Why O’Neil should be credited greatly for changing the Wolves…

On the eve of the new season, Gary O’Neill knew there was one aspect of the Wolverhampton Wanderers team that needed improvement more than any other.

 

Ever since their promotion in 2018, Wolves have been among the lowest scorers in the Premier League for the majority of that time. Although Nuno Espirito Santo’s disastrous tenure at Tottenham Hotspur somewhat overshadowed the back-to-back seventh-place finishes he masterminded at Molineux, they still managed to achieve great things under his leadership, including runs to the FA Cup semifinals and the Europa League quarterfinals.

In their first Premier League season under Nuno, Wolves scored 47 goals, the 13th-best record of all 20 teams. In 2019/20, they improved to rank joint-eighth, but it has been continually downhill from there: 16th in 2020/21, 17th in 2021/22 under Bruno Lage, and 20th in 2022/23 under Lage and Julen Lopetegui.

Based on their attacking output alone, the Wolves were fortunate to stay up last season. Crystal Palace in 2019/20 are the only other team in the last five years to have survived with a tally of 31 or fewer goals. In that time, 10 sides have been relegated with superior goal returns to Wolves’ last time out.

O’Neil also did not exactly enter the club under fortunate circumstances. Days before Wolves’ season opener against Manchester United, he arrived following Julen Lopetegui’s decision to leave. It’s also reasonable to argue that the Black Country’s pulses were not exactly racing at his appointment.

They may have left it late to beat Tottenham, as strikes from Pablo Sarabia and Mario Lemina turned a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 lead in second-half injury time, but the scoreline was ultimately a fair reflection of the game.

After conceding early, Wolves fought their way back into the game by playing on the front foot, pressing Spurs high up the pitch, and creating chances from turnovers. They outshot Ange Postecoglou’s side 17-6 and really ought to have restored parity long before Sarabia’s sensational late leveller.

Even so, Wolves’ front line is still far from being the most formidable in the Premier League, despite encouraging signs of improvement in the first 12 rounds of play. Pedro Neto has been one of the league’s most impressive attacking players, but Wolves proved this past weekend that he is by no means a one-man show.