Why Wolves would be wrong to pull the trigger on Gary O’Neil

Rewind back to March and many tipped Gary O’Neil for manager of the season.

Wolves were six points off Manchester United in 6th, dreaming of the possibility of European football with Newcastle United and Chelsea below them.

O’Neil was rightfully praised for replacing Julien Lopetegui on such short notice mere days before the 23/24 Premier League season began.

The former Bournemouth manager was bereft of a proper pre-season with a Wolves team that had just lost the likes of Ruben Neves, Raul Jimenez, Joao Moutinho and Adama Traore.

The soul of the Wolves team had been ripped out and the West Midlands club were managerless.

Rather than whine about the lack of resources, O’Neil set about galvanising the Wolves squad, making the most of what he had.

He guided Wolves to a 14th placed finish - 20 points clear of relegation - and narrowly missed out on an FA Cup semi-final appearance due to a late dramatic Coventry comeback.

But after the opening five games, Wolves are bottom with a solitary point as rumours of O'Neil facing the sack are hotting up.

As tends to be the case with Premier League clubs outside the top bracket, once a manager has ensured Premier League status it becomes difficult to maintain momentum.

Clubs are now undeniably ambitious; they won’t be afraid of ripping up the script in search of a more ‘glamorous’ appointment to try and aim higher regardless of whether a manager has been successful for them.

Just look at Julien Lopetegui succeeding David Moyes at West Ham.

However, it would be hasty for Wolves to get rid of the ex-Portsmouth midfielder.

Despite taking one point from their opening five games, context is needed for Wolves' bad start to the season and there are issues O'Neil can look to prioritise to pull them out of this mess.

Difficult fixtures and stuttering transfer market

Wolves have played five of the current top eight teams in the league, with tough away trips to Arsenal and Aston Villa, as well as home games vs Chelsea and Newcastle.

If it's too early to judge teams based on five games, it's too early to judge Wolves this season with the calibre of opponents they've faced.

Then there is the case of the summer transfer market as for the second season in a row, Wolves sold three huge players in Max Kilman, Pedro Neto and Daniel Podence.

Losing the combination of Neto and Podence has impacted Wolves' attacking flair, they weren't a team that scored much with them in the team and now O'Neil must figure out a way to create goals without them.

O’Neil highlighted that Wolves are still in a difficult place to spend financially.

"The budget doesn’t seem too different from last season," he stated in the summer.

"The club is still not in a place where it’s able to go and free spend on things. I’m employed to maximise what we can do with what we’re given."

Rather than having more resources to work with after a successful first season, the English manager is having to once again make do with what he has.

Though Andre from Fluminese looks like a good signing, they haven't replaced Kilman, Neto or Podence and were relying on Yerson Mosquera fresh from a loan from Villarreal to replace Kilman before his injury.

How else can Wolves improve?

It has to be said, that performances haven't necessarily been bad, but they tend to take their foot off the gas after a good first half.

Against Villa and Newcastle, Wolves led at half-time only for Unai Emery and Eddie Howe to make changes at half-time and overturn the game.

Emery commented on how much his Villa side suffered vs Wolves' press while the loss to Newcastle was narrow and came through two wonder strikes from Fabian Schar and Harvey Barnes in the space of eight minutes.

Wolves have conceded the joint-most in the league with Everton at 14, however, this doesn't tell the full story as they have an xG against of 7 which is a huge discrepancy.

This means Wolves are conceding goals but not from opponents creating chances of high quality.

Where O'Neil himself needs to improve is his in-game changes.

Rather than stick to pressing teams high up the pitch after taking a lead, O'Neil has tried to unsuccessfully see games out making multiple changes often too late in reaction to the opposition's substitutions.

When Villa were a goal down, Emery made four changes in the space of 20 minutes after half-time to liven Villa up and turn the game around while O'Neil didn't have a response.

Wolves scored 50 goals last season, a marked improvement on the 31 goals scored the season before last. Apart from Matheus Cunha though, it doesn't feel as though they have a goal scorer.

They may need to revert to the setup of last season where they were deadly in transitions using dribblers like Cunha and Andre to directly attack opponents to create more chances.

After the Liverpool game on the weekend, the fixture list doesn't ease up until November, as a trip to a confident-looking Brentford side awaits, followed by a visit from Manchester City.

Wolves fans will be hoping by the time they get to November the side has picked up more points, as though the teams may be easier to face, the pressure will have increased if Wolves are still in the relegation zone.

O’Neil will have plenty of credit in the bank with the owners after turning Wolves around last season and it would be tough to bring someone new in without the guarantees of a large transfer budget.

The former Bournemouth manager has successfully seen off relegation in two separate seasons when the odds weren't in his favour, now, he must defy the odds again.

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