Wolves 0 Arsenal 1 - Liam Keen and Nathan Judah analysis
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Hello, I'm Nathan Judah, I'm here with Wolves reporter, Mr. Liam Keane-Lehan. Wolves nil,
00:13Arsenal won. Interested game of football, ultimately zero points and to be honest, I've
00:17got to say, I don't think Wolves deserved any.
00:20No, I have to agree. And the disappointing thing is, and we can go through the game chronologically
00:24as well, but the most disappointing thing for me is Wolves, there's a controversial
00:30I think, to say the least, red card for Arsenal. It's been very split online, very split amongst
00:37the footballing community. I don't think it was a red card, I think it was a bit harsh,
00:41but that's one side. Wolves have got an opportunity, a fantastic opportunity. They come out of
00:47that second half with 11 versus 10, at home, with a fan base by the way, willing them on,
00:53a fan base with them and desperate for them to do well. And they were worse with 11 versus
01:0010 for the first 20 minutes of that second half than they were at 11 versus 11. I agree.
01:05They sat back even deeper, they were almost defending a point despite having the man advantage
01:13and that's the most frustrating thing. Now after that, they do have, they start to get
01:16into their groove, don't they? They do, yeah, 60 minute mark. Yeah, exactly. They start
01:20to fashion a couple of chances, Hwang has a shot saved, Sarabi has scuffed one wide,
01:25Kunya has two efforts that were really close. Wolves have started to get into their groove,
01:29they're playing more on the front foot, they're looking after the ball well, they're getting
01:32into good areas. The players, like Kunya, like Hwang, the players that you want involved
01:35are involved. Agile Gomez goes and gets himself sent off. Now the first one, which was right
01:41in front of us down here, in front of the dugout, was silly. He kicks the ball away,
01:45gets a yellow card. I think it looked to me like he was claiming for the referee they
01:49didn't hear it because there was a second one in the second half where he tapped the
01:53ball away and he thought it was Wolves throwing and Arsenal obviously asked him for a red
01:57card and he doesn't get it. So I'll give him slight benefit of the doubt in that he may
02:03not have heard the whistle, but still, the rules are the rules. You know what the rules
02:06are, you don't kick the ball away. He gets a silly yellow card and then the second one...
02:10And then you walk out of tightwere for the rest of the game. We know how Agile Gomez
02:12plays. He plays full of attitude. In fact, he had more energy than a lot of those players
02:15today and I understand that. He plays full throttle, doesn't he? And then when he's
02:19on that booking already and he dives in, tries to win the ball on the edge of Arsenal's
02:23box, catches Timber and it's the second yellow and it's the second yellow. Michael Oliver's
02:27got no choice but to send him off. It's such a bad area of the pitch to give it away as
02:30well. It's outside the box that you're attacking as well. You're not stretching back. It's
02:35not a difficult foul. I feel like... Look, the manager went absolutely berserk by the
02:39way and you can understand it as well because everybody thought that life was sucked out
02:43of the stadium at that point and when you know 10 versus 10 it's a completely different
02:47game. Then Calafiore comes up, the second half substitute, ironically, on because they
02:53were down to 10 men and scored a decent goal and it's just... The frustrating thing for
02:57me Liam is when they go 1-0 down, those last 20 minutes are so passive from Wolves. That's
03:04what I don't understand. I've got a question of substitutes today, I really do, to a certain
03:08extent. I thought the likes of Geddes or Rodrigo Gomez should have been on a lot earlier in
03:13the game, not when the game's gone in the last five minutes. So I don't quite understand
03:17that. I'd be interested to see what Vito Perez says after the game, but those last 20 minutes,
03:20they're almost walking. They're almost walking. It's almost like the team that were protecting
03:24the lead. I don't get that. Yeah, I mean the gap between the red card for Gilgamesh and
03:30the goal is roughly about four minutes. So it's the four minutes there that just kills
03:34the game really fast. I haven't seen a really good replay of the goal yet so I do need to
03:38watch it back to see who may or may not have been at fault. Samedo, sorry if I say it wrong,
03:44Samedo does get the header at the far post. I wonder whether maybe he could have headed
03:49it into a better area. I mean, it's a smart finish from Califiori as well. It is as well,
03:54and also he's totally unmarked. He just walks onto it. I mean, there's got to be, I need
03:58to have a look at it. There needs to be someone somewhere that could have tracked him. Walks
04:01onto it, it's a good finish, but it is what it is. And you say, rightly, that Wolves'
04:05reaction from that, you used the word passive, I'd agree with that, I think lethargic, was
04:09disappointing, it really was. Again, it's a Wolves fan base that were with the team
04:14today, that were willing to mong, trying to drag them through. And there was a moment
04:18roughly around 80, 81st minute, when Belagard picks the ball up, sort of middle third, and
04:27he just doesn't know where to go. He doesn't know what pass to pick. He looks around at
04:31all of his teammates, every single attacking teammate, every single midfield teammate,
04:34everyone's walking. He doesn't know where to pass it, he doesn't know where to go, it's
04:37a backwards pass, and the fans are so frustrated, willing them on, willing them on. They look
04:43like a team that, Vito Pereira's put so much emphasis on confidence, and they look like
04:48a team right now that are really struggling, four consecutive defeats, and they look devoid
04:51of any confidence. They do, and some of them look like they don't care at this moment in
04:54time, to be honest. There's some of them that are just looking at the ground, and they're
04:57all going to get clubs, and if this team goes down, they're not going to fight clubs, they're
05:01all going to be still multi-millionaires and stuff, and I just feel there's not a lot of
05:04fight there, there's not a lot of fight, apart from two or three players. What I would
05:07say today is Emanuel Aguero would do his best game in a World Cup, but he was absolutely
05:12excellent throughout. He did not deserve to be on the losing side today. At the same time,
05:18that's four defeats on the spin now in the Premier League of Vito Pereira's Wolves, and
05:22they've got Aston Villa next, then they go away to Liverpool. It's worrying, it's worrying.
05:28Everton have won today. It's looking like a shootout between Ipswich Town and Wolves
05:35at this moment in time, to stay in the Premier League. I know there's a lot of football still
05:39to be played, but at this moment in time, it doesn't look like Wolves are going to pick
05:42up any points any time soon. And as I keep trying to reiterate as well, it's not just
05:47the Villa and Liverpool game, but you then go away to Bournemouth, who have smashed Forest
05:50today. You then go back here against Fulham. I know Wolves beat Fulham in the reverse fixture,
05:55but Fulham have had a very good season. You don't get into some quote-unquote easier games
06:00until we're looking at Ipswich-San Anton, but they're massive games now, aren't they?
06:03They've become huge fixtures. This team has to pick up results. You can't continue to
06:08lose, and this was unfortunately a massive opportunity missed. Some people, it's a frustrating
06:14thing, Liam. I mean, you look at it today, you know, no Saka in the side, you know, Odegaard
06:18ill today, gone home, down to 10 men, second half, 11 versus 10, and it's just nothing,
06:24really, just nothing. And even, you know, we haven't even talked about Jorgen Strootman-Larsen,
06:28who's gone off the pitch as well. We'll find out how he is, but if he misses multiple weeks,
06:32Wang Yichang came on for him, and goodness me, he looks like a different player at this
06:35moment in time. He looks like someone who hasn't kicked a football. It's really disappointing
06:39that there's eight, nine days left of this transfer window. We'll see what the Strootman-Larsen
06:43injury is like, but there needs to be reinforcements here. There needs to be some sense of,
06:48I don't know, responsibility, I think, from the players at this moment in time,
06:51because they're sleepwalking to relegation at this moment. Yeah, and they look like
06:56lacking a bit of leadership, lacking a bit of direction. Lacking a bit of belief. Yeah,
07:01belief and confidence, and that sort of, we use the word passive and lethargic, and they look
07:05like that even at the full-time whistle. Now, they're going to be disappointed and frustrated,
07:10of course they are, but I just don't see a team right now that is scrapping. And I know they've
07:16got that in them as well. This team's got that scrap in them, and right now, I don't think they're
07:21doing that. And that's probably one of the very small basics that they should be doing. So,
07:25there's talent in this side, but it's an unbalanced squad, an unbalanced XI to some degree,
07:32with Agbidu playing on the left, although he's played very well today, and they need additions
07:35as well. We have to come back around to January, because up until, well, February 3rd, isn't it,
07:39the window closes on that Monday night. Between now and then, they have to have some signs,
07:45probably at least two, and they have to, and particularly Larsen's out, you're probably
07:50looking at a forward now as well, aren't you? It depends on how bad the injury is. We don't know
07:53yet, as you just said, so God forbid there won't be anything too serious with him, but
07:58this team needs a bit of impetus, a bit of direction.