Wolves were never heading for the abyss — aka, the Championship — under Gary O’Neil because they had players befitting of the bottom three. They were never falling headfirst towards the Premier League’s relegation trapdoor because they were employing dodgy tactics or an unworkable formation.
Sure, they lack a centre-back, but in terms of midfielders, wing-backs and forwards, Wolves are at mid-table level on paper. They have three Brazilian players with 30 caps between them, four Portugal internationals and one of the Premier League’s form players in Matheus Cunha — whose goalscoring brilliance was being compared favourably with Arsenal great Dennis Bergkamp a couple of weeks ago.
Goals haven’t been an issue either; even before Sunday’s 3-0 win away to fellow strugglers Leicester City they were on track to score 53 times in the Premier League this season, more than they have ever managed in one campaign in the competition (their current trajectory is now to get 60, a total only ninth-placed West Ham United could match outside the division’s final top seven teams last season).
No, the reasons they were dropping like a stone towards a second tier they hadn’t been part of since 2018 were primarily a glaring lack of belief and a defence that has been about as robust as an arthritic blancmange.
Wolves were just crying out for a new voice. That was clear some weeks ago, but by the time O’Neil publicly admitted players weren’t standing where he was telling them to on set pieces (16 goals conceded from dead-ball situations this season), the game was up.
That the new voice belongs to Vitor Pereira is, yes, a surprise.
Pereira wasn’t among the top 25 candidates in bookmakers’ lists after O’Neil’s sacking. That they won at Leicester despite playing the same formation and in a similar fashion to previous games, though, isn’t a big surprise, although their domination to the extent that in the 87th minute, after their team briefly lost possession, the travelling Wolves’ fans started singing “We want our ball back” was definitely not foreseeable.
“It feels good,” Pereira said. “For a short time of work, what the team did in the game was a surprise for me. We showed the true spirit, the confidence and tactically I think we were intelligent.”
This was a victory that reflected badly on Wolves’ owners at Fosun Group and beleaguered chairman Jeff Shi. Many felt O’Neil should have been sacked after a 5-3 beating at Brentford in early October, or at the very least following a humiliating 4-0 reverse away to Everton, the second-lowest scorers in the league, two months later.
Instead, to dither and umm and ahh until they were almost half a season in might still come back to haunt Wolves come the final reckoning in May.
Pereira hasn’t had time to make sweeping changes since being appointed on Thursday, but he speaks with the confidence and authority that this indisciplined squad was badly in need of.
The fans, too, were ready to accept a new leader, evidenced by them singing his name within the first minute yesterday at the King Power Stadium. They needed hope, belief, something tangible to get their teeth into after months of malaise.
And as it transpires, Santi Bueno can give an accomplished performance at centre-back, Matt Doherty can play with discipline and positional sense as a third centre-back and, in a miracle of immaculate conception levels, Goncalo Guedes can give a dynamic, committed and creative display and put in a shift without the ball.
They just needed instructions from someone new.
“I told the players before the game: in the end, we need to be proud about what we did on the pitch and make our supporters proud,” Pereira added. “I studied the players, and in my opinion the quality we have here, we can get results and another (higher) position in the table. My job is to give them confidence and a tactical GPS to know what they need to do in each moment of the game.”
Pereira’s career history suggests this will either go very well or very badly and, while this was the most perfect of starts, Wolves shouldn’t get carried away just yet because the mitigation here is that Leicester played on Sunday like, well, Wolves have played for most of 2024-25.
They were edgy, devoid of confidence and made slapstick defensive errors in front of a quiet, then nervous, then angry home crowd who either booed their own players (James Justin) or sarcastically cheered when they completed basic tasks (goalkeeper Danny Ward).
Had it been the Wolves ’keeper gifting the opposition a goal, as has been the case numerous times this season, then the afternoon could have gone very differently. Instead, when Jamie Vardy was sent flying through on goal in the ninth minute, Jose Sa raced outside his area and blocked the bouncing ball with his chest, instead of accidentally with his hand. Ten minutes later, Wolves were in front and never looked back.
Had it been Wolves who were punished for allowing crosses or through balls to fizz about their 18-yard box, like they could have when Toti missed a cutback, the afternoon could have gone differently. Instead, it was Leicester who decided to let two fairly simple balls over the top from Nelson Semedo and Doherty through to goalscorers Guedes and Rodrigo Gomes respectively.
With the confidence that those variables going their way gave them, Wolves started knocking the ball around like prime Barcelona to giddy olés from the away end, who had the most fun they’ve had in ages, inquiring if there was a fire drill as home fans made an early exit.
Most of all they sang relentlessly about Shi, saying they don’t care about him because he doesn’t care about them. “All I care about is Wolves FC,” they echoed throughout the 90 minutes, reflecting a deep unhappiness at the direction the club has headed in the past three years.
Bigger tests are imminent for Pereira, but for the here and now, this felt like a significant step to those frustrated, unloved supporters getting their Wolves back — as it did for the players belatedly getting their mojo back.
Better late than never?
(Top photo: Naomi Baker/Getty Images)
