Football News: My view on the Wolverhampton Wanderers v Burnley match

I only watched the Wolverhampton Wanderers v Burnley match on TV, and have to admit that I have read a lot of comments on various sites about the game which may colour my views. However, whilst no one is going to say we were playing like the Netherlands team of Cryuff, Neeskens and Rensenbrink, we were nowhere near as bad as many are saying.

I don't/didn't agree with the thesis that against Arsenal our performance was irrelevant because they are so much better than us that they can walk all over us and there is nothing to be done about it! Similarly, I don't agree with the argument that Burnley are so much worse than us we should walk all over them and failure to do so is unacceptable.

Yes, Arsenal are better than Burnley and we probably sit in the middle, but in any game any Premier League team can compete with any other if they play well with effort and discipline!
In our game we played, as Burnley did, at a very slow tempo, both sides looked frightened to lose, thinking a point was ok. Given Burnley's situation, this was odd, as they surely needed the win more than us?

We created very little and they - who overall were probably the better side - similarly relied on errors to open us up. I know all sides play almost exclusively out from the back as if they were Man City, Barcelona or the aforementioned inventors of "total football" but I do think we need to balance out the need to retain the ball - against City you might not see it again for 10 minutes.

With the reality that firstly most sides aren't City (Burnley definitely aren't so we will get it back again fairly soon) and secondly we aren't either and thus are more likely to turn it over under pressure and concede a chance than we are to concede a chance from the opposition breaking us down from open play.

Consequently, I think we might have been a little too cautious and I would prefer us to play progressively a little more often and look to create things ourselves rather than waiting for an error to provide something for us. Note the goal came from Burnley doing exactly the same as us - over playing and getting caught out.

In Rugby, you often see sides simply smashing the ball down the field and hoping that the other side, instead of smashing it back, tries to play, and it all goes wrong! Clearly this tactic alone won't get you to the top but neither will sitting waiting for the opposition to give you something before you give them something.

All in all, a good result from a modest performance but without Neto there is very little creativity in the side and thus the clean sheet was not just most welcome but probably going forwards not far from essential.

Written by Thefutureisoldgold December 06 2023 16:10:46