Slam Dunk: Wolves 2 Brighton 1

Analysis of Wolves' win against Brighton, coming from behind to take the three points late on

May 14, 2021

In many ways this was like a lot of Wolves' victories this season. Conceding first and turning it around. A moment of luck like a red card or a penalty award to get us back in the game.

What was nice about this one though was the contribution of the young players towards that turn around. Wolves started the game with five players aged 21 or younger, and that was without the injured Pedro Neto and Owen Otasowie.

OptaJoe @OptaJoe

5 - Wolves have named five players aged 21 or younger in their starting XI against Brighton (Silva, Hoever, Aït-Nouri, Vitinha, Gibbs-White); they are the first side to do so in a Premier League match since Leicester against Crystal Palace in April 2018. Fledgling.

A bright start

Wolves started brightly, putting together some good attacking play which created space amongst the Brighton defence.

[video-to-gif output image] — Wolves made a positive start

Had Vitinha’s first touch when receiving the pass across the penalty area from Rayan Aït Nouri been better, he may have been able to play Morgan Gibbs-White in what was a very promising position in the box. A goal from that move would have been a perfect way to start the game for the youngsters.

What was also encouraging in that opening period of the game was the way in which Wolves worked to win the ball back.

When possession was lost, they were able to press quickly and either win the ball back or force it back and prevent Brighton from breaking out, an area Wolves have struggled with as mentioned previously. This approach also helped Wolves to dominate the ball so much and have possession in Brighton’s half.

Set pieces woes… again

In true Wolves fashion, Brighton’s first spell of threatening possession led to the corner which they opened the scoring from.

According to whoscored, Wolves have conceded the second highest number of goals (12) from set pieces, behind Leeds United.

A general lack of height is probably an issue for Wolves here. The players positioned across the six yard box defending a zone each are; Fábio Silva, Conor Coady, Rayan Aït Nouri and Ki-Jana Hoever. I think Conor Coady is the tallest of that group at just over 6ft.

You would expect Max Kilman to defend on of these zones in these circumstances but he is tasked with marking Dan Burn. This leaves Rúben Neves attempting to mark/block Lewis Dunk. Much has been made of Dunk scoring in a similar situation in the previous game against Brighton, and you can understand why this might grate with fans. Dunk is arguably a strong physical presence aerially than Burn (despite the height advantage Burn does have).

To give some credit to Brighton, not only is the delivery good from Pasal Groß but it is also an excellent header.

Dunk makes contact with the ball from a few yards out of the six yard box and the connection he makes is superb to power it past Rui Patrício.

Willy Boly is arguably a big miss in this area, he is very effective at winning the ball in the air but we have still had issues in this area with him in the team. The recruitment of another centre back who can defend better in the air, and possibly a midfielder in the same vain may help Wolves to be better equipped to defend set pieces. It will also require some good work in pre-season because this has let them down far too often this season.

Unsettled by the goal

Following the goal, Brighton came much more into the game, showing far more energy and aggression while Wolves seemed very unsettled. The distance from midfield to defence became a bit bigger and more loose passes started occurring.

Neves and João Moutinho began to leave slightly more space around them, which when Brighton regained possession allowed them to play into Neal Maupay and Danny Welbeck earlier.

Wolves wide players also started getting caught slightly out of position which caused some slight issues in wide areas, but it didn’t cause as many issues as when West Brom were on top the week before.

Patricio was forced into a couple of saves (one very impressive) at corners, but Maupay’s effort in the box was the only other noticeable effort. At half time, 1-0 to them was probably a fair scoreline but based on the reaction of pundits at the time, they were acting like Brighton should have had the game tied up by half time. In reality, they had created very little and not really dominated the game for long enough at any stage.

Dunk goes from hero to zero

Wolves had started the second half better and on the front foot again, but the red card for Dunk was certainly important in turning the game back in Wolves’ favour.

However, it was a great combination by Vitinha and Silva to force the foul that caused Dunk to be sent off. As mentioned last week, it’s refreshing to see someone running behind and someone prepared to play that type of pass.

The weight of the pass is excellent, and the touch by Silva is very good to set him away until he is fouled. Week by week, he is looking stronger and more mobile as he gets to grips with the physicality of this league.

The turnaround

It was quite handy that when facing ten men, Wolves were able to call upon Adama Traoré. A regular issue Traoré faces is being doubled up on, but with ten men, this was somewhat harder for Brighton to do. They initially lined up in a 4-3-2 shape but quickly shifted to a 4-4-1 at the sight of Traoré readying himself to enter the pitch. Maupay generally lined up at left midfield, and his lack of defensive nous allowed Hoever and Traoré to combine around Burn down the right quite often.

What was pleasing to see was Traoré receiving or dribbling inside more often. Something we don’t see enough of is him attracting defenders in the zones to release space elsewhere, which Hoever made the most of on several occasions. Traoré receiving in the ‘half-space’ rather than on the touchline is also how Wolves equalised.

As Aït Nouri stepped inside from the left, he picked out Vitinha in lots of space in central area. Wolves have a good amount of players in front of the ball at this point, with Traoré on Burn’s left shoulder, in a dangerous position.

Traoré finds a good position as the ball travels across

As Vitinha opens up with the ball at his feet, Traoré darted inside to receive the ball.

Traoré is an option for Vitinha to pass forwards to

This attracts a lot of players around him, but a quality he has that we don’t get to witness often enough is his close control and speed of play under pressure. Recognising Traore' is under pressure, Silva does well to offer a quick option to feet too.

Silva offers Traore an option to combine

As a result, the two are able to combine around the Brighton defender and the finish by Traoré is superb.

You might also argue that the positional play and threat of the Wolves right side, actually afforded them space down the other flank to create the winner.

Aït Nouri, involved again, receives the ball in good space wide of the penalty area. He is able to beat his man and cross the ball for Gibbs-White, who finishes well at the second attempt.

It was a bit of a relief to see Gibbs-White score, having missed a glorious opportunity a few minutes before. He’s been a bit of a target for fans, which is a bit odd given his lack of minutes in the past couple of years but he has looked sharp and willing in his past few appearances. In the second half, he was regularly an option to receive the ball between the ball between opposition players. Out of the Wolves squad, he was the target of a pass the most times (76) and also received the second most progressive passes (9).

Hopefully he gets to start these remaining games to give Nuno a better idea if he can figure in the first team plans next season. The 4-2-3-1 formation certainly seems be more suitable for him and helps his case.

Up next: Tottenham

It’s a trip to London next for Wolves, facing Spurs under interim manager Ryan Mason. They won their first two league games under Mason but lost 3-1 to Leeds on the weekend, and pretty comfortably so.

With three slightly tougher games to end the season, it will be interesting to see if Nuno sticks with the young players who have started the past couple of fixtures or brings Willian José, Leander Dendoncker, Romain Saïss and Nélson Semedo back into the side against stronger opposition.

I hope that he sticks with the majority of them, the performances have been encouraging in spells and far more interesting to watch than the turgid performances eked out against Sheffield United and Fulham, for example.

Wolves drew 1-1 at home to Spurs, almost snatching a winner late on through Fábio Silva having controlled a lot of the possession without creating enough chances. I would expect a tougher game, particularly away from home, but with Vitinha and Gibbs-White in the team, they may be able to caused Spurs come problems themselves.

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