Mick McCarthy has been speaking about Wolves – and identified the game where the club’s recent struggles started.
2022/23 has been a bit of nightmare for Wolves so far.
The team currently sit 19th in the Premier League table, and are only off the bottom due to having a better goal difference than Nottingham Forest.
A poor start cost Bruno Lage his job, but the players have continued to struggle under Steve Davis.
Julen Lopetegui was announced as the new manager on Saturday morning and frankly, his arrival cannot come soon enough. He will officially start work on November 14.
2022 has been a strange year for Wolves.
It started so promisingly, with Wanderers beating the likes of Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League.
The club was genuinely in with a chance of securing European football in some form.
But the team completely fell away, and the poor form has continued into 2022/23.
Former manager McCarthy says he has been speaking to Wolves fans, and many believe that the defeat to Leeds United back in March might have been the start of the demise.
He said: “Wolves under Nuno and Bruno Lage looked like they’re were going to be a top 10 team for the next 10 years, for me.
“All the investment that went in and the players that came in. It just looked like a really good job that they were doing.
“Last season, I think they were 2-0 up against Leeds and they lost 3-2. I talked to the Wolves fans and they seemed to think that was the start of the rot setting in.”
Wolves were in a commanding position in that game after Jonny Castro Otto and Francisco Trincao had scored.
But Raul Jimenez got sent off with a second yellow card after a collision with Illan Meslier, and Leeds then came back with three second-half goals to stun the visitors.
Leeds defeat in March did feel quite significant, as Mick McCarthy reveals Wolves fans’ thoughts
That defeat to Leeds really did feel like a very significant moment for Wolves.
They were firmly in contention to finish in the European places at that point.
The team only won one more game after that result, which was actually the following weekend against Aston Villa.
But Wolves then went on to lose five of their last seven, drawing the other two.
The nature of the collapse that was shocking to see, and it seemingly did deal a real psychological blow.
Who knows how Wolves’ season might have ended had they managed to win that game.