‘O’Neil remains stuck in the widespread confusion he has created’

Wolves were once a predictable and effective team, built on a solid defensive foundation.

Our simple but devastating counter-attacking style allowed us to absorb pressure and threaten anyone on the break. The team’s success was rooted in simplicity, a principle Einstein famously called the “ultimate sophistication.”

Now, Wolves now seem bogged down in complexity. O’Neil, an ardent student of the game, has embraced intricate tactics and extreme attention to detail.

Upon bringing in Jack Wilson, a set-piece coach from Manchester City, in the summer O’Neil claimed: “I don’t meet too many people who go into as much detail on game plans as I do, but Jack is one of the closest.”

Yet our set-piece struggles persist. Brentford highlighted this. Ethan Pinnock drifted unmarked at the back post twice within a matter of minutes.

Bizarrely, we seem to opt against going man for man, instead choosing to direct our players to start deeper and run onto the ball to clear. Complexity.

Any opposition coach worth their salt can see that there is a clear window of opportunity in playing the ball directly into the space just out of reach of the onrushing defender. The result is a free header, so place your best aerial threat right there and voila. Wolves looked like conceding from just about every set piece against Brentford. Simplicity was the kryptonite to our complexity, and it’s becoming a theme.

Football in its finest form is a simple game. The wisest in our game know this, which incidentally make O’Neil’s comments about the similarities between himself and Wilson now look incredibly stark. Wilson finds himself out of a job. His extreme studiousness adjudged to have meddled with our clarity.

But O’Neil – his master and kin – remains; stuck in the epicentre of the widespread confusion he has created. Lost in game plans that exist only in the pixels of an iPad screen. Meanwhile, his players look on in search of their leader.

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