Wolves Fans' Verdict v West Ham: Defeat was the hammer blow to Bruno Lage's tenure

Liam Kennedy

Bruno’s gone – I think for most of us, it was the right time for him to go. Lacking any identity, threat and points, admittedly I thought he would’ve been given the Chelsea game but I’m not shocked at all.

While I believe it was the right call, there are no ill feelings towards him and I wish him all the best for the future because there were some promising moments, especially after Man United away when Europe looked a real possibility.

However, since Leeds at home our form has absolutely nosedived and two wins in how ever many games was always going to have him in trouble. While Bruno has and will get most of the blame for this start to the season, it’s important to remember the players are at fault as well. While I don’t doubt their commitment, a few of them have been poor this season – Neto and Jonny in particular.

Wolves’ next recruit will be bigger than any we made in the summer, hopefully it’s a manager who can give us an identity and hopefully allow us to score some goals – that would be nice. Personally, would go for Ange at Celtic, really like the way he has them playing but a difficult one if would he leave Celtic at this point in the season – probably not.

Clive Smith

Can anyone tell me what our plan was? Neves in defence – again. Semedo? Jonny? Was it three, four, five at the back. Are we trying to catch teams on the break? A slow patient build up, down the flanks, through the middle? I have lost the plot totally.

The team selection looked more than a little crazy, and so it proved. Bowen had more space than he knew what to do with. Ait-Nouri constantly got stranded up field thinking he was Alexander-Arnold. Semedo got forward once but was mainly ignored in ‘midfield’. The usually reliable Kilman made some blocks but his passing was dreadful.

Midfield overall was like watching a knife through butter while our attack was sadly familiar.

Saying much more would sound like a grumpy old man having a rant.

Podence played his heart out and deserves MOTM. Besides a couple of careless passes and a booking Neves did well, but we’d all rather see him at least twenty yards further forward.

Where do we go from here? I am usually patient, look for positives and resist change for change’s sake. The grass is not always greener. Yes, we are suffering injuries to our forwards but West Ham were poor, a long way from being the top six candidate of a few months ago. Fulham, Newcastle, Bournemouth, Leeds were equally unimpressive.

We need to beat most of these teams at the very least. Last season we won eight away games, I am sorry to say but we currently look a long way from winning eight games all season. This game was the tipping point for me. I was left believing we needed a change at the top.

Less than twenty fours hours after the final whistle it appears those in charge swiftly came to the same conclusion and a change of manager was where we go next. The impact of ‘losing’ Jimenez should not be underestimated, but even under Nuno we were not prolific goalscorers.

We were fun to watch though when we had Jota, Jimenez, Traore and Doherty in full flow. Beating City 3-2 will always be a stand-out memory. For whatever reasons we sold two of those players and have struggled to look as attractive since. It contributed to the demise of Nuno and prompted a ‘more attacking’ manager. We have only seen that attacking approach briefly in Bruno’s time however, and not at all for several months.

Results have clearly not been good enough.

Since the Brighton home game in April there seemed a mood swing in the Pack. Fans will always query team selections and substitutions but the increasingly illogical line-ups recently have eroded confidence on and off the field.

Club decisions regarding Traore, Silva, Coady and Boly have not been explained to most fans’ satisfaction. What part Bruno had in these decisions would be interesting, along with the signings of Hwang, Guedes and Nunes – none of whom have improved the team as much as we hoped.

We will have to wait to see if the timing is right, but with three trips to London and two must win home games left in this month any new manager bounce would be most welcome.

Rob Cartwright

There was only one outcome likely following this performance and result. I’m just glad the club have acted quickly and hope they are some way down the road to a new appointment.

To play our most creative player as a makeshift defender was an atrocious decision by Bruno. To have Gomes and Mosquera on the bench, but clearly not trusted to start will do their confidence no good at all. Gomes had an excellent run in the team in January, so clearly can step up.

Having Neto back on the pitch when clearly injured is beyond crazy. A man under pressure. Was Jimenez rushed back too soon? Should Sasa have played against Southampton?

The game itself was similar to many before. We looked comfortable in possession but our attacking build up play was so slow it was simply driving me to despair. This has been Bruno’s trademark, at Molineux – pedestrian, boring and goal shy.

We were on top prior to West Ham scoring, but at 1-0 all Wolves fans knew a defeat was the most likely outcome. Our only hope was some kind of miracle from Costa, who came on to make his debut. To be fair he looked pretty good and Adama put three good crosses over for him, from which he had one chance on goal.

I’m not sure what was really going on with the defence. Jonny and Semedo didn’t appear to know either!

The whole team looked below par. I’m sure he had lost the dressing room. He has probably bored them into submission. He has never inspired me!

Bruno has proved to be a poor appointment by Fosun.

He just hasn’t got “it” - probably a good number two, but hasn’t got the fluency of speech to be a good leader, in my opinion.

He’s proved to be poor in man management too. I’m sure he lost the players at the time of the Hoever public hanging. Rumours of training ground bust ups are likely to be true.

Team selections have been very strange. Tactics very hard to fathom.

My overwhelming memory of his time will be pedestrian football and inability to score goals which has been boring to watch. He has been very unlucky with injuries, but I also feel he has done irreversible damage to our squad. Coady, Boly and Dendoncker should not have been allowed to leave without proper replacements. We have been left with a skilful set of players who are too soft to compete at this level. Who are the ball winners?

The new manager will inherit a good but limited squad. He will need to get the fans on side quickly as the faithful have had the stuffing knocked out of them and Molineux has been too quiet this season.

Maybe his biggest challenge is to get the likes of Neves and Nunes happy with the direction the club is taking, as they both deserve better than Bruno has delivered.

Fraser Bishop

So Saturday’s defeat proved to be the final nail in Bruno’s coffin. Prior to it, I was still on the fence, however another defeat which included a baffling team selection, Neves digging his team-mates out and the fans who travelled being disregarded, swayed me to lose faith and think it’s the right time for a change.

Overall, he hasn’t done a bad job and I wish him well. Last season he picked up the bat-ton from Nuno and used the solid foundations in place to guide us to a respectable top ten finish. This season was about Bruno building his own team, making big decisions, signing the players he wants, in the positions he needs and bedding then into a system he chose. He hasn’t had the time to see this transition through but hasn’t earned the time to do so, with one win in 15 league games the downward spiral could not continue any longer.

Of course injuries haven’t helped, particularly the striker situation at this moment in time, but there was no doubt he could have gotten more out of the players at his disposable, and at least given himself a better chance at West Ham of getting a much needed result by picking a suitable team.

In terms of the game itself, I think we showed West Ham too much respect by going to a back five which included our best player playing out of position as well as a full back, one at centre half, whilst Toti watched on. We looked neat and tidy, passed the ball well and looked in little danger, but failed to create again and showed why we are the lowest scorers.

The main positive was Diego Costa’s cameo. Of course he will need a few more weeks and sub appearances to get up to speed, but he looked fairly mobile and definitely had a presence about him. Also, credit to Podence who, at the very least, always tries to make something happen and be positive rather than choosing the easy option.

Hopefully, the club act swiftly to bring the right man in but it has to be that – the right person. The makings of a good team is there, which is why I do think Wolves is an attractive proposition for a manager to come into an ambitious club in the biggest league in the world and aim to get this talented squad showing what they can do. But in the short-term we should look to distance ourselves away from the relegation zone we currently occupy before looking too far ahead.

John Lalley

Never read much Robert Louis Stevenson apart from Dr. Jekyll and Mr.Hyde which looking back on its bizarre content could have been written with the current Wolves gothic horror show in mind.

But apparently the great novelist was quoted as saying, ‘Everybody sooner or later sits down to a banquet of consequences.’ Bruno Lage, must have realised that he had been precariously seated at the top table on borrowed time with the final course being his head on a platter.

This latest mortifying fiasco was depressingly familiar and demonstrably the last straw; déjà vu with knobs on, excruciatingly and inexcusably boring, inevitable in its failing outcome, restrained, buttoned-up, hide-bound and wholly unacceptable.

For too long, Wolves have been staring into an abyss of their own making, incapable of any adjustment or invention to stem what is fast becoming an overwhelming descent into oblivion. It simply could not continue.

Lage admirably steadied the ship for two thirds of last season; no easy task in the wake of the trauma of Nuno’s spectacular fall from grace, but the seeds of his demise were sown in the latter stages of the campaign. And it has inexorably gone from bad to worse.

Watching his Wolves team has become an inexpressible chore; impossible to digest, an excruciating and dismally unsatisfactory bore. There can be no greater indictment. The identity, the synchronism and the character of his team all disintegrated and he could offer nothing by way of response.

He was defunct and wound up his tenure appearing completely baffled and overwhelmed by the course of events and what’s more, he knew it.

A decidedly ordinary West Ham didn’t need to blow many bubbles to ease their own escalating predicament; they won’t enjoy an easier run out all season. Safe in the knowledge that Wolves have almost diplomatic immunity from all things positive, The Hammers were happy to allow us massive bouts of possession knowing that they were never likely to endure the faintest tremor of discomfort.

The predictability, the sameness, the sheer hopelessness of the static and stilted approach has been soul-destroying and Bruno’s tenure was frankly unsustainable; he has been fortunate to have hung around this long.

The statistics, his statistics, are beyond damning; they’re terrifying, Wolves have resembled a perpetually off-key piano and Bruno remained haplessly incapable of any kind of re-tune. The same wrong notes were hit with tone-deaf regularity.

A diet of negativity, so many safe passes, easy options, middle course neutrality and so little leadership and grasping of responsibility. It’s hard to imagine just how frustrated some of the talented individuals at the club must feel returning to the dressing-room.

Left to ponder that yet again they have either failed or not been allowed to express themselves positively. I enjoyed much of Bruno Lage’s initial work and I wish him well.

His successor has much to put right; lets hope the banquet of consequences won’t be reconvening for some appreciable time!

James Pugh

It’s getting increasingly difficult to see the positives for Wolves at the minute. West Ham were there for the taking and they didn’t even really need to turn up, we just rolled over. Week in, week out, coming to see Wolves has become a bit of a chore and the one thing you can expect is the manager to clap the fans at the end for making the effort. He did no such thing, resulting in a sad final memory of Bruno.

While many would argue that the sacking was unjustified and that there are so many factors outside of Lage’s control (which certainly is true), the West Ham game highlighted his tactical inefficiency’s. That’s not to say individuals aren’t to blame. Jonny was poor, as was Guedes and Moutinho. Only positives I can really think about is Costa, Traore and Adama. All (despite maybe not being fully fit) played their heart out in their limited minutes and have justified a start. Hopefully the next man in charge realises that. Neves (the best midfielder Wolves have had in my lifetime) also did an alright job at centre half. Even typing that makes my blood boil.

The game also highlighted Wolves (not necessarily Lage’s) baffling decisions to let Coady and the Dendoncker go. While it was made clear that both these players wanted moves, comments that have since come out suggesting that this was down to Lage and the “new direction” he wanted to take the club in. Also questions must also be asked why we didn’t loan out Toti or Yerson when Lage had no intention of playing them, especially after we let so many more defensive assets leave.

We are nowhere near a relegation battle yet. Just look at Newcastle last season, the season is far from over & wolves could finish anywhere. A couple of wins and you’re suddenly in the top half and that’s the beauty of the Premier League. You’ve just got to cross your fingers and hope the next manager has a clue, as another four or five winless games would set off some serious alarm bells. Wolves are a great side with top seven potential, we just need an experienced pilot to get us through this turbulence.

Chris Ward

It was just a matter of when and not if. Bruno’s tenure was a ticking time bomb ever since the 2-1 defeat to Arsenal on February 24 last season. It’s all been downhill from there, from publicly outing players, bizarre team selections and the ludicrous post-match interviews where he consistently believed we deserved more from games.

Bruno ball was a fallacy and apart from a few games last season I had seen absolutely nothing to believe he was the man to take his team forward. He was backed in the window with what is probably the best team in the history of Wolverhampton Wanderers yet was still unable to get a tune out of the players.

It’s been a long time since I last enjoyed watching Wolves and felt positive going into a game. Bruno’s dire negative football compounded with a clear lack of direction and approach has sapped all the energy and optimism from me. Personally, this should have happened at the end of last season while it was clear we were on a downward trajectory with him at the helm.

The game against West Ham was lost an hour before kick off with again a centre midfielder at centre half accompanied by a right wing back. Our two backup defenders were over looked which will do nothing for their confidence going forward.

Make no bones about it, West Ham are poor yet they comfortably beat us and the buck stops with Bruno. Each game is a carbon copy of the last and there were no signs at all of improvement. The only positive was the cameo from Costa who you can clearly see still has it and I’m sure under the right manager with the right tactics will still score goals.

It’s vital we get this next appointment right; the fans have been starved of attacking football for far too long and this position is an exciting prospect for any manager.