Manchester City 5 Wolves 1 - Liam Keen and Nathan Judah analysis
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00:00 Hello and welcome to the Duel of the Rhines, here with rules reporter is Mr Liam Keane
00:11 at the Etihad Stadium, it is Harlan 4 plus 1, Wolverhampton Wanderers 1, it was the Harlan
00:16 show and look, I mean you're playing the best side in the world of football so it's very
00:21 very difficult and sometimes it's difficult to be critical but at the same time they were
00:24 definitely second best today weren't they? Yeah absolutely, look there's no shame in
00:28 losing to Manchester City, this is a magnificent side, you said their best team in the world
00:32 of football, I have to agree, regardless of them going out for the Champions League and
00:37 there was a way to go about losing to Man City and I felt that Wolves offensively were
00:42 concerning today I think, the way in, the manner in which, I don't think there was two
00:45 penalties involved but the manner in which they allowed the other three goals to go in
00:48 from a lot of individual performances and that's across the board, that's not just picking
00:52 out any one player, it proves the Wolves have still got a little way to go to reach the
00:58 height that they want to. Not a good day at the office despite being against an unbelievable
01:03 side and a striker in Edding Harland who was absolutely battering, there's a lot of question
01:09 marks over whether he's a good footballer or a good goalscorer, I mean he absolutely
01:14 destroyed Wolves with the ball at his feet, with runs in behind, in the air, Wolves could
01:18 not get anywhere near him as a team and as individuals.
01:22 Look, regardless of the result, regardless of Manchester City who I think will end up
01:27 winning this Premier League, I can't see them losing a game, I can't see them drawing a
01:30 game but you cannot, cannot when you set up like you have been today, go in at half time
01:36 three-nil down with Harland scoring three goals, it's as simple as that and you can
01:40 debate the first penalty if you want, the other two goals you've got no issues with
01:45 whatsoever and I thought it was just superb throughout and bullied that defence and bullied
01:50 Max Killman today.
01:51 You know, Wolves have missed a lot of players this season, you talk about the strikers,
01:56 you talk about the forwards, you talk about the likes of Neto missing, the likes of Kony
01:59 missing, the likes of Huang missing, you know under that radar is Craig Dawson who man-to-man
02:04 marks Harland out of the game when Wolves beat them at Molineux and I thought it shows
02:10 how much they missed him today, look I'm not saying that Wolves would have got anything
02:12 from the game but Killman looked, he looked like he struggled today and looked a little
02:17 bit out of his depth I think.
02:19 Yeah I was going to mention that, we spoke about it and he looked at this game, about
02:22 how Dawson, it was not only a perfect tactical plan but you go out there and you put that
02:27 plan onto the pitch and Dawson, to be honest he bullied Harland that day, Harland had one
02:34 shot on target and it was a scuffed shot that JTXR easily collected, today it was the opposite,
02:39 Max Killman really struggled, it was not only the physical battle but he was leaving Harland
02:42 with five yards of space, so much space and allowing him opportunities.
02:47 Now the players around him didn't help, Smaydo, poor game today, gives the penalty away, Totti
02:52 Gomez gives the ball away for the fifth goal, struggles, Kunya gave the ball away for the
02:57 second goal and had a really poor game today by his standards as well.
03:01 It's not just Killman, it's across the board, but when you compare the Dawson performance
03:08 to this performance, they are worlds apart.
03:11 At the same time, they kept going, they got a consolation goal, that was a really smart
03:16 finish by Juan.
03:17 Gary Neal has got some question marks and also he's got some decisions to make over
03:22 these last two games because he'll be disappointed I think, we'll speak to him in a bit, and
03:26 obviously it wasn't on the touchline today, he had a one match ban from the touchline,
03:29 but I think he'll be disappointed in the way they've crumbled today a little bit and I
03:34 wouldn't be surprised if we see a couple of shock changes between now and the end of the
03:38 season, they've got to go to Anfield, he will not accept that performance today, they've
03:42 got a game against Christopher Pyce at home where they were looking to win I think and
03:45 finish at least the home season on a high and I don't think it will spoil what's going
03:49 on this season, but at the same time he won't want another spanking at these last two games,
03:53 I don't think he will against Christopher Pyce, but if they play like they did today
03:56 against Anfield in Klopp's final game when you've got Salah and Nunes and whatnot, they
04:02 could get spanked again and he will not stand for that.
04:04 Yeah, I think he'll learn a lot from the way his Wolves players reacted to this game and
04:08 the way the Wolves set up, I liked to be honest, I thought that the start of the 11 was an
04:13 interesting choice playing Ryan Ainori on the right but I didn't mind it, we know he
04:17 likes, we spoke about it recently, he likes inverted wing backs and he gave the Wolves
04:22 some sort of outlet, we saw that at Pockets during this game, there were Pockets where
04:25 they had opportunities to break forward and Mateus Kuni, again we spoke about the poor
04:28 game today, an opportunity to release Hugo Bueno at 1-0 down and doesn't choose to release,
04:33 tries to take on four or five players who are at the ball.
04:37 Different against Forrest than it is against Hinskey.
04:40 There are individual decisions that Gary O'Neill cannot improve because he's not on the pitch
04:45 at the time, the way the Wolves set up I thought I quite liked, but going to Anfield he'll
04:50 learn a lot about this performance and the way his players reacted going into that game
04:53 and then the Palace game itself, that right itself almost, Wolves have to win front foot,
04:59 they have to dominate the ball, they have to take the game to Palace in front of their
05:02 own fans and finish the season at Molineux with a win.
05:06 You do that, you go into the final game and Wolves aren't expected to get anything and
05:10 you go there and you have the freedom to go and play but you don't put in the kind of
05:13 mistake-ridden performance like they have done here.
05:16 I guess it's just disappointing, I didn't see that performance coming today, I honestly
05:20 thought that they might have a bit of a go, a bit of a sweat, I thought there might have
05:23 been a little bit of a twist in the tyre race today, maybe they might have got a draw or
05:26 something or scored a goal but it was just a bit disappointing overall and a bit flat.
05:30 Well we both said that we felt they might give City a run for their money, maybe a few
05:34 hairy moments and three-nil down at half-time, I think we were both questioning our predictions.
05:41 It was not the industrious Wolves performance we've come to see away from home, Wolves are
05:47 normally very good tactically as well as just a solid, difficult team to break down.
05:51 Again, this is against City, let's sit with number lean on the side, these things happen,
05:56 they do this to a lot of teams but it's the errors that Wolves in some ways were forced
06:02 into making but also there was a lot of them, i.e. the Koon Yewam, a goal of Wolves' own
06:07 making and mistakes of their own making, handing City goals and handing them opportunities,
06:11 that is going to be the biggest concern for Gary and Elwin.
06:14 When you mirror it from last season when Wolves were safe and there were a couple of spankings
06:17 Lopetegui took when Wolves were safe, I didn't see that coming today and that's what the
06:21 disappointment is and I think that speaking to the fans, that's their disappointment really,
06:24 it's the manner of the result, the manner of the defeat and there's a way to go.
06:27 And yeah, a little bit shocking but at the same time, hopefully we can put it right on
06:30 Saturday and there will be a lot more teams that get beat 4, 5, 6, 7 and more against
06:34 Manchester City, not to be today.
06:36 Man City 5, Wolves 1.
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