Danny Murphy, a pundit and former midfield player for Liverpool, expresses his sympathy to Wolverhampton Wanderers manager Gary O’Neil following his team’s challenging start to the 2024–25 campaign.
On Saturday afternoon, the Midlands club suffered their fourth league loss as they were defeated 3-1 by Aston Villa. Even though Unai Emery’s team led 1-0 for the majority of the match, three goals in the last minute caused another heartbreaking defeat.
Wolves are currently rock bottom of the table with just one point alongside Everton. They are yet to win a game, while they have drawn one and lost four.
Murphy ‘Sympathises’ With O’Neil
Wolves’ transfer window was mostly underwhelming because of the high-profile departures. Max Kilman, a central defender for West Ham, left the team, and his replacement in the starting lineup proved insufficient. Pedro Neto, a winger, also moved on, but to Chelsea this time. Despite adding defensive midfielder Andre from Fluminense, a Brazilian team, Wolves still had some notable deficiencies in their lineup.
Murphy, who represented the likes of Liverpool and Fulham during his playing days, admitted he feels sympathetic towards manager O’Neil after their tough start to the season. As well as a thin squad, they have also had a tough run of fixtures, as the pundit explained on the BBC’s Match of the Day.
He said:
“The start has been difficult for them and they’ve played some good teams. They’ve had spells in some of those games, they looked good in the first half against Chelsea and for 70 minutes against Villa.
“The start has been difficult for them and they’ve played some good teams. They’ve had spells in some of those games, they looked good in the first half against Chelsea and for 70 minutes against Villa.
“But, we all know in the Premier League you’ve got to do it over 90 minutes. [They’ve played] six of last season’s top eight and have some tough ones coming up, and I do feel for Gary [O’Neil] a little bit.
“They lost [Pedro] Neto, they lost [Max] Kilman, who were arguably their two best players. They haven’t replaced them with the same quality, but some of those mistakes we saw late on [against Villa] need to be addressed.”
Mosquera Breaks Silence After Injury
He was stretchered off in the defeat to Villa
In another blow to Wolves, central defender Yerson Mosquera was stretchered off in their defeat to Villa on Saturday afternoon. O’Neil confirmed post-match it does not look good for the 23-year-old, who suffered an apparent knee injury, but he will undergo further testing next week.
Mosquera joined Wolves from Colombian side Atletico Nacional in 2021, but he has had numerous loan spells in recent years. He spent the second half of the 2023/24 season with Villarreal, and returned to the team this summer following Kilman’s exit.
The defender took to social media post-match to reassure supporters. He shared in an Instagram post: “Thank you very much to everyone for your messages, I hope I can be well very soon and that this is nothing serious, faith in God.”
O’Neil’s side are next in action next weekend with a tough home fixture against Arne Slot’s Liverpool, who beat Bournemouth 3-0 on Saturday afternoon. Then, they travel away to Brentford at the beginning of October.
Read more news on
sportchannel.co.uk
Leave a Reply