O’Neil edges ahead in sack race after Liverpool defeat Neville ‘can’t watch’

Gary Neville was angry with Wolves for their passivity against Liverpool but what did he really expect? And why are pundits suddenly dictating how to play?

Gary Neville seemed particularly unnecessarily aggrieved by the whole thing but you could see his broader point. Wolves, at home, bottom of the league and without a win this season, did not have a shot from the 77th minute onwards in a game they were trailing and would lose 2-1.

They were also playing against a Liverpool side who went top of the table with this victory, whose second conceded goal this Premier League season came from a bizarre mix-up between defender and goalkeeper rather than any carefully crafted attacking move, and who are by quite some margin simply far better than Wolves.

But as Sam Johnstone traded passes with Toti Gomes and Nelson Semedo for the final stretch, an increasingly exasperated Neville pondered whether they even knew they needed a goal, raged against the entire concept of Passing It Out From The Back and helpfully clarified “the aim of football”: basically to pass the ball to your striker as quickly as possible.

After the baffling and boring Arsenal discourse over the past week, it does seem as though the wider punditocracy is slowly – and suddenly and for no apparent reason – zeroing in on precisely how the sport should be played. Not defensively when playing more than half the game with ten men away at the four-time champions, that’s for certain. And now absolutely not passively when facing a far superior team who realistically should have won this game by two or three goals. Constant all-out attack is the only way to appease everyone (and lose regularly).

Wolves perhaps could have done more and their lack of urgency was curious, but equally if they had thrown everything at this game, inevitably hit one of various expensive brick walls placed strategically in front of them and been hit mercilessly on the counter they would have been scoffed at. Mo Salah missed one monumental chance after intercepting a Mario Lemina pass and squandered a two-on-one attack which seemed easier to execute properly, because no elite-level player can suddenly look as though he has never encountered a football before quite like Mo Salah.

Wolves should not have had the opportunity to drive Neville “crazy” and to the point he told the viewing audience “I can’t watch this”. Liverpool’s complacency in attack made that possible but this is a rock-solid defensive team which is not easy to play through.

It seems pertinent to point out that last Wolves shot – a speculative and blocked Nelson Semedo effort from about 35 yards and really probably further – came immediately before their final substitution; Tommy Doyle came on for Santiago Bueno. It does not scream ‘kitchen sink’ because no such quality really reliably exists in either this threadbare Wolves squad or limited Wolves manager. They only made three subs and the highest Premier League scorer left on their bench was Matt Doherty.

Nottingham Forest can afford to send Callum Hudson-Odoi and Anthony Elanga on in the second half to implement the perfect gameplan at Anfield but Wolves have no such luxury. They are operating at close to their maximum and that is as much a by product of their transfer philosophy than it is any inability to “get the ball to the most talented player you can, as high up the pitch, with accuracy”.

It sounds easy until you encounter Virgil van Dijk and the rest of an expensive and excellent backline.

Not every team can “take it” to a side aiming for Champions League qualification if not more. O’Neil has delivered some spectacular results as Wolves manager but they are irrelevant when assessing a team with six points from a possible 48, four of which came against teams now in the Championship.

Wolves have fewer Premier League points than Burnley since March began and are only three ahead of Luton. They systematically weakened their squad over yet another soul-crushing summer. They are basically functioning in a different division to Liverpool. If their lack of quality or incision against such an opponent comes as any sort of surprise, that is on you.

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