Former Molineux full-back Andy Thompson has expressed his frustration about seeing Wolves trying to score the perfect goal.
Wanderers crashed to a 3-0 defeat on Sunday against West Ham United at the London Stadium.
Wolves were pitiful for the most part, and West Ham found it far too easy to play through them, with Toti Gomes struggling in particular.
Wolves felt aggrieved when Vladimir Coufal was not shown a red card for his elbow on Jean-Ricner Bellegarde at the end of the first-half, which pundit Daniel Sturridge branded ‘WWE stuff’.
But ultimately Wolves came up well short in the capital once again.
In the eyes of Thompson though, Wolves are guilty of trying to score the ‘perfect goal’ too often…
Andy Thompson says Wolves are too often trying to score the perfect goal
Thompson was watching the game for Wolves’ Matchday Live Extra show, alongside presenter Mikey Burrows.
In the second-half, Wolves did show signs of life early doors and tried to apply a bit more pressure.
They thought they had found an equaliser when Pablo Sarabia scored following a brilliant team move. But It was chalked off by VAR for offside.
This was a big moment in the game – had Sarabia stayed on then it could have increased the chances of a comeback for Wolves.
Semedo choosing to square the ball, rather than shoot, was something that came into focus after the game for Burrows and Thompson.
Burrows suggested that Nelson Semedo perhaps should have just shot to take the potential offside out of the equation, with Thompson saying: “We want the perfect goal all the time. There’s no one on the edge of the box having a go on it. There’s opportunities when the ball has come to us that we can hit it first time.”
“Sometimes, just do it direct, do it yourself. Sometimes that one pass too many just allows teams to get back to their formation. I’ll keep echoing what I’ve said before, we sometimes don’t play the ball quickly enough, our tempo is too slow.”
A fair criticism of Wolves
Many Wolves fans will probably share this view of Wolves.
It is something that has actually been an issue for quite a while, with Wolves simply not direct or decisive enough at times.
£29 million star Semedo is a player who is guilty of this. He might well have just shot against West Ham to take the potential offside out of the equation, just like he might have shot against Sheffield United, with Dave Edwards criticising the player’s decision to pass and not shoot in that game.
For a long time now, Wolves have actually been pretty good at progressing the ball up to the final third.
But once there, it is all too common for attacks to peter out in the pursuit of that ‘perfect’ goal.