Five talking points from Wolves 0 Barnsley 4

It was a collapse of disastrous proportions as Walter Zenga's team conceded three goals in the final seven minutes in front of their stunned - and angry - supporters.

But what went so wrong for Zenga and his team? And where do they go from here?

Wolves correspondent Tim Spiers picks out five talking points from a humbling defeat.

There's no other way to describe it. After going 1-0 behind on 73 minutes Wolves folded like a pack of cards.

Barnsley ran riot, waltzing their way through the Wolves defence like an ambulance veering through cars obliging to get out of the way at a traffic lights. The full time whistle was a relief - another 10 minutes and it could have been 6-0 or 7-0.

The boos and anger at full time were more than understandable. After all, this was Wolves' biggest home defeat at this level for nine years.

And there is no glossing over the fact that Barnsley had 26 shots to Wolves' 17 (Burton also out-shot Wolves, by 18 to 13).

In those closing minutes, Wolves surrendered. And their soft underbelly was ruthlessly and clinically exposed.

It was alarming for all concerned and Walter Zenga was predictably furious with his players.

He has just a few days to rouse and rally his troops for their next game - the small matter of a trip to Newcastle United, who last night beat QPR by six goals to nil. It's safe to say the honeymoon period is officially over for Wolves' new boss.

Barnsley were deeply impressive, not just in those final 15 minutes but throughout the match.

They look like a team who may pull up a few trees this season. And the pertinent word in that sentence is 'team'.

Paul Heckingbottom has been in post since February and overseen the majority of an astonishing 2016 in which the Tykes were transformed from League One relegation candidates to promotion (and EFL Trophy) winners.

They're a team full of confidence. The players knew their roles, their tactics and their team mates.

By comparison Wolves are still 11 individuals. Or 23 individuals to be precise (not counting the unavailable Evans, Dicko, Graham, Zyro and Williamson).

Aside from the lacklustre defending, Wolves struggled throughout the game to create any sustained pressure or momentum. Passes went astray, players didn't know where their team mates would be running too...they lacked cohesion and telepathy all over the park.

With so many new players, plus a new head coach at the helm, this isn't a surprise. Eight of the 12 signings have never played in England before. Nine have never played in the Championship.

That's a lot of 'unknowns' - and by the law of average not all of them will be a success.

What was surprising last night though was the lack of effort, of fight, of determination, particularly from the midfield, in the laying down of arms in those last 15 minutes.

No one played to their potential and some had nights they will want to forget.

Mistakes, there were a few, both by Zenga and his players.

It's not realistic to make 12 changes in two games (seven on Saturday, five on Tuesday) and expect to stumble on an instant winning formula.

Zenga knows that, but his argument is that he has no other way of moulding a first XI. You can only find out so much about players in training, the Italian has stated. He must take chances on players, on formations, on tactics. But he must do so in the relentless and unforgiving helter skelter ride of the Championship...seven games in 21 days and all that.

Let's not forget, he's learning too. Zenga has never managed in English football before, he's discovering a new country, a new league, a new club. And he's doing so without having had a pre-season.

It's a huge task - one that any manager would struggle with - to put it altogether in a season, let alone a few weeks.

But a couple of things he unquestionably got wrong last night - 1) going so attacking with the score at 0-1. A midfield four of Costa, Oniangue, Teixeira and Cavaleiro - attack-minded players all - was never going to offer protection to the back four.

Even for the first goal you had Teixeira and Oniangue offering no challenges whatsoever as Kent played the ball inside. The same two players stood and watched as Adam Hammill scythed into the box (beating Stearman all ends up) for the second.

And 2) publicly accusing his players of giving up, of not trying, is a risky and dangerous tactic.

With squad rotation and plenty of new faces there's already a high probability of certain players becoming alienated and demotivated. To tell the media that they gave up is a serious accusation to level at any professional footballer.

It may be the jolt they need. But it may lead to disunity. Time will tell.

No one ever said this would be easy. It was only two months ago that Kenny Jackett, Jez Moxey and Steve Morgan were still at the club. And the squad was looking desperately thin and short of quality.

So much has changed in such a short space of time - and patience is required as Zenga and his players work towards being a cohesive, coherent, consistent football team.

If we're talking about protection in front of the back four then Romain Saiss has been signed for £3m to offer exactly that.

When he and others are up to speed - and that may be some weeks or months off yet - then Wolves can properly be judged.

Passion, desire and team spirit got Wolves through those first few games in which barely any of the new signings played.

The 3-1 victory at Birmingham saw just one - Jon Dadi Bodvarsson - start the game.

It's in the last two games that Zenga has introduced more of his new players - and coincidentally or not the last two games have produced Wolves' two worst performances of the season so far.

As a starting point, instead of five, six or seven changes every game, he must work out which players he can trust and rely on and form a solid and dependable spine to his team.

They need time to gel, of that there is no doubt. And the only way Zenga finds his best XI is by experimenting.

Whether Jeff Shi and Fosun are willing to offer that patience is another question altogether.

This was only Wolves' seventh Championship game of 2016/17. Seven down, 39 to go.

If they'd won last night they would have been in a play-off position and everything would have looked rosy.

Heck, if Bodvarsson had arrowed his shot into the top corner instead of inches over the bar on 66 minutes (from Teixeira's sublime pass), we would probably have been talking about a very different result.

The likes of Villa and Derby - pre-season promotion favourites - are below Wolves in the table. It's very early days and there's no need to panic.

Wolves will travel to St James' Park with low expectations - and after two home games that they were expected to win, that's no bad thing.

It's going to take time to make it work, but the tools are all there for Zenga to do his job.

How quickly he moulds his huge squad into a organised, solid and functioning unit will define whether Wolves' season is a success or a failure.

There certainly can't be many more nights like this, though. As Zenga said himself, it was unacceptable.