⚽ Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-0 West Ham Utd (14/1/23)

[Cuenca 'ammer]

The biggest fault surely being with our corner strategy in the first place?

forget where I mentioned it, maybe in the Moyes thread, and I know it seems like hindsight but it isn't.

I mentioned I was concerned in general that we give away too many chances or even second chance from our corners.

I said that we either give up a goal directly, or give up a free kick in a dangerous area which leads to a goal scoring opportunity or a corner.

it's ridiculous. and I would mind, but it wouldn't be so concerning if it didn't happen that often. but it seems to. I don't mean 5 times a game but with enough regularity that we would have thought that someone would have fixed it, but here yet again, we concede from our own corner.

beggars belief..

[Ilford Paolo]

Just read Jack Elderton's player by player analysis of the Wolves match.Lots to agree with including the Bowen 4/10 but Cresswell at 7/10 ?

[Johnny Byrne's Boots]

There's a good Twitter thread (honest!) on Wolves' goal, in particular how our captain didn't exactly cover himself in glory.



Click on the tweet and it will take you to the thread, you don't need a Twitter account to read it.

In the fifth image it should read 'top left' not 'top right' for Rice's position.

[the pink palermo]

JBB, I pointed out two days ago Rice was in the wrong position altogether, doing the wrong job when the corner kick was taken.

In recent weeks we have seen him taking the corners, it's almost as if he wants to do anything but be a proper DM.

In fairness to him, it just might be that the coaching staff are telling him to do what he currently is, in which case, fire the lot of them.

[Johnny Byrne's Boots]

^^^^^Almost as if he's saying "Look, I can do all this too" to anyone who might be interested.

[Crouchend_Hammer]

Unfortunately he has take a bit of poetic licence with that analysis.

It was Rice who made the challenge in the Wloves box. Once he had got up from the challenge, and recovered his footing, their attack had started and the only West Ham player further away from our box was Antonio. Soucek and Paquetta were already 10 yards ahead of him.

Could he have run back quicker, yes. But there is no way he is catching up with the play from his starting position. As I mentioned in the previous post, even Usain Bolt wouldn't have got back

None of the players he mentioned overtook Rice gettibg back at any point. They were already infront of him when the break started and Rice got up from the floor, so the poster is clearly making a specific 'incorrect' point to dig him out - no idea why

We had enough players back to deal with that break, including two players whose responsibility it is to do that

[Burnley Hammer]

The main issue wasn't players not getting back - it was not having the correct players covering in the first place

[Crouchend_Hammer]

The main issue wasn't players not getting back - it was not having the correct players covering in the first place

Yes we did
Coufal and Cresswell back deep, adn Fornals on the edge of the box. That is how you should set up in that situation

two CBs, Antonio, Rice, Soucek in the box attacking the cross

You could argue Paquetta doesn't need to be right in there, but nothing wrong with loading up the box when you need a win

Unfoirtunately it was an inswinging corner that attracted all those players towards the goal, but didn't quite reach them, and they then get a lucky break of the ball which meant it landed right at their feet, and not ours, and teed up for a quick breakaway

Normally the corner would be cleared, or deflected, or ricochet around a bit. It is very rare the defending team pick up the ball and are able to start an attack with the ball at their feet in the penalty box. After the Rice tackle the ball could have gone anywhere but happened to land at their players feet .Very bad luck on our part that

The one thing you could say is possobly Soucek should have seen the corner wasn't going to reach him and then drop a bit deeper for a possible miscued clearance. But that is being very picky

[Vic_Watson]

Sure I saw someone digging Bowen out for not tracking back when in fact the guy who took our corner was the only West Ham player in the box when Wolves scored!

[Crouchend_Hammer]

Sure I saw someone digging Bowen out for not tracking back when in fact the guy who took our corner was the only West Ham player in the box when Wolves scored!

He did was he is supposed to do as the corner taker. As soon as you see the corner has broken down and you are not going to get the ball again in the next phase, you leg it back

[Coops]

Just read Jack Elderton's player by player analysis of the Wolves match.Lots to agree with including the Bowen 4/10 but Cresswell at 7/10 ?

Bowen seems to get a bit of a free pass, probably due to how good he was last season, but he has been as much at fault as anybody else.

[Ironing Board]

I was rather disappointed in Paqueta against Wolves. I had thought there were signs of life in prior games but he was very poor/anonymous.

[il_martello_di_genovesi]

It’s funny that all the excuses thar are made for Scamacca are also not applied to Antonio.

One has played about 10 games while being used as a target man. The other is on a clear decline. What excuses are they? I never even mentioned Antonio. Are you going to deny what I said then? Was Scamacca’s last league goal not a ball played to his feet by a Leeds player? It’s a weird post to pick up on to defend Antonio.

[Ironing Board]

One has played about 10 games while being used as a target man. The other is on a clear decline. What excuses are they? I never even mentioned Antonio. Are you going to deny what I said then? Was Scamacca’s last league goal not a ball played to his feet by a Leeds player? It’s a weird post to pick up on to defend Antonio.

Don’t think you can say he’s being used as a target man. But he doesn’t have the speed to play the sort of role we need of him. We need a mobile forward who can drag defenders out of position and he just doesn’t have that from what I’ve seen. He may even bet better as the deeper striker/10 but we still need the fast lad ahead of him.

I think Sully cut off his nose to spite his face with Arnautovic as he is exactly what we need.

[kitthehammer]

I was rather disappointed in Paqueta against Wolves. I had thought there were signs of life in prior games but he was very poor/anonymous.

not that he was the only one but he also did several passes that were too weak.

[il_martello_di_genovesi]

I was rather disappointed in Paqueta against Wolves. I had thought there were signs of life in prior games but he was very poor/anonymous.

Not really much of an analysis is it IB. In three of those previous games he wasn’t shunted into a redundant number 10 role.

[Ironing Board]

not that he was the only one but he also did several passes that were too weak.

Yeah, I cannot work the fella out at all. He doesn’t really seem good at anything considering how much he cost. Hopefully he plays better on Saturday.

[Ironing Board]

Not really much of an analysis is it IB. In three of those previous games he wasn’t shunted into a redundant number 10 role.

It wasn’t meant to be. But his passing was poor and he was pretty much anonymous. There have been other games where he wasn’t great where he at least got involved a lot.

[HammerMan2004]

I was rather disappointed in Paqueta against Wolves. I had thought there were signs of life in prior games but he was very poor/anonymous.

Symptomatic of just how bad we are all over the place. We've put Paqueta deep where people wanted to see him, so when he gets the ball on the half turn, who can he look up and play the ball to? Soucek and Antonio. Cool.

There's no surprise he looked better for the extremely short period of time recently that he's been surrounded by Fornals / Benrahma / Scamacca. Geezers that can actually control or pass a football.

[Ironing Board]

Symptomatic of just how bad we are all over the place. We've put Paqueta deep where people wanted to see him, so when he gets the ball on the half turn, who can he look up and play the ball to? Soucek and Antonio. Cool.

There's no surprise he looked better for the extremely short period of time recently that he's been surrounded by Fornals / Benrahma / Scamacca. Geezers that can actually control or pass a football.

Fornals had a poor game too. That being said, we seemed to lose all our solidity without Soucek and Fornals in there, though some said it was because we were chasing the game. Looked more to me like we lost their defensive contributions and positional discipline.