Wolves 1 Fulham 2 - Liam Keen and Nathan Judah analysis - video Dailymotion

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Wolves 1 Fulham 2 - Liam Keen and Nathan Judah analysis

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00:00Hello, I'm Nathan Judah, that is the returning one Liam Keane, for crikey, Wolves 1, Fulham

00:152. Disappointing night really, you thought that Fulham were there for the take in their

00:18first win at Molyneux for 40 years, Liam, and I guess the most frustrating thing is

00:23is that they haven't had to get out of third gear to win tonight.

00:26No, Fulham are a decent side, but they're nothing special. They made five changes, they

00:33caused some issues going forward, but defensively Wolves got out of them in that first half

00:36and Crazed Enchantress got a good equaliser, and as you say, were there for the take in,

00:40Wolves could have turned the screw in this game and got something out of it, and they

00:45regressed, they went the opposite direction. The second half performance was really poor,

00:50almost no intensity whatsoever, no attempt to win the ball back, no attempt to pass with

00:58intent, just crazy next to nothing. When you've got your best player, most influential player

01:05in Mateusz Kunia, who was very good in the first half, walking around with his head down

01:10and giving the ball away and crossing and hitting the first man and not really tracking

01:13back, the players respond to that and no one really gives a toss. It was a really poor

01:19second half. It wasn't just the quality, it was the manner of the performance, which

01:25was so disappointing. Fulham did next to nothing to win it in the end. They ran him in as there

01:31were too big chances to score and he misses them.

01:33When the game was stretched and they're going forward, but at the same time, you look at

01:36those...

01:37Wolves came nowhere near, and then strangely, at the very end, 97th minute, Aiton Norrie

01:41has a massive chance, turns inside, does everything perfectly, does everything right, he was not

01:46really involved at all game, really, and then pops up in the perfect moment and Castagne

01:49makes a fantastic block, but that could have been the moment to change it.

01:52Look, two goals for Fulham, and both within 55, 58, a minute of starting each half, disappointing

02:00defensively on both occasions, and I'm sure Pereira will be talking about it, I'm sure

02:03he'll be furious at how they've conceded. Once, fair enough, obviously they've got him

02:08on the blink, but to do it in the second half and concede a minute into the second half,

02:11that's unforgivable.

02:12I mean, Fulham targeted Santi Bueno's weaknesses, which were one-on-one, man-to-man physicality,

02:21Maniz was a handful all night, and it wasn't just Bueno, I thought Doc had a really poor

02:25first half by his standards, other players are also involved and comfortable, but Maniz

02:30was a handful, he targeted Santi Bueno, and that's where the goal came from.

02:33Now, it's not just Bueno's fault, which I'll go on to in a second, but Anderson gets the

02:37ball in defence, plays one midfield splitting pass into Maniz's feet, now, I'm not saying

02:43it's a guarantee, but I would put my money on it that if that is Agbadoom, one-on-one

02:47with Maniz, Maniz doesn't hold the ball up there, Agbadoom goes through him, deals with

02:54him, wins the ball back, fouls him, does something, Bueno gets bullied off it, Maniz holds the

02:58ball up, finds Pereira, and I've got no idea what Nelson Smelo is doing, stepping out,

03:04and trying to close down Pereira.

03:06Now, I love the intent, don't get me wrong, I love the desire, I love the desperation

03:10to win the ball back, but at that moment, when Sessioni is overlapping, Doc is square,

03:15and he presses, and it opens the space, and Pereira turns, plays one pass, and Sessioni

03:20is in, and the second goal is not much better, Adamo just peels off, gets a little bit of

03:25space in midfield, one pass, turns, one passing behind, Bueno is, cannot get anywhere near

03:30recovering, Sarr comes out very early and very quickly, but I think he kind of has to,

03:35and Maniz just dinks it over him, poor, really poor, both goals.

03:40Especially after Saturday, and you know, it was such a high, I felt like, is it easy to

03:46say that they were tired tonight, I thought they were, there was no pressing tonight,

03:50no pressing to Fulham, I think, I mean, Fulham don't press anyway, but Wolves definitely

03:53do, and I felt like they didn't really push Fulham all night, but to get back into the

03:57game the way that they did, and then to have nothing off, and nothing in the second half,

04:00that's not like the Vito Pereira side that we've seen so many times, so look, they've

04:04got an FA Cup game now, and obviously that's a one-off game, and that's very different,

04:07but there's a few performances on that pitch tonight where you've got to think, can they

04:11play again in four days' time, I'm not so sure, what did you make of his substitutions

04:16tonight, because they were interesting as well.

04:18The last one was obvious, and beyond that...

04:22Was it obvious to take Bellegarde off though?

04:23Well, you took the words right out of my mouth, in terms of bringing him on was obvious,

04:29beyond that, I mean, Strabi's the only real sort of senior attacking option then, isn't

04:33it, I mean, there wasn't a lot of options with a few players out injured, but exactly

04:38that, Bellegarde coming off and Manezzi staying on, I thought was a big surprise.

04:43I could have understood maybe Manezzi staying on if you were going to take off

04:46Angelo Gomes, because he's more of an attacking threat, but I thought Manezzi didn't do a

04:52lot tonight, I thought he was pretty quiet.

04:54Bellegarde had a few poor moments, but I thought he got about, I thought he looked after the

04:57ball well, I thought he got in between the lines and made something happen, some of his

05:02crosses in the first half, which was where the goal crane came from, was fantastic.

05:05A couple of minutes before, and then obviously the cross.

05:07Exactly, I was surprised to see that change, and that attacking line-up there for me, which

05:11was essentially Kunja and Larsson with Manezzi just behind, just if work, and then eventually

05:17Strabi comes on and becomes more of a front three, but that just midfield looked disjointed

05:21to me.

05:22I'm sure we'll all get excited at the back end of the week, and we've got an FA Cup,

05:25but I just feel like a big opportunity missed tonight, and it's first play tomorrow night

05:29in Manchester United, and I don't know what Man United are going to turn up, but you could

05:32have won tonight or even drawn, I mean a 2-2 draw would have been huge to extend that gap

05:36to six points going into Old Trafford.

05:39Look, at the same time, they're still in an excellent position, they've got some really

05:42good games to come, Southampton away in the league is the next one in a couple of weeks

05:46time, so they've got to go there and win really, but you're still looking over your

05:51shoulder aren't you, and that's frustrating.

05:53Yeah, and that is the frustrating thing about tonight, because they've built some momentum

05:57They battered Villekind, beat them 2-0, ran them all over the park, go to Blackburn and

06:02beat them relatively comfortably, go to Liverpool and could have got something, played really

06:06well second half, were lucky not to get something, go to Bournemouth and win and play well enough

06:11to get that result, and it was set up, we both were pretty confident coming into this

06:16one, we could get something out of the game, and if we're being honest, I know Fulham missed

06:20a few chances in that second half, if Wolves had just turned the screw a little bit, just

06:23turned it up a little bit, they would have got something there tonight, why they weren't

06:28able to do that is for Vital Pereira and the players to answer, but it's so frustrating

06:32because the momentum was there, the opportunity was there tonight, and when you've got Ipswich

06:37going to United tomorrow, you've got Leicester going to West Ham on Thursday, look, the odds

06:42are that they'll both lose that game, but there's no guarantees, there's no guarantees

06:45and that was a chance tonight for Wolves, they might come to regret that chance, depending

06:50on how the next few days go, and look, Bournemouth will be a big game in the FA Cup at the weekend,

06:54but it's still not the priority, that's Southampton games, so there has to be a must-win.

06:57That was one of the two Fulham post-match reactions, make sure you log on to expressthestar.com.

Wolves 1 Fulham 2 - Liam Keen and Nathan Judah analysis

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