Wolves fall short of high standards they have set
Wolves are not quite in a rut but they have fallen short of their usual standards.
Now that this run of five difficult Premier League games is over, Wolves have returned six points but only convinced with their performance in the win away at Spurs.
This squad was always going to enter a arduous patch and the making of them, and their season, will be how they come out the other end of it.
Forward failings
The story of Wolves’ clash with West Ham can be summed up with one simple statistic – one shot on target.
The fact that shot came in the 87th minute, and it was easily gobbled up by Lukasz Fabianski, paints a picture of a poor Wolves display in the final third.
A total of 14 shots – 11 of which came in the second half – and only one on target. West Ham may have blocked nine efforts, but it would be kind to Wolves to suggest that is what stopped from them scoring.
In reality, Wolves were far too slow in the transition. Overall they had 61 per cent of the possession but never forced West Ham out of first gear.
Wolves did not press the action and when they found space in attacking areas they were too negative.
The only forward who comes away with any credit from the starting XI is Fabio Silva. The teenager was feeding off scraps but held the ball up well and battled with West Ham’s big centre-backs.
Defensive struggles
Wolves have been excellent defensively this season, but looked disjointed, hurried and panicked on Sunday – with too many individual errors.
Ki-Jana Hoever had not featured since mid-December, but came in from the cold due to Nelson Semedo’s injury.
The wing-back had a difficult afternoon. He regularly gave the ball away (20 times in 90 minutes) and won less than half of his duels.
Max Kilman, who has been one of Wolves’ players of the season, also had an uncharacteristically poor afternoon.
He was often having to cover for Hoever, but he equally got caught on the ball, was negative in possession and came off second in his duels.
Romain Saiss and Conor Coady were marginally better and made some crucial tackles, but the team, in general, were lacklustre in defence.
The goal was sloppy and although it was slightly lucky, it highlighted Wolves’ poor display.
The European picture
Wolves are still in the hunt for Europe, despite the two losses to Arsenal and West Ham.
Back to eighth in the table, Wolves can still make up the ground for the top six – although seventh may be more realistic and could still offer European football next season.
However, this squad will need to overcome this spell with favourable upcoming fixtures.
Bruno Lage is often more open with his squad in private, but his comments post-match at West Ham describing it as a ‘good performance’ were off the mark.
Lage does not need to give his players a public dressing down, but more honesty on the performance will go a long way to appeasing the supporters.
The head coach has done a superb job and will get this team firing again, but they need to toughen up publicly and call it how it is. Wolves were below par.
