• 2 months ago
Jonny Drury caught up with Liam Keen to discuss Wolves' late heartbreak against Man City.
Jorgen Stand Larsen put Wolves into an early lead, before Josko Gvardiol levelled it up.
Wolves had to soak up second half pressure and it looked as though they had done that, until John Stones controversial header won it for City.
Transcript
00:00Walls fans, welcome to ExpressAndStar.com. My name is Jonny Drew. I'm here at Molyneux
00:11alongside Walls correspondent Liam Keane after, well, for a long, long time it looked like
00:17Walls were going to get a point, a very, very, very well-earned point against Man City. But
00:22Keano, late, late VAR drama as City nicked at the death. We'll start there. Was the
00:29right decision made? No. And I think Walls' complaints will come from last season. You'll
00:38remember here at Molyneux, Max Kilman scores a last-minute equaliser against West Ham.
00:43The goal was given on field and VAR overturns it for Towanda Chirewa being in front of Lukasz
00:48Fabianski at the time, apparently impeding the goalkeeper goal chalked off. It's now
00:54the other way round. At the opposite end, Walls concede as Jon Stones heads home from
00:59a corner. Ronaldo Silva's in front of Jose Sarr. He bumps Jose Sarr as the cross comes
01:06in, then steps away from him. The header goes past Sarr, who had a fantastic game, by the
01:10way, I thought. Goal goes in and the goal isn't given. It's slightly different to the
01:15West Ham one last season. The goal isn't given on field. The officials are incredibly slow
01:19to make the decision, but they eventually make it. Everyone thinks it's a goal and all
01:22of a sudden it's not a goal. Molyneux's in raptures, no goal. Then VAR instructs Chris
01:27Kavanagh to go check the monitor and he gives the goal. To have gone against Walls on one
01:33end last season and go against Walls at the other end, with two almost identical situations,
01:39but the different decision being made on both counts, how can Walls win? As far as I'm concerned,
01:46VAR stinks. I've said this all along. All it does is push the debate onto another thing,
01:51whether the right decision is made or not. Stick with the on-field decision in both cases
01:55and Walls have got that equaliser there and not conceded here. Walls get a well-deserved
02:00point. The city dominated possession, but didn't actually create a lot. Walls defended
02:06very, very well and they deserve a hell of a lot better than the officials. Unfortunately,
02:10the best league in the world is some of the worst officials in the world.
02:13The explanation is going to be interesting because the linesman sees it as offside. I
02:19guess he's not giving it because he doesn't think Silva's interfering with play. It's
02:24one of those where it's the inconsistency of it, isn't it? No-one really knows what the rules are.
02:32Inconsistency is spot on. You'll speak to fans and fans will... Obviously, as journalists,
02:39without evidence, I can't stand here and accuse the officials of the Premier League of saying
02:45if that was at the other end, I wonder if that would have been overturned. Fans will think that
02:50and it just creates such a negative narrative towards what is the best league in the world.
02:55It's the best product in the world and it turns fans off. Walls fans, still from last season,
03:00have still not forgotten and still chant in every single game pretty much that the Premier
03:04League's corrupt. Obviously, as I say, I can't stand here and say that because I don't have the
03:08evidence to support it, but the fans will think it. As far as the Premier League's concerned,
03:14that's terrible for your brand. Why would you want that? Why would you want VAR? There's a reason
03:18Walls wanted to get rid of it last season. It doesn't work. It doesn't work for any team. It's
03:22not just Walls, by the way. It's any team. I can name you one to 20, including Manchester City,
03:27and every team will have had something go against them. Unfortunately, it's some more than others.
03:30Walls were harshly done by last season. I think they've been harshly done by again here and
03:36they've lost a point in a performance that deserved it. It's rubbish. It ruins the game.
03:42Let's go positive. That performance, you could either say it was his best performance of the
03:46season. They had chances. They didn't just have the goal, they had chances. Nelson Samedo had a
03:52chance. Carlos Forbes had a chance, pulled a cross across the box where he maybe could have shot.
03:58I think they had about 23 per cent possession, but they took the game to City today. They took
04:02the game to City and putting a positive and a negative together, it's a frustration that
04:08they haven't been able to produce that in the games that have gone so far.
04:11Yes, and particularly in terms of defence structure and shape. Obviously,
04:16they played a back five today. I don't know if it's a coincidence or not, but it worked clearly.
04:21Walls were a lot more solid. Walls defended resolutely. As I say, City have dominated
04:26possession and we're in a lot of very dangerous areas. We did very little with it. You have to
04:29ride your luck a little bit as well and Walls did that at times. Unfortunately, with the way
04:33the goal goes in in the first half from Guardiola, it's a good strike. Sarr can't do a lot really,
04:38just get fingertips to it. It's unfortunate really because they put in a performance,
04:44particularly defensively, that was way better than Brentford. Going forward is another
04:48conversation because Walls have scored goals this season that do carry threat. Defensively,
04:53they were very, very shaky, very rocky and they were the opposite of that today.
04:56Dawson was fantastic. Totti, one or two iffy moments in the first half I thought was a lot
05:00more solid after that. Santiago Bueno, very, very good as well I thought. Nelson Samedo,
05:04probably his best game of the season. Offensively with the cross of the goal,
05:07but also defensively I thought he was very good. Look, this Walls team will get points,
05:13they will get goals, they will drag themselves out of this, but they'll feel what else can we
05:20do when we've done enough, more than enough in my opinion, to get a point and we get to take
05:24the win. Just finally, the results and how the season's gone, Gary Neal is under a little bit
05:31of pressure. Has he got a bit of credit back in the bank today with that performance? You look at
05:34that and think if you can go and replicate that in the next four or five games, which are the
05:38more key ones for Walls, then they will pick up points. The important point is that before that
05:44goal went in, the Stones were the winner and Walls looked set to get a point. They'd gone through the
05:50five minutes by their time relatively easily. The Walls fans are chanting Gary Neal's name,
05:56they're behind him, they're backing him, they're just showing support. Walls played, as I say,
06:00more than good enough. Let me put it this way, Brentford, Gary got it wrong and the players let
06:04him down. They're both, they're not mutually exclusive, they're both true in my opinion.
06:07Today, the opposite, Gary got it right and the players, midfielders, Lamina,
06:12Jalgoma, players that I thought didn't play well in other games were much better.
06:16Walls got it right, I think the fans can appreciate that. However, you also can't
06:21lose every game, you have to start picking up points. Brighton next week away, a tough game,
06:26a couple of home games here, Palace and Southampton are back-to-back,
06:29before a very good run of pictures as well, by the way, on paper,
06:33means Walls are going to have to start picking up points sooner rather than later, but I do think
06:36they will, I really do. I think all the evidence is there, they have to stick with the five
06:39and they have to continue to play that way. Better from Walls, but it's still a defeat.
06:43Final score here at Molyneux, Walls 1, City 2. All the rest are in the action,
06:48head over to ExpressAndStyle.com

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