Wolves boss Gary O’Neil admits there is a danger of sounding like broken record after his side’s struggling start to the 2024/25 season.
The Seagulls advanced through to the Fourth Round of the Carabao Cup, with the draw taking place next Wednesday (25th September).
Brighton went into a two-goal lead after just 30 minutes thanks to long-range strikes from Carlos Baleba and Simon Adingra with Wolves showing little to nothing for the majority of the first half.
However, Gary O’Neil’s side got one back through Goncalo Guedes just before the break, then improved second half, and came close to that equaliser after Nelson Semedo’s cross was touched onto Adam Webster by Jason Steele, the ball rolled towards goal, only for Josh Hinshelwood to appear from nowhere and clear the ball off the line.
Guedes also had a chance, with just Steele to beat, but put the ball wide, summing up just how frustrating it was becoming at missing golden opportunities.
Brighton made it 3-1 when Ferdi Kadioglu got on the rebound of an initially saved Danny Welbeck shot on 85 minutes.
Tommy Doyle made the most of a poor defensive error from Brighton, scoring with a shot in off the underside of the crossbar.
GON: Concede a goal from miles out & then concede again, but we were the better side for most of it after that
Lads gave everything, just needed to find a way at 2-1 to take one of those opportunities #wwfc pic.twitter.com/qnmjsOAQcH
— Nathan Judah (@NathanJudah) September 18, 2024
Gary O’Neil insists Wolves can’t continue to perform so well and not pick up results this season.
On results not matching performances, he said, per the club website: “Of course, lots of positives. The main thing is always the result, of course it is, and we know the run of fixtures is brutal that we’re in, and that we still face coming. We made a lot of changes, and the team still functioned well. We made some errors without the ball first half that gave Brighton a little bit too much joy. Once we managed to get that tidied up with the players, and they were able to follow the plan much better, we were better side, which takes some doing here. We should have won that second half, no problem.
“Of course, that’s not going to help us, but moving forward, and you can feel it from the fans at the end, they can still see that there’s a lot going. We’re giving ourselves opportunities to win football matches against tough teams, and unfortunately, at this moment, we haven’t managed to turn one our way.
“The lads still take a lot of heart from how well we were able to do on the road, at a tough place, against a side that hasn’t lost yet this season. You see the changes that they made and see how strong they are. Gutted to lose again and gutted that the lads gave themselves such a fantastic opportunity of getting a big result on the board for us today, and just that last little bit let us down and the sucker punch at 3-1 obviously made it very difficult.”
On playing staking a claim: “I thought Guedes was excellent. He’s obviously had a tough few years with injuries and being unsettled at the club. He showed quality, he was bright, he worked unbelievably hard for the team. There were lots of positives in there. The only thing that we can really control is the way that we perform, and the way that we perform increases our chances of getting results.
“I haven’t checked, but if you go through the odds that go out before matches, I would guess we’ve been second favourite in all of them so far, and we probably will be for the next few as well. So, we are having to fight against the odds at the minute in the games, we’re doing enough in them to give ourselves a chance of taking results and falling a little bit short.
“So, obviously, I’m disappointed with that, and I need to keep pushing to make sure that we don’t come up short. As tough as the fixtures may be, we still need to find a way to get one done. But enough quality, enough good structure and enough togetherness to let you know that we’re still fighting for everything, and that we’re able to put results on the board.”
On taking a result playing badly: “I don’t want to play bad or ugly. We probably played bad for 45 minutes against Chelsea. The rest of it, not bad at all. First half today we were a bit off, not sure why. Similar game plan to normal, but just getting a few bits of it wrong, maybe a lot of changes led to that, but we were able to tidy it up at half-time.
“We must have regained the ball just outside Brighton’s penalty area eight times in the second half, and then just relying on that bit of quality. We had a one versus one right at the start of the half with Rodrigo against the goalkeeper and one cleared off the line. I would take an ugly win, but I’d much rather keep playing well.”
On Brighton’s goals: “The first one’s a long way out, sloppy giveaway of course, but a long way out we’ve been hit with a few of them, not a great chance against us as similar to what you’d say with Harvey Barnes and Schar the other night, and it ends up going in. Disappointed with the defending a little bit on the second one. The lads understand, I think off the back of how stable we were second half out of possession, compared to how tough they probably found it first half, the importance of positioning and using your brain, not just your legs, to fix things.
“So, a big improvement second half. When you miss a chance at the moment, or one goes past the post, or they clear it off the line, you’re like, ‘Not again. We’re right in this, and we can’t quite squeeze it over again’. But I did have real belief stood on the side of where the lads were, that we were going to go on to get something from the game, and we come up just short again.”
On player keeping their belief: “They can feel that we’re in games, and they can feel that there’s lots of good going on, and obviously I reinforce that with them, as well as the fact that it’s no good just playing well. We have to find a way to be gritty enough and manage dangerous moments better to swing the result in our favour.
“The lads will be fine. They’ve shown in every game so far that they’re ready to go again. Even if we go behind, they’re ready to go again. Last season, when we suffered some tough results, they always found a way to bounce back. You can’t play that well forever and not start to pick up results. It’s a matter of time, of course, but we need to make sure that we force it.”
Brighton‘s Fabian Hurzeler said on Carlos Baleba’s goal: “I wouldn’t say I said to him to shoot more. It’s more about positioning and how you press, how you do rest defence and then play. Automatically, if you have a good position you will come into these situations where you have a little bit more space, where you maybe win duels and then you have the opportunity to shoot.”
On the overall performance: “We played a very good first half until the 44th minute. It’s a goal we should never concede because it’s after a transitional moment. It’s a lazy transition reaction from us. It’s something that we can’t accept and is against our identity. We have to learn from these moments quickly because we can’t do this. It won’t help you win games. We made silly mistakes. We weren’t clean and clear like we were in the first half.
His overall reflections on the result: “I think results are the most important. Often I don’t judge the team by the results, I judge them by the performance. Today was more like a learning game for all of us. How you manage a game, what do you have to do to win games like this?
And we were not on top, especially at the end of the game, and we didn’t manage or control the game like we should. Of course you need results, but on the other side I always try to focus on the process and there’s still a lot of things where we have to improve and I wanted the players to learn from their mistakes because every person makes mistakes. The most important thing is to learn from these mistakes and don’t make the same mistake twice.
“That for me is very important. We try to improve every day. I’m very happy with the attitude of the players. They know there’s still a lot of potential for us to improve but it’s always a step-by-step process.
On the impact of his subs: “I’m not only happy for the substitutes, also players who gained some game time today, especially Pervis Estupinan after a long injury but also Mats [Wieffer], who came back after his injury. You see that they need game time to get back into the rhythm. But on top of that, we had some brilliant individual performances.
“Simon [Adingra] had a great performance. He has the quality to start in every game in the Premier League, but he has big competition for these winger positions. I’m really happy with how he performed today.
“He’s very good and integrated in the team. He does his work in the shadows. When there’s been a Premier League match he doesn’t always start but when we need him he is always there. I’m sure that he will help us in the future.”
On Jack Hinshelwood’s goalline clearance: “It’s about the attitude of how to defend a goal. Everyone is responsible for that, to defend until the end and do everything so that you don’t concede a goal. That’s what Jack Hinshelwood did in this situation.”
On Evan Ferguson’s return to the starting line-up: “I think we saw in some situations how good he can be. He had some shots in the first half, he worked hard against the ball. He can’t be on the level already that he wants to and like he was before in the Premier League in the prime of his individual performance. We will try to get him there, he needs to train at 100 per cent and he needs to use every training sessions to get as fit as possible and then I’m sure that he will help us.”
Here’s how fans reacted as Wolves boss Gary O’Neil admits a danger of sounding like broken record after a struggling start to the season…
Phil Bennett: Similar to Saturdays game. Poor goals given away by shots from a distance after players cutting in. Good second half encouraging performance again and should have scored more but came up short again. We need a win desperately.
Paul Washbrook: Again we fall behind to two good goals, one which might have been saved? Disorganised first half but still a few highlights. Second half we were a different team, made Brighton look ordinary and created chances. My biggest criticism is that we worked hard on the press second half and it worked. We won the ball as they played out at least 6 or 7 times but gave it away too easily in dangerous areas. Didn’t take chances, again. The team needs a good result, not just for the points either.
Scott Harvey: Defence were terrible yet again. Hwang was awful again, offered nothing but got another 70 mins 🙄 We are so slow in our passing, so easy to play against. Pressure is starting to build on O’Neill.
Adam Harriman: Hwang just doesn’t cut it for me
Nathan Ormerod: Can we get a cb and play back 5 pls. We could win a game then and stopped conceding 2 3 or 4 a game 🤣🤣 defense getting worse
MC Saka Classic: You sold your best players without replacement
Ben Fellows: Another loss, played well in parts in the 2nd half but losing is becoming addictive, got a feeling by end of october we will still be winless and probably managerless.
Andrew Ward: 2 Wins in 17 time to sack Gary O’Neil
Jay Taylor: Guedes needs a start in the league he looks a different player since he went on loan!
Mathew Turner: How Matt doherty can call himself a footballer is beyond me. If Pond didn’t have it hard enough already you go an put him next to him. Beuno mosquera partnership would be good. Second half was much better. Only fosun could offer a manager with a winless streak a new 4 year contract.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login