Liam Keen analysis: Wolves must follow the Brighton blueprint

The challenge for Wolves now, is to build an infrastructure and philosophy that can match Brighton’s in the long-term.

At this moment in time, Brighton are everything Wolves want and need to be. A few years ago under Nuno Espirito Santo it was Wolves leading the way, but now the Seagulls have laid their nest on the cliff edge of the Premier League’s elite.

O’Neil is respected and highly-thought of in the game, and Brighton have proved you do not need to pick a well-known head coach to have success, but O’Neil needs time.

For now, however, he also needs results and the impressive performance against Manchester United on the opening day was undone by a capitulation at Molineux.

The new boss admitted he took a risk in choosing an attack-minded team with a view of going toe-to-toe with Roberto De Zerbi’s side, and it was a risk that did not pay off.

Everyone was calling for Fabio Silva to start but he failed to make his mark, while Wolves tried and failed to get on the front foot.

In an attempt to play out from the back, ponderous touches and slow-moving passes saw Brighton press Wolves to death and force mistakes out of individuals.

Once the visitors had the ball, they ran at will and in numbers to create overloads on each flank. It was far too easy to open Wolves up and they paid the price.

O’Neil’s plan to be aggressive and make Wolves exciting is admirable and could pay-off long-term, but he currently has a side that needs to be compact in defence and Wolves were sliced open at will.

Julen Lopetegui realised it when he inherited a team bottom of the league, and his plan to save the side – which ultimately worked – was to make them hard to beat and reward clean sheets.

Frankly, it was boring but effective. O’Neil’s challenge is now to find a balance between the aggressive football he wants to play and the intelligent football Wolves may need to play.

That is particularly important when you have a team, like this Wolves side, that are short in defence.

Craig Dawson, Max Kilman and Toti Gomes are the only senior centre-backs in the squad and the club desperately need to recruit another.

Dawson, in particular, struggled on Saturday and was run ragged by Brighton’s dynamic forward line.

With Fosun chairman Guo Guangchang in attendance, and Wolves chairman Jeff Shi back in the country and also at Molineux, Wolves fell behind after 15 minutes when Kaoru Mitoma’s incredible solo run made Nelson Semedo, Dawson and Kilman look silly.

Although Wolves were attempting to be aggressive and make something happen, they did that by relinquishing all control of the game.

Brighton, even when they absorbed fairly harmless pressure, had a vice-like grip on the contest throughout.

Despite that, the next two big chances fell to Wolves and they typically threw them away.

First, Matheus Cunha released Silva and after Pervis Estupinan played him onside, he was through with just Jason Steele to beat. Wolves have struggled for goals for two seasons and need Silva to step up, but he directed it at Steele and the chance was gone.

Not long after, Rayan Ait-Nouri was played in and although the angle was tighter, he still had a one-on-one opportunity that he blazed over the bar.

Brighton got into positions to score more first half goals, but Wolves got the clear-cut chances to enter the break 2-1 up, but instead they entered it 1-0 down.

Wolves’ performance did not warrant a lead, but with those chances going begging, you cannot afford to pass them up on any occasion.

For everything that happened in the first half, Wolves had a chance to put it right in the second half. That was, until, Brighton scored a second within 45 seconds.

In another show of how easy it was to get beyond Wolves’ defence, Danny Welbeck made a simple but effective run beyond Kilman, was found and had a shot saved, before Mitoma made an intelligent pass to Estupinan to slot home.

A 10-minute period of capitulation followed. Wolves fell apart in embarrassing fashion.

More ponderous defending saw Dawson react slowly to Julio Enciso running beyond him. He raced down the left flank before crossing for Solly March, who fired into the roof of the net.

Ait-Nouri failed to track March, who wanted it more.

That same Enciso-March combination proved fruitful just four minutes later, as March this time beat Semedo to the ball in the box and fired home.

Wolves were all at sea and the Seagulls took advantage. Defensively fragile and quick to drop their heads – Wolves crumbled.

Brighton’s boss was disappointed with how his side coasted for the rest of the game that followed, but in reality they were under little threat.

Wolves got into positions, made runs and then made the wrong decisions or overplayed when a shot was available. The same story as last season and the season before.

The small crumb of comfort comes in Hwang Hee-chan’s goal. He is a player that is always full of endeavour and can be relied upon to put in a shift. A well-taken header, but it proved to be nothing but a consolation as Brighton saw out the result. Wolves’ attacking troubles can be summed up with one second-half chance, too. Hwang darted into the box, turned inside his defender and put the ball on a plate for the advancing Ait-Nouri to take a left-footed shot from fairly close range.

What did he do? Take a touch and then lose possession, to the anger and disbelief of the home fans.

O’Neil referenced that Wolves have managed 38 shots in the opening two games and that it “gives us something to build on.” That may be true, but there is a sense of deja vu.

In Bruno Lage’s first season in charge, the 2021/22 campaign, the opening three games saw Wolves lose 1-0 in each after impressive and entertaining performances, where Lage boasted of the number of shots on goal.

After that, Lage tightened the side up and they almost made it into Europe. No two seasons are the same, but perhaps O’Neil could follow the same path to some extent.

He will have to begin that away at Everton without Matheus Nunes, however. His needless and stupid second yellow card against Brighton will see him suspended in a selfish act of petulance. He could be key to this side, but he must cut that out of his game and begin having a bigger impact.

Nunes let his side down and deserved to get his marching orders in the 95th minute.

It was a grim ending to a frankly grim afternoon, where O’Neil will have learned much more about his side and their fragilities. They are better than that, but still need a lot of work to become competitive this season.

Away from the field, Daniel Podence is proving to be more of a nuisance.

After being left out of training by Lopetegui, Podence was welcomed back by O’Neil, despite still being available for transfer. Something has now changed and he is training with the under-21s.

O’Neil refused to speak of the situation in detail, but hinted at Podence not being committed to the club, which has been the case all summer.

A spiky character that has the potential to upset the atmosphere, Wolves must move him on. They are trying to, but need a serious proposal from a club.

The sooner he leaves the better, with the potential to reinvest the cash to some degree.