I don’t know which manager will be more annoyed today, Zenga or Bruce.
Zenga will probably come away from Villa park wondering how his team failed to collect the three points.
Whereas Bruce will be fuming that we just looked awful.
Pre-match, it was all good, as Bruce selected a side with players playing in position and went with a 4-4-2 or 4-4-1-1 maybe. It was a sensible choice on paper.
And that’s about as good as it got.
We actually looked okay in the first few minutes and you could see the players had upped the pace and were passing the ball quickly. But Wolves came into it more and more as the game went on, so much so that they completely dominated the game.
We got the early penalty then, after Grealish was judged to have been clipped and Kodjia duly put it away.
A good shot from Kodjia apart, that was it though and I hardly remember another chance being created. Oh, sorry there was one chance where Kodjia feebly went for goal instead of passing to McCormack who was in a much better position.
Wolves got a penalty when Cissokho handballed and it all went downhill from there.
Again we instantly lost all our shape and composure, which allowed Wolves to get in the game even more and create more chances. Fotunately they didn’t convert any and we came away lucky to get a point.
Which is what makes it all so frustrating.
We have a very decent team on paper and it’s not just us fans that say it.
Why then, can’t we seem to do even the basic things right? Grealish is the only player we have that looks remotely comfortable with the ball at his feet. The rest? well the ball just seems to always bounce awkwardly or it’s poorly controlled. Our passing at times is abysmal and there are far too many wayward passes.
A plus for me is that McCormack didn’t take any corners, which left Adomah taking them. But they were mostly poor.
You really have to wonder what the players actually do in training.
For what it’s worth I’d have taken McCormack off and replaced him with Gestede and gone with a more direct style.
I’d have pulled Grealish off too, as while he looked okay, he just didn’t produce anything really.
I thought Richards did reasonably well considering he hasn’t played for a while and Chester did well.
There were too many players that weren’t good enough though and it’s hard to know why when they’re well rated.
I’ll be interested to read Bruce’s after-match comments, but I’ll bet he’ll be more than a little concerned, as Wolves don’t look a paticularly good side to me, yet they dominated massively. At home too.
It’s difficult to know what Bruce is going to be able to do about it, but watching that game today, I’ll bet he can’t wait for the transfer window.
It’s all totally disappointing. Again.