Wolves have been given 7,000 tickets for the cup game at Villa which will of course sell out and create a great atmosphere. The next home game is already sold out as are the next Away league games.

The stay at home fans are voting with their feet and as herb says are bored and will doubtless stay at home. Those that go to the games are loving where Wolves are and the next game can never come quickly enough

comment by Spangles (U17289)
posted 38 minutes ago
Wolves have been given 7,000 tickets for the cup game at Villa which will of course sell out and create a great atmosphere. The next home game is already sold out as are the next Away league games.

The stay at home fans are voting with their feet and as herb says are bored and will doubtless stay at home. Those that go to the games are loving where Wolves are and the next game can never come quickly enough
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Yeah, that must be it. No one at games is unhappy with our current style of play, its only those who don't go. Great logic.

You do realise you can be happy about our club status, but also concerned about our current style of play. The two aren't mutually exclusive.

You and I rarely agree on assessment of games Tam so of course there are different views. I will never apologise for being allergic to negativity. All I can tell you is that last night and this morning I have spoken to half a dozen supporters that go to the games and watched it on tv last night and every one commented on the great result and what a professional performance it was. Not one said they were bored, but one said Besiktas were crap.

comment by Spangles (U17289)
posted 12 hours, 18 minutes ago
But it’s not just about attacking oldie. We conceded 5 at home to Chelsea and something needed to change. In the 5 games since then we have only scored 5 which isn’t great. But more importantly we have only conceded 3 in those 5 games which is excellent and the basis for our improvement.

When we get Jota and Jiminez back together we will do better at the other end of the field as well
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I actually agree with most of that, as I do most of your assessments of games but I just didnt like the way we tried to control the game defensively last night, those AC Milan teams of the 90s were brilliant at doing that, but its just not our natural game and I felt we lost control of it for a spell 10 minutes before and 20 after half time. Most sides at this level would have punished us in that spell and Besiktas very nearly did.

And lighten up Tam, how could you take a comment that stay at home fans will stay at home as anything but a tongue in cheek comment

My view oldgold is that in the games against Everton and Chelsea we were too open and conceded 8 goals across the two games and we needed to do something to achieve the solidity that was the base for our success last season. Now at last we have a settled defence again and last night was a great example of the benefit of that.

To me last season Jiminez was our best player and for the last month or so we just haven’t set our attack up in a way that gets the best out of him. We need Jota back up close to him in my opinion not injured or playing wide. The dilemma Nuno has is Traore. He is playing so much better than last season and often looks the most likely to make things happen. But to me we are a better balanced team without him and more like the set up of last season

Common sense approach would be to use Traore as an impact sub. Bring him on for the last 20 or 30 minutes.

After Chelsea ripped us a new one, it was pretty obvious we were going to see things tighten up at the back as a consequence. All managers take less risks when under pressure, and I believe Nuno was feeling a bit of unease after conceding 8 goals in 120 minutes.

We have won our last 2 matches and got 2 clean sheets in the process. We will see a better brand of football again when confidence is restored, but for now "buckle up and enjoy the ride".

Wolves winning away in Europe. Ten years ago I would have never thought it possible.......

🐝

My view on the 'settled defence' is somewhat different. We had a settled defence with Bennett, Coady and Boly supported by Jonny, Doc and Neves. Why Nuno has phased out Bennett by replacing him first with Vallejo and now with Boly is a total mystery to me.
Boly is adaptable for sure but his natural position is on the left and Bennett is a better defender than Vallejo or Saiss.
If playing Saiss as a defender is an experiment I hope that it is now over and we get back to the previous back 3. If Nuno is hell bent on playing Saiss at the back I would prefer to see him in the middle. At the moment we have no-one to replace Coady in the event of injury or suspension but Saiss could be a viable option for that role.

Understand a lot of what you've said there Gem, but I'm not sure that I would agree that Bennett is a better defender than Saiss. I don't necessarilly think Saiss is better but he is probably as good, although always likely to get a yellow. Saiss is, however, more valuable to the team when we are going forward.

I was very dubious about the current situation but am gradually being won over. It's only 3 games old I believe so likely to improve (let's see how they handle Man City).

Interested to hear what you say about Coady. I have said for a while that we don't seem to have a natural back-up for him in his position, not sure that Saiss would be my choice though. His propensity for yellow cards might become a propensity for giving away penalties.

I do agree that Vallejo has not yet shown too much but it is early days for him. In the mean time we are going to need Bennett. It will be interesting to see what happens to him if the Boly Saiss partnership starts to pay off. Will he still want to be here after January? Will the club look to sell him?

chill out people.
football form is a fluid thing. what formation or tactic worked once doesn't mean it will work the same way again. nuno said after last nights game that he was happy with the result but not our form so he's well aware of the situation.
back nuno, the team and the club - ignore the herbs.

Wolves winning away at Besiktas would have seemed like fantasy probably even just over one year ago, so no doubt we're all enjoying the ride and any gripes are purely in context.

Interesting debate over the defense though, Nuno seems to like footballers at the back and no doubt Saiss is better on the ball than Bennett, though I would say in terms of pure defending Bennett is better. And Saiss does give away free kicks wherever he plays, when its at the back it puts us under unnecessary pressure. I think he's a class act in midfield, but a liability at the back. Vallejo looks like he could develop in to a decent defender but too raw for where we are at the moment.

comment by Spangles (U17289)
posted about 3 hours ago
And lighten up Tam, how could you take a comment that stay at home fans will stay at home as anything but a tongue in cheek comment
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Because the implication from that is that any fans that disagree with you are not real fans. OS of cause someone who disagrees with you is going to take offense at it, it was that target of your post.

On the defense, I think most people would agree that it is an area we needed to strengthen in the transfer market. Both Saiss and Bennett have their strengths, but both can be liabilities at this level in their own ways.

Saiss gives away too many free kicks and be caught out from time to time positionally and for pace. He is better on the ball though and physically sound. Bennett is poor on the ball which inhibits us in possession but it is difficult to find fault with him defensively.

From what little I have seen of Bennett recently he has looked much more confident on the ball than he was in the last couple of seasons. He plays far more balls down the line these days and has knocked over a couple of superb diagonal balls. For me a solid defense is always going to b e compromised by including a player with a penchant for giving away free kicks and picking up cards. As Oldgoldilox says those yellow cards in midfield could easily become penalties and for that reason I would prefer to see Saiss in midfield rather than at the back.

At the start you could tell Besiktas were a team very short of confidence and belief but we allowed them to build up that confidence as the game went on and by 60 mins we could have been easily a goal or two down with them missing free headers twice from about 6 yards and hitting the post, i don't believe that was our plan to give them gift chances was it? Pretty sure it wasn't our plan to wait til 93 minutes to score either.

Brilliant result but some of the talk of a tactical masterclass is ridiculous. The game changed with us making positive changes and highlighted how weak our squad currently is, starting with two kids with next to zero experience in a game away in Turkey is a position we should never have to find ourselves in.

Dean Saunders has won his appeal against his jail sentence.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-49934716

Saiss is a better midfielder than defender for me.

I think I'd prefer to see Saiss in midfield because that is his best position more than anything. The trouble is, he isn't quite dynamic enough at this level to play in a midfield two in this system.

I think he is an excellent holding player, who would fit in very well if we went to four at the back, but that is unlikely to ever happen under Nuno; so he is destined to be our utility player who can fill a number of roles.

When all of Neves, Dendoncker and Moutinho are on form Saiss is very unlikely to replace any of them in midfield on a regular basis.

As I said earlier, the more I see of Boly and Saiss together the better it is looking. Time will tell.

Was disappointed with both Neto and MGW last night, but both are very young and will hopefully improve.

Really looking forward to Jota being fully fit and on form. No amount of clubs learning our system will get round the fact that together and on form Jiminez and Jota are a class act.

I think the Boly, Coady, Saiss back line has a future. Boly seems to have adapted to the change well and I have thought for some time this would be the best position for Saiss. Do think Bennett is unlucky to be left out though and when asked to play the Coady role recently his distribution was excellent, making a mockery of the criticism he sometimes gets for that. Vallejo looks well short to me and although he may improve I think there is every chance he will prove to be a rare poor signing by this regime.

comment by Spangles (U17289)
posted 9 hours, 21 minutes ago
Wolves have been given 7,000 tickets for the cup game at Villa which will of course sell out and create a great atmosphere. The next home game is already sold out as are the next Away league games.

The stay at home fans are voting with their feet and as herb says are bored and will doubtless stay at home. Those that go to the games are loving where Wolves are and the next game can never come quickly enough
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Wolves site says our allocation is 5,326

https://www.wolves.co.uk/news/club/20191004-tickets-to-go-on-sale-for-carabao-cup-tie-with-villa/

Yes Villa fans had been moaning in the week we had been given 7,000 tickets in their North Stand and that season ticket holders were having to move to another stand. Maybe they found a compromise. Rules of the competition are that we are entitled to 10% of capacity whatever that is at Villa Park nowadays

10% would be 4,200.
all villa sth have been moved out - no doubt due to crowd probems when the north stand was shared with albion.

all villa north stand sth of course

Terrible weekend thus far in our battle to avoid relegation.

Remember that whenever West Brom get promoted, Wolves get relegated - and West Brom are playing some of the most electric pass and move football ever seen in the Championship.