The Athletic’s Tim Spiers has labelled some comments made by Wolverhampton Wanderers’ manager Nuno Espirito Santo as ‘concerning’.
In their latest Premier League outing, the Old Gold travelled to Merseyside to take on Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool at Anfield (per BBC).
Nuno Santo’s side finished the game on the end of a 4-0 drubbing from the Reds as the Molineux side ‘rarely looked like ending their poor run‘ against Klopp’s outfit, as it was their eighth consecutive league defeat against them.
While Mohamed Salah had given the hosts the lead in the first half, it was second-half goals from Georginio Wijnaldum, Joel Matip and an own goal from Nelson Semedo that condemned Wolves to a thumping.
During the latest episode of The Athletic’s The Molineux View podcast, Spiers discussed some post-match comments from Nuno Santo which he found ‘concerning’.
He said: “I asked Nuno after the game if he could explain that second-half performance and he said he couldn’t.
“The only time I ever remember him not able to explain something was when Wolves lost away at Huddersfield in the first Premier League season, and they had this massive problem against the bottom teams – and he said he couldn’t explain it, and obviously, that was something that they did improve upon in time.
“I was quite alarmed to hear it. He did give a few explanations overall in his press conference, but to hear him say, ‘I can’t explain it. I can’t explain why the standards weren’t there,’ was concerning.
“There was a lot to be concerned about.”
TIF Thoughts on what Tim Spiers said about Nuno Espirito Santo’s post-match comments…
As can be seen in what the reporter had to say, he found it ‘concerning’ that Nuno Santo could not explain why Wolves were below-par in the second half against Liverpool.
Are you concerned that Nuno Espirito Santo did not know why Wolves were so poor in the second half against Liverpool?
No, we will be fine
Yes, it is an issue
Certainly, from the Old Gold, it was a poor performance right across the field, as not a single Wolves player earned a better match rating than any Liverpool player which started the match (per WhoScored).
Furthermore, the Reds had far more possession than Wolves as they enjoyed 61% of the ball and Liverpool also made far more passes with 652 in total compared to the away side’s 426.
So, perhaps it was just a case of the Old Gold being outclassed on the day, but it does indeed seem ‘concerning’ that Nuno Santo had no answers for the poor performance.