Chelsea 3 Wolves 1 - Liam Keen and Nathan Judah analysis
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00:00Hello, I'm Nathan Jude, I'm here with Waterport, here's Mr Liam Keane. Liam, Chelsea 3, Wolverhampton
00:141, Derbyshire 1 and Wolves got exactly what they deserve and that's no points.
00:17Yeah, nail on the head, I mean that first half was pretty poor from Wolves' perspective,
00:22they conceded a goal with a little bit of help from VAR but it seemed to go to the side.
00:27Chelsea were way on top, Chelsea were dominant, Chelsea were free-flowing, Wolves were struggling
00:32to contain them, they were sitting very deep and all of a sudden they get a goal out of
00:36nowhere and that Doherty does fantastically well to sort of pounce, the instincts to pounce
00:42on it, Cunha puts in a good corner, pretty much the only good thing he did all day but
00:45we will come back to that and Doherty does really well, good goal, Wolves go into half-time
00:491-1 and you think there's an opportunity to build something going into a second half and
00:53for 10-15 minutes or so Wolves did okay, Chelsea didn't offer a lot, there wasn't a lot going
00:59on, there was not a lot of action, Wolves were defending relatively well, looking after
01:01the ball okay, didn't seem like they were in a lot of danger and somehow they find themselves
01:06with both Samedo and Ait Nori both on the right-hand side, of course they had switched
01:10in the first half so it was Ait Nori meant to be on that side, Samedo was meant to be on the left,
01:13all of a sudden they find themselves on the same half, on the same side side, as Chelsea
01:18go on the transition, Noni Madueki picks the ball up on that far side, he's got acres of space,
01:22whips across in, Duesenhoff flicks it on and Wolves' defence are totally asleep, completely
01:28at sea, Koukourea slips in for an easy finish and from there the game's gone, Wolves' heads
01:33have gone, they concede from another set-piece for the third goal and in pretty embarrassing
01:37fashion 19 set-pieces conceded this season and they lose the game 3-1 pretty comfortably,
01:42it was a nothing really game after that third one. You don't think Chelsea were particularly
01:46good tonight? No, they didn't have to be either. No, so much space that Wolves gave them,
01:50they played so narrow but the width that they got, but also where was the pressing tonight,
01:55where was the running, the body language throughout this game from more than one player,
02:00five, six or seven players was atrocious, the minimum you can do coming here when Chelsea
02:06haven't won in five games and there's a bit of pressure on them is to put some pressure on them,
02:10attack and make it difficult for them, Wolves made it easy for them tonight and that's the
02:14problem, look, Chelsea players are better than Wolves, so they're going to outclass you every
02:19so often but that was time and time and time again and it was 3-1 and to be honest it could
02:24have been 4-5 by the end of it. Yeah, it was comfortable, that's third gear, they didn't
02:28get our third gear, it was comfortable for Chelsea and that's to Wolves' detriment,
02:33it's Wolves' issues and concerns with an abject performance the way we both described it during
02:39both halves really and that's 51 goals now conceded in 22 Premier League games, that's one worse than
02:46Southampton, of course we were bottom of the table, Wolves have got the worst offensive record
02:49in the league by a decent margin. What is the fight tonight? There's no fight there,
02:53I mean, there wasn't any fight on that pitch. You could pick out one or two, I thought Xhaka
02:56Gomez worked hard. I thought Xhaka Gomez worked hard, I thought I would do a decent game,
02:59I thought he worked hard. Larsen just did his best to hold the ball up but had nothing around him and
03:04I mean, I have to puff a bit and then we come on to Wolves' best player, we come on to Mateus
03:09Cunha, a player that has that something special, he's got that star quality, he's got that magic,
03:14that pizzazz, he's got something about him. Didn't look like he wanted to be out there at
03:18all tonight. Now, I don't want to completely lay all the blame on Mateus Cunha's dog because
03:23the first thing I need to mention is the Wolves are far too reliant on him. Wolves are over-reliant
03:26on one player, first of all. We said that in the very first game of the season at Arsenal
03:30back in August. And that's why the focus is on him really. Exactly. Wolves are over-reliant on him
03:34and he's a fantastic player and when he is on it, he's brilliant but he was way below his standards
03:40today. His body language is horrendous. He was throwing his arms around, walking, not tracking
03:45back, not working hard, not doing the basics and at the end, as the players and the staff are all
03:51on the sort of D area near the away end, they're clapping the fans, the Wolves fans that have
03:56stayed are clapping them. Mateus Cunha walks off down the tunnel. I think it's really poor
04:01from a player that is a leader, is a natural presence in that dressing room and has done
04:06himself no favours. Look, I defend him slightly in the fact that he missed Friday's training,
04:12he was ill, so we don't know whether he was 100% but at the same time, he's played 96 minutes of
04:17football there and done nothing. Like you say, his body language was so, so poor and that to me
04:23doesn't look like a player who's just about to sign a new contract at Wolverhampton Wanderers
04:26and that's the worrying thing and that's where the speculation will be tonight.
04:29You look at his comeback, he's had this time off in Brazil that was granted to him by Vito Pereira.
04:34He said, look, I'll look after my players but they've got to come and look after us.
04:38He hasn't shown that so far, it's been very, very difficult. I know he's had an injury as well
04:42but Wolves will need Mateus Cunha to be playing and going back to the level that we saw a couple
04:46of months ago because this team are banging in trouble. Yeah, well in a relegation fight,
04:52these last three games have been maybe not to the very worst of the Garrion era as he
04:59came to the end of his spell but very close. I mean, his performances have been pretty poor.
05:02That's as bad as I've seen them tonight for a long time. Yeah, I completely agree and it was
05:07the abject nature of it. It was how comfortable it was for Chelsea. It was at no point like they
05:13were going to get back into your game. You are right to point out the illness, I think that's,
05:18you know, you've got to be fair to him as well that he was unwell but if he's well enough to
05:21start the game and play the full game as you say, he's well enough to put in a better performance
05:26than that. It's the basics, it's the fight, it's the running, it's the hard work, it's the
05:30tracking back, it's the trying to encourage the teammates around you. I saw him do nothing
05:33but whinge and whine to his teammates today and the natural questions, whether it's accurate or
05:39not, but the natural questions as you've already pointed out will be, has his head gone? Has his
05:46head been turned by interest from elsewhere? Is he committed to what Wolves want to do? Now,
05:51he's had bad spells for Wolves this season, right at the end of when Gary Neal, his last two or
05:55three games before he lost his job, couldn't you have was really poor in those games. He's got the
06:00magic, I'm sure he'll come back and perform well for this club but it's only natural we ask those
06:04kind of questions and we'll put them to Vito Pereira because Wolves fans, the ones who've
06:08travelled down on a Monday night deserve a bit better. Mario Lamina put himself forward to say
06:12they want to be back involved, wasn't in the squad tonight, does that speak volumes again?
06:16It does, it's also not a surprise to me, we slightly disagreed, we thought we might be
06:20there but I just thought, considering all that's gone on, it would be a mistake to put him straight
06:26back into the squad. It would be interesting how the next few days and weeks go with the transfer
06:30window open until the 3rd of February and then as it stands Wolves are trying to move him on and
06:35bring a midfielder in as we know with Manu Silva, with Dil falling through to bring him from Portugal.
06:39It's surprising they've spent about four years all round with every team winning as well.
06:43Yeah and Wolves have an opportunity with Ipswich getting upon 6-0 as well to just
06:47give themselves a tiny gap. I'm not saying they were always going to come here and win
06:50this game but to give themselves some sort of leverage and they failed really miserably.
06:58And three easy games coming up, Arsenal, Aston Villa and Liverpool away.
07:02We might burn through in the middle of that as well.
07:03Yeah exactly, I'm not even talking about that, I mean whatever, that's the FA Cup.
07:09I mean there's no way that this side playing like this gets any points in those next three games,
07:13they've got to change, they've got to sort themselves out. It's got to come from,
07:16well it's got to come from the bottom to the top but that spine for me is weak at this moment in
07:20time. It's very impassive and you just need Mateus Cunha to start banging the goals because
07:25at this moment in time, if Jorgen Strand Larsson, if Wolves had players who were in form, if they
07:30had Huang Yichang scoring goals, he needs to take it out of the firing line as well because he
07:33doesn't like the player that we saw three or four weeks ago either. There's problems all over this
07:36pitch and there's a lot of players to put out. And you talk about the spine, Wolves desperately
07:40need a centre-back, they have to have a centre-back in there. I thought Andre, the game,
07:43passed him by a little bit today. I don't think he was particularly forward but then he...
07:47Was just taken off.
07:48Exactly, but taken off. I thought he was overran in midfield but I was trying his hardest to get
07:53Wolves back into the game and then it goes all the way through to Larsson who I thought really
07:58put the effort in and tried but to no avail. He looked low on confidence, he's struggling to get
08:04himself involved and some of the delivery into him has been really poor as well. Someone like
08:09Ryan Ainora, he's clearly a talented footballer, just not picking the right passes. Founder of
08:14Sarabia, a yard off there, it's pretty often discussed. Without those kind of players performing,
08:19Wolves are never going to score goals and never going to get themselves back into games.