Wolves in Turmoil: Who Can Bring Calm to the Chaos? | OneFootball

Wolves sacked Vitor Pereira on Sunday morning after his side were yet again comfortably beaten away at Fulham. Now they are in turmoil, scrambling to find a desperate solution to survive the Premier League drop, despite a small budget and a very weak squad.

From European nights under the lights to battling relegation for a 3rd successive season. Who could be the latest manager to take on the Wolf Pack chaos?

Who are the possible managerial candidates and would they succeed at Wolves?

After Gary O’Neil was potentially in line to replace Vitor Pereira, before later pulling out due to it not being the right time for him as per multiple reports, the direction Wolves will want to go in doesn’t look particularly clear to supporters.

But like most football clubs, they have a list of candidates that they would like and will probably be speaking to right now. But who are those candidates?

Rob Edwards

The former Forest Green Rovers, Watford and Luton Town boss is currently in charge of Middlesbrough on Teesside. Joining Boro back in the summer, he has shaped up the Middlesbrough squad to get off to one of their best starts to any league campaign in their history.

Since being in charge of Middlesbrough, Edwards has shown good tactical flexibility between a back three or back four system, but has more recently opted for the back four shape. Prior to being defeated at Watford last Saturday, Middlesbrough had lost just once in their first twelve matches in the Championship which had them comfortably 2nd. But since the Watford defeat as well as rescuing a point against Leicester on Tuesday, they have dropped to 3rd with Stoke winning their last two games.

Despite not picking up three points from a possible six in the last two matches, Middlesbrough in general have still showed fantastic and consistent performances so far this season under the Welshman. Rob Edwards has them playing fluid football, using width more, taking greater risk in the final third which has resulted in more chances created. They were also scoring more goals but recently that has dried up, particularly in the last two matches.

In that Leicester game on Tuesday night, Middlesbrough had total control of the game throughout with over 60% possession. They also continously got into fantastic positions to score which saw them take 17 shots, but only 4 of them were on target and they failed to score until the 95th minute with Luke Ayling scoring from a header. In performance, that was a good display. But in outcome they deserved far more.

You might be asking, why would Wolves want to appoint Rob Edwards despite the club being in turmoil? The simple answer is because he has a strong connection to the club when he played for them as a player and the Wolves board may feel that the connection Edwards has with the Wolves supporters, it could ease the pressure on them and buy them time to try come up with an actual plan.

Obviously, the playing day connection isn’t just the only reason. They may look at how Rob Edwards has Middlesbrough playing and where they are in the Championship, thinking that he could replicate that with the Wolves squad.

But the big risk to a possible Rob Edwards appointment is the fact that Wolves don’t have a squad that is capable of going toe to toe with other Premier League teams and winning. And even with Rob Edwards being tactically flexible, possibly being more pragmatic and hard to beat, Wolves are also stuck in this losing streak, meaning that regardless of the tactical plan, the players are low on confidence and lack any sense of belief. On top of that, there’s a lack of quality too.

Verdict: Rob Edwards should stay at Middlesbrough where there is a stable environment, a clear plan, ambition to progress and a positive culture. For Wolves, if the plan is Premier League survival, they need to look elsewhere.

Erik ten Hag

Where do we begin with this one then? On the face of it, it screams disaster for both Wolves and also ten Hag. The style ten Hag wants to play is very specific and that is tailored to teams that can control games, that can go toe to toe, that are mentally brave enough to take bold risks and being expansive.

As mentioned above, Wolves are stuck in that losing mindset where there is no confidence and no belief. They also certainly don’t have the quality to play the ten Hag way either.

Erik ten Hag may be able to get more out of the likes of João Gomes and André, for example, because they are clever technical players and do have some energy too. But football is far more than just two players, it’s a team game. Erik ten Hag is strictly adamant on control, something Wolves simply cannot do.

It’s really tricky to see any positives with a possible ten Hag appointment, not because of ten Hag and his declining reputation. But because for where Wolves are, the respective plans simply do not align at all.

Verdict: Erik ten Hag needs to use common sense and stay well clear of Wolves, this is NOT the job for him. As for Wolves, appoint ten Hag and you will sleepwalk into the championship in record breaking time.

Robbie Keane

Now this is a very bold, risky but also potentially very experimental appointment if Wolves choose this path. Robbie Keane has taken a very unorthodox approach to his coaching career so far, achieving great success in Israel with Maccabi Tel Aviv and currently with Hungarian giants Ferencvaros. But for him personally, it would be a gigantic step up from winning constantly in Hungary to then try rescue Wolves from danger in the Premier League.

It is also somewhat unknown to the Wolves supporters what his style of play is, what his biggest strengths are as a Head Coach, what could be the weaknesses.

The key difference between having Robbie Keane as a possible candidate though, compared to someone like ten Hag for example, is the fact the direction with Robbie Keane definitely would feel far more long term focused. Based off a few reports, he does want to coach in British football. Whether that could be up in Scotland with Celtic or down in Wolverhampton in England.

You can see why Wolves might be looking at Robbie Keane, he’s got a reputation as a former top level player. But he’s definitely a young coach with lots of potential and succeeding in places like Israel and Hungary is not something that should be ignored, despite it being far weaker to the level he’d like to coach at in future.

But from the Wolves perspective, is it worth taking that gamble now where you may go down but then have the potential to rebuild and reset in the Championship under a promising coach? That’s something the Wolves board will need to try balance out, would a high risk short-term appointment result in high reward in the long-term?

Verdict: If Wolves are open to going through the rest of this season in pain but have a strong belief that it would work in the long-term, taking a punt on Robbie Keane could be worth it. If that is the plan, they must stick to that. If it’s the opposite then it isn’t worth the gamble because you don’t waste time appointing Robbie Keane for the short-term.

Brendan Rodgers

Of all the possible candidates, from a Wolves perspective this is the best and safest choice. Rodgers is Premier League proven, he is capable of bringing that exciting style over a period of time and he just knows how to get a football team winning football matches in the Premier League. If you look at it through the Wolves glasses, it’s a no brainer. But unfortunately for them, it’s more complex than that.

Brendan Rodgers recently resigned from his role as Celtic Manager, where he struggled to get his team going in his third season in charge of the club. There were obviously far more to it than him failing. But considering how the exit came about, the response from it and the general difficulty of making that decision, it’s not so certain he’d want to jump straight back into management immediately.

From a stylistic perspective, he can be adaptable depending on the tools he has to work with and he would probably be capable of extracting more confidence, more belief and in general more quality out of the current squad. But the big question would still be how much could he get out of the squad and will that be enough to survive because it’s very clear the Wolves squad has a real lack of quality.

If Wolves are to convince Brendan Rodgers of potentially returning to management so soon, after resigning from his role at Celtic, reassurances over a strong budget in January could prove to be key because Wolves will need to add more quality to stand any chance of somehow surviving relegation.

Verdict: Give Brendan Rodgers the tools, the support and the backing then he will guide Wolves to survival, of all candidates he is the best choice. But it’s a massive question if whether Wolves would even do that because gradually each season they’ve sold key players and never replace them correctly or properly.

The Wolves board and the club leadership need to get their act together, wake up and start putting their money where their mouth is. All those candidates are unique and different in their own ways, some standing out more than others when you put all the context together.

If I were to choose, it would be between Rodgers and Keane. It would be far better to convince Brendan Rodgers if the plan is to survive, but he’ll need a good amount of funds available to play with in January. But if you want to go more long-term and accept that maybe this season is beyond saving, then Robbie Keane would make more sense.

Wolves need to create a plan, follow through on it and stick to it through the good and bad. Now is time for calm within the storm.