Another stoppage-time goal for Wolves meant that they earned a late point against Newcastle on Monday evening. This was the fifth time this season that Nuno Espirito Santo’s side have scored after the 90 minute mark this season, a league high.
On previous occasions, some goals have mattered, others not so much. Most recently, the winner in the 4-3 game against Leicester obviously mattered. The second against Bournemouth in December was less crucial, although it did kill the game completely.
Of the other two, one also came against Newcastle earlier in the campaign as Matt Doherty got the winner at St James’ Park. Last but by no means least was Adama Traore’s goal against West Ham at the London Stadium which gave the Black Country side all three points.
As we touched on in the preview, Wolves have struggled against Premier League sides in the lower echelons of the table. With time running out on Monday, it looked set to be much of the same. In this tactical analysis, we are going to compare Wolves’ performance against Newcastle to that when they faced Huddersfield and Crystal Palace. On paper, Wolves should have picked up nine points from those three games. In reality, they only picked up one.
Team news
There were no surprises from either Nuno or Rafa Benitez when it came to personnel. Positionally, the only real shock from the Newcastle manager was the Isaac Hayden was deployed slightly further forward than usual which meant that at times, Sean Longstaff acted as a single pivot in front of the back three.
Despite the similarity in formation, the average positions of the home and away side couldn’t be starker as you can see below.
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