After a third defeat in a row for Paul Lambert, Fancast pundit Andy Gillard assesses both Lambert and Zenga’s 17 games in charge and finds some surprising stats.
When Walter Zenga left the home dug-out for the last time it was his 17th match at Wolves and you would be hard-pressed to find anyone who wouldn’t say it was a largely uninspiring stint.
Wigan at home on Valentines Day was the 17th match for the man who permanently replaced Zenga, Paul Lambert.
So with a third defeat in a row on the most romantic day of the year, how do Zenga’s 3 months stack up with Paul Lambert’s time?
Whilst both men’s reigns began with a draw away from home and Zenga followed that up with 2-0 win at Molineux, unfortunately Lambert oversaw a 2-0 loss to a rampant Sheffield Wednesday.
When Zenga left the team he so dearly loves (if his Instagram is anything to go by) the team was struggling for goals, relying on an industrious Welshman and mercurial Portuguese fo inspiration, but at least goals were spread around.
Of the 20 goals scored under Zenga there were 14 different scorers; topping the list with 3 a piece were Costa and Mason (not the industrious Welshman you might have thought?!).
Lambert may have seen a couple more goals in his tenure, but from 23 goals only 8 different men have actually scored, only one of which was from a recognised striker and that was the solitary goal against Villa (maybe two strikers, depending on your views of Andi Weimann) and once again Costa [6] was the main goal threat alongside Super Dave Edwards [6].
When you take out the goals scored in Lambert’s FA cup games the number of unique scorers drops to only 6 players – two of which are defenders. (FYI, Hause, Mason, Doherty and Cavaleiro are the rest of the 8.)
The other end of the pitch hasn’t been any better. Zenga’s Wolves conceded 24 and Lambert’s men have conceded 22, both managers have had to suffer the ignominy of conceding 4 in a single home match.
Zenga only managed to keep 3 clean sheets, just because he was an international goalkeeper obviously didn’t help his teams. Those three clean sheets were against a Reading team who never got off the coach, Ipswich who came for a 0-0 and most impressively of all a clean sheet away at St James’ Park.
Lambert has fared better on this front having kept 5 clean sheets (away at Preston, Forest, Sheff Weds and Stoke and only one home clean sheet against Villa).
What has been most alarming under Lambert is how many of the 24 goals have come from failing to deal with dead-ball situations. 9 goals have come from throw-ins, corners or free-kicks and a further two from penalties.
One thing both have had in common though is conceding from balls coming down our left flank. Of the remaining 13 conceded under Lambert, 6 have arguably originated down our left side, Zenga’s men also conceded 6 from the same area.
Ultimately, for managers the numbers come down to Wins/Draws/Losses. Zenga’s stats were 6/4/7 (including two wins and one loss in the cup) and Lambert’s are 7/3/7 (including the two FA Cup matches).
The numbers don’t lie, the performances might have picked up (generally speaking) but unfortunately the points have yet to materialise. The players and the management need to turn this around; it’s time to stand up and be counted.
Having lived through the last time Wolves replaced a bald, foreign hipster manager with a manager from the British Isles with a great pedigree as a player mid-season, we all know that you’re never too good to go down.
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