Wolverhampton Wanderers’ latest loss, this time to Ipswich Town, could be hugely damaging for the club’s survival bid. It certainly was for Gary O’Neil, who was sacked on Sunday morning.
Ill-temper at Molineux may also sound the death knell for Wolves’ players in our Fantasy Premier League (FPL) teams.
- READ MORE: FPL Gameweek 16 round-up: Saturday’s goals, assists, bonus points + stats
- READ MORE: FPL notes: Robinson in demand, Jota returns + Robertson red card
AIT-NOURI BANNED…
Rayan Ait-Nouri (£4.9m) managed to find a way to get banned and stay on the suspension tightrope on Saturday.
Two bookable offences, the last of them after the full-time whistle, resulted in a red card. It’ll mean he misses out on the trip to Leicester City, pretty much the last favourable Wolves fixture for a long, long time:
Neither of the bookings counted towards his season’s tally, either – so when he returns from suspension in Gameweek 18, he’ll still be on four yellow cards. Another caution before Gameweek 20 and he’ll have to serve a further one-match ban.
…AND CUNHA MAY FOLLOW
Ait-Nouri’s second booking came from a post-match meltdown, a week after Mario Lemina (£5.0m) similarly lost his cool.
“The lads need to find a way to keep more control. I know they’re under big pressure and big stress at this moment but making it more difficult for ourselves is unacceptable at this moment in time. So, we’ll deal with Rayan internally but he’ll know already without me speaking to him how I feel about it.” – Gary O’Neil
Escaping punishment from the referee, but potentially now in line for some from the Football Association (FA), was Matheus Cunha (£7.1m).
The talismanic Brazilian similarly blew a gasket, appearing to hit an Ipswich staff member before bizarrely grabbing the glasses from his face.
As someone who wears glasses, Matheus Cunha deserves a 10-game ban for this. pic.twitter.com/XgUNtQO2Ke
— Bradley Cates (@Bradley_Cates_) December 14, 2024
We’ll await to see if the FA deems his behaviour worthy of a ban; it could be that both Wolves players with double-digit FPL ownerships are red-flagged through suspension in Gameweek 17.
Ait-Nouri’s owners certainly aren’t hanging around:
WOLVES’ WEAKNESSES EXPOSED AGAIN
This match could have gone any one of three ways, with wide-open defending and sloppy shooting at either end.
Cunha and Jorgen Strand Larsen (£5.7m) had 10 attempts between them, with a double chance for Cunha and three of his strike partner’s efforts (one of which would have resulted in an assist for Ait-Nouri) all eminently scorable. Jeanricner Bellegarde (£5.0m) also blazed a glorious opportunity over.
Cunha did find the net for the eighth time this season. He’s played a part in 45.8% of Wolves’ goals in 2024/25; any absence would be keenly felt.
But familiar failings at the back are being exposed time and time again.
Set-piece goal concessions are too frequent. Jack Taylor‘s (£4.8m) winner was the 10th set-play goal they’ve conceded this season. No side has allowed more.
Wolves have also conceded more penalties than anyone else, although at least they didn’t do that on Saturday.
Physicality seems to be an issue, not just at dead-ball situations. Liam Delap (£5.6m) bullied the Wolves backline for the opener, which ended up being a comical own-goal from Matt Doherty (£4.3m).
Some alarming, Parkerian quotes from Gary O’Neil after the game sounded like a man chucking the towel in and waiting for the sack – something that came not much more than 12 hours later.
“We played in a way that gave us big opportunities, gave us good momentum but we have to spend most of the game one-nil down because we can’t cope with a centre-half booting the ball down the pitch to Liam Delap and him scoring a goal that you would see in an under-18 game. I’ve seen him score them in under-18 games where he’s bigger and stronger than everyone and he bashes people out the way and he runs through. Can’t happen at Premier League level. We can’t be capable of conceding goals of that nature if we’re going to be successful at this level.
“And then the second goal is two players just standing completely the wrong place for the corner and, well as far as I’m concerned, for no reason. Whether that’s because of the stress they’re under and they’re not able to make good decisions in difficult moments but whatever it is, when there are basics like that, it’s very, very hard to win football matches.” – Gary O’Neil
DELAP BELATEDLY BANNED
Delap should have banked an assist for that own-goal when Omari Hutchinson (£5.2m) missed the initial chance. The striker also missed a glorious opportunity to make it 2-0 but could only knee a cross over from six yards.
A fifth straight blank but a decent overall showing.
He’ll be banned in Gameweek 17, however. We got belated confirmation that Delap was booked in the tunnel after the game – something that wasn’t picked up on inititially. That was his fifth caution of 2024/25.
On budget defender watch, Cameron Burgess (£4.0m) was solid yet again – so Jacob Greaves’ (£4.0m) short-term minutes prospects aren’t great. There is a three-game week coming up, however, so perhaps Greaves gets one of those.
