Wolves fan share thoughts and opinions following Wolves 3-0 defeat at St James' Park to in form Newcastle United.
CRAIG HICKEY
BLACKPOOL WOLF
A very frustrating night at Newcastle.
We were the better side overall, but we didn’t create enough chances to get something out of the game.
Larsen had a poor game for me; his hold-up play is non-existent. He gets bullied off the ball too easily, and sometimes this season he has played too deep, not allowing us to counter. I do like Larsen, but he does frustrate me. I wonder if Sasa is going to come back and try to compete. Although Sasa is injury-prone and it will take him some time to get up to speed, I believe he may be better than Larsen at winning headers and holding the ball up, giving us another option.
Hwang had another disappointing game.
Andre and Gomes needed support today. We maybe should have added Doyle into the starting XI and played two up top to keep the game tight for as long as possible. Although both players win the ball back at times, they were cut open far too many times.
I’ve seen signs of a good player in Guedes, but too often in games he gets bullied off the ball or has a bad touch. I didn’t think it was his best game today.
On the positive side, I thought Agbadou had a solid league debut, probably my man of the match, and it was good to see Semedo and Cunha back.
I’m still in a positive mood, similar to the Forest game, because we are creating some really good chances. We just need to be more composed and have a little bit more luck. The next 4-6 games will be tough.
Chelsea away,
Arsenal home,
Villa home,
Liverpool away, then in-form Bournemouth and Fulham. I can see us picking up some unexpected points.
I expect 2 or 3 more players coming in before the deadline, and even more if we sell 1 or 2 players.
GEORGE LAKIN
Atrocious defending for their second, as bad as we’ve conceded all season. That’s Alexander Isak you gave the freedom of your penalty area to.
Unbelievable.
We give ourselves absolutely no chance if we do things like that in games like this.
Killed the game as a contest in reality. Such a crucial moment in the game to be so careless.
The third was not much better, Isak getting two bites at the cherry to pick out an unmarked Gordon is inexcusable.
Work to do. Especially defensively, and not just for Vitor- I mean in the market too. We can’t be done, or believe me, we’re done.
We’ve been lucky other results have gone our way tonight. Yet despite this we’ve still slipped back into the bottom three. That’s what shipping goals for fun will do unfortunately.
Onto the next. In trepidation. Again.
JOHN TARAS
Newcastle deserved to win but Wolves should have had at least one goal to show.
PAM WELLS
Well, Newcastle away tonight is always a tough place to go, and they are on a good run at the moment. Vitor put out the same team as in the cup game, with Cunha and Semedo back on the bench. My main worry was how Rodrigo Gomes would get on against Gordon.
We started lively enough for the first 20 minutes, but then a deflection gave them their first goal. We were playing reasonably well in defence and midfield, but our front three offered us nothing. Guedes tried but never seems to do the simple things well. Hwang, for me, offered absolutely nothing. Larsen, for his size, should hold the ball up, but once it leaves our midfield, it just keeps coming back to us. There has to be some substitutions, surely, with hopefully Cunha coming on.
The second half started, and Hwang was subbed for Cunha. Immediately, you could see more fire in our performance, but still, Guedes and Larsen offered very little. I think our midfield struggled with two against their three. We had some chances, but they were all missed. Bellegarde came on for Guedes, but he offered nothing and was himself subbed for Sarabia. Doyle came on for Andre. They scored a second in the 57th minute, which I thought was a bit of a lucky goal. Not long after, in the 74th minute, they got a third after some really poor defending.
We eventually got the ball in the net thanks to Santi Bueno, but just when I thought a comeback was on the cards, VAR ruled out the goal… what a surprise. I think after that, Newcastle just eased off and played out the game. Yet again, although Larsen clipped the post, we offered very little.
So, it was a disappointing night and another 3-0 loss. I think Vitor realises now he has a bigger job on his hands than he realised. We have some really tough games to come, and I am struggling to see where we are going to pick up points.
I’m struggling to find a man of the match. I think Doherty played fairly well, but I’m going to give it to Santi Bueno for trying to hold the defence together and almost scoring. Performance rating: 5. Come on, Vitor, get them sorted out for Chelsea.
KARL WHITEHOUSE
Good start from Wolves with plenty of time on the ball. The team showed no issues with a well-drilled backline that kept good shape and balance, causing Newcastle some problems. They played long instead of trying to build from the back; just needs the press, and it will be perfect.
Our defending has been solid, especially Agbadou, who made some good clearances to stop the counter-attacks.
We had our warning signs about Isak early on. He punished us with his goal, and we needed to start again to get back into the game. We would like a striker like him in our side to score goals.
The defence now has to shake off the goal we conceded and focus on stopping any more; otherwise, we could be in for a hiding.
A change is needed at half-time. We should take off Hwang; he’s having a poor game. Why keep playing him in the starting XI?
Our counter-attacking play has been good at creating chances in the final third, but we need more quality to finish.
The second half starts with us making a change, bringing on Cunha. Hopefully, he will help us be more clinical and get back into the game.
We’ve lost our rhythm since the restart, and our defensive shape left a player unmarked, putting us further behind. We have to keep going, but Newcastle is in another gear.
Cunha has been making runs since coming on, but at times he has been isolated with no support. Where are his teammates when he needs them?
The defensive problem happened again, leaving a player unmarked when he should have been in position, and we conceded another goal. This game is out of our reach now.
We had chances, but we needed to be more clinical in the final third, which Vitor Pereira has to address.
We must sort out our goal-leaking issues as this is starting to hurt us, especially with the next four games against teams in the top half. This is a serious problem that needs to be sorted out quickly.