Gary O’Neil names the one thing that led to Wolves loss vs Bournemouth by aiming subtle dig at star.
Gary O’Neil was left furious by his Wolves players who suffered a disappointing 4-2 defeat to Bournemouth.
The Cherries ventured to Molineux with the understanding that Wolves were unbeaten in their previous four.
Just as O’Neil thought his side were turning things around, the Old Gold were punished by Bournemouth, who took advantage of the hosts’ mistakes.
Bournemouth fans taunted O’Neil as he faced his previous club, on what was a history making day for unwanted reasons.
READ MORE: Gary O’Neil names the one thing that led to Wolves loss to Bournemouth by aiming subtle dig at star player
Gary O’Neil, manager of Wolverhampton Wanderers, looks dejected during the Premier League match between Wolverhampton Wanderers FC and AFC Bournemo…
Photo by James Gill – Danehouse/Getty Images
Gary O’Neil reacts to Wolves defeat
The pressure is back on the manager as Wolves supporters called for O’Neil to be sacked after seeing what unfolded on match day 13.
There were questions asked about the boss’ team selection ahead of the contest, which were partly answered as O’Neil explained why he started Mario Lemina in defence.
What worked in Wolves’ 4-1 win over Fulham did not work against Bournemouth, which the manager focused on post-match, via Express and Star.
“It’s hard to change a starting XI that performed the way it did away from home (at Fulham), obviously, in hindsight, if we had the game back again we’d try something different.”
The boss was quizzed about his team selection, which he declared was partly to blame for the defeat, with the other issue being individual errors on the pitch.
“There were loads of errors that gave us no chance of winning the game,” O’Neil said before explaining that his side had rehearsed where Bournemouth could threaten.
“I spoke about Senesi putting balls in behind the back line and we had meetings on it and prepped it on the grass, so to concede a penalty in the first minute from something we knew was coming, was miles below the level we’ve set in the last four games.”
The manager felt let down by some of the things he saw on the pitch at Molineux, with three penalties won by one player for the first time in Premier League history.
O’Neil’s subtle dig at Jose Sa
It was a terrible day for all at Wolves, excluding Jorgen Strand Larsen who netted a brace.
Jose Sa had an eventful outing against Bournemouth, conceding two penalties for similar fouls on Evanilson, costly errors that O’Neil alluded to post-match.
“There were two crazy penalties from back passes when we had no need to play back passes in either of those instances. We could have played forward.
“There is stuff there that gave us absolutely no chance today, even though the lads kept fighting and managed to get themselves back into it.
“You can’t make that basic of an error that many times in a Premier League game and hand points to the opposition,” the manager said.
O’Neil was referencing the two penalties conceded by Sa and the one by Toti Gomes who handed Bournemouth three goals between them.
