Wolves star who lost possession 19x vs Fulham let O’Neil down
Wolverhampton Wanderers failed to earn their second consecutive victory in the Premier League following a narrow 3-2 defeat to Fulham on Monday night.
Gary O'Neil's men got back into the game on two separate occasions, having fallen behind early to an Alex Iwobi strike before a Willian brace from the spot, in quite controversial circumstances, handed the hosts all three points.
Wolves have now conceded more penalties than any other team in England's top-flight but one player in particular, who conceded a foul inside the penalty area, was the worst player on the pitch and certainly contributed to the disappointing stoppage-time defeat.
Wolves' game vs Fulham in numbers
Matheus Cunha equalised for the visitors in the 22nd minute before Hwang Hee-chan levelled the game once more with 15 minutes remaining on the clock. However, a questionable foul on Harry Wilson in the dying embers of the game allowed Fulham to clinch the points. While Wolves certainly may feel aggrieved, Fulham were statistically better.
According to Understat, Wolves had just 0.82 non-penalty expected goals (npxG) on the night from a total of 10 shots compared to Fulham's 0.97 npxG from 12 opportunities at goal. Although each team had six shots on target, the hosts boasted three big chances during the game, while O'Neil's side had two as the game coincidentally finished 3-2.
Wolves' tactical game plan against the Cottagers was to sit back and soak up pressure from Fulham before hitting them on the break once possession was recovered.
O'Neil's men had just 40% of the ball and a Passes allowed Per Defensive Action (PPDA) rate of 34.64, as per Understat. This is incredibly high.
Essentially, Wolves were allowing Fulham to make almost 35 passes on average before intervening with a defensive action and winning the ball back. Dropping off so much invited pressure onto the backline and one Wolves player crumbled.
Nelson Semedo's stats vs Fulham
Nelson Semedo put in a disastrous display in London and played a hand in the first two goals that Wolves conceded. Firstly, the Portuguese fullback failed to block the passing lane into Antonee Robinson before the American drove the ball low and hard into the penalty area for Iwobi to tap in from a few yards out to bag his first goal for Fulham.
Then, just a few minutes after the interval, Semedo lunged into a tackle on Tom Cairney and gave away Wolves' first penalty of the game, although it's certainly debatable whether or not referee Michael Salisbury made the right call. Either way, it typified a night where the right-back didn't deliver.
Indeed, it wasn't just the helping hand in Fulham's goals that proved Semedo struggled over the course of the match. The wingback was handed a Sofascore rating of 5.9 during the game which was the lowest on the pitch across both teams. Semedo won merely one of his five total duels against the Cottagers up against Willian and Robinson on that side while committing two fouls and not completing or even attempting a single tackle.
Additionally, the ex-Barcelona defender lost possession 19 times which was more than any other Wolves player, according to Sofascore. This was made worse by the fact that Semedo failed to put a single cross into the box despite being one of O'Neil's only wide outlets.
This season, Semedo has averaged a Sofascore rating of 6.77 and even boasted a 7.2 match rating in Wolves' outing versus Tottenham Hotspur prior to the international break. There shouldn't be calls to drop him from the team but Semedo will definitely want to forget his performance at Craven Cottage.