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After last season, Wolves looked dead and buried an already thin squad, that was picked off even more in the summer by Saudi Clubs and a team in clear decline. That was until Bournemouth surprisingly sacked Gary O’Neil at the end of the season leading to Wolves hiring the Englishman.
This has been a stroke of genius as with this small squad he has worked wonders. Currently having his side sitting in 9th place and playing some lovely football. O’Neil has achieved this through a few key ideas. First, he wants to be very proactive with the ball, always aiming to move the ball forward over maintaining possession. Second, he wants his team to be compact and strong defensively giving them a strong platform to attack from. Finally utilizes the pace and dribbling abilities of his players to progress the ball up field and dominate teams on the counter.
This is done a few ways, but the main way O’Neil looks to do this is through a hybrid formation. His team will set in a 3-4-2-1/3-4-3 at most times but when he is in possession it changes to a 4-4-2. With the LWB Ait-Nouri pushing up to act as a LM, LCB Toti Gomes moving higher and wider to be a LB, RWB Semedo dropping a little deeper to become an RB, and finally, RAM Sanarbia or Neto will drift wider on the right to become a RM.
This allows the team to have more bodies forward and they will then usually look to move it out wide to either Ait-Nouri or Sanarbia/Neto where they can then both carry the ball forward before driving down the line and cross or cut inside to dribble or find a pass. On the left Ait-Nouri likes to run down the line while on the right Sanarbia/Neto tends to cut inside and dribble. As well as looking to combine with Cunha or Hwang. Though Hwang tends to stay much higher and not do much in possession. Mainly offers himself as the run-in behind or makes a late movement in the box so he can get on the end of a cross.
This is where the team can also look different if Neto/Sanabria cut inside as Semedo will then go forward and overlap offering the width that is lost and the team will then look more like a 3-1-3-3. This is because the LCM Lemina will usually come forward as well while Joao Gomes prefers to sit and defend.
Finally, when it comes to defending Wolves look to do 1 of 2 things. If they are playing a stronger side, they will sit off in a mid to low block looking to defend in their own third, pulling the opposition onto them and creating loads of space in the opposition half where players can run and dribble into once they win the ball. If they are playing a weaker side Wolves will look to press high up the pitch and force long ball out from the back. This is due to the ariel dominance their back three has, especially Dawson. This also helps as both Lemina and Gomes will push up to press so knowing the back three can win it in the air is key.
Wolves have been amazing under O’Neil and will continue to be a surprise package this year as they look to play deadly counter-attacking football and change small things each game to better deal with opposition presses and buildouts.
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All video clips collected from WyScout: https://platform.wyscout.com
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