“They’ll plan the game around us,” said Newcastle’s Eddie Howe when we spoke in the tunnel before last Saturday evening’s match at Molineux against Wolves. That comment struck a chord. It is rarely, if ever, that a manager acknowledges anything like that when assessing the opposition’s strategy.
And it is the clearest indication yet of Gary O’Neil’s methods in his early days at Wolves.It was O’Neil’s planning for the opposition that marked him as the stand-out contender, in an albeit limited field, when the Wolves post suddenly became available just days before the beginning of this season.
There is no right or wrong approach, but the two ideologies reflect the circumstances of their time. When Fosun turned to Nuno in 2017, the manager and his coaching staff had already worked together for five years. In the small Portuguese fishing town of Matosinhos, just north of Porto, where Nuno and his close confidante and neighbour Jorge Mendes lived, the pair discussed who would be signing for Wolves several weeks before the appointment was even made.
Crucially, he needed results to come quickly and the win at home to champions Manchester City was worth far more than three points. It ensured the “buy-in” necessary to take a squad of players on the journey he wants. There will be a different methodology for Sheffield United this afternoon and although the players’ roles are changing from game to game, there is now a clear understanding of those roles.
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