something that had been direly lacking. Players such as Arias were previously being marked out of games and forced to sit on the by-line to help the wing backs and be the option up the line, yet today we saw far more of him and the attacking contingent.
Defensively, the flat back 4 appears far more solid and capable of progressing the ball up he pitch rather than persisting down the seemingly pre-programmed routes of the 5 back system.
Much of these improvements I would argue ought to be attributed to Pereira’s tactical aptitude and willingness to experiment. Managers such as Amorim have demonstrated how single minded many managers can be inflexible that they will live or die by, yet Vitor is able to try different systems to get the most out of the players and this system appears to be the way forwards.
3 Cut-Throat Decisions
Another significant aspect that clearly attributed to the upturn in performance has to be the drastic changes to the starting line-up. Pereira has made it obvious that he is still unaware of what his strongest starting 11 is for the Wolves side and made several major changes to the starting line-up (most notably in defence) which could be considered fairly risky. Dropping Sa, Agbadou and Toti was clearly a necessary decision to be made with their recent calamitous performances which are clearly nowhere near their usual standard, allowing players such as Johnstone and Santi Bueno to rise to the occasion and both put in far more convincing performances than their counterparts. Doherty at right back provided a bit of composure and experience which was clearly missing from the temperamental, erratic defence we had previously fielded, and Hugo Bueno’s attacking prowess was allowed to flourish far more in a new system.
Most impressive though, as I believe is the general consensus amongst Wolves fans, has been the excellent performances from Krejci since his arrival, who looks like a player who has spent years in the Premier League rather than a new arrival, adding coolness, strength and solidity to the backline as well as being highly adept at progressing the ball forwards to kick start attacking moves.
It would have been easy to allow underperforming players to continue starting purely based on the hope that they will return to their previous heights, but Pereira proved that no matter who you are, if you aren’t up to the standard, you will be dropped. Hopefully, this means we are edging closer to having a consolidated starting line-up with maybe some slight tweaks. Certain players are demonstrating that they ought to be regulars or at the very least deserve a run of games: Johnstone, Krejci, Santi Bueno, Andre, Joao Gomes, Arias and Strand-Larsen are names I would have irrefutably on the team sheet.
4 Individual Improvements
Starting from back to front, Johnstone had an excellent showing just as he did in midweek against Everton; he made a few crucial stops, has evidently improved distribution by comparison to Jose Sa and as far as the goal, there was very little he could do, hopefully solidifying himself as the No.1 for the next few weeks.
Krejci and Bueno were defensively very solid and seemed far more composed on the ball than our back 3 of previous weeks, getting the ball forwards more to give the team far more fluidity and forwards motion, and with Hugo Bueno and Doherty on either side adding a mix of dynamism and experience, too contributing effectively to the improved positivity of the team, only furthered by Tchatchoua’s introduction.
Andre and Joao Gomes seemed back to their best, battling and winning the ball back often and turning out of trouble to bring the attack into the game as they did so well last season but have struggled to consistently provide so far this year. It has been apparent that when last season, we could rely on that partnership to overperform and keep us in games single-handedly, this season if they have a bad game, the team has a bad game, so seeing them have a strong performance together is a highly encouraging sign.
Munetsi had a better game as part of a midfield three, his tireless running and physical presence bringing a level of tenacity to the side and another focal point for aerial duels to bring the ball up the pitch.
Arias probably had his best game in a Wolves shirt as he was able to be brought into the game far more effectively and have some time on the ball where he looked energetic and dangerous, whilst Hwang on the other side was sadly fairly poor once again and never looked like causing much damage. Strand-Larsen didn’t have many opportunities in front of goal but his hold up play was once again important to how we played and allowed him to spear-head attacks and cause difficulty for defenders.
5 Looking Onwards
In the next few weeks, fixtures are becoming more and more pivotal with the need to get ourselves up and running getting more desperate every week. 4 upcoming games of Brighton and Burnley at home and Sunderland and Fulham away, which are games which we need to be competing in and picking up some points in, especially coming off the back of stringing some decent performances together.
We have finally given ourselves a bit of a platform to build off, with some encouraging individual showings and tactical alterations which should hopefully move from strength to strength and start garnering some results. As Pereira has been preaching, he hasn’t had enough time with the squad and the squad itself hasn’t had ample time with each other to be performing to a high enough standard, and as they become more well acquainted and on the same page tactically, the results will come.
Pereira has proven that he is capable of galvanising our side and turning a season around so I personally believe we should stand firmly behind him and give him enough time to instil his ideals and system amongst the team and hope that some level of momentum has been built up which can be built upon! COYW!
ARTICLE BY BEN WHITEHOUSE
I’ve been a fan of Wolves all my life, based in the South-East, making for some fairly awkward school football conversations trying to argue that Kevin McDonald was better than Bruno Fernandes with the endless supply of Big 6 fans around here, just for the fun of it! Hoping to offer a insightful view into the performances, transfers, decisions and everything else our beloved Wanderers throw at us, good, bad and ugly (but preferably good!)