Wolves need a clean sweep following a missed opportunity of a season

Wolves are likely to finish the Premier League season in the top ten, but there remains a feeling that 2021/22 has been a missed opportunity.

It’s peculiar that this should have turned into such a deflating end of the season for Wolves. Promoted back into the Premier League in 2018 for the first time in six years, they finished 7th in their first two seasons. After the downturn of last campaign, this has seen them back in the top half of the Premier League with an increased points tally and games to spare.

But there remains a feeling of disappointment in the Black Country; they certainly seem to be ending this season on a downward trajectory. They’ve taken a single point from their last five games and, although no-one was particularly surprised by Manchester City going to Molineux and winning 5-1 when they’re chasing the Premier League title, there is a sense that this season will be remembered as something of a missed opportunity for Wolves.

It is striking that their best performance of the last few weeks, coming back effectively from two goals behind to rescue a point from their previous game at Chelsea, came while head coach Bruno Lage was stuck in a hotel room. The manager has reportedly been the subject of unhappiness in the Wolves dressing room on account of plans to change the team’s playing style.

The last 20 mins are what the ideals of Lage-ball are. Quick, pass & move football with a Chiquinho-Trincão-Hwang-Jiménez front 4. 4-2-3-1 was also the system he favoured at Benfica. He’s not fully imposed that style with 3-4-3/3-5-2.Lage needs CBs to play a back 4 in the summer.

— Premier League Panel (@PremLeaguePanel) May 7, 2022

Arguably the defining fixture of his first season in charge has been a severe reticence