08 Mar 2023 14:26:09
{Ed's Note - Thefutureisoldgold has posted a new article entitled, Wolverhampton Wanderers Accounts
09 Mar 2023 06:52:58
Morning Thefutureisoldgold,
An excellent summary of our situation. I would say that, as I am in violent agreement with your views!
Mr Guangchang must strengthen the commercial side of the Club, otherwise we will be in trouble.
6 years of failure on generating significant revenue from Inward Investment is strangling our future ability to fund the squad development.
09 Mar 2023 11:19:52
Good summary Tfiog but Wolves continue to generate 'credible links' to new players so are we actually short of money or is there 'room' in our FFP account to spend further, without letting too many go in the summer.
Additional to that Wolves allegedly plan to make Traore a very good offer to stay so does that point to a change in playing style as well? The most successful periods in Wolves recent history have involved 3/5 at the back, with Nuno and Bruno both getting the results when we played like that. Traore's pace in counter attacks would be an important constituent so is JL preparing to make that change and move away from 4 at the back?
JL's substitutions have generally proven to be spot on but in the Spurs game he changed the style as well, with great success. In my humble opinion we've only struggled whilst trying to implement a 4 at the back style irrespective of our transfer successes or failures. Is it time to return to the style that gives us a more attacking momentum, a sharper point on our spear, and at least create the potential for more goals. Jimenez alone appeared re-vitalised by it.
09 Mar 2023 13:21:53
Long we are already commited to buying Cunha so I'm not expecting too much more depending as you say on who goes. However as I have said regulalrly before I am quite confident in our squad. I think we have sufficient quality in goal, across the back, (maybe a back up RB required) in mid (assuming Neves stays and Nunes eventually becomes the player we hope he is) and up front except for the CF (where wouldn't it be great if either Jimenez recovered or Fabio blossomed or maybe even Sasa turned out to be good signing).
I have always been a big big fan of the system and if JL wanted to go that way again I would not object! It would probably mean that we need another CD to cover the "sweeper" role and perhaps Coady might come back and would probably mean that we have too many CMs although Moutinho surely will play less if at all next year?
On a related note did anyone read the astonishing article in the Birmingham Mail. We all know about Xg but this article discussed Xa -expected assists. No one would be surprised to hear that the current leader of individual Xa was Kevin De Bruyne but I was shocked and amazed to see that number 2 wasn't from Arsenal or indeed another Man City player but mind blowingly one of ours - yes a Wolves player!
09 Mar 2023 14:24:51
Who Tfog?
09 Mar 2023 14:55:23
Who Thefutureisoldgold?
I tried searching Birmingham mail but didn't see anything you vaguely mentioned.
09 Mar 2023 15:20:50
The article was by Alex Dicken and was headlined "Jimenez anger and Lopetegui genius"
Abbey and Phil who would you think is Wolves most creative player - he obviousy must make quite a few chances ( and we don't make any as a team in total) to be number two in the whole league!
09 Mar 2023 15:41:51
These are the only figures I could find as of Feb 2023.
Kevin De Bruyne (£7m) – 73
Kieran Trippier (£6.6m) – 70
Bruno Fernandes (£6m) – 66
Andreas Pereira (£2.9m) – 53
Martin Odegaard (£3.2m) – 51
Bukayo Saka (£4.5m) – 50
James Ward-Prowse (£3.5m) – 49
Pascal Gross (£2.9m) – 45
Trent Alexander-Arnold (£5m) – 41
Harry Kane (£8m) – 41
09 Mar 2023 17:01:01
Creating chances Adama as its your favourite player pure quest mate.
09 Mar 2023 18:00:14
guess not quest sorry
09 Mar 2023 18:20:05
Arddunby, are those Xa or actual assists?
Traore article
Did say i was shocked!
09 Mar 2023 19:03:23
I assume it'll be traore A. Tfig.
10 Mar 2023 06:47:37
Thefutureisoldgold,
Appreciate your article even though I don't join in discussion I like very much to sit back and read.
All the best.
Keep the faith.
Hoping for 3 points and not
out the question for Adama to go on a purple patch.
Jiminez to score a header from an excellent Adama cross against Newcastle.
We score another goal we win 0-2
COYW
10 Mar 2023 11:08:51
Phil - what years did you follow the Speedway. I went in the late 60s/early 70s and have tentatively followed on and off over the years. Ole Olsen George Hunter Finn Thomsen etc etc.
10 Mar 2023 11:13:29
TFIOG, the data comes from an article entitled:
MEET YOUR PLAYMAKER Which players have created the most chances in the Premier League this season?
It goes on to state:
"De Bruyne is known for his fizzed crosses and clever throughballs and given he’s got 12 league assists to his name this term (four more than his closest rival) it makes sense that he’s the league’s leading creator in every possible sense"
While it's not exactly clear if this is referring o xa the article then proceeds to give an xa figure for Kieran Trippier who is second in the list, stating:
"Interestingly, Trippier has generated 7.4 expected assists (xA) in the top flight this season, the second-most among all players, which suggest his team-mates have not made the most of his output as he’s only got four actual assists."
So I think they are assists but it's not really clear.
Not sure this really helps much.
10 Mar 2023 11:20:46
Hi Thefutureisoldgold my bro and I were young early 80's.
My uncle was a biker and into the speedway.
We only went once but always remember the experience.
How loud it was the smell of the fuel coming out the bikes.
When I think about the wolves speedway always remember my uncle with a happy memory.
10 Mar 2023 11:46:02
That smell was Castor oil Phil, they use it in Speedway because its 'stickier' and more resistant to being washed off the engine's bore by the methanol based fuels they run on.
Castor oils is a pretty awesome vegetable oil based lubricant with that distinctive, and to petrol heads like me, great smell.
10 Mar 2023 11:55:42
TFIOG if you can navigate this mountain of stats it may shed more light on this!
10 Mar 2023 15:48:12
Arrdunby - wow not sure I have enough years left to do these justice!
Your first list looks pretty realistic though in members - alhough surprised that the Fulham chap was so high. However the numbers are amazingly high, nearly 3 a game at the top end. Our whole team has barely made that many a game in quite a while now and even though I am a big fan it is clear that in the handful of minutes a game he plays Traore can't be anywhere near that level so have to accept it is a v odd comment in the Birmingham mail. {I guess it depends on how you interpret a chance - perhaps these figures are more generous than my eye?}
Perhaps the article was either being v v generous as to what a chance is when viewing Traore or perhaps comparing chance creation per 90 or just plain wrong.
Hopefully he and the rest of the team can start to put all this "right" over the rest of the season.
Keep the faith!
10 Mar 2023 15:52:41
Arrdunby - just read your post again. It seems to indicate that real assists and Xa are barely related at all! for De Bruyne 73 to 12 and Trippier 70 to 4?
10 Mar 2023 17:00:26
TFIOG if you look at the passes maps shown in the second post link most of Traores xA pass data is limited to the attacking right quarter (about 12 by the look of it)
Do a search for Kevin de Bruyne whose xA pass data covers almost all parts of the attacking left and right.
So yes there does seem little relationship, significant parts of Trippiers xA pass data appears to come from corners. I'm not sure how to correctly interpret the data to be honest.