19 Sep 2024 18:11:12
Thanks for the match breakdown earlier TFIOG and from your description it seems we have layers of issues to resolve. On paper we have some, technically at least, very capable footballers but seem to lack organisation and direction as a team.

After questioning people pointing the finger at GON in my earlier post I've no plans to join them just yet. The fact that the team played so well in the pre season games (friendlies I know) but not in the league makes me question if some of them are 'oven ready' in terms of Premier League requirements. Obviously, the balance of the squad being disrupted over the Summer has not helped. I know that some of our 'established players' went awol but both Hwang and Sarabia were always capable of that.

Under Nuno we began our journey in the Championship which took the pressure off a bit and players were able to bed in and grow into their roles, GON obviously doesn't have that luxury. I've criticised (and will continue to do so) this transfer policy for this very reason which is why I believe things haven't exactly started with a bang. On the up side eventually things may start to fall into place as fitness and tactical understanding on the pitch improve, or at least I hope they do.

It would be a tragedy if GON pays the price for Fosun's poor decision making.

1.) 19 Sep 2024
19 Sep 2024 19:08:03
Let's not forget, and also realise we'll not be the only team, to lose away at arsenal, to get a point at forest and be winning against an undefeated Newcastle, and lose closely in the end to undefeated Brighton with makeshift squad. The Chelsea game was just a crazy one off.
The common problem though is in defence and a settled back four is a necessity. GON will surely have learnt from the last two games to plug those gaps.
It's no wonder there's a disjointed look in team play given the changes in personnel, and morale will have taken a battering. GON has to build the belief into the lads, whilst not tolerating poor efforts from prima Donnas who think they're beyond grafting. We've some very talented players still bonding and adjusting, with time it'll all start clicking and we'll all be looking back and maybe understanding. We may not improve our points tally for a couple of more games but we mustn't panic, and I don't believe any talk of GON out will aid anyone.
As we used to say, keep the faith.

2.) 19 Sep 2024
19 Sep 2024 20:00:57
Let's hope so AbbeyWolf. We do have a very talented team, but GON needs to be more ruthless with those who think they can cruise through a match. We'll never win anything with only 8/9 of the players putting in the effort and it must demotivate and demoralise those that are. Some of these players just seem to be picked every week and are contributing very little. In particular I'm talking about Hwang who has do nothing this season and very little on his return from injury last season. I wasn't a big fan of Guedes but he scored twice against Burnley, again last night and he was putting in the effort. Not sure why GON took him off. Similarly Doyle, RG and Lima. All should be considered for the game against The Vile to avoid complacency in the team. I'm hopeful that GON at least managed to identify those players who want to play for Wolves from last night's disappointment and ear mark those that don't for the January sales so we can add reinforcements.

3.) 20 Sep 2024
20 Sep 2024 01:04:14
Long - completely agree about the many problems and you have hit it on the head identifying the lack of prem readiness of some of the signings who looked v good in pre season - notably Lima and Gomes R.
{Thank goodness Yerson has hit the ground running as that was a huge and unjustifiable gamble as well!) 
I'm confident both of them will be very good players but I'm not sure we could afford to be buying for the future when the needs of the present were so pressing.
We seem to be buying players based upon their potential resale price not the current need.{No matter what profits they bring it will not even get close to compensating for the loss of income that we will suffer if we are relegated and although I'm still reasonably optimistic that we can survive this year we have by our own stupidity made that far more likely!}
Consequently the squad is hopelessly unbalanced and totally inappropriate for the formation and tactics we are trying to play.
We don't have CBs who can play in a 2 and our WBs are that, WBs not FBs.  Hence they aren't particularly strong defensively without the 3CBs covering them and we are throwing away their/our attacking threat by forcing them to do things they aren't very good at! 
The defence is therefore a shambles and even though our mid should be excellent - especially with the signing of Andre, probably the only player we bought who actually could improve the team - it is now being pulled from pillar to post to cover the shortcomings in the defence.
In any case one of our best players and now captain, Lemina, is also being asked to play out of position. Despite being an excellent all court all action CM he is playing in this strange hybrid role as a 10 behind Larson who whilst a solid enough player forces us to totally change our attacking style and for which once again we simply don't have the players!
For reasons I can't explain, we are forcing several of our better players to play out of their position/comfort zone so that we can shoehorn them into a 4 at the back with a big slow (ish) CF formation that the team is totally failing to get to grips with.
The team is weaker than it was last year but we have made it significantly so by our bizarre decision to play a style we neither have the players to do so or seemingly have any idea how to do so.
We all know that the past 3 managers were "persuaded" to try this move and rapidly realised it doesn't work. How long will it take for GON to reassert himself and revert to a style we can play - will he survive to do so or will he miraculously find a way to make it work?

4.) 20 Sep 2024
20 Sep 2024 06:39:55
Do we really think the coaching staff aren't aware of the team issues?
You don't need all the coaching badges to realise there are weaknesses in the team.
As in recent seasons, the manager can only work with what he is allowed.
In defence we have been short of a half-decent RB ( before posters have a go, please look at the statistics), Goalkeeper (have made an attempt to address, but only allowed a cheap option), an upgrade on Kilman, not allowed.
In attack, just not consistently clinical enough. Just look at the goals conceded recently, a different level to what we have in front of goal.
Fosun need to get on top of this, or their investment will half at least in value if we go down.

5.) 20 Sep 2024
20 Sep 2024 09:51:35
Good points Gents but there's a reality sitting over it all. let's imagine the team does get it together and starts to climb the table a bit thanks to several players excelling and attracting the attentions of others, they will be sold off only to be replaced with more money making potential.

This has been going on for a few years but Shi/Sellars kept it quiet but Matt Hobbs is more open about it. He supports the policy, of course he does, he's a football scout after all. No disrespect to him he's doing a good job, just within the confines of a flawed policy. As I commented previously I believe that the ambition is just to survive in the Prem whilst making money through player sales with little or no further input from Fosun, that's it.

I've commented enough on this now so time will tell if I'm right but like many I really do hope they prove me wrong.

6.) 20 Sep 2024
20 Sep 2024 11:10:14
Time for one of your poems Longmynd.

7.) 20 Sep 2024
20 Sep 2024 11:55:22
Rugeley - of course they are, as were Nuno, Lage and JL but one can only presume they aren't the ones making the final decisons on how the club is run - sadly and astonishingly- even down to the level of the pitch.
They all were persuaded to try this idea and rejected it. Certainly in the case of Nuno and JL this rejection and the other open rejections of Jeff's views is presumably one of the key reasons they are no longer here!.
You are correct that they can only work with what is here and it seems they can only work with it in the way Jeff (?) wants.
Even so that doesn't excuse some of the recent individual errors and whatever and however GON is told to deal with the players we still need him to do better albeit seemingly hamstrung by our leader.
Lets hope "he is leading us to the promised land of Europe not the slaughter house of the championship" to plagerise Sir Elton John!
ps it will be a lot more than halve - but I doubt Jeff understands this either!

8.) 20 Sep 2024
20 Sep 2024 20:08:05
Thanks for the invitation NeveSeverN but with not much else to wax lyrical about other than my perception of Fosun as an owner I'll probably just depress everyone even more. Let's see how this weekend goes, who knows, I might have something to chirp about.?