Brighton 3 Wolves 3
At the interval, you’d be forgiven for thinking 2021 was going to usher in a bright new era.
One where Wolves shrug age-old jinxes off with zero fuss.
But that horror show of a second-half suggests we’ve got a long way to go to get back to the standards we’ve set over the last two seasons.
The good news is that we have three quality players that will (hopefully) return to the first team before too long, as well as Jonny and Raul to come later.
Any side would struggle without players of the quality that are currently sat on our treatment table, but injuries are part and parcel of football.
And that’s why, for the second season running, you have to question our recruitment.
Many of the young cubs we have seen this season look promising, but they simply can’t be considered adequate cover for our big guns.
Exemplifying this is marquee signing Fabio Silva, who was so ineffective tonight that you’d be forgiven for thinking we were playing with 10 men.
I’ve praised the lad before so I’m not going to do a U-turn when he most needs our support, but it’s clear to see that he needs a new arrival to come in this month and take him out the spotlight.
Talk of Diego Costa will doubtlessly rumble on and he certainly fits the bill of what we need, though I’d be shocked if Fosun forked out for a stopgap signing of his age.
Origi maybe?
Whoever it is, they need to have the physical attributes needed to bring our wide players into the game.
Neto and particularly Adama offered plenty tonight, with the latter laying it on a plate for Otasowie at the death.
But with Silva incapable of competing against Brighton’s towering and far more experienced defenders, our wide player’s moments of brilliance were all too fleeting.
As for the defence, Nuno needs to resist the temptation to tinker with four at the back for now.
Our defending was shambolic at times and that seems needless when our players have been drilled into a system that has worked so well for us over the years.
If we were scoring at will then perhaps it would be a gamble worth taking, but we’re not and so it seems sensible to go back to basics and focus on grinding out results that will move us up the table.
One positive is that this was a darn sight more entertaining than our last encounter with Brighton, though not quite as easy on the heart.
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