Wolves 2 Chelsea 6 - Liam Keen and Nathan Judah analysis
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00:00Hello, I'm Nathan Judo, I'm here with World Report, it is Mr Liam Keane, this is the first
00:12time I think I've ever said this result. Wolverhampton Wanderers 2, Chelsea 6. I don't know where
00:20to start. I think, well, let's start, let's take it half by half, OK? Let's start with
00:24the first half today. One change from Wolves, a little bit of a surprise, I guess. Mateus
00:28Cunic coming in, but at the expense of Rodrigo Gomez. And you want to start well, and the
00:34warning signs were there straight away, weren't they, from Matauake? Decent save by Sarr,
00:39too much space, Chelsea go one up. But it was an entertaining game, actually, in the
00:44end, Wolves shaded that first half. Yeah, that first goal is really poor, you can see
00:48two minutes into the game, you have to be better for a set-piece, and Jackson is completely
00:53left unmarked, isn't he, at the back post. I think Maddox has got to do better there.
00:57And it's a poor goal to concede, you're 1-0 down. But Wolves reacted really well, they
01:01did. They took the game to Chelsea, they dominated the ball, they gave them a few opportunities
01:07and chances here and there. But it was end-to-end stuff, and Wolves shaded it, really. Getting
01:12back into the game with a really, really well-worked goal. Belagard actually was really good first
01:15half, wins the ball in midfield, finds Aignori, who does really well to find Cunic, and it's
01:19a good finish. And then you can see the really amateurish second goal. There's a debate whether
01:24the ball was rolling or not, I haven't seen a replay, but a lot of people have told me
01:27the ball was rolling from Sanchez. But regardless of that, you can't defend in that manner,
01:31you have to be alert to the situation. Sanchez is very clever, plays the ball quickly, Mosquera
01:37caught No-Man's-Land, and all of a sudden, Cole Palmer lobs Jose Sarr, who's again also
01:41in No-Man's-Land, and it's 2-1. Wolves look like they're going to the break, a half-time
01:462-1 down, and Jorgen van Laarsen pops up with a massive moment for him, and a really good
01:50set-piece from Wolves at the other end. And you go into half-time, 2-2, we both feel that
01:55Wolves are just about the better side, deserve probably to be ahead, played a lot of really
01:59good attacking football, some difficult defensive moments. A good time to get in at half-time
02:03though, you think? A good time I think also, because they're on the up, they feel like
02:07they're in control of the game. And we did feel like it could go either way in that second
02:11half, but the Wolves were in a good position. And they came out, and it was unbelievably
02:16poor defending, from start to finish. Concede two minutes into the first half is bad enough,
02:22concede three minutes into the second half, that's just unforgivable. Yeah, and it's a
02:27player that, as you said there, Noni Madueki, who had done well in the first half, and actually
02:31Ait Nori was really struggling against him, and it was more finishing issues from Chelsea
02:36slash decision-making, why Madueki didn't have a bigger impact in that first half. Not
02:41because Ait Nori defended well against him, Ait Nori was really struggling. The signs
02:45were there, the Wolves played as they were, and got caught out time and time again. It
02:49took 14 minutes for Madueki to score his hat-trick from the 49th minute, and it was just so amateurish
02:59the way that they gave the ball away. And the third one itself is probably the worst
03:02of the lot. Joel Gomez, who I thought really struggled in that second half today, gets
03:06caught on the ball, almost on the edge of his box. It's so, so, so poor. And it's just
03:11an easy couple of passes, Madueki's got the ball, he's shown inside again, down the bottom
03:16corner. It's just, they did the same mistakes over and over and over again, and that's the
03:20most frustrating point. Right now, Ait Nori will have a day that he will want to forget
03:25very, very quickly. And I guess you've got a lot of question marks now. Wolves have played
03:30two, lost two, albeit we knew it was going to be a difficult start against Arsenal. But
03:35at least in Arsenal, there were periods of the game where they were in control, they
03:39didn't like they were going to get blitzed, they've been blitzed there. The question marks
03:43will now happen. Should you be playing four at the back? Should you play three at the
03:47back, or five at the back, if you want to say. Can Ryan Ait Nori play as a full-back?
03:50The other full-back that would probably play, if you're going to play full-back, Hugo Bueno
03:54has gone to Feyenoord. So you've kind of made your bed, really, to that, to a certain extent.
03:58But there will have to be some big, big inquests in that dressing room tonight from Gary O'Neill
04:05about these players, because like you say, a 2-2, you go into that half, you think Wolves
04:09could nick this, Wolves could win this. At the same time, you did fear, and we feared
04:13at the time, they could lose 5-2, because of how open it was. They've got to sort this
04:17out very quickly. Craig Dawson came on in that second half to give a little bit of solidity,
04:21I guess. But there are definitely a lot more questions than answers going into Burnley
04:26on Wednesday, and then, of course, Nottingham Forest, which is a difficult game in itself,
04:31on Saturday. Yeah, I think Dawson showed it up to some extent in that second half a little
04:35bit. Wolves do concede a sixth as well, with Joao Felix, and Neto celebrates wildly, slightly
04:42bizarrely, for getting the assist for that goal. But the issue Wolves have got is that
04:49they've been here before. They've been here before with Bruno Large, where they tried
04:52to do a change from four, and it quickly fell apart. I'm not suggesting that will happen
04:56again now with Gary O'Neill. I think Wolves are in a better place now than they were then
04:59under Bruno Large. But there are a lot of parallels, and they have to find a way to
05:03make this aggressive, high-tempo, high-octane system work. And they did in that first half,
05:10albeit they gave away two pretty rubbish goals. It was an entertaining game, it was an open
05:15game, and Wolves were really good going forward. But my word were they open. And they were
05:19warning signs were there, as we talked about Aitnori warning signs, they were warning signs
05:21were there. Wolves defensively throughout that whole first half, and that second half,
05:25yes, Chelsea were clinical. Wolves made a little bit of a bad look with the first one,
05:30but just these small decisions, Aitnori last week against Saka, allowing Saka in on his
05:35left foot, it's criminal to do that. He's done it again today, where he's been constantly
05:39showing Maneweki onto either foot, really. He didn't know where to go, he didn't know
05:44what to do, he was getting caught out time and again. Now, you talk about an inquest
05:48in the dressing room, Gary O'Neill has walked to the South Bank, obviously a lot of fans
05:52have left at this point in the game, has held his hands up and pointed to himself, indicating
05:57it's his responsibility, it's his fault, he takes responsibility for loss. The Wolves
06:00fans responded with a chant in support of their manager. It's only two games into the
06:04season, it's not a disaster, but Gary O'Neill and the leaders in that dressing room will
06:09have a lot of big questions for a lot of players around them, who cannot look themselves in
06:13the mirror tonight, I think they've done a good job.
06:15Look, it's going to be interesting, isn't it, because we've seen in pre-season, four
06:19at the back, training, four at the back, matches, four at the back, Arsenal, four at the back,
06:23four at the back here. Do they tear it up now and go to a three, or do you think that's
06:30like, no, this is the way we're going to play, this is what I want to do, I back my players.
06:34Do you expect, let's take Burnley to one side, which I'm sure we'll see a much changed side,
06:39going to Notting Forest, do you think today, standing here now, watching that, do you think
06:42they'll go with a four again?
06:43I think Gary O'Neill's a very, very good coach, I think the Wolves have had a very, very good
06:46pre-season. I think if you rip up the blueprint after two losses, but one in particularly
06:53bad loss, I think we'd be naive. But I think if we're still having these same conversations
06:58before getting into the season, even late September, maybe a push, I don't know, after
07:02the international break, maybe mid-September, early September, then it starts to become
07:07a real question mark. I don't think you can throw it, you can completely throw the game
07:10plan out the window now, but there's clearly a lot to work on. And I was speaking to someone
07:16actually just before full-time, who made a good point, and I'd like to reiterate that
07:19point.
07:20Was it me?
07:21It wasn't you, it was never you. This is what happens when you sell your best defender and
07:26don't replace them. Wolves have got to go into the market, Wolves have got to replace
07:31Max Killman. He is the bigger loss than Pedroneta is to this team, by far.
07:35I'll probably disagree with you there, but at the same time, I think, like you say, you're
07:39going to Friday now, you're going to deadline day. Of course all the calls now, apart from
07:43the back three, back four conversations, is going to be, can Wolves strengthen? They know
07:46that Mr Andar O'Shea, he's gone to Ipswich, they didn't want to pay the money that they
07:50were asking for. But does this, when you're Geoff Shee, when you're Matt Hobbs, when you're
07:55Foster and you're watching this game, when you're watching what's unfolding, how early
07:58on to the season you've got five days to change it, to get someone across the line, do you
08:04think that might change certain opinions, maybe certain amounts of budget, because of
08:08the kind of game and the kind of second half we've just witnessed here?
08:14Yeah, it's probably human nature to ask that question, first of all. It's human nature
08:17maybe to have that full process, but as a business, as a football club, Wolves have
08:23never been the kind of club to panic into those kind of sign-ins, and I'd be surprised
08:27if they do that now. I don't think it's a wise thing to do, to be perfectly honest.
08:31I think if you start to do that, you start to set a precedent of making poor, rushed
08:35decisions, and I don't think Wolves will do that. So I don't think that's the answer.
08:40I think the answer is to continue with the targets you've been working on for players
08:43that you believe are the players that will improve this team, and Wolves will bring sign-ins
08:48in before the end of the window. We now need to see the quality of those sign-ins and hopefully
08:52have them rushed through relatively quickly. Nottingham Forest away in the league, then
08:55Newcastle at home, then Villa away, then Liverpool at home. I mean, it does not get any easier.
09:01We knew it was going to be a difficult start, but they want to get points on the board,
09:03don't they? You want to get points on the board. If this is three from two games, or
09:08three from three games, then OK, you can swallow it, but all of a sudden City Grand becomes
09:12a big game for me next weekend. Yeah, it does, and it's a tough place to go. It's a
09:15very good atmosphere at the City Grand, it's intense, it's an old-school stadium where
09:18the fans are right on top of you. There's obviously a little bit of previous with Morgan's
09:23White and with Wolves and Forest over the last couple of years that will make it a pretty
09:26intense atmosphere. New, no factor, of course, and Forest will be right up for that game.
09:32Absolutely. And they should be as well. Got to win it, Southampton. Exactly, they should
09:35be. And if Wolves don't match that intensity, they're in trouble. They have to match that
09:40intensity. And they're more than capable of doing that. Wolves are more than capable
09:42of going to Nottingham Forest and walking away with a comfortable victory. At the same
09:46time, they're also capable of imploding. That's where they've now got to try and take stock
09:50of these next few days. Gary getting around the players, getting into training will be
09:53really important. Bring them back down to earth. Look, lads, we've got a lot more work
09:57to do, and that's a massive game. Wolves 2, Chelsea 6. For all the post-match reaction,
10:02make sure you log on to expressthestart.com.