Eberechi Eze and Odsonne Edouard show, shame the pair play for Crystal Palace and not Wolves. More possession than our opponents but that doesn’t equate to the 3 points. Wolves struggled to contain the hyperactive Eze and paid the price as Wolves defence was too sluggish and the team made far too many mistakes, being dispossessed and countered on numerous occasions and struggling to create or get in any dangerous positions despite the two goals.
Jose Sa – 5.5
Made some good low saves to deny Palace from adding any further goals and came out to collect the ball when crossed in the Wolves box but ultimately conceded 3 goals and gifted Palace the chance to go 1 nil up in the 15th minute of the game. His distribution also wasn’t great within the game as he often booted the ball up for a quick counter but routinely handed the ball back to Crystal Palace.
Nelson Semedo – 5
Picked up a booking early in the first half that obviously hindered and held him back. Some decent passes and link up but that’s about it, didn’t offer anything on either front and should have done much better in the defensive front, left far too much space for Mitchell to cross for the first goal.
Craig Dawson – 5
Did not look too comfortable at all during the duration of the game, Eze, Edouard and co danced around the defence with ease while the Wolves defence looked on hopelessly for the three goals. Not a game to remember for him, also launched the ball long on too many occasions and the Wolves attackers didn’t manage to make anything off of that.
Max Kilman – 5
Copy and paste of Craig Dawson too slow, sluggish and at fault for the goals, The first goal saw the ball travel across the box and Edouard free himself in between him and Dawson to poke home at the near post from close range. The only thing to differentiate his performance from that of Dawsons was the goal-line clearance in the first half.
Rayan Ait-nouri – 5.5
Not good enough but the best pick out of a bad bunch in that back four today, made some mistakes himself, one of note in the second half when his indecision led to Edouard finding himself in front of Jose Sà but the shot-stopper dived low to deny the Palace striker. Also picked up a yellow card early on and was taken off for the final ten minutes but pushed forward compared to Semedo.
Mario Lemina – 6
Had a good first half often breaking up Palaces’ play and regaining possession for Wolves. Didn’t repeat himself in the second half and was caught out watching for at least one of the three goals. His first-half performance was probably one of the reasons why the first half ended goalless and that’s why he gets a pass on his rating.
Joao Gomes – 4.5
Wasn’t his day didn’t see what he offered in his previous outings in old gold. Got lucky in the first half as a penalty could have been given for his contact with Eze in the box. Held the ball for too long on various occasions and was wasteful in front of the Palace box, leading them to counter us and put us in difficulty, this also led to him being added to the referee’s book.
Pedro Neto – 7
Our only spark in that game, the man creating the chances and the only player offering something going forward, not surprised the ball was played so often down his flank. Shame he didn’t get on the score sheet as Johnstone denied him well on one occasion. No goals for him in this game but he can be happy with his performance as he assisted both of Wolves goals.
Pablo Sarabia – 4.5
Did he play today? After a convincing outing on Tuesday against League One opposition Blackpool in the League Cup Sarabia did not repeat himself. The Spaniard produced nothing of note, this led to his substitution which could have possibly taken place earlier to allow Hwang more time to impact the game.
Matheus Cunha – 6
Freed himself and burst up the pitch on various occasions during the match but nothing was made from that. Miss placed some passes and wasn’t served with frequency; he ended up getting a consolation goal in the dying seconds of added time to open his account for this season, and hopefully more to come.
Fabio Silva – 5
Not much of note to report for Fabio, no clear-cut chances, wasn’t served very often and we didn’t play to his strengths, just long and high balls that were hard for him to control. Could argue that he could have been kept on instead of being substituted for Boubacar Traore as we ended up shaping more defensively by taking a man up top and adding another to a midfield that would then possess three midfielders with similar profiles.
Substitutes
Hwang Hee-Chan 60′ (Pablo Sarabia) – 7
One of Wolves’ most in-form players at the moment and also one of the only ones who seems to know where the back of the net is. Grabbed the equalizer and gave us a glimmer of hope only for it to be torn down by our lack of defence. He showed a combative spirit as you would expect from someone that comes off the bench, the substitution could have been made earlier in my opinion.
Boubacar Traore 74′ (Fabio Silva) – 5
I am afraid to say Gray O’neil got this substitution wrong As already stated before, it unbalanced the team, A like-for-like substitution with Joao Gomes might have been a better option as we would have kept our shape and taken a player with a booking off and had fresh legs. It’s useless saying that now, Traore failed to impact the game.
Sasa Kalajdzic 81′ (Joao Gomes) – N.A.
Hugo Bueno 81′ (Rayan Ait-Nouri) – N.A.