Wolves 0 Brighton 2 - Liam Keen and Nathan Judah analysis
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00:00Hello, I'm Nathan Duder, I'm here with The Wolves Report, it is Mr. Liam Keane.
00:13Liam, Wolverhampton Wanderers 0, Brighton Hove Albion 2, and to be honest I thought Brighton
00:18were pretty much deserved winners on the day. Wolves were flat, I don't think they looked like
00:21scoring apart from those first 15 minutes, and I think the frustrating thing for me is that
00:25Brighton didn't need to be great today, they just needed to be organised, and I think the Wolves
00:29gifted them the win really. Yeah, that was exactly how I was going to phrase it, I didn't think Brighton
00:33had to be at their best, they didn't have to be adventurous or free-flowing, because Wolves
00:37all handed it to them on a plate. The amount of times the Wolves would make mistakes in possession,
00:43relatively straightforward passes, too sloppy, and allowing the sort of mood of the game to be
00:48dictated by Brighton. I felt that the hosts were able to slow it down, particularly when they made
00:53changes in the second half, and Wolves had a five-minute period or so where they were on top,
00:57with a bit of energy pressing aggressively, and Brighton defended deep, got hold of the ball,
01:02and once they did, just killed the game off of the contest. And Wolves were nowhere near scoring,
01:07they put Barth Verbruggen in the Bryan goal under no pressure whatsoever, and too many individual
01:12performances that were just nowhere near good enough really. Yeah, too many off days. Look, a bit of a
01:17surprise in the style line of Gonzalo Geddes coming in, Jürgen Strand-Larsen was on the bench,
01:22but so was Jean-Ricne Bellegarde, and I guess Geddes had the best two chances of the match,
01:26really. Yeah, and then we didn't see him for 60 minutes after that. Yeah, phenomenal. Yeah,
01:31two chances early on, a lovely little sort of, I'm not sure if Kunien necessarily meant it with
01:36the free-kick, I think the wind might have caught it and it landed to Geddes, but I know it's a slightly
01:41difficult one almost on the turn, but it's so close to the goalie, I think he's got to do slightly better,
01:45get it on target at least. And the second one, Aitnori just beautifully, lovely team move,
01:49lays it off to the edge of the box, and you've just got to rifle it, put your foot through it.
01:53He delays, he delays, he delays, just makes a complete mess of it and loses the ball. And
01:58you talk about players taking their opportunity to be in the starting eleven, we weren't expecting
02:02Geddes to play, he got that chance today and didn't come anywhere near taking it. And that's going to
02:06be a disappointing thing, probably for Vitor more than anyone, to be honest, because you want these
02:11players, if they're going to, you know, looking ahead to next season and finishing the season
02:14strongly, taking opportunities that are awarded to them, and Geddes didn't take it as well as well.
02:19Brighton then had a goal disallowed through VAR, which took an age, we were all waiting for it again,
02:24two, three, four minutes, plays stood around, and then just after that, seconds after it really,
02:29a mistake, Agdu, I thought there was a bad pass to Cunha, and then Cunha dearie me, I mean he's
02:35had an off day, but it's a poor tackle, he loses the ball, tries to get the ball back, gives the penalty
02:40away, Danny Wilbeck converts the penalty, and really after that it was game, set and match,
02:44it was a bad day for Matthias. It was, it was a bad goal that they conceded that was then chalked off,
02:48and you think, right, they've got away with one here, and very, very quickly from the restart,
02:52yes, it's a poor pass from Agbedou, considering he can see the game in front of him, I don't think
02:57he can make that pass. At the same time, Cunha is showing for it, wants it, he does that a lot,
03:02by the way, as well, comes deep, and he's just asleep, isn't he? It's a big error from a player that we know
03:08how good he is, and was nowhere near his best today, I thought he was really poor, so,
03:13so yeah, it's a shame really, because that sort of spell, the Wolves had started the game okay,
03:17really, a couple of getters chances, started on top, and then that little spell around the disallowed
03:22goal and the penalty, which was, you know, easily converted, was the spell that killed the game
03:27off for me. Then in the second spell, in the second half, sorry, Wolves had that spell with the four
03:31changes, again, didn't do anything with it, and then Brighton just killed it off again, and got a second
03:35goal that just meant that Wolves had no opportunities, I mean, it wasn't a great watch
03:41for a neutral, but particularly a Wolves fan, because they just weren't anywhere near their best.
03:47Don't see too many times I've seen a quadruple substitution by Wolves, but it probably just
03:51shows what Vito Pereira thought of his starting XI today. Yeah, I think that's definitely a message,
03:57it has to be. I think once he gets stronger, Vito Pereira, we haven't done the post-match press
04:01comments, but I think he'll be visibly frustrated with what he saw today, because the last thing he
04:05wanted to do was see his team be on the beach, and I felt like this was very much an end-of-season
04:10performance today. Yeah, and I hope he reflects that in his presence, because I think he probably
04:15does need to, and of those changes, taking Kunja off after 59 minutes is a, look, based purely on the
04:22game, he deserved to come off. Based on what he is as a player and what he offers, it's still a big
04:28decision to do that. At 1-0 at that time as well. Exactly, yeah, it's still a really big decision
04:32to take him off, but Vito, I don't think he's afraid of the big decisions, and Wolves just
04:38weren't good enough. So yeah, to make the changes, you have to try and impact the game in some capacity,
04:43and unfortunately, the changes didn't make a lot of difference either. Aitnori gets forward and
04:49tries to put a ball into Larsson, obviously, who's one of the changes, and Vogelbruggen does really
04:52well to get on it. Otherwise, Larsson wasn't really safe, it was quite isolated. Bellegar gave the ball away
04:58too often in midfield, for my liking. Rodrigo Gomez was busy, but didn't get up into the dangerous
05:04positions you wanted to often enough, and Sarabia, of the four, was the worst for me.
05:08I thought he's done well off the bench. Couldn't really pass together, couldn't link up with Rodrigo
05:11at all. I thought he's done well off the bench, and obviously in other games as we've seen previously,
05:14but he was all over the place when he came on, just passing the ball out of play, completely
05:18misplacing everything, and it just summed up Wolves' afternoon. Gonzalo, Guedes and Kunja,
05:23the talking point today. I'm just thinking, like, being the cynic, would you say that Guedes got the chance
05:27today to put himself in the shot window, and in terms of Matthias Kunja being pulled at 59 minutes,
05:32will we see that more often with him probably not being at the club next season?
05:36Put in the shot window with Guedes, yes, also to say, right, well, if you are going to stick
05:40around next season, let's show me something as well, and he didn't do that. And with Kunja,
05:44he's a player that is not obviously guaranteed at this stage right now, but we're pretty certain
05:49he's going to be leaving the football club. Pereira will know that, Vito will know that.
05:52So, he's got to make decisions based on the game at the time, which, you know,
05:57Kunja coming off was understandable, but also based on his team going forward, and if he's not
06:01going to be part of it, get a look at the players that are going to be part of it.
06:04Well, that brings me to my next question. You've got Crystal Palace Tuesday night,
06:07week on Tuesday. You've got Brentford at home. Will we see Matthias Kunja start both of those games?
06:13I think so. You do? I think so. I think, regardless of the decision, or the situation,
06:17rather, with him most likely leaving, I think he's too good not to play, and even with that
06:22performance, I still think he plays. I'd be godsman if he doesn't start him, but if he doesn't,
06:26it's a big talk about it, it's a big story. And also, I think Vito will probably want to avoid
06:30those questions and those storylines as well, but if he does leave on the bench, it's a massive
06:35decision to make. And a nice debut to finish off the… Yes. Matthias Mane, 17-year-old,
06:41came on for the last few minutes. A good moment for him. Vito said he wants to give him an opportunity
06:45at some point, and for him to get his debut, regardless of the afternoon itself, will just
06:49be a nice moment. It looks like a promising young player, but we've seen a few of the promising young
06:53players, and maybe not quite jump at the chance of getting into the first team on a consistent basis.
06:59So for him, I'll be fascinated to see how he gets on, probably in pre-season more than anything,
07:02and then go from there. Do you want to see a reaction to this, though, week on Tuesday at Palace?
07:05You have to. You have to. Obviously, it depends on the other games and the teams around them,
07:11but the Wolves are probably not going to catch Palace with two games to go, so you suspect that
07:14they'll be targeting 13th, 14th if they can. Slip to 14th, I think, as it stands today.
07:20With Everton's result, exactly. So they've got something to play for, but obviously,
07:27you know, Wolves have done their job already, which is staying in the Premier League. But you can't
07:31allow this season to sort of fizzle out with a couple of bad performances now. Which is what we've
07:34seen in previous seasons. Yes, we have. It's been the story almost every year, hasn't it? Whether it's
07:38injuries and other things impacting the side, but you have to finish the season well. Two games left,
07:42and Wolves have got a good opportunity to do that. Wolves and Ill Brighton 2. For all the
07:45post-match reaction, make sure you log on to expressandstar.com.