Wolves Post Match 0-0

[Papasmurf]

18 minutes ago, jayfox26 said:

I honestly think Brendan was caught out today by how defensive Wolves were. It was at times like watching Burnley. They had everyone back other than Jota and Raul and then lumped it over the top for them to chase. We completely controlled the game from a possession point of view but created naff all. Other than the first 5 mins of the 2nd half where they were all over us, the chances they created came from long knocks over the top for Jota and Raul. Completely different to Wolves of last season. We need to be winning our home games though and teams will come here and be even more defensive than wolves so we need to find ways to do that. Far too narrow today and one of either Barnes or Albrighton needs to be starting. 

He needs to wise up sharpish as half the league will come and play that way at our place. 

 

[Paninistickers]

29 minutes ago, jayfox26 said:

I honestly think Brendan was caught out today by how defensive Wolves were. It was at times like watching Burnley. They had everyone back other than Jota and Raul and then lumped it over the top for them to chase. We completely controlled the game from a possession point of view but created naff all. Other than the first 5 mins of the 2nd half where they were all over us, the chances they created came from long knocks over the top for Jota and Raul. Completely different to Wolves of last season. We need to be winning our home games though and teams will come here and be even more defensive than wolves so we need to find ways to do that. Far too narrow today and one of either Barnes or Albrighton needs to be starting. 

Absolutely this. They are quite an odd team and set up. I said it last season.

 

Five lumps at the back who just boot it up any old how. The goalie even kicked it out his hands, ....very 1980s. And they way they switch play with long diagonals to the wings without looking reminded me of John Beck's Cambridge (one for the over 40s)

 

Effective stuff at times. But today they looked very ordinary indeed

 

 

[fuchsntf]

23 minutes ago, jayfox26 said:

Alot of people seem to be panicking needlessly after 1 game. Did Brendan get the team selection  wrong? Yes and no. He didnt know wolves would set out to defend and thought they'd have a go hence having the shield of Hamza and Wilf. On another day, we could have been more attacking and started Barnes or Albrighton and then Wolves could have ripped us a new one and people would have been saying we should have started Hamza to help protect the defence. Brendan has been caught out by unusual negative tactics from wolves. Next week will be different as Chelsea will be all out to win after getting thumped today so I can see us having more space in the final 3rd. If Chelsea defend like they did today, we will create chances. 

no worries...we'll Beat them all  in the Away fixture....

[treer]

Today's game would have been serious setback with a loss, our aim in all honesty is a minimum of seventh, for that given today's opponents, a loss would have been a catastrophe.

BR has gone with this hoping for a win, it hasn't worked, but the main objective was achieved.

A big positive was Cag's performance, so much so that BR took protection for him off earlier than planned and became more offensive, a good pointer for future games.

All in all, although the result was a little disappointing, I think the performance of HM replacement will more than makeup for today, over the season.

Edited 11 August 2019 by treer

[Pliskin]

16 minutes ago, Papasmurf said:

He needs to wise up sharpish as half the league will come and play that way at our place. 

 

I can’t really see Pep saying “**** me lads, did you see the Wolves masterclass the other day at Leicester? Sod sexy football let’s go there and play the Paul S Winson formation”. 

[ian_marshall]

Good point for both sides really. They'll be happy that they've come away from a tricky trip on the road following their recent travels and I'm sure Brendan will be happy that we've not lost ground to a rival especially as they're several weeks ahead of us in terms of their preparations for the season. 

 

Having said the above, I felt that the team shape was all wrong today. I can understand to an extent why we'd go with two holding midfielders in the first half so as not to concede early doors, but we should have started the second half with more attacking intent whilst upping the tempo as they were always going to be suffering from fatigue the longer the game went on. Vardy cut a lonely figure upfront today and the performance was very Puel-esque as we failed to quickly get numbers in the final third upon turning over play.

 

I think today posed more questions than it answered and I'm keen to see how we address some of recurring issues that have plagued us for quite some time. I'm sure these issues will be addressed and I don't think we should be too discouraged by the performance today as it is very early in the season and we have at least taken a point from a very good side. 

[Mint_Fox]

4 hours ago, jayfox26 said:

I agree but I think Brendan will have been surprised how defensive wolves were. They were very attacking all last season and today they piled men behind the ball and relied on long knocks up to jota and raul, which nearly lead to a couple of goals. We really do need to find a way of breaking teams down as most teams outside the top 8 will park the bus at the kp. 

Really? After their long European trip it made perfect sense for themto sit tight and conserve energy. Later in the season I'd agree but today we needed to hit them hard.

[shailen]

Lucky to get a point. Very sloppy on the ball today giving it away all over the place. We overplayed as well and it was a little bit like a throwback to Puels era where Vardy was completely out of the game.

 

However, its only the first game and plenty of time for improvement but most importantly we didn't lose.

[Corky]

Won't last long in the memory. We looked a bit disjointed and the first half was almost a non-event. They stepped it up after half-time and it led to the "goal", fortunately it was disallowed and we managed to increase the amount of corners and possession in their half without ever looking like scoring. Both teams seemed content with a point around 75 minutes.

 

Thought Ndidi was terrific, Soyuncu very accomplished, Evans his usual solid self and flashes from Tielemans and Ricardo but no end product. A real shame we created very little from the amount of corners we won and something that needs to be worked on.

[inckley fox]

It's important not to over-react, obviously. It's a long season and Wolves are a good side. A point is no disaster. On top of that there were some important performances - Soyuncu was good. Ndidi and Evans likewise (though I have to say, as much as he's one of my favourites, I'm not sure I agree with all of the praise for Pereira).

 

However we can't kid ourselves. Today was poor: Very predictable and negative. Little was created. Chilwell, Maddison and Perez were way off the level.

 

It panned out exactly the way you'd have expected when you saw the line-up - narrow, slow in build-up, totally lacking in positive attacking play. I don't want to slate our attacking threats too much nor praise our defensive players too much because it's no coincidence that virtually all of our attack-minded players struggled in that system, and pretty much all our more defensive players thrived. 

[desertfox2]

29 minutes ago, treer said:

Today's game would have been serious setback with a loss, our aim in all honesty is a minimum of seventh, for that given today's opponents, a loss would have been a catastrophe.

BR has gone with this hoping for a win, it hasn't worked, but the main objective was achieved.

A big positive was Cag's performance, so much so that BR took protection for him off earlier than planned and became more offensive, a good pointer for future games.

All in all, although the result was a little disappointing, I think the performance of HM replacement will more than makeup for today, over the season.

Spot on with Cags and the reason for starting with Hamza and Ndidi to let him settle makes a lot of sense, especially for the first game of the season. Fortunately it looks like he's ready to go so we should hopefully line up more attacking from now on.  Wolves are no mugs and they have played more competitive football than us. It's not a terrible result all things considered but we do need to be more of a threat going forwards.

[jeffschlupp]

I enjoyed the game. I thought the tactical battle was really interesting. They are an extremely good side in terms of organisation - if you can defend deep with 9 players and force our full-backs to push on in support, it creates a scary 2v2 between Jimenez, Jota, Evans and Soyuncu, which took us an hour to cut out.

 

Maddison is not as effective out wide but you can see why he's sacrificed for Choudhury given his defensive contributions. Hamza was important in that first half against Dendoncker.

 

Credit to Rodgers for going for it at 60 minutes by bringing Barnes on - he is a really good player to bring off the bench.

 

A point against a side that finished above us last season, and are already 2-3 weeks into competitive football is a good point in my book.

 

We will improve against deep defences - I think there will be games against less potent attacks where Ndidi is sacrificed for Praet to give more creative edge.

[Farrington fox]

Our corners are poor, 11 today and never looked liked getting anything from them. 

[Foxhateram]

3 minutes ago, Farrington fox said:

Our corners are poor, 11 today and never looked liked getting anything from them. 

Bit harsh. We had 3 that dropped on the 6 yard box, anything could have happened. It just was one of those days. 

 

However I do think that was the only area we did miss Maguire/ Morgan today. We had no height in the far post. 

[HankMarvin]

8 minutes ago, Farrington fox said:

Our corners are poor, 11 today and never looked liked getting anything from them. 

Familiar story was actually 12

really need to try someone else and just have Maddison on free kicks 

Edited 11 August 2019 by HankMarvin

[mucfox]

I know it was the first match of a new season, but to be honest, I'm a bit disappointed. There was a lack of pace and aggression. The first half was playfully good (71% ball possession), but the second 45 minutes were the worst half since Brendan Rodgers is the Leicester manager. Unfortunately we do not learn from mistakes. Jamie has been isolated for a very long time. No support far and wide. Everyone else is quite good with the ball, but completely harmless in the attacking zone. The problem is also not a CB. The problems are called Chilwell and Madisson. One, unfortunately, I'm sorry, can not play football at all. The other one still thinks he could play like in the championship. In addition, his divings are only ridiculous and can be very dangerous for us by counter attacks (first half). Madisson has to learn finally that you have to work hard and fight in the Premier League and not just strutting around like a peacock.

Fortunately, there is the new VAR, otherwise we would have lost today.

There is still a lot of work for BR to get nearly close to top6 or top8 - it can only get better...

[StriderHiryu]

Interesting hearing what the manager had to say:

 

“For 0-0, it was a good game,” Rodgers reflected to LCFC Radio. “It was always tense and it’s just nice to get competitive football again. Wolves, you can see that they’ve had a few games in competition phases already, but I thought it was a good game.

“They’re a good side, you can see they’ve been together for a period of time. They’re very good on the counter-attack. They’ve had some big results away from home in particular, so I thought we controlled that element reasonably well.

 

“For us, once we get fitter it’s about being that bit more incisive and more dynamic around the box because we didn’t quite break down their defence enough times in behind.

“The players gave everything. They were very focused in the game and tactically, we dealt with their shape well. It was always going to be a tight game.” 

 

Rodgers says City operated in a 4-3-3 stratagem in an attempt to take control of the midfield, while nullifying the forward play of Raúl Jiménez and Diogo Jota.

 

“We played what would be 4-3-3 and that would put our front three up against their central defenders,” said the manager. “Then, obviously, we looked to control that midfield area.

“The threat that they have is that when they win it, they get two strikers through the middle and they spin out off that. [Diogo] Jota is an outstanding young talent and he’s very quick and fast with the ball.

 

“I thought, in all fairness, that the players coped with it well. Cags (Çağlar Söyüncü), who came in, I was really pleased for him.

 

“A young player coming in and replacing Harry [Maguire] is never going to be easy, but he coped very well with it and I thought he was excellent in the game.

“It was always going to be tight and always going to be a tough game. Probably the Leicester supporters maybe over the years have seen the team maybe lose that 1-0. If you can’t win it, then make sure you don’t lose it, and we take our point and move on.”

 

 

 

Perhaps an element of making excuses here for me, but I'll give the manager the benefit of the doubt! A point is OK and there are some strong foundations to build upon. But hopefully his quote about being incisive and dynamic needs to turn into reality pretty soon!

[Fox92]

Carry on from last season, and not post Puel. I thought we were slow on the ball, a bit congested and Vardy was isolated. Wolves had by far the better opportunities. Also I felt like they were dangerous from set pieces but they are a pretty tall side.

[HankMarvin]

1 minute ago, StriderHiryu said:

Interesting hearing what the manager had to say:

 

“For 0-0, it was a good game,” Rodgers reflected to LCFC Radio. “It was always tense and it’s just nice to get competitive football again. Wolves, you can see that they’ve had a few games in competition phases already, but I thought it was a good game.

“They’re a good side, you can see they’ve been together for a period of time. They’re very good on the counter-attack. They’ve had some big results away from home in particular, so I thought we controlled that element reasonably well.

 

“For us, once we get fitter it’s about being that bit more incisive and more dynamic around the box because we didn’t quite break down their defence enough times in behind.

“The players gave everything. They were very focused in the game and tactically, we dealt with their shape well. It was always going to be a tight game.” 

 

Rodgers says City operated in a 4-3-3 stratagem in an attempt to take control of the midfield, while nullifying the forward play of Raúl Jiménez and Diogo Jota.

 

“We played what would be 4-3-3 and that would put our front three up against their central defenders,” said the manager. “Then, obviously, we looked to control that midfield area.

“The threat that they have is that when they win it, they get two strikers through the middle and they spin out off that. [Diogo] Jota is an outstanding young talent and he’s very quick and fast with the ball.

 

“I thought, in all fairness, that the players coped with it well. Cags (Çağlar Söyüncü), who came in, I was really pleased for him.

 

“A young player coming in and replacing Harry [Maguire] is never going to be easy, but he coped very well with it and I thought he was excellent in the game.

“It was always going to be tight and always going to be a tough game. Probably the Leicester supporters maybe over the years have seen the team maybe lose that 1-0. If you can’t win it, then make sure you don’t lose it, and we take our point and move on.”

 

 

 

Perhaps an element of making excuses here for me, but I'll give the manager the benefit of the doubt! A point is OK and there are some strong foundations to build upon. But hopefully his quote about being incisive and dynamic needs to turn into reality pretty soon!

It’s not the point that the concern it’s that we didn’t really offer much to test their gk.

it was like the forward passing had regressed to Puel ball more than a few times.

Tielmans and Madison guilty of hitting sidewards balls and letting wolves get back with 2 banks of four deep.

hopefully a case of not being fully match fit yet

[pazzerfox]

A very Puel-esq performance!

[GingerrrFox]

Dare I say if that our best team wouldn’t include Maddison?

 

I think the best route forward would be to play the same shape as today but replace Hamza’s position with Praet and Barnes in for Maddison. Then flip a coin to see whether Hamza or Ndidi start in the holding role. 

[Dan LCFC]

It was a poor game. Both teams set up pretty conservatively I thought so it's no surprise that a 0-0 played out. We dominated possesson but we had largely similar problems to what we had last season in the sense we couldn't, and didn't ever really look like breaking them down.

 

All a bit underwhelming if I'm honest, especially given they've just come back from an absolute pig of a journey.

 

Mind hasn't, and won't change on VAR even if we're the beneficiaries this time. We aren't going to be every week. Remember that. I also thought it was a harsh decision. If it had stood I wouldn't be sat here moaning about it.

 

It wasn't rubbish but it was all a bit flat. Wolves will be the happier of the two sides with that.

[LC/FC]

3 hours ago, StriderHiryu said:

Not calling you out specifically for this but want to put some things straight as multiple people are posting similar. 

 

We didn’t play 4231, it was the 433/4141 system used by Rodgers in most games last season. When Wolves had possession our defensive shape had Ndidi central and about 10 yards further back than Hamza and Tielemans. Under Puel we would have had Ndidi and Mendy next to one another as two defensive pivots. Perez started as inside right forward and Maddison as inside left. What was interesting was that when we were on the ball, several times Hamza was the deepest player and Ndidi went forwards. My hypothesis for that is that Hamza is faster so can cover the counter attack better when Wolves break which we know is how they play.  But I’m not the manager so it’s just a guess!

 

I’m not 100% sure I’d say Hamza is an out and out CDM as he sometimes gets shifted to a more box-to-box role like today, but I will say that he’s not a technician. When Maddison went central we had slightly better creativity though I think that’s more due to Barnes driving at players than Maddison getting on the ball! Having Hamza in the team gives us energy and better stability but we miss out on forward thinking passing and creativity. Only Tielemans really seems to try the forward thinking passes in our setup today. Had Praet been fit it would be fascinating to know if he would have started. 

 

Last season versus Man City and Chelsea Rodgers used the 4231 with Hamza and Ndidi next to one another when out of possession. But not today. 

 

It will be interesting to see what shape is used versus Chelsea. 

 

 

 

 

I'm pretty sure I did see at various points it going into the 4231, either by accident or just force small force of habit. But there were times where they were both lined up and Tielemans was further up. 

[dayday]

I remember Rodgers post match comments after the Newcastle game last season, where he said next season they won’t beat us.

 

Well the worrying thing for me Wolves set up pretty similar to Newcastle, but yet again we couldn’t break that sort of team down.

 

I just hope we find a way, as the likes Bournemouth and Southampton etc will come and frustrate, there was a lot of talk pre season about preference for a winger and not a striker, well I’m definitely firmly in the striker camp, a Andy Carroll type player would of made a big difference.

[Dan LCFC]

Oh, not to be too downbeat, I forgot to mention how well Soyuncu did today. His pace is going to allow us to play higher up the pitch. He will make mistakes and people need to accept that, but he did really well today - given the situations he recovered, reliant on his pace, I would go as far as saying we'd have lost that today with Maguire playing. We'd certainly have conceded anyway.