Wolves are in trouble, after yet another defeat in the Premier League against Liverpool.
The club were beaten 2-1 by the Reds at Molineux on Saturday, meaning it’s now five defeats and one draw from the first six games.
Wolves fans knew it would have been a tough start to the new season. The fixture list was incredibly difficult, and most did expect a low points total by the end of September.
An issue many Wolves fans have had is that the team have actually been in games, and been in good positions.
But Wolves have not had the know-how to turn their positive periods into more goals and therefore, more points.
Gary O’Neil has made some questionable decisions recently, and the manager made one in the second-half against Liverpool that was truly baffling.
Gary O’Neil putting Hwang Hee-chan on against Liverpool instead of Goncalo Guedes was highly questionable
O’Neil got a lot of things right in his first season in charge at Molineux.
Just lately though, he’s done some strange things.
Playing Jean-Ricner Bellegarde as a winger has not been working, and using both Joao Gomes and Mario Lemina as advanced midfielders at various points this season has been odd.
But O’Neil made one of his strangest calls to date this season against Liverpool, when he substituted Jorgen Strand Larsen for Hwang Hee-chan.
Taking off Strand Larsen was questionable in itself, as the Norwegian was an outlet for Wolves and also played a part in the equaliser.
But putting on Hwang over Goncalo Guedes was just baffling.
At the moment, Hwang is massively out of form. Guedes is actually Wolves’ top goalscorer this season. All three of his strikes may have come in the Carabao, but that still puts him in much better form than Hwang.
His strange decision was then made to look even worse, with Hwang having just four touches (via Sofascore).
Guedes needs more minutes
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Things are bleak at the moment, and O’Neil needs to start trying different things.
There was very little reason for Hwang to play any part against Liverpool given the awful form he has been in recently.
It was unfathomable that Guedes did not get any minutes at all, considering he’s been amongst the goals this season.
A lot was written about the Portuguese forward in the summer. But O’Neil was clearly pleased with what he was offering in the lead-up to the 2024/25 season, and it is now time he called on him more.
He has not started in the Premier League yet and this must change starting at Brentford.