Wolves - Nottingham Forest

[Liars Bar]

Just got back. Absolutely dreadful from start to finish. Only players to come off with any credit were McKenna, Cook and maybe MGW.
Williams was abysmal and can see why
Fulham made no attempt to sign him.
We’ve waited 23 years for this and cocked it right up on and off the pitch.

[ozzyten10]

Seeing DJed and garner tonight hasn’t helped my mood

[McDurban]

Just got back. Absolutely dreadful from start to finish. Only players to come off with any credit were McKenna, Cook and maybe MGW.
Williams was abysmal and can see why
Fulham made no attempt to sign him.
We’ve waited 23 years for this and cocked it right up on and off the pitch.

It's not over yet. Long way to go.

[McDurban]

That was disappointing.

[zicorice]

Positives
- Should have been 1-1 near end. We are too crap to be able to miss pens.
- CBs looked solid again.
- Hendo avoided 8th consecutive long range goal.
- Avoided traffic on way in.
- Mangala looks fit again.
- Only 50 odd mile drive home.
- We dont have to live in Wolverhampton.

Negatives
- Crap stewarding for entry to ground.
- Crappy away section
- Shocking 1st half. Only some great defending by CBs and bad finishing kept it 0-0.
- We don't seem to be able to relax in possession at all.
- Freuler teased us against Villa, then back to normal yesterday.
- We appear to lack any decent fit in form full backs at the club. Genuinely rather see Colback at LB at present.
- Yet again MGW was nearly good, nearly put in a killer pass or two, nearly won tackles and nearly hit target. Alot of f@(King money for a nearly man, but still young I suppose.
- Jonno looks a shadow of player we all love. Only 21 I suppose  so hopefully picks up after a spell coming off bench maybe.
- How long must Surridge pay for his strop? Clearly our most effective CF, albeit a very low bar.
- Wolves CBs look shocking, yet we still couldn't score (how bad must Boly be to have been 3rd choice?)
- Zero points again and back to bottom.

I actually trimmed the negative list and added to positives to not appear like a "negative nancy".

[Sniffer Dog (Admin)]

Positives
- Should have been 1-1 near end. We are too crap to be able to miss pens.
- CBs looked solid again.
- Hendo avoided 8th consecutive long range goal.
- Avoided traffic on way in.
- Mangala looks fit again.
- Only 50 odd mile drive home.
- We dont have to live in Wolverhampton.

Negatives
- Crap stewarding for entry to ground.
- Crappy away section
- Shocking 1st half. Only some great defending by CBs and bad finishing kept it 0-0.
- We don't seem to be able to relax in possession at all.
- Freuler teased us against Villa, then back to normal yesterday.
- We appear to lack any decent fit in form full backs at the club. Genuinely rather see Colback at LB at present.
- Yet again MGW was nearly good, nearly put in a killer pass or two, nearly won tackles and nearly hit target. Alot of f@(King money for a nearly man, but still young I suppose.
- Jonno looks a shadow of player we all love. Only 21 I suppose  so hopefully picks up after a spell coming off bench maybe.
- How long must Surridge pay for his strop? Clearly our most effective CF, albeit a very low bar.
- Wolves CBs look shocking, yet we still couldn't score (how bad must Boly be to have been 3rd choice?)
- Zero points again and back to bottom.

I actually trimmed the negative list and added to positives to not appear like a "negative nancy".

With statues and zero movement ahead of him what is he supposed to do? He is the best passer of a football we have by a mile.

[Paplane]

Positives
- Should have been 1-1 near end. We are too crap to be able to miss pens.
- CBs looked solid again.
- Hendo avoided 8th consecutive long range goal.
- Avoided traffic on way in.
- Mangala looks fit again.
- Only 50 odd mile drive home.
- We dont have to live in Wolverhampton.

Negatives
- Crap stewarding for entry to ground.
- Crappy away section
- Shocking 1st half. Only some great defending by CBs and bad finishing kept it 0-0.
- We don't seem to be able to relax in possession at all.
- Freuler teased us against Villa, then back to normal yesterday.
- We appear to lack any decent fit in form full backs at the club. Genuinely rather see Colback at LB at present.
- Yet again MGW was nearly good, nearly put in a killer pass or two, nearly won tackles and nearly hit target. Alot of f@(King money for a nearly man, but still young I suppose.
- Jonno looks a shadow of player we all love. Only 21 I suppose  so hopefully picks up after a spell coming off bench maybe.
- How long must Surridge pay for his strop? Clearly our most effective CF, albeit a very low bar.
- Wolves CBs look shocking, yet we still couldn't score (how bad must Boly be to have been 3rd choice?)
- Zero points again and back to bottom.

I actually trimmed the negative list and added to positives to not appear like a "negative nancy".

With statues and zero movement ahead of him what is he supposed to do? He is the best passer of a football we have by a mile.

I think he's worth persisting with. He's clearly a talented footballer.

[DR Forest]

No chance about Steven Reid. People are grasping at straws. We got promoted too early. We didn’t keep enough players from last year. We recruited poorly. We have had some key injuries. Cooper underestimated the premiership quality and played too open in first 7 games. He has adopted a pragmatic approach.

I agree but who do we think are the bad buys?
Freuler is obviously a good player but without gelling yet, as are obrien, mangala, dennis.
Niakhate looked good but has been injured, same for Aurier, and we haven’t seen Biancone Bade Richards or the three that went straight out on loan so can’t judge them yet. Kouyate and toffolo are both in the ‘solid squad members’ and haven’t let anyone down and lodi isn’t a bad player but we must remember was only signed because richards was injured. We signed two international keepers and though not inspired by signing Boly, I can’t totally judge him for one bad game because Williams was getting ripped between the lines and he could see that and at least tried to cover even if it failed. 

So that leaves Awoniyi Lingard MGW and Williams.

MGW and Williams are not hitting the heights expected YET but both have potential. Remember they were Cooper’s choices and cost us £40-£60 million. I think this is where cooper has failed as he has expected these boys to step up at PL level immediately. But like Brennan, that’s a gamble and won’t be for 2/3 years yet if they do.

As for the other two, I am on record from the start that awoniyi was technically poor and would struggle.
As for Lingard, the less said the better but I can see why the club took a gamble on him. 
These are therefore the two worst signings for me and it’s in the final third where we are suffering and needed that game changing difference. This is where the recruitment team let us down. The stats guys for awoniyi, and possibly EM and milty on Lingard. 

Of course ‘let down’ is just an expression using hindsight and intrinsically unfair.
The real reason we are struggling is that we weren’t ready to go up as has been pointed out already by several. It’s an impossible task to build a totally new team in the toughest league in the world. But I’ll take the humiliation this season because even with some departures, we will have one hell of a championship squad next season and cash to boot. That’s still miles ahead of where we were 12 months ago and the long game looks good even if it is almost inevitable we are going down. We’ll be prepared next time in 24/25.