The Tim Spiers debrief – Huddersfield 1 Wolves 0
Wolves crashed to their first defeat since January 14 with a surprising loss at Huddersfield.
The rock-bottom Terriers completed a double over Nuno Espirito Santo's team in the process.
Helping hand
Indeed, without Wolves, Huddersfield would currently be sat on eight points and heading for an all-time Premier League low points total.
Not only have Wolves failed to take a point off the Terriers, they've also failed to score against them.
It's peculiarly reminiscent of their failure to do either of those things against last-placed Sunderland in the Championship last season.
So what went wrong?
Whereas in the Molineux clash Huddersfield did a tactical number on Nuno's team, prompting a successful tactical tweak that saw Wolves switch to more of a 3-5-2, last night wasn't necessarily to do with systems and formations.
Yes, Huddersfield restricted Wolves' space in midfield and quelled the threats of Ruben Neves and Matt Doherty.
But Wolves' tactics were nothing to do with them being second to most loose balls, or looking lethargic for the most part, or failing to force a single save from keeper Jonas Lossl.
It was a meek surrender. And, frankly, Huddersfield looked like they wanted it more. Judging on their two performances against Wolves, how the heck are they cut adrift at the bottom? In Billing and Mooy in particular they possess two players Wolves could do worse than look at this summer.
In the first 15 minutes Wolves did the one thing they had to avoid – they offered downtrodden Huddersfield some encouragement and lifted the home crowd in the process, who were a key factor in driving the Terriers on in the second half.
Motivation and work rate weren't a factor but it can certainly be suggested that Wolves underestimated their opponents.
Unlike against Bournemouth and Everton in their previous two away league games, Wolves failed to set a tone or tempo early on. They allowed Huddersfield – who adeptly played 4-3-1-2 with the ball and reverted to five at the back without – a foothold in the game.
At the start of the second half you expected a reaction. Instead it was Huddersfield who grabbed the initiative and carved out a couple of instant chances.
Far too many players were well below their recent standards, notably Ruben Neves and Raul Jimenez. Wolves were laborious in possession.
The only two who looked like creating some magic were Joao Moutinho and Diogo Jota.
Subs-standard
And yet on 66 minutes Moutinho and Jota were given the hook.
Jota was perhaps still feeling the effects of the dead leg that kept him out of the Bristol City cup tie?
But Moutinho's accurate set pieces were Wolves' best route to goal all night. They created opportunities for Boly, Bennett and Jimenez and continued in the same vein as being one of Wolves' key weapons in recent weeks.
To see him withdrawn was a strange one.
Absent Adama
And to see Adama Traore still sat on the bench come full-time was stranger still.
If, with 60 or 70 minutes on the clock, your explosive £18million winger isn't required to help spark your team into life against the division's worst team with the score at 0-0, when is he required?
Traore ran Spurs ragged for an hour at Wembley on December 29 in his best performance to date in a Wolves shirt. Since then he's played just 74 minutes of Premier League football, with 45 of those coming in the second half at Manchester City in a thankless task when Wolves were down to 10 men.
He had a knock for a week or two, but is now fully fit, so where is he?
All he has to do is run and he's at the very least a nuisance who distracts defenders with his almost unique pace.
He set up the equaliser against Newcastle, albeit with a slightly mis-hit cross, and then at Bournemouth on Saturday he was bright and breezy in his 13 minutes, teeing up a chance for Doherty with a great cross.
It appears that either Nuno doesn't trust him, or he believes Traore can only play wide right in a 3-4-3 and is unwilling to switch systems to accommodate him. Either way, it's a club record transfer that continues to perplex.
The longer Traore isn't given a fair crack, the more of an issue it will become.
Lofty ambitions
Wolves deserve huge credit for their eight-game unbeaten run, which has given them a big chance of finishing seventh and propelled them into the FA Cup quarter-finals.
Therefore it can feel harsh to be so critical after one defeat.
However, if Wolves have ambitions of becoming a top six club, which they've publicly stated they do (and in a hurry, too) they need to consistently beat teams from the lower reaches of the division.
Instead, they've only beaten one of the current bottom five this term (Southampton), drawn against Fulham and lost to Huddersfield (twice), Cardiff and Brighton.
Nuno didn't have the answer in his post-match press conference last night, but it's a problem that needs rectifying.
Cardiff calling
And there's no better time to do so than this Saturday, when Cardiff City come to town.
In the race for seventh place, Watford face Liverpool (a), Leicester (h), Man City (a) and Man Utd (a) in their next four matches.
With a trip to Chelsea for Wolves to come the following weekend before *that* quarter-final against Manchester United, they could certainly do with three points to get back on track following a deeply disappointing defeat.
It's a big week on the training ground. If fatigue is an issue then Nuno may need to freshen things up, just as Huddersfield did with their eight changes last night.
Final word
Star man: Rui Patricio
The boss: Had a bad night – his subs were strange
Fans: Bewildered
Magic moment: Not from a Wolves perspective (as there wasn't one) but it was hard to begrudge Huddersfield their joyous celebrations at full-time
In a word: Deflating
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