Talking Points | Four more years of Gary O’Neil

#1 In at the deep end

One of the most daunting jobs in the Premier League awaited O’Neil when he first stepped through the doors at Molineux exactly 12 months ago, when he was tasked with taking over a team just two days before the 2023/24 Premier League season was about to get underway. Fortunately for the former Bournemouth boss, Wolves’ trip to Manchester United had been scheduled for Monday Night Football on Sky Sports, which gave the head coach a few extra hours of preparation with his new squad of players.

It was a difficult challenge for O’Neil to come into a new club and completely change the playing system as well as the mindset of the players in such a short space of time, but there were promising signs at Old Trafford on that Monday evening as the old gold fell to a controversial narrow defeat, despite being the better of the two teams. A run of just one win in the next five Premier League matches – as well as defeat to Championship leader Ipswich Town in the Carabao Cup – showed the huge undertaking O’Neil had taken on, but things were about to change…

#2 Clicking against the champions

Coming off the back of a 1-1 draw away at Luton Town, which saw Wolves spend more than 50 minutes with 10 men following Jean-Ricner Bellegarde’s sending off, O’Neil faced the toughest test of his early Wolves career, a home clash against the reigning Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League holders, Manchester City. Having tried to balance his tactics between the system the players were used to under Julen Lopetegui with his own ideas, O’Neil made a big alteration at Molineux that afternoon. Instead of replacing the suspended Bellegarde like-for-like, the head coach instead switched up his formation to include Toti as an additional centre-back, and utilised a system which was all too common at Molineux during the reign of Nuno Espirito Santo, and the players took to it like a duck to water.

The introduction of the Portuguese defender not only made the team more solid at the back – allowing Craig Dawson to mark Erling Haaland out of the game – but also his ability to play as a left-back gave Rayan Ait-Nouri the freedom to use his attacking credentials knowing he would have a safety net behind him. Having already witnessed the offensive threat of a Pedro Neto in full bloom at Kenilworth Road seven days previously, the change in system even saw greater attacking play by those in gold and black, with the winger creating the first as Ruben Dias turned past his own keeper, before his strike partners Matheus Cunha and Hee Chan Hwang combined for the winner on 66 minutes. A sign of things to come.

#3 Monday Night Football

Support for the head coach from the stands at Molineux had begun to turn dramatically following the win over Manchester City, as well as the home draw against Aston Villa and three points against Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium which were to follow, and a stint on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football less than a month later saw the rest of the footballing world sit up and take notice of the job O’Neil was doing in turning the football club around. It is rare to see current Premier League managers share so much insight as a pundit – it’s usually something reserved for out of work coaches who are putting their faces out for a new job – and the analysis O’Neil was able to provide on that evening was second to none.

Joining presenter David Jones and former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher on the show ahead of Tottenham Hotspur against Fulham, the level of detail he provided around tactics for Wolves’ recent wins impressed supporters far beyond those of an old gold persuasion. Armed with analysis footage of training, O’Neil showed how his team tactically prepared to beat the Cherries, to good effect with the first goal, and also talked viewers through the approach to nullify and then hurt City the previous month. The way O’Neil was able to eloquently describe how the way he sets his team up in training was able to translate to a matchday earned him rave reviews, and several of the clips put out by Sky went viral.

#4 Attack in full flow

Wolves have struggled for goals during the previous few seasons, with the Old Gold finding the back of the net just 36 times in 2020/21, 38 times in 2021/22 and scoring just 31 times in 2022/23, but that was not going to be an issue for the team under O’Neil, who saw his forward line linking up to devastating effect during the first half of last season. With a fully fit Neto, Hwang and Cunha at his disposal, the trio were causing all sorts of trouble for opposition defences and O’Neil had set his forwards up in a system which was getting the best out of all three.

From the opening 10 matches of the season, Neto had already racked up seven assists to go alongside his goal against Luton, while Hwang had six goals and one assist – which put him on the brink of breaking John Richards’ record of scoring in six successive top flight matches at Molineux – and Cunha had offered up another two of each. However, disaster was about to strike for the trio as 77 minutes into their home tie with Newcastle, which had already seen Wolves fight back twice to bring the scores level, Neto succumbed to a hamstring injury, which would ultimately keep him out until the end of the calendar year.

#5 Winter wonderland

Neto’s injury against Newcastle threatened to derail the incredible work O’Neil and his team had put in to get Wolves back fighting again in the Premier League, and renewed the spirit among the Old Gold faithful at Molineux and stadiums up and down the country on their travels. A 2-1 loss to Sheffield United could have seen heads dip, and then going 1-0 down to Tottenham Hotspur at home might have been cause for concern. But there was no concern for O’Neil. He could have accepted the day was not going his team’s way and thrown in the towel, but instead he made inspired substitutions which saw Pablo Sarabia become the hero late in the game. The Spaniard first firing home a stunning strike – which would go on to be chosen as the team’s Goal of the Season – in the first minute of added time, before setting up Mario Lemina for the winner in the dying moments.

That game helped to turn Molineux back into the fortress it has always been known as, with the team going on an unbeaten run at home which would stretch out right across the winter. In Neto’s absence, Cunha stepped up to the forefront, with a run of seven goals and five assists from the winter Premier League fixtures. A win against Burnley would be followed up with a point against Nottingham Forest, before Chelsea were the visitors on a Christmas Eve to remember for the Old Gold, as Lemina and Matt Doherty would score the goals to secure three more points at home. A dominant win over Brentford on the road was proceeded by another drubbing at Molineux to end 2023, as O’Neil’s men put Everton to the sword.

#6 Beating the Baggies

The start of 2024 saw the Premier League take a backseat as the FA Cup was centre stage during the opening month of the year, and the games once against saw O’Neil’s team display just what kind of beast they have become under the head coach. A side which never knows when its beaten, that was evident no more so than in the third round ties against Brentford. Despite losing the talismanic Joao Gomes to a red card inside the opening 10 minutes, and then falling a goal down before half time, O’Neil had his team giving their all in search of an equaliser, which came through a brilliant bullet from Tommy Doyle. Then in the replay back at Molineux, facing elimination at 2-1 behind with 20 minutes to go, it was another fightback for the ages as Cunha’s extra time penalty, after Nathan Fraser’s strike, saw Wolves through.

And then we went to the Hawthorns. The Black Country derby has not always produced positive results for the side wearing gold and black, with the overall record going into the fourth round tie heavily favouring West Bromwich Albion, and at the Hawthorns, the record was even worse for Wolves. None of the 13 managers since Mark McGhee’s 1996-led win had tasted success in an away derby (albeit some of them never have a chance to!) but that was all to change with O’Neil. An English manager who knew exactly what it meant for the Wolves fans to beat their old rivals, the head coach got his tactics spot on, as Wolves defended stoutly and allowed Neto – starting his first game following injury – and Cunha to stamp their authority on the contest. The Black Country was old gold once again.

#7 Big wins on the road

During the successful winter period for Wolves, O’Neil was discovering how to replicate the showings they had been producing in Wolverhampton across the rest of the country, despite only ever had two of his main attacking trio available to him. With Neto back in the side with Cunha, Hwang was now the absent man as he was representing his country at the Asia Cup, but during his time with South Korea saw O’Neil’s men earn one of their best results of the season. The team spirit and character O’Neil had embedded into his players was on display at Stamford Bridge. After falling behind to a Cole Palmer strike, Cunha smashed home his first hat-trick in gold and black to secure the league double against Chelsea, while earning the side a ‘Performance of the Week’ award.

The celebrations in front of the travelling support after the full-time whistle went to show the connection O’Neil had created between team and fans during his time in charge. And the jubilation continued in the capital just two weeks later as Wolves headed to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium without their hat-trick hero, after Cunha’s injury, but with Hwang back from international duty. Neto was back flying on the right wing that afternoon, as he played a crucial role in a game which will be forever remembered for Gomes’ first ever professional brace as the Brazilian midfielder scored either side of half-time to secure all three points. Another league double against one of the big six ticked off for O’Neil.

#8 Overcoming adversity

O’Neil was able to lead Wolves to a pair of 1-0 wins to end February as his side beat both Sheffield United and Brighton at Molineux, the second of which secured a spot in the FA Cup quarter-finals, but the head coach was now finding out how difficult it is to navigate through two competitions with the size of squad he was utilising. Having already lost Cunha and Hwang to hamstring injuries in recent weeks, players from outside of the attacking positions were also joining the treatment table, including Gomes and Jose Sa. O’Neil made clear how he believed the final few months of the season were going to be a big challenge to both him and his players, which is why the head coach named the innocuous 2-1 win over Fulham as his favourite of his first season in charge.

Without several of his key players, O’Neil’s options depleted even more in the first half of the match at Molineux as Neto and Bellegarde were both withdrawn with injuries during the opening 45 minutes. Coming out of the break with the game goalless, and only Sarabia as a senior attacking threat, a rally job was needed and the Molineux crowd did their bit from the off. O’Neil’s patched-up side – which saw Ait-Nouri and Lemina play as attackers alongside Fraser – took a two goal lead and were able to see the game out, despite Alex Iwobi’s late effort. A big win for the Old Gold who showed that they were up for the fight and would give their all for their head coach, in whatever position on the pitch they were asked to play, in an attempt to overcome the injury adversity the squad was facing.

#9 An eye to the future

During the final few months of the season, with his squad depleted through injury but with their place in the Premier League secured for another season, O’Neil used the games as a chance to look to the future by blooding a few of the Academy youngsters who had impressed during their training sessions with the first-team. Over the course of the campaign, the head coach gave five academy players their senior debuts – while several others were part of a matchday squad as well as training regularly with the group – with Alfie Pond, Harvey Griffiths and Fraser featuring in the Carabao Cup win over Blackpool, while Leon Chiwome was handed his full Premier League debut away at Aston Villa in March.

But it was the breakthrough of Tawanda Chirewa which will go down as O’Neil’s brightest during the 2023/24 season. The forward, who Wolves had only signed for the under-21s during the previous summer from Ipswich Town, made the biggest impact on the squad having first come into the team due to Hwang’s absence at the Asia Cup in January. Having scored four goals in five Premier League 2 appearances for James Collins’ development side, he was soon called up to O’Neil’s squad, and featured off the bench in the games against Brighton, Newcastle, Villa, West Ham and Nottingham Forest before earning his full debut at home against Arsenal. The Zimbabwe international has continued to be part of O’Neil’s plan during the current pre-season, playing in both of the team’s Stateside Cup games out in the US.

#10 Improving the squad

A big part of O’Neil’s success during his first 12 months in the job has been the way he has not only improved the bond between the fans and players off the pitch, but also how several of his squad have developed into key players on the pitch. Gomes, Ait-Nouri, Cunha and Chirewa have all spoken about how the former West Ham United and Middlesbrough midfielder has had a positive impact on them as people as well as players, stating O’Neil has gone above and beyond what is usually expected of a head coach in providing guidance in their lives.

Speaking about O’Neil, Cunha said: “He’s a lot more than a manager, I think he’s an incredible person, who is always trying to help us, and we take that with us onto the pitch. People like him infuse you with extra energy.” While Gomes summed up his feelings for O’Neil in the Wolves Studio’s documentary ‘Joao Gomes: The Pitbull’, which followed the Brazilian during last season, with the midfielder saying: “He’s the kind of guy who does everything for us and I’ll do whatever I can to help him. He worries a lot more about me than people from my own family. That bond I have with him is great. He gave me a lot of confidence and he made me see that I can be a key player, not just someone people will forget about in two years’ time but rather someone who can be remembered forever.”