Wolves Fans' Verdict v Fulham: A match too far for Vitor Pereira

Belatedly, after the same misguided vacillation that the executive displayed last season, the inevitable action has finally been taken. 

Vitor couldn’t survive this fiasco and frankly his departure is best for all concerned. 

Sliced open with alarming ease for Fulham’s opener and the damage complete after the red card, Wolves it has to be said were simply awful. Another erratic selection for the starting XI merely intensified the hapless lack of cohesion that has bedevilled the season. 

Aimless long passes, no creative spark and a defensive vulnerability culminating in an embarrassing own goal that summed up our disintegration. 

Fulham, themselves enduring an uncertain period, barely had to exert themselves to stroll home uncontested and that is a shocking indictment on this failing Wolves outfit. And indeed, it could have been worse; Fulham were denied a fourth by the woodwork and Sam Johnstone made a few decent saves although he won’t have been pleased by his uncertainty for that awful first goal. 

This was reaching the stage when frustration and anger was being replaced by sadness and resignation. The bizarrely ambiguous option taken by Joao Gomes with a late free-kick acted as a fitting finale to the concluding embers of a malfunctioning regime. 

Dysfunctional and fractured the whole project, if ever one existed, totally flawed. Whether any significant improvement is imminent remains to be seen. Right now, hope is fast diminishing.

Harry Lee

How many times have we seen in the past a manager making so many strange team selections when struggling? In recent Wolves past we had Bruno Lage putting Ruben Neves into the centre of defence, Gary O'Neil consistently dropping Andre, and now Vitor Pereira somehow not selecting that same player Andre and Joao Gomes in midfield, despite having no other recognised out and out centre midfielders in the whole squad.  

It was definitely more stupidity than bravery, and ultimately the final nail in the coffin for the manager.  And rightfully so, there is no doubt that the whole leadership group from Fosun to Jeff Shi have been putting this football club into decline with their lack of investment at the right time and terrible recruitment, but Pereira had been failing this team for a long time now, no solutions, only excuses.  

The game away at Fulham summed up the season well, generally struggling to string more than five passes together, a lack of leadership and voices on the pitches leading to calamitous errors and no obvious plan to break down a poor side in bad form. How could Pereira possibly think changing the system and players on the pitch every week would bring about a cohesive side that understand what they are doing? In no way have we allowed partnerships to flourish.  

Jeff made it clear that he sacked Gary O'Neil too late, who, quite incredibly we are apparently interested in bringing back... So why wait so long this season?  

To attempt to save face for the awful decision making, the new contract and allowing Pereira to bring in his mass of staff including Teti.  

The incoming manager has an impossible job on his hands, realistically we need a miracle to stay up. A 'top' championship manager may just be the way to go about this as a team rebuild is going to be required in the summer.

Clive Smith

Welcome Wolves fans. Enjoy your visit to Craven Cottage - that's what the signs said. I preferred it last season I must say.

Only one place to start. The Teamsheet. It immediately looked very much like VP's exit strategy.

Obviously I am not an expert but I 'd have picked five different players to start that game. No J.Gomes. No Andre. No Tolu. No Tchatchoua. No Wolfe, how must he have felt after scoring two goals midweek? Man management skills, really?

Prior to kick-off the fans gave a big reception for J.Gomes and Andre as they walked to the dugout as substitute. Evidence of the huge disconnect between the fans and VP when it comes to team selection. We can't always be right, but equally, we can't always be wrong.

It didn't take long for the game to resemble so many others from this season. Inside 10 minutes, an individual error, this time by Santi Bueno, gave the ball away in our half which resulted in a shot that went right through Johnstone.

Not surprisingly that sucked the life out of us. Our passing was poor,  Larsen could not keep the ball or find a colleague with a pass. Our expected goals was probably close to minus two!

The second individual mistake was also not a surprise. A reckless challenge by Emmanuel Agbadou left us with an hour to play with ten men.

After an hour, following three half time changes, we were still in the game, despite having only 10 men. Hopes only rose slightly however before their second goal.

It is unfair to question the players integrity but the form and attitude of many is not as good as we've seen in the past. Admittedly our current situation must be difficult to handle and I'm sure it hurts them deeply, but we've seen all those individuals play much better in the past.

Seeing J.Gomes, after playing a one-two free kick in the final third, then dribble it back to Johnstone, while there was six or seven players waiting for the cross, was not a good look. Read into it what you want.