Wolves Fans' Verdict v Man City: A VAR disaster

Pointless that Wolves of all clubs, quibble over VAR; the depths of our disenchantment with this sordid system can’t be overstated.

When this panel of experts offer their adjudications on incidents complex or otherwise, we know exactly where we stand; guilty as charged even when Stockley Park uniformly contradicts itself with impunity.

Wolves responded to the Brentford fiasco with a display of character and guts that at the very least re-established a connection with a fan base fast losing patience with the direction of the club.

It’s a desperately hard ask to defy a team whose dominating use of the ball forces you into chasing, covering and desperately defending for almost the entire match. Not a single Wolves player would fill a berth in this peerless City team, but the application and the refusal to buckle was admirable.

Had Nelson Semedo converted a one on one to give us a two- goal lead, then who knows? The wing-back had already delivered a glorious ball for our goal and as he did in this fixture last season, he had snuffed out much danger from City’s left flank.

He wasn’t alone in repelling the onslaught; the entire system and organisation with three at the back restored offered the starkest contrast imaginable from previous matches. And as for Jose Sa; he was magnificent.

Desperately unlucky with the first goal, he was inspirational. What occurred in that final minute, he simply didn’t deserve and for what it’s worth neither did the rest of us.

Liam Berry

At Molineux on Sunday, there was one Norwegian striker who led the line and scored a goal, and that man was NOT Erling Haaland!

How many times do you reckon we will ever hear that? Three goals in eight games is a great return from Jorgen Strand Larsen, who for me, is certainly close to the levels Raul Jimenez provided us with in his opening few games.

Strand Larsen’s all-round performance against Manchester City was top. When he has the ball he rarely seems to lose it and he gave John Stones and Ruben Dias a tough time containing him. Most definitely a positive for the rest of the season.

Now a big positive is out of the way, let’s talk about our fourth consecutive home defeat in the league (not that it was deserved). I think the switch to the five-at-the-back definitely helped us, and benefited both our wing backs, with Nelson Semedo producing a brilliant assist and Rayan Ait-Nouri flourishing with his license to go forward. That back five has to be the way forward, literally, as our players are more suited to the system than they are in a four. And it can be a really attacking formation against lesser teams than Manchester City.

It was disappointing conceding in the last minute, as VAR took centre stage yet again at Molineux, to deliver the final blow. As a football fan, I do believe the goal should stand, but so too should Max Kilman’s against West Ham which got disallowed for a very similar offence last season. The problem is the consistency in these decisions. And it just feels like we are on the wrong end of most of them.

Robbie Meakin

A disappointing ending to such a hard fought performance. We deserved a point but came away with nothing due to PGMOL inconsistency.

There’s been so much talk about John Stones’ winner but I want to highlight the clear foul on Gonçalo Guedes before Man City advanced and won those corners. If that was the other way around, it’s a free kick to City and a yellow card to the Wolves player.

Looking at a positive, Jose Sa had a brilliant game and deserved to be named man of the match. He pulled off some big saves, came for everything and commanded his area brilliantly. It was a massive opportunity to stake his claim for the number one slot and he took it with both hands, if you pardon the pun. For me, he has to keep his place at Brighton. There’s no way Sam Johnstone comes straight back in. If he does, Sa has every right to react badly.

It was nice to see Gary O’Neil revert back to five at the back. It’s been needed and his decision to go against his tactical stubbornness so very nearly paid off. I must also credit his substitutions. For weeks, I’ve criticised him for being reactive rather than proactive in games.

There are positives to take from that narrow defeat to a great Man City team. It’s given me a slight glimmer of hope. I just hope we’ll see O’Neil’s men kick on at the Amex. I’m not saying I think we’ll win, as I’d be happy with a point, but a point on the board is better than nothing and we need anything we can get at the moment.

Adam Virgo

A really harsh way for us to lose a game of football after putting in the effort we did.

Defended brilliantly for large parts of the game to be done over by VAR in the last minute. The fact we scored a carbon copy of that goal last season and it was disallowed but this time the goal is awarded against us just shows the inconsistency of the officiating at the so called top level.

We worked our goal brilliantly, an unbelievable pass from Semedo to find Strand Larsen who also made a great run, we were in dreamland after seven minutes.

Jose Sa had his best game by far this season and for a long while. Made some fantastic saves throughout and was unlucky with the Gvardiol strike.

There were times when we could have counter attacked much better or done more when we had the ball but it’s always tough against Man City and with the form we are on, we did a real good job for 94 minutes and showed that we do have the fight which has been lacking for some games this season.

Moving to a back five meant we were much more assured defensively and although we lose out on maybe some of the attacking side of things, were able to get the best out of Ait-Nouri and Semedo who are very good wing backs and can be effective for us.

Clive Smith

This season of disappointments goes on... but, it was a relief to see our formation, our old fashioned long ball goalkicks and a keeper on form. So there were positives and a few seconds less playing time would have brought us a rewarding and positive result.

We had a plan and a team that by and large stuck to it. In games like this you need your keeper to play well and the returning MOTM Sa produced Wolves best keeper’s performance we’ve seen in a while. Perhaps not having the responsibility of playing high-risk-passing with the defence removed an unwanted distraction. The long ball by no means guaranteed retaining possession but at least having a turnover on halfway we had sufficient numbers goalside to prevent any immediate goal threat.

A classic counter-attacking goal raised the spirits. From a position of almost dreading the game we suddenly had hope. If Semedo could have made it 2-0 then who knows how the game might have turned out. Instead, after half an hour, the now almost inevitable wonder strike from outside our box flew in and we were level.

Some weary legs brought a nervy few minutes before half-time but we survived. City predictably bossed possession but we fashioned some openings that just needed better decisions at the crucial moment. Ait-Nouri in particular flipped from the good to the bad on a number of occasions. Given the relative freedom of playing wing-back instead of full-back he found himself in good positions but failed to make the most of them.

Swapping Doyle for Andre and indeed the other substitutions helped keep us in the game. Forbs gave us a different outlet ball and ensured we maintained a potential threat of a breakaway.

The heart was desperately willing us to hold on. The head was trying to put aside thoughts of the inevitably. After 94 of the 95 minutes had gone our dreams were shattered. The football gods cruelly took our point away. It was only a point but it would have felt like so much more.

We must focus on the positives. Five at the back and a more direct style is surely our identity going forward. We can be forward thinking while being more resolute at the back. We tried playing a different way, we need to stick to our strengths and improve on them if we are to progress up the League.

Harry Lee

To lose with the last kick of the game after defending so valiantly for 90+ minutes is so hard to take.

The 5-3-2 formation worked in making us solid and hard to play through, despite being up against some of the best in the world, we did limit their chances.

When we did give away a half chance, the incoming Jose Sa showed why he still can have a future at the club, making some excellent finger tip saves.

It’s true that you make your own luck, but if you said that their CB/LB was taking shots from 20+ yards on his weaker foot you’d be relatively comfortable with it, but instead it flies into the top corner.

18 corners for City and their first one they connect with properly first goes flying in.

But, ultimately, if we play with that same heart, the same level of work rate then I’m sure that luck with turn.

It will be really interesting to see what GON does next weekend against Brighton, they are fifth in the league for a reason and deserve respect, but you’d think we may need that extra attacker in Forbs, R.Gomes or Guedes to be more of a threat on the counter.

Matthew Spencer

Another week, another loss. Yes, I know it was to Man City, but it still does not change our predicament.

Let’s be honest, 94 minutes in, Wolves looking good for a draw with a defensive masterclass (it may take months to remove the tyre treads on the pitch from the bus we so heavily parked)! Every Wolves fan is going home happy, perhaps even with a slight bounce back in their step.

Guedes is then dribbling forward with the ball and things are looking promising; could there be a fairytale finish? Of course not! It had to be the most hated man at Molineux who did it too in Matheus Nunes. I have watched the challenge several times and although Nunes wins the ball, he comes from behind Guedes which should therefore default as a foul. As a ‘very amateur’ referee, I normally give a foul if the challenge comes from behind.

Of course, it’s not given. City win the ball and counter, leading to a corner. You just knew something bad was going to happen. Stones scores a quite frankly unopposed header, yet another example of our inability to defend set pieces.

Then the goal was disallowed for offside! The rollercoaster of emotions I felt were mental! We were all glued to the TV trying to figure out what is going on. I’ve watched it now several times and for me, the push by Bernardo Silva on Jose Sa (who had a decent game by the way) caused Sa’s set position to change. This by default interfered with play. It was not a clear and obvious error in my view, so the on field decision should have stood. VAR should not have interfered with play. Much like Kilman’s goal against West Ham last season should have stood.

Alas, another poor decision that has ruined another weekend. Our next few games are so important to deciding whether or not we should be preparing for the Championship or not next season.

Cameron Smith

From a Wolves point of view, this was heartbreaking. A point against the champions was very much on the cards, and indicative of Wolves’ season thus far, another gut-wrenching blow robbed us of anything.

Looking at the performance objectively, a point would have been well-earned. It wasn’t pretty at times after taking the lead, but I would argue that Wolves did the necessary work up until the winner from the visitors, to bravely take a point.

Josko Gvardiol’s equaliser was a thing of beauty, and when you come up against a side with defenders who can bring out moments of magic like that, it is a clear showing of the sheer difference in quality across sides in the Premier League.

I was impressed with Santiago Bueno, who put in a good showing after impressing for Uruguay over the break, his ball to Nelson Semedo during the build-up for our goal was something I believe we have lacked so far this season from our defenders, and I hope this is the start of him being a regular in the side.

Matt Gallimore

Football can be a cruel game at times and today was one of those instances. What makes it even worse was the fact that we did our job. Unfortunately, the officials didn’t do theirs.

When teams like Manchester City rock up to your ground you know you must play well, you must have good structure as a team, your defence must be resolute, your goalkeeper needs to have a good game and your manager needs a gameplay that works. When all of this happens, you have a good chance of getting a positive result.

What is totally out of our hands though is the performance of the officials and in the last kick of the game they alone changed the whole outcome of a 95-minute performance which deserved more.

Some say the winning goal should have stood, some say Jose Sa was impeded and it should have been disallowed. It's all a matter of opinion.

What isn’t opinion though, and is absolute fact, is that when the same scenario happened to us last season, Kilman equalising against West Ham, the exact incident resulted in the goal being chalked off.

Where is the consistency?

It's not just on this occasion either. Many moments that have gone against us over previous seasons are then seen to have gone in favour of others as the season plays out.

When the crowd chant that the Premier League is corrupt, I don’t think we actually believe that is the case, but the manner in which officials view these incidents is dereliction of duty.

For instance, when the referee was sent to the screen, the incident was only shown from a slow-motion moment where the header connected. Where was the moment literally before, where as soon as the corner was taken, Bernardo Silva barged into Sa, impeded the goalkeeper's motion, caused him to push Silva out the way, have to adjust his feet and stance, and then attempt to save the header. When a whipped cross from a corner is taken, there is literally no more than a two second window in which the goalkeeper had to do all the afore mentioned actions and yet the officials deem only that slow motion final action to be enough to make a decision. It's things like this that encourage the corruption claims from supporters.

But this is not the only instance we have had to endure. It's getting a common theme now where 50/50 decisions constantly seem to go against us. This is not us finding excuses. There is factual evidence from past experiences that show Wolves as a club, have been on considerably more ‘against’ decisions than ‘for’. What's more worrying is that I came out the ground yesterday with the alarming feeling of acceptance that this is the new norm. The acceptance that this now the sport we watch, and that this happening to our club is normal.

My love for Wolves will never end and I can’t ever imagine the day where I stop attending games but besides my club, I rarely watch any other football games. I have no interest in watching other teams play and as the years go by, I realise even more that football now is more a business than an actual sport. The aim was to see my club reach the promised land of the Premier League and grow as a club but now we have experienced it for many years it's not what it's cracked up to be and its these incidents in games and the total ineptitude of officials and VAR that are ruining it for me now as a supporter.

The last non-Wolves game I watched was Sunderland versus Leeds in the Championship. A proper football game between two teams with passionate support, where the sport was the highlight, and not all the drama and controversy that the Premier League offers up. It might not be the quality of the ‘Greed’ league, but its football in its purest form.

Back to the performance, and it was much better. These are the type of games we tend to do well in. We were written off by everyone before kick-off and it was always goings to be tough, but we applied ourselves well with positives to now be taken into a run of games that on paper look a lot more favourable. Clearly, we are a much better team with a back five. It might have been the managers intent to be more free flowing and convert to a back four, but it's clearly not working and hopefully now we can settle down in this formation and shape and start picking up much needed points. There were some real good performances, mainly in defence, Santi Bueno and Craig Dawson did a very good job on keeping Haaland fairly quiet, Semedo did his defensive work well, and in moments looked a threat on the attack and the man of the match Jose Sa gave a superb performance in goal.

Sa can be frustrating at times. Sometimes his concentration and distribution are lacking but without doubt he is an exceptional shot stopper and he showed that here. My opinion is that Sam Johnstone is no better than Dan Bentley and Jose Sa should now have earned the opportunity to keep his place. Long term though it's my view , that its inevitable the decision of the manager to replace him for a new keeper will mean that he will look to move on.

So, besides this good performance, we walk away from this ‘free hit’ without any points to show. Thats accepted. But now is the time for this group of players, and especially the manager, to prove that they are good enough to start picking up wins. This run of games now is make or break in my opinion. If we don’t start earning points, there will be no excuses for the manager. This is a crucial period in his managerial career. Hopefully he can find a way to navigate these games and propel us up the table. I feel we are better than the position we are currently in. Now it's time to prove it!

Final Score: Wolves 1-2 PGMOL