Gary O'Neill considers key Wolves change after 'disastrous performance' (original) (raw)

Wolves boss Gary O’Neil has admitted considering a return to their trusted back five after shipping in another five more goals last weekend.

Wolves have been left short after the season ending injury to Yerson Mosquera but are letting in goals at an alarming rate and that continued again on Saturday including falling foul of Brentford's fast start from kick off.

A return to a back five, which has done them well in recent campaigns, has been touted by many fans and O’Neil says it has "obviously been discussed".

Currently, he has preferred to use Toti Gomes and Craig Dawson with Rayan Ait-Nouri and Nelson Semedo at full back, or Santiago Bueno or Mosquera when Dawson is out but he could use Bueno and go to a back five to give more solidity.

It could be a timely change given their next match after the international break is Erling Haaland et al as Man City make the trip to Molineux on Super Sunday before a tricky trip to Brighton, buoyant after beating Spurs.

He admitted: “It’s never that we’re set on a four, but there is potential to play all three centre-backs. Back fives have obviously been discussed. It would mean every centre back at the football club playing, so we'd have no defenders on the bench, but we discuss it all the time."

On the five goals at Brentford, he said: “They’re terrible goals, with bad decisions, bad positioning and so much wrong with them.

"Players of course make mistakes, but I need to find a way to put them in positions where they make more good decisions and less mistakes.

“We get into the game because we're open and we lose control of the shape of the team. Then when you think we're going to get in at half time, we're going to be able to get hold of them. We then concede a fourth right on the stroke of half time, and it makes the game really difficult from there.

“But it was a really poor display and something that I now have a couple of weeks to digest and have a look at what we can do with this group to make sure that we're more competitive than we were.

“We were too open. Miles too open. We lost structure, lost shape when we had the ball, and we’re just too open, and we weren’t able to defend transition. There were some crazy, crazy moments for their goals and it was a real poor display.

“It was disastrous. A terrible performance. We didn’t play anything like us, not in shape, so open, so a lot to consider. Off the back of the other performances where I thought we were close, this shows me that we’re not where I thought we were and things need to change.”

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