Shrewsbury 2 Wolves 0 – Five talking points
Wolves lost their second game in five days when going down 2-0 to Shrewsbury Town.
Goals from Alex Rodman and Carlton Morris gave the League One side a comfortable half time lead and Wolves rarely looked like avoiding defeat.
They struggled to create goalscoring chances and the game petered out as 2,900 travelling fans went home disappointed.
So what did we learn from the game? Wolves correspondent Tim Spiers picks out five talking points.
Toothless
Two games and no goals from a Wolves team that's created very few clear-cut opportunities in 180 minutes.
Yes it's pre-season – and that caveat can be added to every sentence in this article – but the lack of cohesion and creativity in the final third is a slight concern at this point.
In fairness Wolves are currently deprived of Helder Costa and Ben Marshall, two of their most visionary players, while Jordan Graham wasn't deemed fit enough to take part here despite being named on the bench.
And the impending signing of Atletico Madrid winger Diogo Jota should certainly help in this department.
But Wolves were easily beaten here and the dearth of imagination going forward was a big reason behind that.
Bright Bright
One of the few positives to come out of the game was a lively second half cameo from Bright Enobakhare who gave his best performance of pre-season so far.
After getting constantly yelled at by Nuno for playing too wide against Jablonec on Tuesday the young Nigerian was in a more central role this time and saw plenty of the ball, feeding Michal Zyro for Wolves' best chance of the game with a delightful through pass.
Elsewhere Connor Ronan had a couple of decent moments, Jack Price enjoyed a productive second half and new loan signing Ruben Vinagre displayed pace and technique down the left flank.
As for the rest, plenty of endeavour but not enough quality on the day.
Out-fought
Shrewsbury's physical approach, particularly in the first half, disrupted Wolves (as it had Villa on the same ground a week earlier) The League One side were over-zealous on numerous occasions, including with a very strong tackle from Jon Nolan which prematurely ended Ruben Neves' involvement.
As Ryan Bennett commented afterwards, some of the 'over the top challenges wouldn't have been allowed in the league'.
However this was absolutely no excuse (and Bennett certainly wasn't making any). Especially as only Neves, Vinagre, Roderick Miranda and Willy Boly of the 22 Wolves players on show haven't experienced British football before.
In fact this may have been just the game – and the wake-up call – Wolves needed. Stern, physical opponents with far more quality than Shrewsbury will be facing Wolves over the course of the next nine months...it's just part and parcel of Championship life.
Expect an improvement on this front at Peterborough on Tuesday.
Fatigued?
Another reason behind the lacklustre performance could be fatigue.
It's been a full-on first few weeks under Nuno including daily double training sessions and barely any time off. Indeed, the players were training late on Friday afternoon and then again on Saturday morning before the match in the afternoon.
They're back in today, too. Plus they've played four games in 11 days.
Perhaps it shouldn't be an excuse in July, but some of the players looked on autopilot here and if they're already drained it may be time for a change of tack.
Countdown is on
All of which makes preparations over the next couple of weeks absolutely vital if Wolves are to hit the ground running on August 5.
A flying start to the season is a very big ask for a new head coach utilising a new formation and a new playing style with a host of new signings to bed in.
There will be plenty of bumps in the road and it's better to get one out of the way now in a meaningless pre-season friendly.
But if Wolves have aspirations of a top-two finish this season they could do without, if possible, a slow start when the real action kicks off. After all, the best two teams in the division last season scored 94 and 93 points.
Pre-season has been a mixed bag so far but victories against Peterborough on Tuesday and Leicester on Saturday would do confidence the world of good ahead of that fast-approaching curtain raiser against Middlesbrough.
