Gary O’Neil has said that he will ‘look into’ Wolves’ worrying habit of conceding early goals this season.
Wanderers took a point against Nottingham Forest at the weekend, drawing 1-1 with Steve Cooper’s side at Molineux.
It was not a very good performance from Wolves, who were also fairly poor against Burnley despite winning 1-0.
Wolves had to come from behind on Saturday after some poor defending led to Harry Toffolo opening the scoring with a back post header for the visitors. It was Matheus Cunha who finished off a lovely move for the hosts.
Thankfully, this Wolves squad now has a lot of character and so, there is always a decent chance of a comeback. But Gary O’Neil says he is keen to get to the root of this problem of conceding early…
Gary O’Neil out to kick Wolves’ conceding early goals habit
This term, Wolves have conceded a fair few times in the opening 20 minutes.
It has happened against Brighton, Bournemouth, Tottenham Hotspur, Fulham, Arsenal (who scored two) and now Forest.
While it is great that Wolves sometimes show good character to come back in games, this is a big issue.
Speaking about this habit, O’Neil said after the draw with Forest (Wolves Weekly): “I will look into it. We look into everything. My thoughts would be that it probably is coincidence, but we need to make sure that the lads are well prepared and ready to go right from the off. (It was) a poor goal from our point of view, we had the ball and turned it over and got punished.”
Wolves must fix up
O’Neil does indeed need to get this sorted, because Wolves are giving themselves a lot of work to do in games this season.
To have conceded seven Premier League goals so far inside the first 20 minutes is concerning.
Starting games well is crucial, and although we have seen Wolves get back into some games, it is just not ideal to be shipping goals early doors.
Somehow, O’Neil needs to ensure his players’ concentration levels improve moving forward.
If Wolves can largely nip this is the bud, then this will give the team a greater chance of winning more games and progressing up the Premier League table.