Wolves have endured a really tough start to the new season, which has not really come as a shock to too many.
Wanderers lost their latest Premier League match with Aston Villa 3-1, and there was more frustration about the manner of the defeat.
Wolves were again in a winning position. But they allowed their opponents back into the game.
And there was further bad news for Wolves, as Yerson Mosquera left the field on a stretcher with a knee injury. He will have a scan this coming week to determine the damage.
It is a concerning situation for Wolves.
Gary O’Neil really needs a win, and former Old Gold full-back Andy Thompson feels he knows how the under-pressure Molineux boss can get one.
Andy Thompson urges Wolves to become ‘horrible’
A recurring theme of Wolves games this season has been the making of mistakes.
There is a desire for Wolves to play out from the back, and it is something that is still a major work in progress.
Wolves have been trying to play pretty football, and it simply hasn’t worked a times, with a number of mistakes being made so far.
For Thompson, there must now be a change in approach. He would like to see Wolves become more focused on grinding results out, and being a bit more ‘horrible’ on the pitch.
He said on Matchday Live Extra: “They’ve got to be in their faces. They need to be horrible, in their faces, making it difficult for them, scrapping for every ball, getting in there and knocking them off their performance.
“We don’t (do that right now). We just let them have the ball, no pressure on them, we stand off them and they just pick out their passes and go around us. You can’t afford to keep giving people that much time and space in front of goal.
“We’ve got a talented squad and we’ve somehow got to get the best out of this team, stop conceding goals and also play an ugly style of football.”
Thompson is right
There will be many Wolves fans who agree with Thompson’s sentiments here.
Wolves have tried to play pretty football and build from the back. But the club are now bottom of the Premier League after five games, with the joint-worst defensive record along with Everton.
14 goals conceded so far is alarming, and surely O’Neil needs to change things up in terms of his approach.
Yes, the fixtures have been tough. But Wolves have been far too vulnerable and sometimes it has even felt as though too much respect has been shown to the opponent.
Against Villa, Nelson Semedo did not win his 50-50 against John Duran before Ollie Watkins scored the equaliser. Semedo was also poor in the build-up to the third goal. This kind of thing has summed Wolves up this term.
Overall, Wolves do just need to get nastier, and more unforgiving. It is all about getting points on the board now, and O’Neil would be foolish to persist with his current approach.
