We haven’t had a moment like that for a while, with Adama Traoré’s late winner stealing three points for Wolves. It was barely deserved but Fulham paid the price for their own lack of attacking quality and ideas - as you can see in the timeline for the game below:
Though the three points were much appreciated, there were still plenty of issues with Wolves’ performance.
Rigid shape with the ball
Wolves started the game with the same back four that were badly exposed against West Ham. For the first 32 minutes of this game before Pedro Neto’s injury, Leander Dendoncker and Rúben Neves sat pretty deep while Wolves were in possession, seemingly keen to not make the same mistakes.
An example below shows how Wolves were able to nullify any threat from Fulham on the counter with the two defensive midfielders protecting the middle of the pitch.
The problem with the shape in this game though was that Wolves’ full backs also didn’t play as high as in the West Ham game.
With Fulham playing a back five, this did little to disrupt their shape or create space between defenders for Wolves to exploit. When Wolves switched to a back five, there was an opportunity to play Nélson Semedo and Rayan Aït Nouri higher up the pitch but they still did not.
When Semedo or Aït Nouri receive the ball, very rarely did their team mates run beyond them. The second example in the above clip is a good example.
Podence receives the ball in a fairly promising position, with Neves behind him and Semedo outside of him. Both stand still when he has the ball, so he plays it back to Neves.
Rather than running beyond or inside, he moves into Semedo’s space. This allows Fulham to maintain their defensive shape. It’s no surprise that in the next minute, with slightly better movement and positioning, that Wolves created their best opportunity (to then be disallowed) of the game.
The movement is straight forward but simply by being positioned to receive behind an opponent in the final third, Podence is able to then cross from a better position for Willian José’s excellent header.
Coady’s diagonal ball gives Wolves the opportunity to exploit a 2v1 against Antonee Robinson. On this occasion, instead of entering the same space as Semedo, Podence positions himself between Robinson and Terence Kongolo.
Wolves didn’t really create a whole lot other than this chance. With games against Sheffield United, Burnley and West Brom in the next few weeks, Wolves will have to work harder to create better opportunities to score.
Leaving Traoré high up the pitch
Wolves also changed how they positioned their front three throughout the game. For some periods, Podence was behind Traoré and José when defending.
At other points in the game José was to the left of the three with Traoré the focal point.
Although the shape will have depended on how Fulham attacked, I think most of our focus was to leave Traoré as our highest player. The second half was a frustrating watch as Traoré struggled to keep hold of the ball when it came to him with his back to goal (a task more suitable for José). However, the move was rewarded in injury time, when Traoré raced through and lashed the ball into the net.
After good work by João Moutinho and Gibbs-White, the ball falls to Silva in a promising position. Knowing his team mate’s qualities, he can play the ball into the space for Traoré to run into away from the defenders. The pass is well weighted, and Traoré is able to take a touch before finishing past Areola.
Steady Semedo
There were not many stand out performances individually, but Nélson Semedo produced an encouragingly solid performance. Perhaps fortunate that Ademola Lookman did not feature, he stood up well to the test of Fulham’s wing back Robinson.
Fulham targeted Semedo in a couple of ways. Firstly, they looked to isolate him against Robinson with direct switches of play. In 1v1 situations, Semedo was rarely beaten, and when they tried to play behind him he also intercepted well.
Secondly, they tried to target him aerially:
According to fbref, he won 4 of his 5 aerial duels. His 80% success rate was the second best in the team. The defensive errors are slowly being eradicated from his game, so let’s hope he continues this improvement and hope he can become more productive in the final third (as he showed he can with his pass to Podence for José’s disallowed goal).
Up next: Sheffield United
Wolves have a home game against Sheffield United next on Saturday (kick off likely to be changed). Oh how the fist six minutes of the season promised so much against Sheffield United - taking an early 2-0 lead.
They now have Paul Heckingbottom in charge until the end of the season, and look largely broken. They’ve had some bad luck with injuries and key signings have not worked out for them at all. Nevertheless, Wolves will need to be proactive in breaking them down from the start.
Neto’s injury is a big blow, and Neves will be missing for this game after testing positive for coronavirus but Willy Boly should be back. I would expect Wolves to line up in a 343/352. Podence hasn’t looked at his fittest since returning from injury, so if he needs resting it may give an opportunity to Morgan Gibbs-White, who played an important role in the winner at Fulham. I would love for him to get a run of games now (Vitinha too, please) to showcase his qualities rather than restricting him to cameo appearances from the bench.