Wolves return to the Premier League competition today seeking to complete the double over relegation threatened Burnley
Nuno Espírito Santo will be keen to ensure that his team are focused on today's challenge, rather than on the upcoming FA Cup Semi Final. He takes his team to Turf Moor seeking another three points to remain in 7th place. Burnley meanwhile need three points to try and climb away from potential relegation before a particularly difficult run in for their season. Ryan Bennett will serve the second of his two match suspension for ten yellow cards, and Romain Saiss is expected to maintain his place.
After an International break when Wolves had ten players out on duty, Nuno has reported that they have all returned fit, although some are presumably weary after travelling many miles. He has a full squad to choose from except Bennett.
Board members are encouraged to post updates on the progress of the match for those unable to access it. I am unable to provide a commentary today as I am on a short break in Spain. However if I can access a TV I will post when I can.
Dull. But we gradually got into it. Should be interesting to see how long Nuno waits before bringing Doherty on.
As long as we do nothing silly in the finest ten minutes we can still win this. Lowly teams are terrible at defending narrow leads.
Half time after three added mins. Wolves losing 1-0 after Connor Coady unfortunate to see a shot from Wood rebound off the post it to him and in for his ? 4th own goal this season. Pretty even after that - Wolves have mounted some
Good attacks but are yet to have a shot on target. Traore has done some good work down the right wing, & Cav has linked up quite well with Jota. We will surely see Raul before too long.
B’ley get their first corner of 2nd half which comes to nothing. Wolves trying everything up front but lacking the final touch. Traore replaced by Costa - he has played well. Palace score a penalty which if the scores stay the same
Will relegate H'field
All over. Poor match from Wolves perspective. Did all the attacking but conceded a soft own goal in 1st half and a clever shot in 2nd half. Burnley were well organised & defended well and as with most lower PL teams we didn’t know how to break them down. Substitutions made
No impact at all. Oh well next up are Man Utd!!
Whatever happens from here it's been a great season but if I have been disappointed with anyone this season it has been Patricio, especially given his reputation when he arrived. His kicking is awful and although there have been matches when he has made some great saves, he has made a lot of mistakes too. I don't think he's that much of an upgrade on Ruddy, if he's an upgrade at all. And to think, after the replay against Shrewsbury I was saying I had no doubt that he was better than Ruddy. I take it all back.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019:03:30:17:12:27 by Andy Fincher.
Andy Fincher Whatever happens from here it's been a great season but if I have been disappointed with anyone this season it has been Patricio, especially given his reputation when he arrived. His kicking is awful and although there have been matches when he has made some great saves, he has made a lot of mistakes too. I don't think he's that much of an upgrade on Ruddy, if he's an upgrade at all. And to think, after the replay against Shrewsbury I was saying I had no doubt that he was better than Ruddy. I take it all back.
I have to agree Andy - he doesn't inspire confidence in me at all, he was totally out of position when they scored their first goal, an it was his poor distribution that provoked my qywstion of his value. I think Ruddy inspires every bit as much confdence in our defence as Patricio I'm af afraid.
Some truly bizarre comments on the thread that I would attribute to sunstroke if we were all in a more tropical climate than the UK.
Patricio is an excellent keeper which is one of the main reasons we have the 6th best defence in the country with fewer goals conceded than the likes of Arsenal. How people can start typing he inspires "little confidence" when a few weeks ago they were waxing lyrical about how good he was based on an own goal and a wonder strike I've no idea.
Mugwimp on the mix attributes our poor results to after the international break football whilst wolverina claims it is a " blip" which are both ridiculous. The reason we regularly lose to the lower based teams in the league is due to our lacklustre strike force - not our defence. Only 7 teams in the league have scored fewer goals than we have and when teams sit back like Huddersfield/ Burnley etc we frequently don't have enough quality upfront to break them down. The top teams play to our strengths which is our defence... they leave gaps at the back which our mediocre strikeforce ( by premier league standards) can sometimes exploit meaning our defence which is one of the best in the country is left to defend for an " upset". Jimenez is a hold up player more than an out and out striker and as good as Jota is, certainly by the@#$%&we have had over the last 30 years, he wouldn't get games for any of the top 6 which is where we aspire to be.
Incidentally for those questioning Patricios position for the first goal, try watching all the supposedly top keepers in every league in the world who make errors on a regular basis. The goalkeeper is unfairly targeted because it's an isolated position which draws attention- how about cavaleiros woeful attempt on goal blazing high and wide from a few yards out for eg? Jota regularly ends up converting shots like tries in rugby whilst Jimenez as good as he is , will never be a prolific goalscorer. Costa needs shipping out whilst Traore has speed but the touch of a seedy rap1st so I'd suggest we have far bigger problems than Patricio who is part of one of the best defences in English football. lets not forget this side who apparently has a blip against Burnley were 2 minutes away from getting knocked out of the FA cup by Shrewsbury town- Patricio wasn't even playing.
We have a champions league standard back line when on their game and a bottom half of the table strikeforce which has resulted in the results and inconsistency we have seen this season... nothing to do with our keeper or any " blip"
I agree with a lot of your post Angry but I think the word Blip is just a general term for a surprise performance, which it was IMO.
We were very poor from the start and never looked like getting a result.
Yes we have had a few poor performances this season but we have also had many excellent performances.
The goalkeeper shouldnt be blamed for yesterday, as you said, if a goalie makes any sort of an error it is highlighted. he has been excellent overall this season.
I wouldn't argue with what anyone says about Traore or Costa but I stand by what I said about Patricio. His distribution is so bad I can kick better and both of my knees are shot.
He has pulled off some great saves but so has Ruddy. Ruddy has made mistakes but so has Patricio, one of the goals that Huddersfield scored at Molineux (I forget which one),the first that Cardiff scored and the two mistakes that cost us the goal at home to Newcastle come to mind. I agree we don't concede too many but that is more down to the defence.
Andy Fincher . I agree we don't concede too many but that is more down to the defence.
Patricio is part of that defence , without him I doubt we would be top half. He has pulled off some magnificent saves this season yet gets criticised for an own goal from coady and a wonder goal no keeper in the world would stop. Loris is a world cup winner for spurs, watch his performance today- watch alissons mistakes for Liverpool against United etc this season, watch Edersons mistakes for city. Patricio has been excellent this season along with the back four and cant understand why he wouldnt inspire confidence as we have the best keeper/defence in my lifetime supporting wolves. Murray was a decent keeper but wasnt tested against top teams every week.
The table of goals scored for this season and stats dont lie
City 81 goals
Liverpool 72 goals
spurs 58 goals
United 60 goals
Arsenal 63 goals
Chelsea 52 goals
Leicester 42 goals
Everton 45 goals
west ham 41 goals
Bournemouth 43 goals
Watford 48 goals
We have scored 1 more goal than relegation threatened Burnley who have scored 37.. we're 7th thanks to Patricio compensating for our average strikers that cant put cr/ap like Huddersfield and burnley to the sword who sit back unlike the "top " teams
Let’s not forget that Nuno was a goalkeeper and would surely know if Patricio was an upgrade on Ruddy especially with the amount of money that was involved.
Andy Fincher . I agree we don't concede too many but that is more down to the defence.
Patricio is part of that defence , without him I doubt we would be top half. He has pulled off some magnificent saves this season yet gets criticised for an own goal from coady and a wonder goal no keeper in the world would stop. Loris is a world cup winner for spurs, watch his performance today- watch alissons mistakes for Liverpool against United etc this season, watch Edersons mistakes for city. Patricio has been excellent this season along with the back four and cant understand why he wouldnt inspire confidence as we have the best keeper/defence in my lifetime supporting wolves. Murray was a decent keeper but wasnt tested against top teams every week.
The table of goals scored for this season and stats dont lie
City 81 goals
Liverpool 72 goals
spurs 58 goals
United 60 goals
Arsenal 63 goals
Chelsea 52 goals
Leicester 42 goals
Everton 45 goals
west ham 41 goals
Bournemouth 43 goals
Watford 48 goals
We have scored 1 more goal than relegation threatened Burnley who have scored 37.. we're 7th thanks to Patricio compensating for our average strikers that cant put cr/ap like Huddersfield and burnley to the sword who sit back unlike the "top " teams
Nowhere have I criticised him for the goals against Burnley and I have already said that he has made some great saves this season but given the fact that some people were saying that he was rated in the top 10 in the World and Ruddy (quite rightly) is nowhere near the top 10, he is a current international with 60 or 70 plus caps while Ruddy has one cap from years ago and also that he cost £15m and Ruddy cost nothing, I was expecting more. That is why I said I was disappointed. Anyway, life's too short to argue and I'm sure Nuno knows best.
I'm not arguing Andy, just don't agree with you and Cheshire over the assessment of Patricio but it's a game of different opinions.
In any event, if Fosun are serious about closing the gap on the top four then upgrades on Costa, caveleiro and even Jota are essential. I like Jimenez despite the fact he isn't prolific and having my doubts earlier in the season but changed my mind over time.
The easiest way to summarise the situation would be - Are you more confident of Patricio saving a one on one scenario or one of our strikers finding the net in a similar situation. I would have more faith in Patricio personally... we play teams that sit back and continually struggle whilst against the better teams who leave holes at the back can rely on our defence whilst exploiting the attacking shape of the opposition. It took us nearly 3 hours to break down Shrewsbury of league 1 who sat back yet against United for eg we looked awesome. The difference between us and the top sides is the quality upfront as defensively we're as good as virtually anyone in the league.
I agree it's about opinions and if we all thought the same it would be boring. I was also unsure about Jiminez earlier but I have come round in the second half of the season. There is news on a youtube channel called Dazzling Dave that we have agreed a permanent deal for him with Benfica but how reliable it is I don't know. Cheers angry.
I’m a Ruddy fan! Patricio, however, made a string of fantastic saves when he came in, though his distribution can be woeful. In short we have two very good keepers. I’d go for Ruddy, Nuno goes for Rui! I’m at least happy JR has had a run in the cup and I hope, like all of us, he shines with the lads on Sunday.
I’m equally desperate that Patricio and the lads switch on tonight. I’m going. Get home 2.30am ish, work in the morning 8am. Don’t do this often now I’m an ode mon! I hope Nuno picks a very decent first 11 and we’ve left the lacklustre performance at Turf Moor. Looking forward to a good day.
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