2024/25 has been an extremely turbulent season for Wolves fans.
Wolves will soon mathematically secure their safety, but at one point things looked very dicey at Molineux.
Gary O’Neil struggled to get points on the board, as he tried to navigate a very difficult fixture list.
Despite the difficulty of those fixtures though, the feeling for many was that O’Neil should have done much better.
And eventually, that was felt by Fosun, who relieved him of his duties in December.
Vitor Pereira came in as his replacement, and the Portuguese has been a breath of fresh air at Molineux, completely turning things around.
What Pereira has done probably doesn’t reflect too well on O’Neil.
And for former Premier League winger Shaun Wright-Phillips, there is one key difference in Pereira’s Wolves compared to O’Neil’s.
Shaun Wright-Phillips shares a key difference in Wolves under Vitor Pereira compared to Gary O’Neil
Wright-Phillips was a guest on Premier League Productions’ The Weekend Wrap show this weekend, and gave some thoughts about Wolves.
For him, there’s one aspect of Wolves this season that has impressed him.
He said: “I think Wolves have always had a good squad of players in terms of good defenders when they needed to defend. But they’ve also had players that can unlock doors, score goals and even under Gary O’Neil, you saw elements of that.
“They were a little bit erratic. But he’s (Pereira) kind of give them some structure and some solidity and they’ve kind of kicked on from there, I feel.”
Wolves’ defensive improvement has been crucial
Pereira – who some fans are tentatively comparing to Nuno Espirito Santo – shoring up Wolves’ defence has been the biggest key to the club’s survival.
Wolves were a complete horror show at times under O’Neil, and it meant that the contributions of the forward players were regularly going to waste.
Fans cowered every time the opposition had a free-kick or corner, knowing the ball was going to come into the box.
But these days, Wolves are much more defensively solid. The back three of Matt Doherty, Emmanuel Agbadou and Toti Gomes has been brilliantly lately, with Agbadou proving to be a game-changing addition.
But it isn’t just about them, it’s about the whole team, and the way Pereira has set them up to defend.
Wolves are also playing with more togetherness, and are not letting their emotions get the better of them. Under O’Neil, this just wasn’t the case.
‘I feel’: Vitor Pereira hailed for making one vital change as Gary O’Neil’s Wolves branded ‘erratic’
