Wolves have sacked Gary O’Neil and three key mistakes he made in his reign made his fate inevitable.
Wolves are in crisis. After a shock 2-1 defeat to fellow strugglers Ipswich Town, the club are now cut adrift inside the relegation zone.
With the club’s form showing no signs of improvement, Wolves sacked O’Neil following the defeat ending his stint at the Old Gold.
However, for many, this had been coming for a long time. The Englishman failed to halt Wolves’ poor form from last season which resulted in a dire start.
Now, looking back on his tenure, it is clear that the former Wolves manager made three key mistakes that saw him sacked.
Wolves’ appointment of a set-piece coach
Seen as a bit of a coup in pre-season, Wolves appointed their first-ever set-piece coach in Jack Wilson.
Brought in to try and make the club more efficient at defending and attacking dead-ball situations, the club have only gone backwards since.
After a 5-3 defeat and dire defending from set-pieces, Wilson was sacked after Brentford, a clear scapegoat for Wolves’ poor start.
From here, O’Neil was back in charge and this was the time for the manager to make some clear improvements to how the club defends.
Yet, Wolves just got worse, proving that Wilson wasn’t the sole problem.
Against Everton, each of the Toffees’ goals came from dead-ball situations which ultimately exposed the fact that the Englishman was incapable of improving the situation.
Wolves’ baffling summer transfer window
At the start of the summer transfer window, Wolves’ business was praised by fans. The additions of Rodrigo Gomes, Jorgen Strand Larsen and Pedro Lima were seen as big upgrades on the squad.
However, from here, it was only downhill. The sales of Pedro Neto and Max Kilman seemed pointless for large periods of the window as Fosun refused to spend.
Then, after a winless start to the campaign, the club panicked and brought in multiple new faces such as Andre, Sam Johnstone and Carlos Forbs.
The only issue with many of these is that they have been completely unneeded.
The capture of a backup goalkeeper for £10 million was bizarre considering the lack of resources available and it has arguably made the two worse.
Andre, while good, was a completely unnecessary signing with the club already boasting four good midfielders.
Forbs has also barely featured under O’Neil making the addition strange and unnecessary.
On top of this, the club and O’Neil did not feel a centre-back was needed in the summer. The consequences of this could be seen as the driving factor behind his sacking given the side’s inability to defend.
Gary O’Neil failed to commit to a system
One of the most baffling elements of O’Neil’s reign was the constant changes he made to Wolves’ system.
After it became clear that the Old Gold could not play in a back four, the manager simply could not commit to a key formation.
In multiple games, the club would switch their defensive shape and move players around which no doubt caused confusion on the pitch.
Mario Lemina was the biggest victim of this as he played in defence for the Englishman’s last three games before being moved further up the pitch when the club were 2-0 down to Everton.
It was no surprise that the club kept shipping in goals when the players could never get settled into a key system.