Wolves Fans’ Verdict v Manchester United: A top performance marred by VAR
Our Wolves have their say on the 1-0 defeat to Manchester United.
John Lalley
What is undeniable in the wake of an absurdly embarrassing close season at Molineux, is that no blame for the continuing fiasco attaches itself to Gary O’Neil or his players.
Lambs to the slaughter at Old Trafford was the pre-match script; what panned out was demonstrably different. Wolves didn’t give a hoot for the indecision in the boardroom and they didn’t fuss over much about Manchester United either.
Sharper, more energetic and at ease with themselves, they came so close to the first shock result of this new season. During the previous campaign, we failed to trouble the scorers with chronic regularity largely because we created so little. To have reversed that trend and still fail to register is a bitter pill to swallow.
The result was a travesty, the organisation and the overall approach both outstanding but our long-standing weakness in front of goal cost us again. And naturally, with quite spectacular predictability, the discredited VAR came to the aid of one of the aristocrats of this league, simply because those operating this hideous system think that they should.
It sounds almost childish I concede, but had Jose Sa similarly clattered a Manchester player in such a fashion, the outcome would have been the polar opposite. Of course, it isn’t corrupt, it’s simply irredeemably incompetent and rotten to the core.
A superb effort; initial impressions of O’Neil very favourable. Any suggestion of players not responding to him blown apart by this display. Bitterly disappointed but for the first time since last season, some semblance of dignity and credibility has been restored. And that comes as a gigantic relief.
Clive Smith
Back on the treadmill again. The gradient looks slightly higher this time around, but since when has football, and Wolves, been that predictable eh.
One swallow.... and all that, but that performance raised spirits surely. Its been a while since fans have given such a long and loud support at the final whistle following a defeat.
Plenty of reasons to be cheerful too. Lemina and Gomes led our impressive first half work rate as we played very well without the ball – reminiscent of the Nuno days. MOTM Cunha and Neto found space and a turn of speed that offered a threat in the final third.
Around the interval United began to look more dangerous but once they had taken the lead that fizzled out. Silva and Hwang came on and suggested an equaliser might come.
Annoyingly their keeper made some decent saves, some ricochets did not go our way and neither did VAR.
Defensively we handled United well with Semedo in particular looking solid while Ait-Nouri showed his desire to take the ball forward whenever possible.
Homework for Saturday is improving our finishing and giving the ball away less often.
