It wasn’t quite the embarrassing night of the 1986/87 season but Wolves tried their best to fluff their lines against Chorley on Friday evening.
Nuno Santo’s team have been desperately poor in recent weeks, and after their win over the National League North side have now only won three of their last 11 outings.
If anything summed up their abject performances of late it was the display they put in as they made it through to the fifth round of the FA Cup.
On paper, this was a mismatch. Wolves should have been easily out of sight given the opposition, but although they didn’t lose as they did to Chorley over 30 years ago, they were incredibly poor.
Going forward, Nuno’s side were devoid of confidence and authority. For large spells of the game, their non-league hosts looked comfortable and dare we say it, they even looked the better team.
Wolves’ only shot on target in the entire game produced the goal. It was a special one too from Vitinha who let fly from range, but beyond that, there was nothing to write home about.
The Old Gold completed just 25% of their crosses and carved out fewer goal-scoring opportunities than Chorley. A large reason behind that was the performance of Patrick Cutrone.
This was the Italian’s first start since returning from a loan spell with Fiorentina and on his big audition to Nuno, he completely failed. This was a week where Cutrone simply had to prove himself to the manager too.
Willian Jose has arrived from Real Sociedad on loan and thus, the Italy international could be heading for the exit door. After this performance, it proved why.
The striker isn’t good enough and cut an isolated figure against non-league opposition. Truth be told, Cutrone was anonymous.
He completed just 11 passes from 18 attempted, finishing with a success rate of only 61%. For context, only goalkeeper John Ruddy and substitute Adama Traore completed fewer passes in the Wolves side.
The 23-year-old’s tally of 24 touches, meanwhile, was the same as Ruddy’s and only more than Traore and another of Nuno’s substitutes in Pedro Neto.
Against opposition like Chorley, Cutrone should have run riot. Instead, his effort was minimal, registering just two attempts at goal.
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It would be extreme to call this a horror show but Nuno must be incredibly fed up of the Italian now. He has scored three goals in 27 outings for the Molineux outfit. Time and time again he has not been at the races.
Wolves need to get rid of him as soon as possible.