Making the game better: Wolves 1 Leeds 0

Analysis as Wolves completed a league double over Leeds United

“We have to deserve that luck”

Those were the words of Nuno in reference to the goal that proved to be the winner, as Adama Traore’s shot rebounded in off Leeds goalkeeper Illan Meslier, but I think it summed the game up well too.

Wolves were fortunate in some key moments, particularly at set pieces, but were rewarded for a positive approach to the game. This was also the first time they had scored first in a league game since the win at Arsenal on November 29th last year.

As tempting it may have been, Wolves approach to this game was not to just sit off to deny Leeds the space behind that they like to exploit. There were times when Leeds had spells of possession but Wolves had similar periods of the game where they were on top too.

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Evolving pressing game

There was further evidence of Wolves trying to play higher up the pitch and regain possession ‘earlier’. By no means was this an aggressive, high-pressing performance but I don’t think we should ever expect that under Nuno. What we did see was Wolves engaging the opponent higher up the pitch. They forced Meslier to kick long a lot more than they usually force the opposition goalkeeper to do.

Wolves force Leeds to play longer clearances

This may have been more specific to playing Leeds, as Bielsa is big on clean build up play in his team’s own half but it also follows the patterns we have seen in the past four games, and have gradually got better at. The team is now more connected out of possession AND applying better pressure on the ball.

Wolves win possession in the Leeds half

In the above examples, Wolves won possession back in a couple of promising positions but almost seemed surprised to have won the ball in those areas and failed to capitalise on those situations. The next step to improve on is how the team reacts to those moments, particularly the players ahead of the ball (which was the front three as you’d expect in the above clips).

Set pieces… again

It’s fair to say Wolves have been poor at defending set pieces this season. Against Leeds on Friday night, their three best opportunities came from very similar free kicks. Fortunately for Wolves all three of those chances landed to centre-back Liam Cooper, who could only direct them straight at Rui Patrício.

Leeds key chances from free kicks

All three are free kicks delivered from the right side of the pitch, swung in on the left foot of Raphinha.

When defending those free kicks from wide areas Wolves set up in a very narrow, zonal system. They were near enough set up (apart from player in front of the taker) within the width of the goalposts.

Wolves defensive set up for wide free kicks

Leeds three main threats in these situations were Patrick Bamford, Pascal Struijk and as already mentioned, Cooper. They were all the players in the targeted areas of the excellent deliveries by Raphinha. The four players around them for Wolves tended Conor Coady, Romain Saïss, Willian José and Jonny (later Fernando Marçal). Despite having a numerical overload in the middle of the penalty area, Wolves allowed a relatively unchallenged attempt on goal in each example. You expect more from Coady and Saïss in particular to defend their space more effectively.

Also worrying was Leander Dendoncker’s role in defending these set pieces. He tended to defend the furthest away in the Leeds game for free kicks. Presumably, this was to defend the higher crosses to the ‘back post’ as it is an issue Wolves have faced where teams have targeted someone like Nélson Semedo’s inability to defend those type of aerial deliveries. However Leeds didn’t play those type of set pieces and Dendoncker dropped before the kick was taken on the latter two chances for Cooper.

Dendoncker drops below the defensive line set

Because he drops slightly earlier than the rest of his team mates, he actually plays Bamford and Cooper onside. Additionally, for the chance Cooper had in the 67th minute Dendoncker was the nearest to him and allowed him to run behind him for the chance at the back post. Fortunately, Patricio was there to block the effort on goal. For some more analysis on how we can hold our line better defending set pieces, @MolineuxMusings has done a video with a section on just that.

It’s not just defending set pieces Wolves struggled with though. Despite having conceded the most goals from corners this season, Leeds were very rarely troubled by Wolves crosses into the box. To be fair, it’s hard to assess how good the movement or routines are when the delivery is as bad as this.

Three of Wolves ‘attacking’ corners

Wolves are just two points behind their points tally at this stage last season. For all the disappointment this season has brought, had they been able to attack and defend set pieces more effectively they may well be on more points. With more time on the training ground now (Wolves have just two more midweek games remaining this season), they have the chance to improve. Do that between now and the start of next season and it may well be worth a few points in the long run.

Small details in the final third

It was good to see Wolves taking a proactive approach on Friday night, and that included the players confidently trying to shoot from distance. However, they were perhaps a bit too eager as this shot map from infogol suggests.

Wolves shot locations against Leeds (courtesy of infogol)

Obviously, Wolves goal came from Adama Traore’s effort from distance that rebounded off Illan Meslier BUT they are still not creating enough high quality chances. Wolves’ 0.08xG per shot this season is the worst in the league.

What is frustrating is that they quite often get into promising positions around the penalty area but fail to execute a pass or worse, favour shooting over passing to a team mate in a better position. The opportunity Pedro Neto had early in the second half is a good example.

A good opportunity for Wolves at 0-0

He has the opportunity to pass to Willian José but has his head down as you can see below:

Neto should pass to Willian José in a promising position

I can probably excuse him for one but he actually gets another opportunity mere seconds later to play it to the Brazilian.

Another opportunity for Neto to pass across goal

It’s certainly an area for Neto to evaluate. There is a good article by @QuinnTactics which includes analysis of his dribbling style. While in this instance, it stopped him creating a goal this same style is the reason he scores a wonderful goal against Southampton.

The other aspect he will be disappointed with is his pass to Nélson Semedo for the wing-back’s chance in the first half.

Semedo has a good chance in the first half

His pass to Semedo is slightly underweighted and causes him to check his run very slightly. If the pass was further into the space, Semedo can probably strike the ball first time or at least without having to slow down. These little details are probably the next step for his development. If he can recognise and execute those type of passing opportunities it will make him even more of an attacking threat to the opposition.

Up next

Wolves have the chance to make it an almost perfect February with an away game against Newcastle. You can see analysis of the reverse fixture at Molineux on a twitter thread I made back in October:

Louie Silvani @louiesilvani4

THREAD | Wolves creative woes against Newcastle Despite dominating the possession and territory against Newcastle, Wolves failed to create enough chances to win the game, falling victim to a late equaliser #wwfc

Wolves last four games against Newcastle have finished 1-1. On three of those occasions Newcastle have scored first as a result of sloppy defending, causing Wolves to have to chase the game. Wolves will likely have a different challenge in this fixture to recent opponents, having to break down a lower defensive line. When faced with more possession in a similar type of game against Crystal Palace last month, Wolves struggled to have possession in the opponent’s half and were extremely passive without the ball.

Nélson Semedo’s battle with Allan Saint-Maximin already feels like it may be key, but more important is Wolves’ mentality and pressing game. With another full week of training, they have a good opportunity to improve again.