Former Wolves full-backs Andy Thompson and Lee Naylor both believe Gary O’Neil got it wrong with one player last night against Bournemouth.
Wolves fell to a 1-0 defeat at Molineux, and put in a poor performance after looking fairly good against Arsenal.
Wolves put in a woeful first-half display, with Antoine Semenyo giving the visitors a deserved lead midway through.
Wolves improved after the break, and did start pushing more after Milos Kerkez was sent off. The players seemed fuelled by the controversial decision to disallow Hwang Hee-chan‘s header.
But they couldn’t find a way through, and Wolves must now attempt to stop the rot against Luton Town this weekend.
It was an interesting set up last night from Gary O’Neil – and Thompson and Naylor both feel one player was rather misused…
Andy Thompson and Lee Naylor question Gary O’Neil’s use of Mario Lemina for Wolves against Bournemouth
Last night, O’Neil decided to go with three central midfielders; Mario Lemina, Joao Gomes and Tommy Doyle.
Despite playing well against Arsenal, Boubacar Traore was named as a substitute.
The system appeared to be more of a back four with Toti Gomes operating as a left-back. Often, Lemina would take up very deep positions, slotting in between Max Kilman and Santi Bueno.
Ultimately, this left Gomes and Doyle a little exposed at times, and the Bournemouth trio of Lewis Cook, Alex Scott – a former Wolves transfer target, of course – and Ryan Christie certainly got the better of their counterparts.
In the eyes of Thompson and Naylor, it was a tactic that simply did not work.
Naylor said on Matchday Live Extra: “No, not at all (it didn’t work). With him going in there, our options in the midfield just became sparse. We were found wanting.”
Thompson agreed, adding: “It was a waste of time. At the end of the day, Kilman can do exactly the job and so can Santi as well. If you’re playing that formation and you’re hoping to overload the midfield with three players, and you’ve got one playing at the back, it’s a waste of time, you might as well go three at the back, what we usually play with.
“It didn’t work for me tonight. Bournemouth just exploited it. He’s trying things out and unfortunately, it didn’t work tonight.”
Lemina tactic didn’t work, on a very off night for Wolves
O’Neil has done a lot of good things this season and has pulled off some tactical masterclasses, so we cannot be too critical of him.
But he probably didn’t get it quite right last night, especially with his use of Lemina so deep.
The £45,000-a-week man can be effective from deep, but probably not as much when Wolves have the ball. He is not the same kind of player as Ruben Neves and doesn’t have the same range or ball-playing ability.
It felt a little strange seeing him drop into the backline so much in the first-half. Surely Kilman could have just done what he did, with Toti and Bueno next to him and Nelson Semedo and Rayan Ait-Nouri as wing-backs.
It was just an off night for O’Neil and Wolves. But a big response is needed this weekend against Luton – another similar kind of performance would be a concern.
