Dave Edwards: Front foot Wolves press forward
Monday night’s win over Everton continued Wolves’ excellent unbeaten run of four wins from five but what I really liked about it was the way that the team pressed.
We’re used to Moutinho and Neves almost sitting in front of the back three when they haven’t got the ball, to stop those passing lines.
But when Everton were playing into the middle third, the duo were always looking to put pressure on to the holding midfielders.
Bruno Lage’s men were very much on the front foot, and it’s not something we’ve seen much of in recent years. They still have the nous and experience to drop off when needed but in general the midfield two pushed really high to force mistakes.
It allowed the back five to be higher too, fans will be delighted, because there’s been a lot of times where we’d sit in – I used to call it our comfort blanket when we sat back in that five and two, be hard to break down and look to hit on the counter-attack – but we are now playing 15, 20, 30 yards higher up the pitch. When you do win the ball you’re in great positions and it’s really good to see.
It was an exciting game for a neutral, but as a Wolves fan I think everybody would be happy with that first-half performance.
It was the best 45 minutes of the season for Wolves and they topped it off with two goals. The control they had, the way they moved the ball, with real purpose, to suck Everton out of their shape to leave holes for Trincao, Hwang and Jimenez, was excellent.
Everton had a resurgence after the break, a change of shape, but I felt it was like the Newcastle game – it would’ve been criminal if Wolves didn’t get all three points, even if it was a close scoreline in the end.
It was nice to see it all come together. I felt we played well and were in control in the Newcastle game, until the visitors scored, and it felt more to that level of performance, better than in recent weeks.
It continues a great run of form and everyone will be very happy with how Wolves used the ball, whereas if you look at the Leeds the game the week before they got the early goal and tried to hang on.
But on Monday night they absolutely dominated Everton, who couldn’t live with Lage’s side for large parts. The Toffees had one small spell but Wolves defended well and were well worth the three points.
There has been enough signs in these opening 10 games Wolves are heading in the right direction. I know they’ve enjoyed lofty heights in the Premier League – and they’re up to seventh now – getting back there, but I just think the performances have been so much more encouraging than they ever have in the Premier League before.
They have another little run of games now, starting at Crystal Palace on Saturday – who under Patrick Vieira have been more expansive but do leave spaces – where they will fancy themselves to extend this excellent run going into December, where they have a really tough run and play all of the top teams.
With the emergence of Max Kilman, and his performance on Monday, I think he’s probably been Wolves player of the season so far. He’s very consistent, gives Wolves another dimension on the ball, for his age, to come from non-league and develop, is very exciting. Willy Boly is back fit now but he won’t be able to get in the team with Max playing like this, he will be closing in on an England call next.
