Wolves produced one of their best performances of the past few seasons to bring Manchester City’s 100 per cent Premier League record to an end on Saturday afternoon, and there were plenty of post-match talking points to discuss from Molineux.
Sticking to the game plan
A raucous atmosphere greeted the teams as they stepped out onto the Molineux turf and that inspired the players in Old Gold to get off to a flying start against the reigning Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup winners. Pedro Neto’s workrate led to the opening goal as the winger’s cross deflected in off Ruben Dias, before Hee Chan Hwang turned in Matheus Cunha’s pass to restore a lead following Julian Alvarez’s equaliser after the break. But it was their defensive shape and devastating counter attacks that saw Wolves stick to a plan which had been meticulously put together by Gary O’Neil and his coaching staff and claim all three points.
After the match, legendary Wolves full-back Andy Thompson said: “They had a game plan and they knew that Man City were going to have a lot of the ball, but it’s what they do with it. The way that Wolves were set up – they went with a three at the back, so changed the formation for the game – they made it as difficult as they can. I just thought they defended really well. They were disciplined, the work rate was a lot better, and you want us to attack a lot more, but you’ve got to be able to think about the tactics and Wolves knew they were going to have to defend for long periods of time throughout the game, but they were able to cause damage to Man City and get the two goals.”
Wolves 300 club member and former left-back Lee Naylor added: “I don’t think we could have played any better, I really don’t. You kept Man City to that few chances, it’s unbelievable, so I take my hat off. Every single person was on it today and you’re not going to get that every week. When champions come to town, you step your game up that 10 per cent more. Whether you like it or not, subconsciously, your game goes up another level.”
Attacking threat on the counter
Setting up the side starting with a strong base, O’Neil wanted his Wolves team to be difficult to break down on Saturday afternoon, but if they were to win the game, the Old Gold needed to find the net – and that meant key role for the attacking trio of Neto, Hwang and Matheus Cunha. Wolves set up with a man-marking block for their defence and midfielders, and every time they won back possession, the attack would try to catch Man City out on the counter – ably assisted by wing-backs Nelson Semedo and Rayan Ait-Nouri.
Naylor: “I mentioned before about keeping the back door shut and defend as much as you can to allow you to win games, and did we defend. Semedo was unbelievable, and for me was probably man of the match. I know Neto was brilliant all game, but when you come up against top wingers and you come out on top every single time, he just put an unbelievable performance in. The whole team has, but for me, he stood out.”
Thompson: “I’ve said it before, but we’ve got more than enough in this team to cause teams problems. Neto was unbelievable and he’s been outstanding at the minute. He’s been a great outlet for us, Hwang has been getting on the scoresheet and Cunha, I thought was excellent. It’s just nice seeing Wolves score goals! If Hwang can stay on his feet and he can keep doing what he’s doing at the moment, he’s getting goals, confidence as well, he’s an asset to have. There’s no doubt about his quality, we know he’s quick, we know he’s strong and we know he can put the ball in the back of the net, but we need to see it consistently every week.”
Unbelievable, @pedrolneto7 💫 pic.twitter.com/MkAn0vRtNT
— Wolves (@Wolves) September 30, 2023
Five at the back, pace in attack
Playing as part of a five-man defence is ingrained into Wolves’ DNA. It was utilised to devastating effect under Nuno Espirito Santo as the Old Gold ran away with the Championship title in 2018 before claiming successive seventh place finishes in the Premier League and a Europa League quarter-final spot. Havin, more often than not, gone with a back four for the last three years under the previous managers, O’Neil reverted to the old formula against City, and it worked a treat. But will a back five be the go-to system for the head coach for the rest of the season?
Naylor: “I love playing wing-backs, that’s how I started my career, but it's going to be massively counter attacking. We had 10 people behind the ball, literally, for 70/75 minutes. It’s hard to do that every game and playing that formation, I don’t think you can do that all season. It’s not often you can keep a side to that few a chances, especially Man City, but we did, and it’s not going to happen every week. It’s difficult to say if we’re going to play like that every week, and I feel we need to be more expansive than that. A back five does suit us, but I don’t think it will work against every team. You have to be constantly evolving in this game.”
Thompson: “Man City are an exception to the rule because of the way they play, so you would assume Semedo and Ait-Nouri are going to be a bit more positive down the wide areas [against other teams] because we’ve watched Semedo in the Liverpool game here, especially in the first half, I thought he was outstanding. We knew they were going to have to put bodies in there because they knew Man City and the way that they play. If they do [play a back five again], Semedo and Ait-Nouri would be more advanced and would push on a bit more, depending on the opposition.”
Cunha leading the line
Despite not getting on the scoresheet, Cunha was singled out by his head coach in his post-match interviews on Saturday for the role that he played in the win. Leading the line once again, the Brazilian did get his first assist of the campaign when he had the vision inside the Man City box to lay the ball off into the path of Hwang to fire home the winning goal, rather than going for goal himself from a more difficult position. But it wasn’t just his passing that was lauded following the game, but also the way Cunha helped Wolves on the transition from their defensive block to an attacking position.
Naylor: “Don’t get me wrong, [the assist] it’s class. I expected him to do it because he doesn’t shoot often enough, if I’m being honest. I expected him to pass it, but the way he passed it, it threw a lot of people out of sync, including the goalkeeper, which made Hwang have an easy shot through on goal. But to do that, it was class. Honestly, the touch was class. There’s no striker I’ve played with that would have passed it in that scenario, they would have swung everything at it to get the shot away, but that’s why, for me, he’s not a number nine though.”
Thompson: “The biggest problem that we have is getting up the pitch. We play it across the back, and we talk about the passing and tempo, but when we do get it to one of our forwards, we know they are willing to run. The first goal came from it. Neto was willing to get at them, and Cunha likes doing it as well. He likes to come deep and run at people with the ball. He did it really well at Man United in the first game, and we want to see more of it because we cause teams problems, and it always will do. If you’ve got somebody willing to run at teams, who can carry the ball at teams, it cause problems and it will open up spaces for other players as well, and that’s going to be a strength for us going forward.”
Unbelievable shift and a composed assist 🇧🇷 pic.twitter.com/Ali7ua4v3h
— Wolves (@Wolves) October 1, 2023
Everyone on their game for 90 minutes
O’Neil’s men have been criticised in the early months of this season for not being able to produce a positive performance for an entire game, but that was not the case on Saturday. Concentration levels slipped against Manchester United on the opening outing to allow the Red Devils to snatch – an undeserved – three points, while an incredible opening 45 minutes against Liverpool last time out at Molineux was not maintained following the break. The head coach has maintained his stance that his players just needed time to adapt to his philosophy, and having carried out his game plan to perfection, the Wolves supporters will be expecting this level to be maintained in their future fixtures.
Thompson: “This is what they’ve got to do. You look at the players that are out there and all of them played really well, so why can’t they consistently do that every game? That must be so frustrating and annoy the hell out of you when you’re the coach because you know you’ve got talent, you know you’ve got a good team, but it’s just not been working or something is just missing. When it comes off like that, you’re thinking that we’ve not really done anything different – as such – in training, so why couldn’t they have played like that all season?
“It’s about getting the mentality right. You should be approaching every game, it doesn’t matter who they are, with the right mentality. You saw that they were switched on, they were focused for 97 minutes, and they worked their row out to ensure they made it as difficult as they could. They’ve set the mark now about how they need to play if they are going to go up this league and win more games. We knew they could do it, but it was just about showing they could put it all together.”
