06 Dec 2020 23:11:57
Re: previous post and Jas M reply ; REALLY hate to say 'told you so ', it gives me no great pleasure. We are miles off top 4, we have NO STRIKERS! and before 'Jan window' we have to play Chelski, ManUre and Spuds not to mention 'the Veela'! Being a Wolves fan of 55 years, I would be ecstatic with 10th, a cup run and smashing both our local rivals! Having no fear of relegation, I see this season as a 'free hit' whereby we can, sensibly, blood some our crop of talented youngsters.
I am not party to our transfer strategy, but maybe cash in Adama to fund 2/ 3 new attacking players! We have half of a very good PL side, however some of our top performers from the last 3 years, unfortunately, need to be upgraded. I am totally full of hope and excitement for the future, more than ever before. I believe in Nuno and Fosun, and we need to trust them, going forward . Not to be so delusional right now. Hope you agree and understand FWAW .
07 Dec 2020 06:55:38
I understand fully the most important part of your post Prestonwolf you're 100% passionate and love the wolves.
07 Dec 2020 07:41:59
Preston, I agree with you. Between now and Jan it will be difficult playing without a recognised striker. Fabio needs to start although I think this season was one for him to be integrated into the system like Adama a few seasons ago. If Cutrone isn't wanted by Fiorentina, we could terminate the loan and bring him back for the next month or so to either play him or just until we get a new striker.
07 Dec 2020 08:55:17
Hi All, Sadly Semedo and Marcel for the price we paid are nowhere near as good as Jonny Otto, and Docherty, In fact when Jonny is back they will not be in the team, Jonny is naturally Right footed so will replace Semedo.
They are certainly not wing backs, semedo is afraid to go forward, you would not mind if he was an exceptional defender which he is not, money wasted in my opinion.
Maybe I am wrong time will tell.
Kilman needs to return to the defence, shame he has been dropped in the new system.
07 Dec 2020 09:53:22
Yellowstone, Doherty was an average player prior to Nuno taking the reigns, same as Coady. Nuno has transformed them both. Doherty has hardly hit the same heights at Spurs since his move. I know he's been out with the virus lately but prior to that he wasn't playing well at Spurs and was dropped. He is now fully fit and can't get in the team so that suggests that he was better suited to the formation we play. I don't know if your watching a different player but the Semedo at Wolves does like to venture forward. We've had one bad game against possibly the best team in Europe and you seem to think its the end of the world. Granted, we didn't play well last night but one game does not make a season. We are still 10th place and 7 points from the top. This season is very tight so let's not get too down hearted unless we're suffering losses week after week like Sheff Utd, Burnley, Baggies and Fulham. Have faith.
07 Dec 2020 10:53:21
JAS.
You're right, semedo does get forward to a degree but not in the same way Doherty did. He's not a goal threat as Doc was so that leaves us 5 or 6 goals short this season. What's even more worrying is his positional sense or lack of it when defending. He was awful yesterday. The 4th goal, not only did he put it in the net but he caused the problem 50 yards out by switching off and losing Mane.
He does have some class on the ball but at 26 is he really going to start to learn to defend. Time will tell I suppose but right now he hasn't strengthened the team and looks very expensive for what he offers.
07 Dec 2020 11:20:45
Hi Jas, Please tell me when Nelson Semedo has impressed you, given his 36 mill price tag, maybe I am critical but I he has not impressed me.
His he as good as Jonny Otto?
07 Dec 2020 12:10:01
Hi my twopennys worth is on current performances semedo is not as good as Doherty was for us.
But saying that doherty was long serving before nuno came where as semedo is new to the club.
In time semedo should be a lot better than Doherty ever was but as fans we want semedo to be his best right now.
The huge 35 million we payed for semedo is because he was for an amount of significant time Barcelona first choice right back so the ability and talent is there we/ or I just want to see it.
07 Dec 2020 12:45:12
Watching game this morning, as I type, on Prime but having read all comments on here and forum and mix.
Obviously a lot of negativity.
But to address just one issue that appears consistently across the sites.
Last week I replied to a thread similar to Yellowstone's above that compared Doherty and Semedo and I said that at the relative prices (and price was the key point) we had not done well.
This did not go down well!
However today across all sites there is virtually uniform agreement that Semedo is not good (enough? )
Despite that fact that I have been critical of him from the get go I suspect that many of the comments are more than a little harsh and as a RWB he will prove over the remainder of this season to be a competent Premier League player.
I acknowledge that my antipathy is partially based on 3 things all of which are probably a little unfair.
1 I was being told he was absolutely brilliant by the seemingly vast number of people on the various sites who apparently watch Spanish football or who simply assumed that 100 games for Barcelona make you a great player. {Whilst the latter point must hold some water as surely Barcelona can have who ever they like at RB, (and indeed he also plays and gets rave reviews for Portugal who also will have options), I think we should be aware that playing RB at Barcelona is a lot easier than probably anywhere else in the world}. However as a natural sceptic who doesn't like being TOLD things but wants to know it/ see it myself there was a "well go on show me then! " attitude i. e. I was unfairly against him from the off
2 he was replacing one of my favourite players who I felt we had sold way below his true value - the jury is out on that now given his travails at Spurs
3 we were paying a vast sum for him - far more than we were willing to pay for AMN who I knew a little bit about and thus "naturally" preferred.
What is fair though is that he is not a RB but a RWB - he may be quick ( although Mane was quicker) but his defensive brain is v slow and he simply doesn't react fast enough to impending danger.
This may improve with coaching but I fear he cannot at present play in a 4 at the back
So its either 5 at the back (Sadly given all the other things going on in the teams I fear that at present this is the only real option) or Hoever ( until Otto is back)
Yellowstone includes Marcal in the mix as well but in my opinion that is harsh as pound for pound Marcal was our best signing by several country miles. Indeed I suspect he will hold his place once Otto returns with Otto moving to R (W) B and Semedo dropping out- which of course means that with Semedo having cost over £30m more than Marcal my comment of last week is in my view still valid!
07 Dec 2020 12:59:49
Yellowstone, I'm not saying Semedo has impressed me. What I said was he does like to attack whilst you said he doesn't. Also, why would Jonny replace him at right back when Jonny has spend the last 2 seasons on the left. If he does return and play on the right, then yes I'll admit that Nuno has made a massive mistake by signing a £36m and not playing him in his favoured position whereas Jonny can play on either side. Mind you, no one was slating Semedo last week when he had Aubameyang and co in his pocket.
07 Dec 2020 13:11:44
Hi Phil, Beg to differ, Semedo was not 1st choice at Barcelona, he was not able to get into the team.
I know I keep going on about him, I am just find it hard to justify the 36 mill, at 26 he should be the finished article.
At least when Jonny Otto is fit again he can play right wing back which is his natural position he only played left side because of the Doc being there.
Maybe time will prove me wrong, but as yet he does not fill you with confidence.
07 Dec 2020 14:26:26
All - I think it is fair to say that Semedo does get forward ( in fact far better than he gets back! ) but as Sharesum says he does it in a different way to Doherty.
I actually think he is more comfortable on the ball and is probably quicker BUT he doesn't have Doherty's drive, power, energy, imagination, vision or ambition.
I guess when you are at Barcelona all you are told to do is keep it tidy and give it to the better players ( and there were 1 or 2).
He needs to be more aggressive going forward and make things happen himself because Messi isn't going to do it for us!
At £36m he was a v bad buy but that doesn't mean that he isn't a good player. If we had paio £2m like Marcal we would be saying it was a good buy and you can't blame him for the fee paid!
I am pretty sure he already is a perfectly competent player who could develop with a bit more fire in his belly and perhaps confidence. That is hard to get though in a team playing so badly and surrounded players off form or on the down slope of their careers.
I will try and stop being negative about him and Silva ( who has had even less of a chance but sadly from the v few minutes seen doesn't look like he is a competent Prem footballer yet) and be ore positive but with our fixture list over next few weeks that maybe hard.
07 Dec 2020 14:38:27
Hi Yellowstone I'm under the assumption semedo was first choice for a season or 2 then lost his place, so he wasn't first choice when we signed him as you say.
I'm sure I had read that but you know me I'm prone to misread things.
Thefutureisoldgold great post,
The price tag if not living up to it you are always going to get criticism.
Doherty I have no doubt it has disrupted the squad.
When we play really poor everything that can be criticised is understandably bought up by fans, but we played real well last week well at least for 70 minutes and that is forgotten but not by me.
I have exactly the same fears and worries as everyone else I'm no different I just like to divert my thinking to what we have proved we can do. (play well)
07 Dec 2020 15:29:54
82 games in 3 seasons for Barcelona. Not bad for a bit part player.
{Ed001's Note - he was sold because they are well over the salary cap in La Liga. Even after the players agreed to cut 100m euros and defer a further 50m, they still need to cut 100m more euros off their wage bill!}
07 Dec 2020 16:12:50
Yellow- you are wrong I'm afraid, the season before we signed him Semedo started 32 out of 38 league games how's that bit part exactly?! Also look at the Barcelona fans reaction when they sold because for the most part they were not happy about it. However on the flip side what I would query is how much time when playing for Barcelona in La Liga does a full back actually spend on the defensive side of things?! Not as much as he will at our place that's for sure! Fingers crossed he's just adapting cause at the moment he doesn't look like he could find the right defensive position with a sat nav! In Nuno we trust ðŸ‘ðŸº.
07 Dec 2020 18:12:54
All the above excellent posts
I agree it is true to say playing in defence premier league is vastly different for Barcelona, but whatever the Semedo money has been spent now, I doubt we will get the amount back.
Please by all means come on the site and slate me later on this season if Semendo proves me wrong.
On another note
Sadly Kilman who has been very competent has been sacrificed in this so called better defending system.
07 Dec 2020 19:47:46
Given the players we have, I personally think we need to play with a back three/ five. Our full backs are better suited to being wing backs but more importantly our centre backs are not quick or nimble enough to operate as a two. Against Chelsea last year we changed the system to a back four to try to get back in the game and really struggled. Coady operating as the free player in our tried and tested system is a huge part of our success. He is able to start attacks from that deep lying position, gains valuable seconds to adjust his position when defending and is not as exposed aerially as he would be playing as one of two centre backs.
Revert back to that which has served us well for last 36 months. It is in midfield where we need to address personnel changes as they are not creating opportunities for those ahead of them. We have forwards who are capable of running at defenders and taking them on but they are not receiving the incisive passes from midfield. They are collecting the ball from shuffled sideways passes in the middle third of the pitch. I can’t remember the last time I saw one of our midfield players collect the ball on the move and break through the opposition’s midfield and run at their defence. Desperately need more craft, guile and pace in midfield. At present they are far too predictable. They are making the passes that if I had the same ability I would have made. What we need is them to make the passes that we wouldn’t see. Can’t remember the last time one of our midfielders played a pass that did that.
07 Dec 2020 20:55:05
Escosse wolf.
You are bang on regarding our midfield.
07 Dec 2020 21:50:00
Ecosse = superb post.
Given the pace in our front line - Podendce, Traore and Neto - I'd take this further and ask for passes that let them run on through channels AND behind the defence not just giving them the ball in positions to isolate defenders and run at their men.
Traore in particular always seems to get the ball standing still and marked by at least one player and has to perform a miracle (WHICH HE DOES REGULARLY) to even start to run at the defence.
{Maybe though its his fault and the reasons the passes don't come is that he doesn't make the runs? }
Neves used to be a brilliant passer and Moutinho has been a world class midfielder with superb invention and creativity - why are they now, as Ecosse says, often passing short square passes to, (marked), players?
Is it that our front players are lazy or just not good enough to see/ time the runs OR is it tactics not to stretch the pitch length ways but only width wise OR the mids are no longer up to it?
It is surely one of these because we simply aren't hurting teams by having our players, (and in theory this could be Semedo or RAN), running on to forward passes as often as we surely should!
Also given we don't have Jimenez anymore getting to the corner flag and crossing it into an empty box ( or one populated by players as short as Podence or Neto ) is often a pretty pointless tactic. Playing forward passes through channels and using our pace and skill to attack defenders is surely the way to go?