Wolves sack Vitor Pereira: recruitment mistakes and bad team selection – how it went wrong for the Portuguese manager | Soccer News

Vitor Pereira’s last appearance on the pitch as Wolves manager was a terrible one. Brazil midfielders Andre and Joao Gomez were applauded in the morning as the away supporters at Craven Cottage chanted for him to be sacked.

The pair were a little separated from the rest of the team, having been on the bench in the 3-0 defeat against Fulham. It was the latest decision to leave fans perplexed and symbolized the collapse of Wolves’ rock-bottom situation under Pereira.

Molineux’s problems are arguably deeper than Pereira’s, as he has two points from 10 Premier League games and is likely to be relegated after eight seasons in the top division. This is a club that has been adrift for too long.

This will be the fourth consecutive season that the Timberwolves end the calendar year with a different head coach than the one who led the team in the preseason. This is the second consecutive season in which they have not won a single game in their opening 10 games.

Other clubs may be able to deal with such upheaval and present comprehensive strategies that go beyond the manager. It’s hard to make that case for Wolves, especially considering Pereira has become central to their plans following the departure of sporting director Matt Hobbs.

The appointment of Domenico Teti as director of football, a man Pereira knew from their days together in Saudi Arabia’s Al-Shabaab, signaled an increased level of control. The failed reshuffle, which came just 45 days after Pereira secured a new three-year contract, reflected badly on chairman Jeff See.

The Fosun-appointed chief has been the focus of many fans’ anger over grand plans for the stadium and talk of an unforgettable top-four finish at Molineux, despite momentum being lost as the club’s Chinese owners scaled back their ambitions.

But Pereira made matters worse, leaving the club in an even worse predicament than before. Even when they fell to the bottom of the table at Christmas following Bruno Large’s departure and were in turmoil last year under Gary O’Neill, Wolves had the quality to overcome them.

Not so much now. The form of the promoted team is not the only reason there is little reason to believe. Wolves’ reinforcements had a bad reputation both in and out of the game at the time, and it looks like it’s gotten even worse now. There is no such thing as unqualified success.

Ladislav Krejci, signed from Girona, was selected despite an uncertain performance against Burnley. However, the transfer fee for the player, which could rise to £26 million, has raised eyebrows, meaning that even the deal is unlikely to be wise business for the club.

John Arias, a 27-year-old Colombian who moved to Europe for the first time, and Fer López, a promising young Spaniard who started seven games in La Liga for Celta Vigo, both took the gamble for different reasons. Neither has scored or shined for the Wolves so far.

New wing-backs David Moller-Wolf from AZ Alkmaar and Jaxson Ciacchua from Hellas Verona have been out of the squad more than they have been in, with neither of them making the team at Fulham. Tolu Alokodare, signed from Genk for £22.5 million, is a substitute for Jorgen Strand Larsen.

A total of nine senior players were added during Pereira’s reign, worth around £150m. However, Wolves look much weaker following the departures of Matheus Cunha and Rayan Ait Nouri, while the loss of Nelson Semedo is being felt on and off the field.

Strangely, Wolves have started each of their last four Premier League games with a different captain. This is an example of uncertainty. Still, Pereira was the man who changed the club’s fortunes and brought clarity to the club last season.

After winning six straight games in the spring, he was named Premier League manager of the season. But the Portuguese’s reputation as a combustible rather than a stay-on-course character proved justified. When the Wolves started struggling, so did he.

Pereira insisted he had never been in such a situation before, which is a fair point for a manager who has won titles in three countries and is used to life in the top end. However, his response to events revealed his immaturity.

In reality, he was floundering, switching from idea to idea, desperately searching for a solution. Even before the weekend, he had made 29 changes to his Premier League line-up, the most of any team in the competition, but there was more to it than that.

“When we planned the team, we planned to play with three defenders,” he said flatly in early September, just after the window closed. Eleven days later, in the Carabao Cup at home to Everton, he started in the back four for the first time since his appointment.

Pereira continued in this match for at least 45 minutes during the trip to Tottenham, as Wolves won that match. From then on, the anxiety continued. By mid-October, Pereira seemed to have come to the conclusion that the team did not fit his new tactics.

“At the moment we have a lot of players who are suitable to play in a 3-4-3, but we lack wingers. We are now trying to find a solution to add wingers in the team.” This was an interesting confession, given his level of involvement in the construction.

He never found a solution, and his final choice was to blame the coach and some of the players who had lost their way. Perhaps the only image more instructive than the scene at Craven Cottage was the one following last week’s home defeat to Burnley.

Pereira’s predecessor, O’Neill, was sacked after Ipswich’s late win at Molineux in December. In the dying moments of that match, Ait Nouri was sent off and Cunha was involved in a scuffle with an Ipswich staff member, grabbing his glasses.

The ugly incident, which began shortly before then when then-captain Mario Lemina got into an altercation with Wolves’ own coaching staff on the pitch at West Ham, further fueled suspicions that O’Neill was a coach who had lost control of his players.

Almost a year later, after Burnley became the latest promoted side to score a late winner against Molineux, players tried to stop the manager from harassing the club’s supporters. As it turned out, there was no going back.

There was no doubt about Pereira’s passion. It was a trait that, along with his mantra of “first points, then pints,” helped him develop a sense of kinship with fellow fans. But when the victories stopped, the desire for him dried up. he had to go. But the Molineux problem remains.