Team of potentials lost and going nowhere
Crystal Palace 1 v Wolverhampton Wanderers 0
Okay. I have an admission and until I admit my guilt the burden will forever weigh me down. The date is the 29th November 2020. Wolves have just beaten Arsenal 2-1 away from home. I write my blog and the following day get the usual reasoned comment from mate Sam Cooper. Giddy at the win I offered Sam this cogent thought “I reckon Wolves are a potential top four side”. There it was, out in print and I couldn’t retract it. But there were two fundamentals flaws in what I had just written. Firstly, back in November Arsenal were at rock bottom and on the night when Wolves played them not very good. So the win flattered to deceive. Second, the game would mark the last occasion when Raul Jimenez donned an Old Gold shirt in anger. I didn’t really consider it at the time, but I now know that Wolves possess only one player who can find the net. And he’d just gone absent for a rather long time.
To say that the weeks following that late November high have been less than uplifting is possibly an understatement. Wolves did manage a commendable win against Chelsea but aside from that it’s been thin gruel. Indeed taking into account the last seven games - prior to the Crystal Palace encounter – Wolves had the worst record of any side in the Premier League. Having now played and lost to Palace, who by any reckoning are a mediocre side, that record just got worse. More worrying was the manner of the defeat. I cannot recall a single phase of the game when Wolves were in control, a trend that has been all too prevalent since December. Rarely other than in their own half did they string five passes together and when Joao Moutinho is firing the ball off his shin into the nearest stand then it is clear that matters are not quite as they should be.
It is barely seven months since Wolves appeared in a Europa League semi-final. That achievement was built on a small squad with consistent team selection based on a well understood method of play. On the basis of that record the club clearly thought that it had enough experience in place to provide the foundations for a rebuild, using predominantly young foreign talent with potential. Nearly four years ago Sunday Times journalist David Walsh wrote a piece about potential. His subject was Alex Oxlade Chamberlain who had just transferred from Arsenal to Liverpool. Jurgen Klopp clearly recognised the lad had the talent and potential to make it. He had of course been good enough to gain 35 (you read that correctly) full England caps. But it was also a gamble because in his previous six seasons at Arsenal, Oxlade Chamberlain had failed to secure a regular berth. Walsh’s piece was positing how long one remains “potential”. Four years on and Oxlade Chamberlain still can’t secure a regular game.
Right now Wolves are in danger of filling their squad with Oxlade Chamberlain’s. The youngsters they have bought to the club all look good in spells but over ninety minutes they can’t maintain the necessary consistency to win or draw games. Furthermore, by picking predominantly youth the side is thin of on field “generals” - in the form of senior pros - who can cajole and bollock when things get tough.
We all know that injuries to key players haven’t helped. But those problems have also been exacerbated by inconsistent team selection and myriad formations. In the blink of an eye Nuno has seemingly morphed from a measured, stable manager, into Walter Zenga.
Result. Things are far from fine and dandy and currently it’s hard to see where the next win is going to come from. My commentator’s curse has done for them. So how about I predict that Wolves are now in danger of being embroiled in a relegation scrap. It might, …. just might have the opposite effect. Fingers crossed of course.
Crystal Palace FC: Guaita 7, Clyne 6 Sub Ward, Kouyate 7, Dann 6, van Aanholt 6, McCarthy 5 Sub Riedewald 6, Milivojevic 6, Ayew 7, Eze 7, Zaha 6, Batshuayi 6 Sub Townsend
Wolverhampton Wanderers: Patricio 6, Hoever 6 Sub Traore, Coady 6, Boly 6, Kilman 6, Semedo 6, Dendoncker 6, Moutinho 5 Sub Silva, Neto 6, Podence 5 Sub Vitinha, Da Silva 7
Attendance: Nil (Covid 19)
Referee: Simon Hooper 9
Ps. Time, I believe, to consign the fatuous gesture of “taking the knee” to the bin of history. The recent racial attacks on Marcus Rashford, Reece James, Axel Tuanzebe, Anthony Marcial and Romaine Sawyers demonstrate its lack of impact. Worse, it could be having the opposite effect.
We should heed the view expressed early doors by Queens Park Rangers’ director of football Les Ferdinand who described it as being “not dissimilar to a fancy hashtag or a nice pin badge”. He went on “Taking the knee will not bring about change – actions will”. Les Ferdinand: Taking the knee in support of Black Lives Matter ‘will not bring change’ - BBC Sport
©Mark Brennand