Gary O’Neil describes Wolverhampton Wanderers’ performance in the 5-3 defeat at Brentford as ‘the worst’ that he has overseen as a head coach.
Wolverhampton Wanderers head coach Gary O’Neil has admitted that his side ‘have a lot to think about’ after their 5-3 defeat at Brentford on Saturday.
On the back of a testing run of fixtures that included games against Arsenal, Chelsea, Aston Villa and Liverpool, Wolves’ trip to the capital to face the Bees was regarded as an opportunity to register their first Premier League win of the season.
Instead, Wolves conceded within the first two minutes and let in five goals on a deflating afternoon for the travelling support.
Positives can be taken from how Wolves twice got back on level terms in the first half, but they were dominated at set-pieces and were fortunate to only ship the goals that they did.
As a result, Wolves remained rooted to the bottom of the standings, having also conceded 21 goals in their opening seven encounters.
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‘We conceded crazy, crazy goals”
Pressure is mounting O’Neil to keep his job at Molineux despite the fact that he penned a new four-year contract in the summer.
Rather than defend his players like he has done in recent weeks, the Englishman acknowledged that he was angry with the performance, describing it as the poorest that he has overseen in his managerial career.
Speaking to Match of the Day, O’Neil said: “It’s the furthest I’ve seen the group from what we wanted to look like. An unbelievably disappointing afternoon for us. Crazy, crazy goals we gave away. We were wide open.
“There’s a lot to think about and a lot to put right. We’ll get straight to work. Some players will be away [on international duty] but we need to find a way for the team to be better than this afternoon. Today was so loose. [We made] crazy decisions with and without the ball. It was a really poor performance.
“The responsibility is on me. Of course the players are going to make decisions, but I need to give them something that makes them make better decisions than they made today, make fewer mistakes than we made today. It’s the worst game I’ve been involved in as a coach.
“I’ll do the best I can with the group I have. The club do what they can do off the pitch. My responsibility is to find results. This league can be tough. There are no hiding places. We can do better than that.”
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It gets no easier for Wolves…
The international break has arguably come at the right time for Wolves, but they are left to dwell on sitting three points adrift of safety before their next outing.
That comes in two weeks time when they play host to champions Manchester City at Molineux, before they make the long trip to the South coast to face Brighton & Hove Albion in the following game.
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