Match Day Wolves v Liverpool, Friday 21 December 20:00

[SALTIRE]

Match chat.

 

[HertsWolf]

4-0 or 5-0 to the Wolves, this one. Boly hat-trick all with his hands or elbows. Then one or two from a much-missed and recalled Gary Breen. Maybe a Salah own-goal.

The days of the top 5 skidding on the Wolves banana skin are, sadly, well over now. I think Liverpool will win comfortably; look what they did to Bournemouth. But then I think we never expected to win any of these games but so far we've taken on and got something out of City, United, Arsenal and Chelsea and ran Tottenham close in the end. A big loss won't hurt our reputation (no..only losing to Huddersfield and Cardiff would do that) nor will it end the party. At this stage of the Wolves resurrection plan, we are punching above our weight.

I do fear a sending off though...Boly or Bennett...because that would have a more significant effect.
I would like to see Saiss back in though, perhaps with Moutinho or Neves on the bench until the second half.

 

[markwwfc1992]

Liverpool should win and will win comfortably, on paper at least. There's something about this game though, it's essentially a free hit for us since nobody expects us to get a result and rightly so. But we seem to raise our game against the big teams in the league and I have a feeling we can cause them a few problems of our own. As good as Liverpool have been this season we've hit a bit of form ourselves by winning our last 3. Hope Jota will be fit, if not we have Adama, Gibbs-White or Cav to fill the void.

Heads says 0-3
Heart says 2-1

 

[SALTIRE]

Have seen Wolves record against the top sides this season and if we aren't on it this could indeed be a banana skin of a tie, especially with them winning the last three as well.

However, we have also just started to hit the form we showed last season and have won our last 6. The last three games in particular against Bournemouth, Napoli and Man Utd we have been superb. If we don't play at our best then I can see a draw, but confident that won't be the case and will go for 4 - 1 to the Reds.

 

[big mean bunny]

It's going to be humble'o'clock for Lovern come Friday...

Whilst Liverpool are very good I don't think they were particularly good against Napoli Salt, maybe I am just mixing up the terrible wasted chances from Mane, but you were an outstanding save away from being knocked out.

 

[SALTIRE]

It's going to be humble'o'clock for Lovern come Friday...

Whilst Liverpool are very good I don't think they were particularly good against Napoli Salt, maybe I am just mixing up the terrible wasted chances from Mane, but you were an outstanding save away from being knocked out.

If's and but's though. If Mane, Salah and one or two others had tucked away the good chances we made, we would've won something like 5 - 0. We utterly smothered Napoli like they did us at the San Paolo.

Sure Lovren should shut his mouth, but the game tomorrow will not be won or lost on his performance.

 

[markwwfc1992]

Jota has been ruled out for the game which is a shame, but it's a position we have more than enough cover in so it shouldn't be much of a problem.

 

[HertsWolf]

Jota has been ruled out for the game which is a shame, but it's a position we have more than enough cover in so it shouldn't be much of a problem.

Trouble is neither Jota nor the cover are really god enough at this level. There's a few flashes of brilliance but I just don't see the goals coming from any of them right now against a team like Lverpool.

Costa, Cav, Traore, Jota, Bonatini...all great in the Championship...but none are good enough at this level, much as I would love them to be. Jiminez is good enough and with Gibbs-White supporting him, there's a chance, but not in this game. Not tonight.

 

[markwwfc1992]

Trouble is neither Jota nor the cover are really god enough at this level. There's a few flashes of brilliance but I just don't see the goals coming from any of them right now against a team like Lverpool.

Costa, Cav, Traore, Jota, Bonatini...all great in the Championship...but none are good enough at this level, much as I would love them to be. Jiminez is good enough and with Gibbs-White supporting him, there's a chance, but not in this game. Not tonight.

I think it's abit unfair on Cav, he's only played a handful of minutes and he's scored 3 goals... I'd like to see someone with a better goal to minutes ratio than him. Jota has found his form in recent games, and I think Traore still has something to prove. Costa does a job at this level but Bonatini isn't good enough. We're 7th in the league on merit so I'm not sure I agree with most of them not being good enough.

 

[big mean bunny]

Fairly impressed with that lineup. Like the added steel of Saiss and this is Moutiniho original role from what my Portuguese mate tells me. Despite my hatred of Traore I understand the allure of starting him in this game, especially now having seen Lovern, Milner and Henderson are starting.

 

[SALTIRE]

Fairly impressed with that lineup. Like the added steel of Saiss and this is Moutiniho original role from what my Portuguese mate tells me. Despite my hatred of Traore I understand the allure of starting him in this game, especially now having seen Lovern, Milner and Henderson are starting.

I was more confident of a win with you guys starting Traore tbh.

Another professional display by the lads tonight, and another three points to stay top. Great stuff.

 

[markwwfc1992]

Liverpool were just too good for us in the end. Fair play to all of us Wolves fans who went and set a new attendance record since 1981? Easy to critisize when sitting at home watching it on telly.

 

[big mean bunny]

I thought Wolves played well but that Liverpool looked like they had another gear. Traore played better still offers little. Needed to score during the good spell before the half when we had them pinned back. Liverpools actual best signing out of Van Dyke and the keeper is actually the keeper. Odd that one gets so much praise from the pundits and the other doesn't.

 

[HertsWolf]

Thought we put on a good show and disappointed that - again - chances weren't taken early on.
Yes, very telling that Liverpool's best performers were those at the back (but same with us too). I was also pleased to see Saiss back in the side and hope he stays: he really does add a bit of strength in the middle. Somehow getting Gibbs-White, Saiss, Neves and Moutinho in the side would make a big impression.

Maintain what I said about Cav, Costa and Traore earlier though...regardless of whether I'm watching on the telly or at the ground.

 

[big mean bunny]

Very unfair on Cav. He looked to add something to us and is our 2nd top scorer? Want to see him get a run of games now.

 

[Redpelt]

A thoroughly professional performance from the reds ,we would have dropped points in that game last season but its evident this Liverpool team has a lot more consistency and are setting about their vocation with real menace ,Salah's pace coupled with his dexterity on the ball was frightening and he ran at the wolves defence like a spare exocet. The big Dutchman's display at the back was immense and carried out with a mixture of poise and elegance ,but for me the intrinsic difference in our play is the inclusion of Fabinho and his game intelligence,some players just instinctively know the perfect pass before the ball even lands at their feet ,he reminds me so much of Gilberto Silva in his pomp for the Gunners.

4 points ahead of the nearest challengers and top of the league for the festive ,what's not to like about that

 

[big mean bunny]

I find it odd that vvd gets such praise but your keeper seems to still have questions about him, at least from pundits. He was the real difference yesterday. Van Dyke out of position on the chance at 0-0 where Saiss was played through and keeper had to make a decent save. Also had the chance covered where Fabinho gave the ball away and Van Dyke didn't seem to know to press or back off and Traore managed to shoot. Although it's perfectly possible that he had already worked out Traore can't actually shoot by then.

 

[SALTIRE]

I find it odd that vvd gets such praise but your keeper seems to still have questions about him, at least from pundits. He was the real difference yesterday. Van Dyke out of position on the chance at 0-0 where Saiss was played through and keeper had to make a decent save. Also had the chance covered where Fabinho gave the ball away and Van Dyke didn't seem to know to press or back off and Traore managed to shoot. Although it's perfectly possible that he had already worked out Traore can't actually shoot by then.

Indeed, Alisson positionally is excellent; he's an excellent reader of what to do when someone is through (whilst someone like Mignolet will stay on his line). He reduces angles every time forcing the attacking player to make a decision. Its not spectacular what he does a lot of the time, but its mighty effective. Then he'll have his games where he'll just save everything. I didn't mind Mignolet or Karius, but even from this 4 months he's been here, we can clearly see Alisson is leagues above anything we've had in years (possibly decades). And his distribution is simply superb too. Very happy we got him.

 

[Redpelt]

I find it odd that vvd gets such praise but your keeper seems to still have questions about him, at least from pundits. He was the real difference yesterday. Van Dyke out of position on the chance at 0-0 where Saiss was played through and keeper had to make a decent save. Also had the chance covered where Fabinho gave the ball away and Van Dyke didn't seem to know to press or back off and Traore managed to shoot. Although it's perfectly possible that he had already worked out Traore can't actually shoot by then.

Van Dijk is pulled out of position far more times than is comfortable when he's alongside Lovren ,when he plays with Gomez the two compliment each other in as much as they compensate for the weakness of the other ,it was the same with Hyypia and Henchoz .

Lovren just isn't in the same bracket of intelligence ,occasionally he will play almost on instinct and on other occasions he has the look of a 2 year old that's been flung in a ball pit.

 

[big mean bunny]

Yeah you saw the difference in the two with Saiss' other chance in the 2nd half. Lovern missed a fairly easy (for the standard) chance to head clear, but worse just then completely stopped marking Saiss. When the ball deflected back to him it was VVD quick reactions to get the pressure on him that he does that causes Saiss to make as poor contact with the ball as he did.

 

[Redpelt]

Van Dijk is an extremely astute defender and completely merits the plaudits he regularly receives,Lovren in comparison is prone to serious lapses of concentration even when it requires minimal thought and for a team that aspires to take a tilt at the title then the injury to Gomez who is on the same wavelength as the Dutchman has come as a huge blow that will definitely have implications along the way.

 

[SALTIRE]

Whenever Lovren has played this season (or last in the main) it hasn't cost us. He may still have the odd bad game, but he's more than good enough for our needs. Gomez is becoming the first pick though and the sooner he's back, the better for everyone.