OG 3-0, signing off on this one now. Bad luck Wanderers, lessons learned from the game hopefully.
Man.City To Win
Wolves To Win
Draw
OG 3-0, signing off on this one now. Bad luck Wanderers, lessons learned from the game hopefully.
Interesting that respected referee Mark Clattenburg has written in the press that Boly should not have seen red for that challenge. He is joined in his criticism of the card by Andy Gray who said it should have been a yellow at worst.
Comparisons have been made to Kompany's challenge on Salah, for which Kompany only received a yellow. https://youtu.be/E-C6j5bID1g
Clattenburg's point was that below the ankle = yellow, above the ankle = red, if you tackle someone in a horizontal position with both feet off the ground you are not in control of your momentum and bones can be broken.
Boly apologised to Silva afterwards and Nuno says it was a red, I think it should end there. In the meantime Dendoncker can slot in.
Last edited by nortonwolf; 15-01-2019 at 11:25 AM.
I think the omnipresent problem in football is the inconsistency of referees. Arguably, the most important person on the football pitch and each of them interpret e.g. tackles in a different way. I'm not sure how much training these guys get, but frankly it needs to be improved - its simple enough FGS, they all shown a number of tackles on a big screen in real time, preferably from "the referees angle / position and asked how they would rate it. VAR can't come soon enough.
All the Wolves players looked shocked at the straight red. In any other league this would have been a yellow. Boly clearly got to the ball before the City player, who then clattered into our man. As has been said, it's inconsistency of the refs that cause these problems, and the top draw teams seem to be the benefactors.
Liverpool fans are accusing Sterling of diving, he did look to go down very easily. When you think of some of our players who have been clattered in the box, it does make you wonder if some clubs a favoured. I could not have seen Steve Bull going down like that , he would have been trying to score.
Last nights Premier League game was always going to be a difficult one. City had been on a poor run, Liverpool had knocked them of the top, and they would have been smarting from the lost points early in the season. Pep would have really had them fired up for this one. Their first goal was superb, reminiscent of some we scored last season in the Championship. The pass and movement cut us in ribbons.
At 1-0 we were still in the game but the red card changed all that, it also spoiled the match as a spectacle. People will have their own views of it and I have already expressed mine. The penalty was a soft one with Stirling displaying all the strength of a cabbage butterfly, while getting an Oscar for his dramatic dive.
We were putting up a defensive battle but it was a loosing one with the City Millionaires probing for entries, while Dendoncker, Bennett and Cody were throwing the bodies at everything to stem the tide. It took a freak goal to break the second half deadlock, but credit to the lads who prevented it being a slaughter.
Man City did to us last evening, what we had been doing last season to teams in the Championship. We have come a long way in the last two years, however, last night at the Etihad it showed just how far Wolves have still to go if we are to pursue Fosuns dream.
We have some winnable games coming up, and starting on Saturday lunchtime we need to be on the top of our game.
Having seen both Liverpool and Man.City recently against Wolves in the league i think Man.City are on a different level to the current league leaders. Their passing movement and always switched on mentality will take some beating. The pass that found Sane to put across to Jesus was quality. Even at 1-0, i couldn't see any way back, Wolves were just too deep. At 1-0, you always have a chance, but that's with eleven players on the pitch. Saying that, you have to take the chance or chances that come your way. Jonny has to do better with the one that he had.
There's been plenty of debate regarding both Boly's sending off and the penalty that was won by Sterling. At the game my opinion was that when a players goes to ground in the modern game he runs the risk of getting sent off. I said that i could only see a red as the outcome. With the penalty, again, it was right in front of us, but as soft as it was i could only see the ref pointing to the spot, which he did. Having now seen both incidents again, i can why the ref sent Boly off. It's classed as dangerous play. The penalty, i still think it's a soft one, but Sterling is clever in the way he wins them!
Once the ref had awarded the penalty that led to the second, that was it from a Wolves perspective in my eyes. I made a few references during the game regarding how Man.City when having a corner had every single player, bar their keeper within 30-35 yards of our goal. I know it's not nice to lose, but i'm glad we kept the score down to only 3-0. When you have the likes of Aguero and De Bruyne coming on then you know the opposition are on a different planet.
There's no shame in losing to Man.City. I'm more interested in seeing how Wolves cope without Boly for the Leicester City home game!