Carabao Cup: Brighton 3 Wolves 2 - Liam Keen and Nathan Judah analysis
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00:00Hello, I'm Nathan Judah and I'm here with Wolves reporter, it's Mr Liam Keane. Liam,
00:13Carabao Cup, Brighton 3, Wolves 2. Disappointing obviously out of the cup, what did you make
00:19of the game?
00:20Yeah, I mean the first half to be brutally honest and plainly was pretty much a disaster
00:25for Wolves. Really, really poor goals to give away, first one obviously an error from several
00:31players and Gjallarhorn gives the ball away very cheaply. It's a good finish but you've
00:35got to do better, I think Sarr has to do a hell of a lot better. Second one is, without
00:39the mistake on the possession, is very similar in the sense that I think it just turns in
00:44Sarr off the left, again puts it into the bottom corner but I don't think it's even
00:48in the corner and Sarr could do a lot better again. Just an overall really poor performance
00:53in and out of possession in that first half. A lot of players being carried, a lot of players
00:57hiding. Hwangi Chan, who we're both big fans of, very, very quiet, not doing a lot at all.
01:04Pablo Sarabia really struggling, he's trying to make things happen, just making mistakes,
01:09endless mistakes and really difficult. But, Wolves score a goal right at the end of the
01:13half. It's a nice move, Rodriguez Gomez into the overlapping Doherty, pulls it back for
01:17Guedes, does well to score. It's a really good move and the timing of that goal is perfect.
01:21Wolves are delighted going into that time, just one goal down. Absolutely, it's a perfect
01:25time to score, it's a nice team goal, a little bit of positivity. You end the half and you
01:29come out in the second half, Wolves are a hell of a lot better. That first chance, seconds
01:33in, 15-20 seconds in. Rodriguez Gomez played through, Guedes does well and he has to score.
01:40Steele made several saves today actually, particularly in that second half. Did very
01:44well for Brighton, the goalkeeper, but Wolves have to finish those chances. Wolves have
01:48to finish those chances and look, they came with a strong bench, but you think it's tight.
01:52They start bringing these players on and Wolves dominated possession and it wasn't just that
01:56Rodriguez Gomez chance. Gonzalo Guedes has got to score that, that was a great chance.
02:00They had the melee on the touchline which was just cleared off the line. Frustrating,
02:04but when these, and we've had this before, the passages of play where Wolves have got
02:08the ball and they've got to score and they're not scoring goals. When they don't, that's
02:12when they get punished. Yeah, absolutely. Look, after such a difficult first half and
02:17players are there to take an opportunity. I thought Rodriguez Gomez did relatively well
02:20tonight. Forbes off the bench looked lively enough. Guedes, Willy runner and did relatively
02:24well after he scored a good goal, but when those chances are there, you have to take
02:29them. You can't let those chances go big and they're not small chances, they're massive,
02:32massive opportunities. Is that just a team that are out form and plays at a low on confidence
02:35or is it a little more than that? A little bit of bad luck. I don't think it's a lack
02:39of quality and I think it's a lack of issues with the system because the chances have been
02:43created. I was going to mention that as well. Brighton, who by the way have had a good side,
02:51made eight changes themselves tonight, but still feel they have a strong side, were really
02:55poor in that second half. They were struggling to look after the ball. They were giving the
02:59ball away as Wolves were pressing them high up the pitch, playing out from the back, making
03:03all the mistakes the Wolves have made in previous games and they were there for the taking.
03:07Brighton, they really were and Wolves didn't take those chances and then get sucker punched.
03:11They get sucker punched with a fantastic goal from Brighton's point of view, in the
03:15sense that Odinga has a lovely flick over Samedo, goes through, Waelbeck has the shot.
03:20I don't think Sardar's very well with the first save, played it straight into Kadioglu's
03:25path. He beats Doherty to the ball and Wolves look down and out. Obviously they do score
03:30a late one, it's a lovely goal from Doyle and that came from a steal error really in
03:35possession, albeit his shot stopping ability was very good tonight and it was too little
03:39or too late for Wolves.
03:40The frustrating thing is, like you say, Wolves dominated that second half in big periods
03:45of play and yet we're screaming with 90 seconds to go, can they get one more chance? They
03:49shouldn't be in that situation should they? With the players they have on the pitch, with
03:52the opportunities they had tonight, that shouldn't be the case.
03:55No, you create those opportunities, a team with the quality the Wolves have and the depth
04:03that they have should be taking them. They should have gone to penalty tonight, no doubt
04:07about it. And frankly, on clear-cut chances, Wolves could have nicked it if we're being
04:11honest, if Wolves were clinical enough. Instead they walk away losing and having a really
04:16frustrating third goal. Yes, it's a lot of quality from Dingora but it's also against
04:21the run of play, it's out of timing, Wolves have got a really good grip on the game and
04:24they're going for that equaliser and that kills the game off regardless of the Tommy
04:27Doyle goal.
04:30The positive signs are you come out of a terrible first half into a much better second. Tommy
04:36Doyle scores the goal obviously but had a really difficult first half I felt and I thought
04:40he was actually fantastic in the second half and I know how good a player he is. So when
04:44you find the positives out of recovering from what could have been, it couldn't have got
04:50much worse really that first half. There's a team there that has a lot of fight, that
04:55has a lot of quality. They maybe need just to drag a result out of somewhere and the
04:59momentum will be there, the confidence will be there. But the games don't get much easier.
05:04Villa, Liverpool, Brentford, City, Brighton here, again Palace, into then a Southampton
05:11game at home. You've got to find a result.
05:14You don't want to single out players in a negative way and we don't want to do that.
05:18We want to be talking about Wolves winning games and praising players. All of those players
05:22you say Wolves are together, Jose Sarr got his chance tonight, Gary Neal said he would
05:28pick him obviously. He had to come back from international duty, see what frame of mind
05:32he's in and to be honest it looked like he wasn't in any kind of frame of mind at the
05:36start tonight. All three goals, you could look at it and say Sarr was at fault, if not
05:41partially at fault for all three. I just wonder Liam, with Sam Johnstone now, Wolves' new
05:46number one, you've got no more games apart from Premier League now until January. That
05:53might have been the last we've seen of Sarr tonight in a Wolves shirt.
05:56It's very possible, absolutely. Gary's already admitted that you can only have two number
06:00one style goalkeepers for so long and he wouldn't be surprised if Jose Sarr wanted
06:04to move.
06:05Dan Bailey's signed a new contract now.
06:06Exactly, so January becomes more obvious as time goes by. Look, if we get to mid-November
06:11and Jose Sarr's back in the team, obviously things change, but it seems like the natural
06:15conclusion to this story.
06:16But these were the errors that have probably forced the hand.
06:18I completely agree and Jose Sarr had an opportunity.
06:23We've not heard a statement.
06:24Exactly, we've not heard anything to suggest that he's been in a difficult since his comeback.
06:28Gary was not saying anything publicly about that, so I can't speculate and say that he's
06:32been an issue. Apparently he's trained well.
06:35I don't think you would have picked him tonight if he wasn't.
06:37Exactly, and I've got no reason to doubt that. What I can doubt is the player's ability to
06:41get over the fact that he's not a number one. He came out there tonight and it was just
06:46nowhere near his levels. Because he's a very good goalkeeper, despite the fact that he's
06:51had a difficult year or so and the fact that he's not performed. But that was a really
06:54poor performance from him.
06:56And you pointed out at the end, the only player that didn't go over to the fans as well.
07:00You know, he stood in the centre circle, he had a chat with Jason Steele, the Brighton
07:04keeper, all the other players went across to the fans. I mean, look, we all know three,
07:08four, five hours to get there and back tonight there were a lot of fans not getting back
07:11home until two, three in the morning, tomorrow morning. Go over there and go and give the
07:19fans an applause and get to the byline and do it. Don't just stand in the centre circle.
07:23For me, that is as much a frustration as it is his performance tonight. And look, it just
07:30begs of a person who doesn't want to be here and probably will not be here past January.
07:35But it is what it is. Look, like you say, massive game now. They go to a derby. Maybe
07:40a derby is what this team needs. Maybe a real tough derby. Going in there, obviously Aston
07:45Villa played against young boys. It doesn't matter how many times that gets said, you
07:52have to laugh. It's terrible. It's awful. But this is the... Hold it together, I've
07:59got to get that to the mixer. Okay. This can't go in, can it? Surely? This can't be cut.
08:09Obviously, you're going to have to leave it now, I think. Okay. Oh no, we haven't got
08:21this moment, so it's completely gone. Right, let's go. Okay. You're crying. You need to
08:31tell it together. I can't, I can't. Okay, okay, I'm ready, I'm ready. But this is the
08:46type of game that Wolves need. Maybe a battle. Maybe one in a pressure cooker of an atmosphere
08:52where they can go there and get a result. And the last thing you need is going there
08:55and conceding early as well. We've seen, and they did it again tonight, Wolves have conceded
09:01and had a two, three, four, five minute span where they're really all over the place and
09:05struggling. So you have to keep it tight. You have to frustrate Villa and you have to
09:10use that atmosphere to your advantage. Regardless of being away from home, the Wolves fans will
09:14make a hell of a lot of noise and the opportunities will be there. You've got fabulous footballers,
09:18you just need to get the most out of them and just stop conceding goals. It sounds simple.
09:23I guess the frustrating thing though is tonight is that, you know, you look at these team
09:25and you look at these players, these French players who are not going to get another game
09:28potentially until the FA Cup or whatever. They're going to be knocking on that door.
09:32There's not too many players out there tonight that are knocking on that door saying, I want
09:35to be picked on Saturday. Rodrigo Gomez, I think, is one. Again, falls off the bench,
09:38looks decent enough. You talk about Sarr not clapping the fans, Sarabia I think had a pretty
09:42poor night. But even as he's coming off, shaking his head and frustrated, he still turns and
09:46claps the fans as he comes off. Credit to him for that. I know it's a simple thing that
09:50players should do, but when you have a player that doesn't, you have to highlight the ones
09:53that do. And unfortunately for Gary O'Neill, his team selections, bar one or two players,
10:00it's probably quite straightforward. There's only a Bellegarde, Aitkenori, Totti, sort
10:06of situation where who fits in where, where does Aitkenori play, does Totti come in. That's
10:10the only situation that probably changes your style at XI. Otherwise, it probably picks
10:14itself. It's all happening, we're going to have to go. This is a nightmare. Cam, we're
10:18gone. I've gone, you've gone. You've gone. Brian Fee, Wolves 2, for all the post-match
10:21reaction, make sure you log on to ExpressTheStar.com. I'm so sorry.