Sometimes goals are just too good to stop. Wolverhampton Wanderers were unfortunate to lose to Newcastle United . The two goals they conceded, both rasping efforts from outside the box, were difficult to prevent — but Gary O’Neil’s side have now gone 16 Premier League games without a clean sheet.
No current Premier League side have been waiting longer for a game where they do not concede. That kind of demoralising run does not happen by accident. Advertisement Since their last clean sheet — in February’s 1-0 win over Sheffield United — Wolves have conceded 36 goals, with Sheffield United the only side to concede more (38), despite their relegation meaning they have played fewer Premier League games.
“The Chelsea game (a 6-2 defeat) was obviously just crazy errors. The out-of-possession structure was too open due to a few of the boys not being able to do what we needed,” said O’Neil when asked to assess the goals conceded this season. “And that was sort of how we started against Newcastle, which is why we had to change it fairly quickly.
“People were not quite able to do what was asked of them so we had to move a couple of people around and then I thought it looked better. “The two goals (against Newcastle) came from shooting from a long way out because we had managed to frustrate Newcastle in that phase in the game. “The first one flicked off Craig Dawson for a big deflection.
” One of the problems facing O’Neil is that there is little obvious pat.