PL W FA Premier League

Wolverhampton Wanderers 0:1 Manchester United

Post-match discussion


Sun, 29 August 2021

Because if we don't address the underlying problem real quick this season is not going to be a title challenge.
Why won't we though? I don't think Ole is unaware of the midfield problem. I think people underestimate how important of a player McTominay is for us. Fred's downturn of form is unfortunate though. It's not a matter of coaching that his first touch is going directly to an opponent's feet. I think with a fit McFred we'd probably be fine. The issue is Donny for me that's one to keep an eye on. Because if Ole doesn't trust him in one of those deeper midfield positions, then going into this season without another transfer is suicide - and I fear Ole will pay for that with his job.

Also, a decision needs to be made with Pogba and that has to be to not play him in midfield unless we're chasing late goals. He has to play with two behind him. I don't trust him with the ball in our half being pressured. He almost always will take an extra touch to find a killer pass rather than take the easy easy off. That's a blessing in the attacking half but a curse in our own half.
 
The boys weren't at their best, but they stuck in there, fought hard and left with three points. They absolutely deserved the three points.
 
Just be happy we came home with 3 points. Be positive, winning the scrappy games is the mark a title winning side.

Complacent. Wolves were better than us bar poor finishing.

On the plus side our defence is now awesome and we are very hard to score against. So maybe we will be nicking a lot of 1-0's
 
Is it possible to forever ban Graeme Sounness from any Man Utd related punditry? He already stinks now :(
 
Complacent. Wolves were better than us bar poor finishing.

On the plus side our defence is now awesome and we are very hard to score against. So maybe we will be nicking a lot of 1-0's
It really didn't look awesome today. There are more menacing teams to face than Wolves' attack too.
 
It really didn't look awesome today. There are more menacing teams to face than Wolves' attack too.

The defence was fine. The midfield was atrocious. The amount of times one ball left us 2 on 2 was awful.
 
That was daylight robbery, but the result is everything. We were all over the place first half, completely overrun in midfield. I gave Varane MOTM; special mention to De Gea for the brilliant double save second half, and to Greenwood for the goal, though the keeper should have saved it. I thought Fred, Sancho and Pogba were particularly bad. In truth Wolves deserved at least a draw; we need to improve dramatically.
 
The defence was fine. The midfield was atrocious. The amount of times one ball left us 2 on 2 was awful.
Yeah, you're probably right with the midfield being bad. But why was this - Fred letting the team down or Pogba also not being defensively sound? It's probably a mixture of both.

Aside from midfield there were 1 or 2 defensive worries for me. For example Maguire giving Trincao/Jiminez (one of the two) a lot of space behind him when they were played through for a snap shot on goal.
 
Never going to change, unfortunately. Buy a CDM, a weaker position would be looked at by Ole's fanclub - say AWB and say - we need a right-back otherwise Ole can't challenge. Then maybe De Gea or whatever. It's a cycle. The fact is - Ole is simply not good enough to take this team to the next level and actually challenge for the title. If this team had Klopp at the helm, we'd be walking with the league comfortably. Hell, this might sound strange and utterly moronic, but I really wouldn't be pissed all that much if we lost to Wolves, but we actually played well and dominated them. Instead they made us look like relegation fodder and I simply can't stand by and watch that. It brings me back to the Dark Ages of Moyesy's football.

Fully agreed. Also you’re right about Klopp with this team, he’d be dominating the Prem and Europe
 
Thought Varane looked decent which is a big plus going forward. De Gea back to his best bailing us out the last two weeks too.
Massive improvement needed from midfield but it’s been a decent start to the season and with Ronaldo coming in after the break you’d like to think we can kick on big time.
 
Yeah, you're probably right with the midfield being bad. But why was this - Fred letting the team down or Pogba also not being defensively sound? It's probably a mixture of both.

Aside from midfield there were 1 or 2 defensive worries for me. For example Maguire giving Trincao/Jiminez (one of the two) a lot of space behind him when they were played through for a snap shot on goal.

At this point ole playing pogba that deep is a liability. Everyone knows he needs to be further up the pitch and that he loses the ball a lot but makes up for it with his passing. I have no clue why we didn't lineup similar to Southampton but Sancho instead of James and varane instead of lindelof. We werr completely open the whole match and any other team in the league beats us today but because wolves can't finish to save their lives we got a result.

So, yes, pogba let the team down a bit but he always will in the same position.. Fred was abysmal. Like not even Arsenal level today
 
Except it's not the end. It's an ongoing problem. And we had to watch an awful game of football. Ole sounded awfully complacent in the post match interview.
You mean he wasn't pissing and moaning about everything? My god, sack him immediately.
 
It really didn't look awesome today. There are more menacing teams to face than Wolves' attack too.

Well a clean sheet under severe pressure from a totally dominated midfield is pretty impressive I think.
 
I'm crying genuine tears for Wolves. They were the moral winners etc.

United though, they were the actual winners.

I love it when we win like that. Really upsets all the ABUs. Notice how there was none of this when spurs robbed them last week? It's all okay when spurs do it.
 
Not an easy game, but a bad performance non the less, fantastic three points. Did we really create a single chance? Mysterious how they did not score, luckily de Gea is not as shit as many on here delude themselves into thinking. Varane super positive, even bagged an assist.

My joy for football returned when the season started, with fans and proper feel to it - but after Soton and today I quickly remember why last season was so lethargic. Sorry Ole, I am not entertained! We play boring football and it sucks being so far behind the best teams when it comes to attacking patterns, runs and consistency. Complete lack of control, worrying stuff that would never be acceptable elsewhere. Hopefully even Ole can’t stifle our team when Ronaldo arrives…. here’s to hoping.
 
Got away with one there, couldn’t have had any complaints if we lost that. Today’s performance highlights once again that midfield is a priority, Fred is a fighter but his passing is comical at times. Varane looked solid and Sancho will come good but such is the standard now that every point is crucial, just cannot afford to fall behind the leading pack.
Wanna bet that there wouldn’t have been any complaints? In this place? We won but you’d think we’d been relegated
 
Not an easy game, but a bad performance non the less, fantastic three points. Did we really create a single chance? Mysterious how they did not score, luckily de Gea is not as shit as many on here delude themselves into thinking. Varane super positive, even bagged an assist.

My joy for football returned when the season started, with fans and proper feel to it - but after Soton and today I quickly remember why last season was so lethargic. Sorry Ole, I am not entertained! We play boring football and it sucks being so far behind the best teams when it comes to attacking patterns, runs and consistency. Complete lack of control, worrying stuff that would never be acceptable elsewhere. Hopefully even Ole can’t stifle our team when Ronaldo arrives…. here’s to hoping.
This. With our players we should be so much better. We looked it briefly against Leeds. Hope we improve
 
I'm crying genuine tears for Wolves. They were the moral winners etc.

United though, they were the actual winners.

I love it when we win like that. Really upsets all the ABUs. Notice how there was none of this when spurs robbed them last week? It's all okay when spurs do it.
Crying genuine tears for another plastic side? Feck them. Team and supporters still giving us stick for Duncan Edwards. They can do one
 
Varane was a beast. On the ground and in the air. What a signing!

Sancho needs to lose a few pounds before his brain is able to write cheques his body can cash.

Greenwood aka "Black Persie" is masking Oles lack of coaching ability.

Bruno needs to be reminded of where a number 10 plays and not just be loitering up front because it worked once against Leeds. He sold Pogba and Fred out today

Fred had a tough ask but failed miserably today. Putting an exclaimation mark against our need for a CDM that can run, defend and pass as a minimum.

We're always better when Cavani is on the pitch because he does normal things that a striker would do and it helps us build pressure on teams.

James was poor today although I still think there's a role for him here. I'd rather see Lingard and Martial leave before him. Martial is just an inferior version of Ronaldo so surplus to requirements. He never quite had the hunger to want to be a megastar. He had all the tools to succeed too which is a bitch.

Shaw was very sloppy and didn't do anything with conviction today.

Good to see De Gea look and sound motivated again. He now believes we're capable of challenging with the 3 new signings coming in.

Ole's plan was shockingly bad and it took a snatch and grab today to bring any kind of positives out of the game.

I'm going to the Newcastle game and can't wait to see Ronaldo, Varane and Sancho make their home debuts. What a transfer window.

Sign a CDM and sell Martial and Lingard and it's THE perfect window.
 
The defence was fine. The midfield was atrocious. The amount of times one ball left us 2 on 2 was awful.

Agreed. Untracked midfielders running at you from deep is one of the worst things you can face as a defence. Given the number of times it happened we dealt with it well.
 
Still don't think Pogba and Bruno work in the same XI. One good game against Leeds doesn't change that. Bruno is honestly more of a striker and Pogba has no positional discipline for a 6 or 8 role. We're basically playing a one-man midfield.
 
Still seeing the exact same issues we have for 3 years now DM or no DM. There is still complaints of ineffective wing play, an extremely slow tempo, a complete lack of ideas breaking down a low block, Pogba in a double pivot and a reliance on individuals.

Wolves dominated us for about 85 minutes and should have won the game while we got bailed out by a goalkeeper making one of the saves of the season, awb being spider man and a generational talent scoring out of absolutely nothing. I mean for all the talent we add to this squad it doesn't actually improve the performances it makes it more and more clear how little philosophy there actually is out there unless they are able to attack the space and counter.

Not necessarily an Ole out post either he deserves at least a season, primarily because there isn't even any elite coaches available anyway, i just don't see how we are ever going to win any major honours until these problems are sorted out, especially in the league.
 
Yes, Fred and Pogba didn't shield well. But it seemed to me that the gap between the midfield 2 and the back 4 was huge when we were in their half (except for the couple of times that Varane and Maguire closed down quickly and were penalized by good ol' Mike Dean). And then on the other hand, when we were building out from the back, there was way too much space between the midfield 2 and the front 4.
 
I think losing that one 2-1 would have been a fair result. If not for the heroic defending of AWB and DeGea (and yes, keepers are supposed to make saves but that second save was awesome), we drop 3 points. In the end we came away with the points but we are playing a suicidal game with Fred and Pogba in a double pivot. They way Fred got brushed aside like a gnat is seriously worrying. When we did have the ball we were our own worst enemies by playing the short easy passes straight to the other team, trying long range passing with zero accuracy, and basically having no shape going forward and no transition in attack (or vice versa). The number of times we got caught out upfield was alarming and if Traore wasn't a fecking bulldozer with concrete boots we would have been seriously punished.
 
Had a quick look at Wolves stats vs Spurs and Leicester. We had exactly the same amount of possession as Leicester and lot more possession than Spurs. Wolves had 25 shots to Spurs 8 and 19 shots to 7 against Leicester (15 v 10 against us)

Considering we were away from home and a bunch of our players had poor games I’m starting to think we didn’t do too bad overall. First half was gash but we were pretty dominant in the second half and deserved the 3 points no less than Spurs/Leicester.

Tough start for Wolves. Be interesting to see how they do in the next few games. That will tell us a lot about how good a result we got today.
 
Never going to change, unfortunately. Buy a CDM, a weaker position would be looked at by Ole's fanclub - say AWB and say - we need a right-back otherwise Ole can't challenge. Then maybe De Gea or whatever. It's a cycle. The fact is - Ole is simply not good enough to take this team to the next level and actually challenge for the title. If this team had Klopp at the helm, we'd be walking with the league comfortably. Hell, this might sound strange and utterly moronic, but I really wouldn't be pissed all that much if we lost to Wolves, but we actually played well and dominated them. Instead they made us look like relegation fodder and I simply can't stand by and watch that. It brings me back to the Dark Ages of Moyesy's football.
I haven't been Ole out at all, but I'm getting there now. Performances like this are completely unacceptable. If people think any CDM replacing Fred is going to change this performance much, they're deluding themselves. You can't defend large amount of space alone. The whole team was bad. We're so slow in possession. Basically playing a 4-2-4 formation. Pogba gets the ball and you watch every forward of ours make a forward run. There was a period where I watched Cavani, Bruno, and Mason standing about 5 yards apart from each other. Our setup is absolutely shocking.

If somebody watching this had no idea which team was supposed to be challenging for the title, they'd think it was Wolves. We looked shocking defensively and offensively. We should have been 4-0 down before we scored. This is one of the worst performances I've ever seen from us. I don't even care that we won. It was that bad. Our players are better than this. The coaches are not getting anywhere near the best out of the talent we have.
 
I know a lot of focus and criticism has been on our midfield personnel (whomever is playing) but like with most things I think it is a bit more complicated than that.

In the Wolves match today, when Pogba had the ball deep there were 2 Wolves players pressing him and 2 covering Fred. Only possible outlets were the fullbacks who were hugging the touchline, the forward 4 (which would mean a precise long ball.....not easy when you are being pressed) or back to the defence (which happens a lot with us).

If one of your teammates is in possession I always thought it was fundamentals to get a few of your players to create passing options for them which means MOVING into space. City do this very well. There's always plenty of options to choose..for some unfathomable reason we don't
 

Man of the Match

David de Gea image David de Gea 66% of 459 votes

Runners-up

Player Ratings

6.0 Total Average Rating

Highest Rated Player

Lowest Rated Player

Compiled from 450 ratings.

Score Predictions

233,15,35
  • Man Utd win
  • Wolves win
  • Draw

Detailed Results

  • 26% Wolves 1:2 Man Utd
  • 20% Wolves 0:2 Man Utd
  • 12% Wolves 1:3 Man Utd
  • 12% Wolves 0:3 Man Utd
  • 9% Wolves 1:1 Man Utd
  • 6% Wolves 0:1 Man Utd
  • 2% Wolves 0:0 Man Utd
  • 2% Wolves 1:4 Man Utd
  • 2% Wolves 1:0 Man Utd
  • 2% Wolves 2:1 Man Utd
  • 1% Wolves 2:3 Man Utd
  • 1% Wolves 0:5 Man Utd
  • 1% Wolves 2:2 Man Utd
  • 1% Wolves 5:0 Man Utd
  • 1% Wolves 2:0 Man Utd
  • 0% Wolves 0:4 Man Utd
  • 0% Wolves 3:5 Man Utd
  • 0% Wolves 1:5 Man Utd
  • 0% Wolves 3:1 Man Utd
Compiled from 283 predictions.
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Match Stats

  1. Wolves
  2. Man Utd
Possession
44% 56%
Shots
15 10
Shots on Target
6 3
Corners
5 7
Fouls
7 9

Referee

Mike Dean