Wolves were beaten by Newcastle United at Molineux on Sunday, despite a positive performance, and the Matchday Live Extra team were in position to give their thoughts post-match.
Mario Lemina had the Old Gold in front at the break with his first goal of the season, but strikes from Fabian Schar and Harvey Barnes – both from outside the box – turned things around for the Magpies.
After the match, former Wolves full-backs Andy Thompson and Lee Naylor discussed not killing the game off, their temptations to change formation and how Wolves need to tighten things up at the back.
A tough one to take
Thompson said: “It’s little things they’re getting caught with at the moment. The performance was great, but we’ve got one point out of four games. It’s a harsh league, you get punished if you don’t do things right. They’ll be happy with everything apart from the result. Two good goals from Newcastle, but you’ve got to see these things happening and try to force yourself out or step out of the back line. If you’re going to give players in this league time and space, you’re going to get punished and that’s what happened. It seems that hesitation to go forward earlier gets us in trouble and it invites teams on, and they’ve got players that are going to run you down.”
Wolves needing to make use of possession
Naylor said: “We weren’t cutthroat with what we were doing. We weren’t going for the jugular, going right after it. There was a lot of chances to be positive with the ball, be positive with running, and it seemed we kept passing back and playing the safe ball.”
Naylor said: “It’s having the tactical nous to have that anxiety as a defender and be switched on to the negatives. As a defender, you’ve got to expect the worst. As a centre forward, expect the best, expect he’s going to make a mistake and you’re going to score. As a defender, you’ve got to say to yourself that he’s going to put it top bins, so I’ve got to do everything I can to defend it right and we didn’t do that, we didn’t see the dangers.”
A lovely move finished off by @LeminaM_13 🇬🇦 pic.twitter.com/SFh166kECe
— Wolves (@Wolves) September 15, 2024
Taking more risks
Thompson said: “If you’re willing to run past players, you’re always going to be a problem. Nelson Semedo can do that, but how many times did he run past one of their players? He was happy to get the ball and come back and play backwards. That’s the difference, they were happy to keep running. If you lose it, you’re miles away from the goal – we need to be more courageous.”
Naylor said: “When you get into these positions and take the wrong option, then there’s concerns. You’ve got a boy who is 6ft 5” and puts himself about, and second half we started playing ‘diags’ and got loads of joy from it. When we get in good crossing positions, hang it up. For a defender, it’s a nightmare. It’s the hardest thing in football to defend.”
Temptation to return to a back five
Naylor said: “I don’t think he’s [Gary O’Neil] scared of making changes when he sees them. He sees what’s best for the team. What’s the manager seen there? Is he happy with his back four, with his midfield three? If he’s happy with his back four, he’s not going to change it. Would I change it up? Me, personally, yes. He isn’t going to be too disappointed about that performance, but we’ve lost the game.”
Thompson said: “It depends what the manager thinks of the game. If we’re conceding goals, there’s got to be a reason, whether it’s the back line or the set-up. You’ve had two great goals scored against you, both into the top corner, but what he will look at is the way they’ve scored them and that’s nothing to do with the back four. People have to step out. Doherty’s done nothing wrong, he’s tried to force him inside where he thinks there’s going to be people to help him and step out. The first goal’s come from us standing off him. You can’t allow people that much space – eight times out of ten he’s not scoring that, but if you’re going to give people that much time and space around your penalty area, you’re going to get punished.
“It’s not an individual game, people have to help each other. The midfield were hunting after people in there, but full-backs and centre halves are the same, everyone needs help and you’re pushing him into an area where you hope he isn’t going to hurt you and unfortunately we got punished.”
