Gary O’Neil sacked by Wolves: Where did it go wrong for promising coach who lost his way and leaves club in relegation zone | Football News

Back in March, Gary O’Neill was lauded at Wolverhampton and beyond, entertaining two trips to Europe with Wolves eighth in the Premier League table with only Coventry City standing between them and a trip to Wembley.

Nine months on and O’Neill have won just three Premier League games since, losing in dramatic circumstances to Coventry twice in stoppage time, and they are in the relegation zone with fourteen points from their last 27 games.

The fans turned and the managers finally lost faith after a 2-1 defeat at Ipswich, which made it four in a row.Four points from safety, a change was needed.

The story of how it unfolded for O’Neill, a manager who could have fantasized about his next job, could have been England manager had last season gone differently, is both simple and complex , there were mitigating factors.

Wolves’ trajectory has changed in recent seasons, a club that appears to have signed a big deal and there will be some sympathy as a result. Indeed, O’Neill inherited the job only because his predecessor was so frustrated with the situation.

That trend continued in the summer when captain Max Kilman and star winger Pedro Neto were sold, with the club claiming they have committed £28m to new striker Jørgen Strand Larsen and a host of prospects they have yet to jettison.

But it’s a far cry from the days of Ruben Neves and Joao Moutinho, Diogo Jota and Raul Jimenez, top-seven finishes and European nights under Nuno Espirito Santo at Molineux.Wolves parted ways with him after the season ended in 13th place.

It was a team that knocked Liverpool and Manchester United out of the FA Cup in the same season, with Premier League wins over Tottenham, Chelsea and Arsenal as the newly promoted side before doing the double against Manchester City the following year, which helps explain why The excuse for the Wolves’ awkward schedule never really set in. Fans were used to troubling top teams, but the top eight games yielded one point Those same games yielded 11 for O’Neal just last season.

It’s that comparison between last season, where Neto started less than half the games, and this one that cursed O’Neill at the end.

The players were also to blame, of course.There have been a number of inexplicable mistakes this season, some of the most famous being made by the team’s most experienced players, including Jose Sa, Craig Dawson and Mario Lemina.

The sight of Lemina wrestling with his teammates and tackling assistant manager Sean Derry as he walked off the pitch at the London Stadium could be generously described as someone showing they care was the captain at the time before being later replaced.

Some of Wolves’ displays were comically chaotic. There was a 5-3 comeback at home to Bournemouth. All four of the goals they scored at Everton came from set pieces.

Wolves have had a particularly poor record in defending shots, conceding 16 goals in total this season. That’s seven more than any other team – in fact, no Premier League team has ever conceded more at this stage of the season.

Perhaps O’Neill will feel let down by the mistakes made by the players he trusted his power that undermined him.

Wolves looked very open from Arsenal’s first game, conceding 40 goals in 16 games, their worst start in the top flight for 60 years and more than anyone else.

It reflects a lack of quality, but also a misjudgment of O’Neill’s demands. This was his first pre-season as head coach, a chance to shape his vision on the pitch over the summer, to hone his ideas rather than just tinker and tinker.

That’s what he was talking about before hitting the ball. He talked about European ambitions. “The top six will be the top six and we will be in the group below that,” he said Sky Sports. “We want to fight as hard as we can to get to the top six.”

If that sounds fancy now, the problem was that this thinking fed into his tactics and team selection. This was his Wolves 2.0, and the pressure was on for a moment. He wanted to show off his advanced coaching skills always looked playful.

At Arsenal, he opted for a back four that had the relatively inexperienced Yerson Mosquera and Toti Gomes at the heart of it. Against Chelsea, Ryan Ait-Nouri was again used at left-back, but he seemed to be approached as a number 10, 6-2. getting out of position multiple times in the loss.

Ait-Nouri is a talent that even a full-back feels too limited for. Julen Lopetegui recognized his abilities but didn’t trust him in his defence. But Hugo Bueno was allowed to leave on loan, with Totti as the only left-footed alternative.

And yet, Totti was often needed at centre-back, one of three natural options there after Mosquera’s injury, and O’Neill even pushed Lemina into that role. It was all a symptom of a slightly muddled mindset, a squad formation that just seemed a little off.

There was optimism that Wolves could find value in the market, with sporting director Matt Hobbs seeing his position bolstered by some smart signings in 2023. The theory was that being less tied to Jorge Mendes allowed the club to be more prudent :

Lemina and Dawson were considered brilliant investments in the summer. Pedro Lima is also not ready to help much at the moment.

The same could be said of the decision to sign Sam Johnstone for £10m, ostensibly to replace Sai, only for the Portuguese to regain his place despite erratic performances and then lose it again.

The move was best summed up by the late window signing of another Brazilian midfielder, Andre, for up to £21m, an irresistible opportunity for the club to sign a quality young player with a strong chance of cashing in on the deal.

But O’Neill was already trying to meet Tommy Doyle’s demands for playing time in the middle and still wanted an experienced centre-half to anchor things at the back. Dara O’Shea was keen but Wolves weren’t paying what Ipswich paid.

That decision was financially defensible, even if it left O’Neill with a talented squad as long as Wolves could stay in the Premier League. But O’Neill’s subsequent struggles leave those recruitment calls looking misplaced.

When a sporting director’s strategy is called into question, when supporters chant for owner Fosun’s departure, it usually follows that the manager pays the price. What happens next will likely determine where the blame is ultimately apportioned.

Such is Wolves’ talent, with Matheus Cunha the most prominent example, there is every reason to believe that if they can get some fundamentals right at the back, they still have the attacking firepower to dismiss their rivals before the drop.

If not, and the next boss is equally unable to undo the mistakes, then Wolves are doomed. In any case, the fan enthusiasm for their return to the Premier League, ignited by Nuno and briefly revived by O’Neill, is already feeling premature.