It will no doubt have been a week of mixed emotions for many Wolves fans this week. Firstly seeing our former Manager Nuno fail in his first post-Wolves job, but then seeing his succesor Bruno elevate his team to 7th place in his first Premier League season with a fine win over Everton.
With an unbeaten run of five games behind us Wolves face a real challenge today when they visit Crystal Palace, who also have a virgin Premiership Manager in Patrick Viera who has brought about a huge change in their performances from the Roy Hodgson teams of last season. Palace won admirably at Man City last week and are unbeaten this season at Selhurst Park. Their new strike force of the always irritating Wilfrid Zaha, Odsonne Edouard, and Christian Benteke, together with the threat from Michael Olise and Connor Gallagher is certainly seeing an upturn in their results.
Wolves are also starting to look like a very settled team, with Hee-Chan Hwang and Raul Jiminez forming an effective partnership upfront, and our established defensive line performing well, especially young Maximilian Kilman who has this week been rewarded with a new contract to 2026 after his fine performance on Monday night which saw him open his goal account for Wolves. The main debate seems to centre on who should be the third player in our front line. Trincao played well Monday on the right side and was perhaps unlucky not to score, however he kept Daniel Podence and Adama Traore on the bench - the latter for the whole game. So some fans will be wanting to see Traore restored to the starting line-up, whilst others think his reluctance to sign a new contract, and his failure to score so far this season means he is where he belongs!! Rayan Ait-Nouri has impressed as left wing back and will hopefully maintain that position even when Marcal eventually returns to fitness.
Today's game will kick off at 3pm and will be refereed by the sometimes erratic Graham Scott, with newcomer John Brooks on VAR Duty
This board will hope (decent streams allowing) to carry regular updates on today's game. Board members are also encouraged to post their own observations for the benefit of those otherwise unable to follow the match.
After that scintillating first half against Everton I almost feel that anything is possible for this current Wolves team, just need to extend that 45 minutes into a full 90 minutes and if we can do that we could take another three points. Patrick Vieira has got Palace organised and playing to their strengths so our lads will have to be vigilant. Zaha a constant threat so praying that Saiss doesn’t pull a red card for any rash tackles or confrontations and leave us in the mire.
Would personally like to see Trincao start again after his display against Everton but given Bruno habit of matching teams to specific opponents I wouldn’t be surprised to see one or two changes to the starting lineup.
Would not be surprised to see several goals in this match, just as long as we score one more than Palace do I will be happy.
A tough one this, on paper anyway …… agree it’s difficult to analyse monday nights match and predict how we’ll play but somehow, I fancy us not to lose.
Unchanged side is probably the right decision but if we experience similar down turns today, I would like to see Traore get on.
Both sides have yet to settle to creat of do anything meaningful …… and with that the Eagles creat an opening, shot but straight at Sa who gets a clang on the head on the rebound.
Overall, not much has happened. Perhaps our best move lead to Semedo getting in a very good position but he overran it for fizzle out for a goal kick.
Good break by Semedo but he just over hit it going into the box. Trincao giving the Palace defenders something to think about too. Jose Sa goes down to collect a shot from Eduardo but is then caught on other back of his head on the follow through by Gallagher. We’ve got two substitute goalies on the bench!! He’s OK to continue
Free kick to Palace, 25 out, Gallagher swings it in, Eduardo over …. Never troubled Sa.
Strange match. We’re defending competently but offering very little up front. We’ve had some decent positions which have just broken down or we’ve gone backwards. Palace no different really
Free kick to us 25-30 out, yellow to Guehi on Semedo.
Moutinho clips it in ……. Jimenez heads ….. straight at the keeper. First effort on target, I think
Half time and no score. A scrappy game at times with a lot of fouls and free kicks featuring, how I would imagine possession has been largely equal.
Palace 0 Wolves 0
Lost my stream as we went 2-0 down to a Connor Gallagher goal which I have no details of. Olise fouls DP just outside the area, & Joao lines up the free kick which is well taken by Guita. Gallagher’s goal was another deflection past Sa
Listening to Wolves commentary and they aren’t impressed with Wolves’s performance this afternoon, and that it feels like we have been playing against 12 men today with Graham Scott’s decisions. Having said that we have been poor
All over and Wolves lose for the first time in 6 games. A generally poor display by Wolves, although another penalty denied by VAR when it probably should have been given. Possibly in the end it was too soon after a hard game on Monday against a team that are currently in the ascendency.
Palace 2 Wolves 0
Not a good day.
You could see the first goal coming which is more than I can say about the second goal as I lost my stream and couldn't get it back. Heard it was a deflected shot from Gallagher who was a dirty s0d throughout the first half.
Have to say that I thought the Wolves 'penalty' was just outside but playing like that it's no good complaining and we didn't deserve anything.
Still, only one defeat in six so as long as it doesn't become a habit, onwards and upwards.
We never got going today, very poor all over pitch. I thought bruno waited to long to make sub changes, although saying that it didn't really make much difference when he did change it. It just looked like palace wanted it more which is disappointing. Oh well we move on can't win them all.
Lost the stream just before Palace second goal .
Lots of industry from our lads today and can’t deny the effort they put in but in the end it was all for nothing , I sometimes feel that they try to be too intricate at times when a more direct approach may bring better results. At half time I felt it was evenly balanced, Viera obviously had the better half time talk and we were on the back foot from the time the whistle blew for the second half.
Cannot understand Traore being subbed for Semedo should have been played far further forward.
Our man of the match in my humble opinion was Moutinho who really got around the pitch and did little wrong, a pleasure to watch. Really find it difficult to admire Zaha as a professional footballer, always looking to cheat, always looking for a confrontation and very little grace.
Disappointing Wolves performance, though agree, we cannot win them all! End of a decent run however with a bit of a whimper.
Both sides were severely lacking in any quality first half …. A poor half of football. We did get in some good positions but rarely were we ever able to make a go of any possession we had …. Tending to go back’ards far too often.
Second half we a better footballing half , well, a little bit, but it was Palace who managed to enhance their play, not us. The subs did not make a blind bit of difference. What a waste to see Traore as RWB.
The penalty decision was so close, I thought inside but such was the quality of my stream it was difficult to argue with the VAR decision. Even so, we couldn’t really muster much else up front.
So disappointing, just a shame the stream didn’t pack in after 5 minutes as opposed to 78! Would have saved close to a couple of hours!
As a final note …. Despite his football ability, I have never been able to stand Zaha. He did nothing today to make me feel any more positive about him. His type of football is not for me
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