Wolves lost again in the Premier League on Saturday against Liverpool – and Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville was left raging at one point late on.
Gary O’Neil‘s side fell short against the Reds, losing 2-1 at Molineux.
Ibrahima Konate gave the visitors the lead just before half-time, nodding in Diogo Jota’s cross from the left side.
Wolves found an equaliser through Rayan Ait-Nouri, after a strange defensive mix-up between Konate and Alisson.
But fans hoping that would lead to a big push from Wolves had their bubble burst almost immediately.
Nelson Semedo brought down Jota in the box, and Mo Salah scored the resulting penalty.
In the late stages of the game, Wolves angered fans and also Gary Neville, as players were passing the ball around at the back despite being a goal down.
Gary Neville lays into Wolves for lack of urgency against Liverpool
Wolves have tried to be a possession team this season, but it has not worked.
There has been a real focus on playing out from the back, but there have been mistakes all over the place and turnovers in dangerous areas.
It is almost as if Wolves spend all their time just keeping the ball between the two boxes in training.
There is just not enough directness, and there has actually seemed a bit of fear about the way Wolves have played in recent games.
In the 85th minute against Liverpool, Sam Johnstone rolled the ball out to Mario Lemina, who played it to Andre. Andre then went back to Toti, who went back to Johnstone.
The ball went back and forth between Lemina and Johnstone several times before Wolves finally progressed, only for Liverpool to get the ball back down the wing.
Commentating on Sky Sports, Neville could not believe what he was seeing, blasting: “They pass it back to the goalkeeper and it just drives me crazy. Absolutely drives me crazy. Honestly. This is exactly what I’m talking about. You need a goal! Do they know?
“Stop it. Honestly, it’s so frustrating. I can’t watch this. They can’t kick the ball fans (but) they know exactly what’s going on here. You’ve got to have another idea to try and do something different. And I’m not talking about wellying it long.
“I’ve no problem with them trying to play out from the back. But there’s got to be, at some point in the game where you say ‘look, we’re struggling to have an impact on the game, we need a goal, we need to create some form of pressure’.
“Get the atmosphere in the ground going, look at these Wolves fans in this stadium, there’s twenty-odd thousand of them, and they’re waiting for something.
“Get the ball into the feet of the most talented players as far up the pitch as you can, with accuracy. That is it. And that is not the aim of what we’ve seen here or in other games this season.”
Neville is spot on
The approach surely now needs to change for O’Neil, especially when Wolves are chasing games.
It was extremely bizarre and worrying to see how Wolves were playing in the late stages of Saturday’s game with Liverpool.
There seemed to be an unwavering belief in a way of playing that just wasn’t getting them anywhere. At that point, the belief was surely misplaced.
As Neville said, you have to have an alternative plan. It is not like Wolves’ game plan had worked – the only reason they got their equaliser was because of a rare mistake at the back by Liverpool.
It is just insanity to keep trying the same unsuccessful things over and over again and expecting different outcomes.