Wolves' lacklustre performance in the Premier League

It has been exactly over a year since my friend asked me what teams I thought would be relegated last season, and unsurprisingly, one of the teams I mentioned was Wolverhampton Wanderers. They managed to escape last season, but personally, I don’t see them escaping this season after their abysmal start to the season. They are being talked about but for all the wrong reasons and sit dead last in the Premier League table, and the fans have nothing to be delighted about other than little optimism due to the managerial change during the international duty. Their recent upcoming games are far from easy, with their next game being away at Villa Park, then the game at Molineux against Forest, with back-to-back games against United, Arsenal, Brentford and Champions Liverpool. This run of games has just made newly appointed manager Rob Edwards's work more difficult in building momentum.

The Reason for overachievement

Wolves never used to perform badly; as a matter of fact, they actually had back-to-back seventh place in the Premier League, which helped them take part in the Europa League in 2019, where they reached the quarter-finals, losing to the Europa League kings, Sevilla. Wolverhampton Wanderers is currently owned by Fosun International, a Chinese investment, after purchasing the club for £45 million in 2016 from previous owner Steve Morgan, which played a huge part in the recent success of the club, because the club has been able to invest more in the players, facilities, etc., which prompted smart investments and has yielded success in recent years. Here are some other factors that elevated Wolverhampton Wanderers' success.

Brilliance of Nuno Espírito Santo

Another reason I’d also bring up is about former coach Nuno Espírito Santo, whose tactics suited the recruitment system and the style of play, which helped them attain promotion to the Premier League in his first season at the club and a seventh-place finish in his first season in the Premier League. It’s not a sheer coincidence that the club hasn’t been the same since he left the club in 2021, with the club finishing in the top 10 once since his departure from the club in 2021.

Good Recruitment Strategy

Wolves usually made smart investments in players, like the signing of Ruben Neves and Diogo Jota (RIP). These were players brought in for a decent amount of money, and they elevated the club in terms of quality, performances, you name it; and at the end of the day, they helped the club in overachieving back-to-back years in the league. Also the signing of Joao Moutinho and Rui Patricio helped bring experience to the squad and created a fair balance between the younger players with potential and the older players.

After all these, the real question is how did things start to get bad at the club? one of the factors is

Inability to replicate signings

Signings made at the club were not able to replicate sales; over the years, Wolves have sold players, which is normal for any football club, especially due to the fact that Wolves is still a small club, and with the financial leverages of the Big 6 and top clubs in Europe’s top 5 leagues, player retention would be an impossible task. However, revenue generated from sales hasn’t been invested in the right players that suited the system, or the players just simply underachieved.

Over-reliance on individual brilliance

Over the past couple of seasons, Wolves have been a one-man carry job; last season it was Cunha, and a few seasons ago it was Podence. Ruben Neves was also the integral figure. Wolves have always relied on a particular player to step up and keep them alive, but this time around there’s been no one around to step up and do a good carry job for them; this season has been an all-round disaster from each position on the field.

Consistent Number Nine?

When was the last time the Wolves had a decent number nine? Do not include Cunha because we all know that his best performances in a Wolves shirt have come from him playing behind the striker as an attacking midfielder, and I do have the stats to back that up. Larsen was good last season, as he bagged 14 goals in the league and was even overpriced ahead of a move to Newcastle in the summer transfer window. The last good number nine that Wolves had was Raul Jimenez, and he was also consistent for back-to-back seasons.

Beginning of the end

I believe that this is the season that Wolves finally get relegated, as there is just so much all-round quality missing from the squad, and that has translated to their performances on the pitch with breaking unwanted records like being one of 5 teams to lose their first 5 games in the league, and the most disastrous being the fact that they have been winless in sixteen games in the league and both their last home and away wins came in April with wins over Leicester and United, respectively. Below is a chart from footy stats showing their abysmal stats for the 12 Premier League games played so far this season

From the image above, it is clear that their away game form is worse than their home form, and what is mostly mind-blowing about all these is the fact that they have only gotten 2 points from 12 games, which is also very worrying, whilst scoring 7 goals and conceding a whopping 27 goals in 12 games. All these horrendous stats actually back up their performance on the pitch.

Conclusion…

I don’t really have much to say on this point, but the only optimism I can envision is Wolves not being as bad as Derby in 2008, as 11 points in 38 games is just so criminal, and personally, I don’t think it will be replicated. Personally, I would say the team needs a rebuild, as these current challenges will open the upper management and hierarchy to deeper issues withholding the club from replicating such overachievements in recent years.