Match Day Thread Wolves vs NCFC

Cardiff City also only conceded 39 goals as runners up to Wolves . I wonder what happened to them in the Premiership with their obvious defensive prowess ? Always easy to speak wise after the event and produce stats in an attempt to prove one's point . Many defensive minded teams promoted to the Premiership ( which probably accounts for the majority) have made a swift return to the Championship. Wolves already had Premiership quality players the year they got promoted and won the league by 13 points . With their financial backing and Portuguese connections, they were alway going to have a better chance than most of establishing themselves in the Premiership. .
Hopefully, when we are next promoted, preferably the season after next, we will have invested more in players with proven ability to compete in the Premiership. It has become more and more apparent , that too many players have fallen short this season One of the differences between a good player and a very good player is consistency. And as has been highlighted already on this thread, consistency has been a huge problem this season. When all players have been at the top of their game , we have been able to compete with the likes of Man City, Everton and others. And factor in the number of injuries that we have had to contend with, the latest being Byram( defensively one our best players) and Zimmerman, then our consistency to compete at this level is going to be further impaired. .

 

Consistency is always going to be an issue when your developing young players

 

Yes, Cardiff matched Wolves's GA of 39 the season they were promoted, but last season they conceded 69 in the EPL as against Wolves's 46. In other words, in contrast to Wolves and Sheffield Utd, Cardiff's "defensive prowess" proved illusory in the face of Premier League opposition. No surprise really with Warnock in charge. The salutary point to be made about Cardiff is that they at least had a defence which conceded far fewer goals in the Championship than we contrived to concede last season. Nobody is being wise after the event; as Goodman said, this particular writing was on our wall last season for anyone who cared to look.

 

I, for one, was very happy to see the team kept together for the PL. I was also troubled that we didn't spend the rumoured £20mil on new players. Amadou was brought in on loan but didn't get a real shot at DM because of injuries at CB. Those injuries hurt us. We don't have the players to make up for that kind of setback. Would we be out of the R.Z. if not for all the injuries? I think so. It broke my heart when Klose got hurt. However, looking at our season, it's also apparent that we need upgrades in several positions especially in the middle of the pitch including the #10.

 

It's not just about ability, as DF seems to be waking up to, saying the players were: "a bit soft and scared against Wolves and lacking the kind of physical approach that is often required from a side that is deep in relegation trouble at this stage of a season."

Part of the problem is that we don't have a charismatic leader capable of leading by example in the way Holt did in the Lambert years. Tettey is about the closest and he was the one who stepped forward to apologise about the team's performance at Wolves. Getting 'stuck in' doesn't seem to be in the players' DNA. I think we've missed too many chances now, but I'll be interested to see if there's any kind of reaction against Leicester.

https://amp.sportsmole.co.uk/footba...it-soft-and-scared-against-wolves_390749.html

 

Losing Klose before the season started was a huge blow, our only proven Premiership quality defender.

 

There have been other games where we got pushed around or just didn't show up. What really hurts about Sunday was that the other teams around us were all losing (West Ham just lost to Liverpool). We didn't give ourselves a chance to win after the first 20 min. As you say, we're running out of games. And hope fading like an old pair of blue jeans.

 

At the beginning of the season I expected Timm to earn the starting berth next to Zimm and the two big Germans would do the job.

C'est la vie.

 

Timm is Swiss - German speaking but still Swiss.

 

Yes, your right. Sometimes I forget these things.

 

Surely "hope springs eternal in the footie fans's breast"? Far more durable than even the toughest pair of jeans - though like a pair of jeans often ragged and holey at the knees.

 

Liverpool & Wolves are games where a points would not have been expected. Realistically our chances of survival are no different than 2 weeks ago

 

Perhaps better given our direct rivals have done very little to add distance

Bah!

 

I think in terms of the charismatic leader - Zimmermann was excellent at this last year when he was captain in the absence of Hanley and Tettey. He really picked up the younger players and barked at players to get back into position, he would be my captain.

In terms of the midfield we are definitely missing a bit of bite, for me Trybull is probably the closest thing we have but he seems to be a bit of a forgotten man at the moment.

The Wolves performance was possibly one of the worst of the season, we were porous at the back and blunt going forward.

I know Farke likes to keep a settled team but I think a shuffle of the pack can be just as good to keep the players levels up. For me the centre of the park is our biggest issue, no great changes can be made at the back as we have no options other than Zimbo coming back in for Godfrey or Hanley probably the latter on recent form. This could mean that we could push Godfrey into Tettey's role but I highly doubt that will happen as Farke has decided that he is a CB only now I believe. I also think Pukki is looking like a game on the sidelines wouldn't be a bad thing, Drmic has looked good when he has been brought in and could do with some game time. We really miss Buendia creativity as we have seen the past few games where we have failed to score, Rupp may give us more defensively but whats the point if we are still conceding. We weren't consistently getting thrashed anyway. Duda's form has dropped considerably from his early promise.

My starting line up for Leicester:

Krul
Aarons Zimbo Hanley Lewis
Trybull Rupp
Buendia Vrancic Cantwell
Pukki