Wolves succumbed to the force of a heavily motivated Liverpool side and crashed out of the FA Cup in the 5th Round, suffering a 3-1 defeat in a scoreline that arguably flattered the performance.
Good: The defence the first half
With a change in mindset from the midweek defeat, the visitors made it clear from the start that they were going to peg Wolves back and control the game. Although there weren’t many clear cut chances, Wolves stayed resilient and defended well as a unit. Yet, this meant that Wolves progressively dropped deeper and deeper, and there were very little opportunities to hit Liverpool on the counter attack.
Good: We scored??
Well, Hwang came back with a bang and scored a consolation goal. A good first touch set him up perfectly for a neat finish. It’s something, I guess? Although I suppose this means that he’ll force his way back into the starting XI and we’ll be faced with torture for the rest of the season.
Bad: The terrible defending in the second half
The resilience that I spoke about in the first half seemed to disappear at the 50th minute mark. Mistakes started to creep in, and the effort and desire to get back slowly evaporated. The first goal was a beautiful strike from Robertson, but ultimately stemmed from Tchatchoua giving the ball away in Liverpool’s half.
On a side note, once again, Tchatchoua had another game of two halves. He looked confident, taking people on in the first half, yet regressed back to his former self in the second half. What a weird player he is.
Anyway, the second goal killed the game, coming so soon after the first. A lengthy VAR check added to the annoyance within the stadium. A lack of pressing stemming from sitting too deep allowed Liverpool the time and space to create such an easy finish for Mohammed Salah.
There wasn’t much we could do about the third goal, again, another great finish, this time from Curtis Jones.
What’s most concerning is how poor we looked without Andre in midfield, thus having a knock on effect to the rest of the side. The lack of control that none of our other midfielders can replicate meant that we gave the ball away too often near our own penalty area. It doesn’t bode well for when we eventually lose him next season.
Bad: Our season is over
Survival in the Premier League is still incredibly unlikely, and now our chance at winning silverware has disappeared. Oh well.
