Wolves 0-4 Man City: Lessons, Warnings, and a Tribute to Diogo

1. Help! We need somebody

The temptation to react is strong, but context is everything. Those knees are itching to jerk — but let’s tie them down for now.

The team is undercooked. We all know we need players through the door, and fast. Welcoming title contenders with a team noticeably weaker than the one that struggled for most of last season was always going to be problematic and so it proved.

This is not yet the time for judgement on anything other than the reality that Wolves have had a troublesome summer transfer window so far. You can draw your own conclusions as to whose fault that might be, but the root cause isn’t just a wilful delay in spending money this close season.

Wolves are not an attractive proposition, a club that has seen a consistent stream of high-profile exits in recent seasons and a general decline towards what feels like an inevitably difficult campaign.

There’s no project here. No locational advantage. The club offers only a stepping stone, a way out, not a way forward.

Wolves need players and they will come but they’ll be late, because Wolves are not a club that good players are prioritising. Until they arrive, Wolves look like a team short of the requirements for anything other than a relegation dogfight.

This isn’t a problem of this window alone. It’s a cumulative issue built over several seasons, leaving the club as a destination of last resort. It’s a sell that seems beyond even Mendes to flog to those with better options.

2. We Are Slow

Since Wolves returned to the Premier League, pace has been a defining trait. Whether it was Adama Traoré or Pedro Neto tearing down the wing, speed was part of our DNA. But right now, Wolves look slow, alarmingly so.

This isn’t a dig at effort. The players worked hard, but without acceleration, dynamism, or threat in behind, even lesser teams than Manchester City will handle us comfortably. There’s no zip, no urgency, no spark. It’s not just about individual sprint speed (although it is) it’s about how quickly we move the ball, how fast we react, and how sharp we look in transition. On all fronts, we’re lagging.

It’s hard to remember a Wolves side that looked this flat-footed. The lack of pace isn’t just a tactical issue it’s a recruitment one. We’ve lost the edge that made us dangerous, and unless it’s addressed, we’ll struggle to impose ourselves on games.

Right now, we’re not just slow. We’re predictable. And in this league, that’s a dangerous place to be.

3. The Offside Rule

Can someone please explain the offside rule to the squad? Because yesterday, it looked like we’d forgotten it existed.

Several moments including our brightest attacking spell and a disallowed goal  were ruined by players casually drifting offside. Not under pressure. Not caught out by a clever defensive trap. Just… absent-minded. It’s unforgivable at this level.

Man City’s line was decent, but it wasn’t anything extraordinary. They weren’t springing traps or playing high-risk football. We just kept wandering offside like it wasn’t a rule anymore and it got embarrassing.

This is basic stuff. It’s not a tactical nuance or a marginal call. It’s the kind of thing you drill into kids at grassroots level. And yet here we are, talking about it in the context of a Premier League team.

It’s not good enough. If we’re going to struggle for creativity and pace, the least we can do is stay onside when we finally get into promising positions.

4. Red Flags

Let’s be honest  we’ve all got thoughts. And while it’s taking real effort not to lay blame or make sweeping judgements after one game on individuals, there are some early warning signs that are hard to ignore.

This isn’t the time to slate team selection or substitutions. That scrutiny will come. But right now, it’s about the red flags and there were plenty.

We haven’t brought in enough players of the right quality. That much is clear. But even more baffling is why, having spent close to £55 million, only one summer signing made the starting XI. What other club in the league is spending that kind of money on players who don’t start the season?

Then there’s the absence of three of our better players from last season. How can a club expect to compete when it strips away goal contributions and tries to run the same setup without the personnel that made it work?

Why field a team that hadn’t started together in pre-season? Why take so long to decide on the captaincy  and even now, leave it hanging in ambiguity?

Yes, some things are out of our control. But what was under control felt anything but. And that’s a concern.

5. Diogo.

What cannot be argued is that Wolves understand the importance of moments. Football was to an extent the secondary matter at hand. The brilliant tifo and all that surrounded it from the Wolves fans was as expected outstanding and no less than what was deserved for Diogo, his brother, his family and us as a collective to unite in the grief, to find some element of closure.

A photograph of Diogo Jota hangs in my parents front room. It is him with my nephew on a cold rainy night outside the Amex stadium. It’s the only time I had any direct interaction with Diogo and it lasted only a few seconds. It is difficult to then explain to others not connected with Wolves as to why losing a player who had left the club some time ago was so impactful, so painful. 

Now approaching 50 all too rapidly, Wolves have for most of my life been an obsessive source of frustration and inevitable disappointment. For a brief time however, my club came alive. The promotion season and the couple of years following were like nothing that had come before it in my lifetime. A hope, a belief an added bounce to the step on a dreary winters week between games. In all of those moments, Diogo was not just there, he was directly responsible for some of the most memorable moments I have had. The stupid moments of elation were something that he gave me. Those cannot be undone and there is a sadness that someone who gave so much to me personally has his life cut short. It’s a sadness that brings a tear to the eye when watching the moments back, when listening to Burrows bellowing his name out in such tones that the voice is broken. Its also a sadness that is not easily shared or understood by anyone who wasn’t just there. Its not a family member, its not a current player and as such empathy is not easily found outside of Molineux by those that just understand. I wasn’t there yesterday, but even at a distance, the grief was eased by knowing that there were others that just got it. The moments we had, they wont go away, but I always felt like there were moments to come and I grieve for those as well. 

I’m nowhere near good enough at writing to express this properly so I’ll end by just saying thank you Diogo. I didn’t know you but you are a massive part of some of the best moments of my life and for that you will always be remembered by me and many others. Rest in Peace.