Wolves had to settle for a point against Crystal Palace at Molineux on Saturday and the Matchday Live Extra team were in position to give their thoughts post-match.
Having fallen behind just after the half-time break after Trevoh Chalobah turned the ball in from a free-kick which wasn’t cleared, Wolves took the lead when Jorgen Strand Larsen’s equaliser was added to by Joao Gomes’ first-time finish following a well-worked Old Gold attack.
But Palace claimed a point five minutes later when Marc Guehi tapped in from a corner, and after the match, former Wolves full-backs Andy Thompson and Lee Naylor discussed the defensive lapses from set-pieces, Pablo Sarabia’s missed opportunities and a potential winner for the visitors which was ruled out for a foul on Jose Sa.
Conceding two goals from two set-pieces
Thompson said: “You can see the efforts in there, they’re trying everything, they’re battling for everything, but just at the minute, the way things are going, we’re just getting punished. We’ve never really had a massive problem of conceding from set-pieces, but this year, we seem to be doing it, and it got Crystal Palace back on level terms. They’ve tried everything, they’ve had a go, but Crystal Palace are a good side. They came here with a game plan to get into our faces and upset us a little bit – especially in the position we’re in – and they’ve done that. The way Wolves reacted to get themselves back in front after being 1-0 down was credit to them, but if you keep defending like that on set-pieces, keep conceding goals… Guehi was unmarked, and it was just a simple tap-in.”
Naylor added: “It doesn’t matter if you’re a defender or not, you know how to defend, and you cannot lose your man. He’s [Guedes] thinking, ‘They’re not going to get the flick on, I don’t need to run with my man’, and that’s schoolboy defending – and there’s no forgiving that. There’s too much at stake. It’s happened now, it happened against Man City, and it’s just happened too many times. As a manager, you’ve got to be pulling your hair out because it’s not good enough. As a defender, you’ve got to sense the danger. If the ball goes to the back-stick, you’ve got to be thinking, ‘What’s my job?’ Get back on that line, in line with the ball. Stop the second ball and stop a goal happening.”
The difference between Sarabia’s and Strand Larsen’s finishing
Naylor said: “I think it has a lot to do with being match sharp. We’re looking at them from up here, and they should be easy tap-ins, if I’m totally honest, but he’s [Sarabia] hasn’t got that sharpness in his mind to see the goalkeeper rushing out, to see a defender closing him down, but he’s only seeing one of them. The other part’s not happening and that’s a lack of game-time and match sharpness.”
Thompson added: “He's a natural goalscorer. That’s what the difference is. You saw it, he’s put it between the goalkeeper’s legs, so that goalkeeper has come out and done exactly the same as what he did to Sarabia on the two occasions, he’s spread himself across it, but Larsen’s put it where the keeper can’t get it. But he’s still got to score, for me. He might not have that match sharpness or that instinct in front of goal, but, for me, you’ve seen the difference between a natural goalscorer and Sarabia. He’s got that hesitation in his mind.
A good team move for the second Wolves goal
Naylor said: “It's four or five good passes before the ball is in the back of their net. That’s all it takes. It’s dead simple this game, but it’s still a great bit of play and a great bit of passage between two or three players, before it gets to Guedes. He makes the decision not to shoot, which I think a lot of people would have – especially considering he’s a striker and he wants to get on the scoresheet – but he’s took a touch and he’s seen Gomes in a better position to shoot and he’s passed it to him on a plate. Happy days, 2-1.”
🏹 @GomesOficial08's first goal at Molineux pic.twitter.com/jAgGI3FSUI
— Wolves (@Wolves) November 2, 2024
Palace’s potential winner ruled out
Thompson said: “I’ve looked at it a couple of times, and I think we’ve got lucky. I don’t think he’s [Sa] got hold of it. I think it’s a big let off because I don’t think Sa really had hold of the ball. I think Munoz had the momentum going into it, and I think we got away with that one. It’s probably the first time VAR has gone for us. If it was for us, I’d be screaming a goal. It was one of those which has fine margins and I think if the referee had given it, I don’t think it would have been overruled.”
Naylor added: “We looked at each other, didn’t we, and thought, ‘Wow. We’ve got away with one’.”
Substitutions making an impact
Thompson said: “They made an impact on the game, just like they did at Brighton. We can see the quality is there, the two goals that we got, I think the build-up play and the way that we played it and the way that we knocked it about was great. But there were too many times – and we keep saying it – the basic things, we keep messing it up. We keep giving opportunities to the opposition to get chances at goal. They missed two golden chances in the first half, and there’s no doubt Wolves worked hard, but Crystal Palace, especially in that first half, just edged it with the way they pressed, the way they won the ball, the way they went after Wolves to make it difficult, and I’d like to say they forced Wolves into making errors, but we did that off our own back at times.”
