Gary O’Neil thinks that his Wolves team should have gotten something out of the game, even though Manchester United won at Old Trafford on Monday night.
Raphael Varane’s header in the 76th minute put an end to the game and gave United their first win in the Premier League. But Wolves had been the better team for most of the game, so Erik ten Hag and his players must have felt relieved.
From O’Neil’s point of view, he was very frustrated. The former Bournemouth manager took over for Julen Lopetegui. He got his new team prepared, and they made some good chances and had a strong penalty claim turned down before losing.
During his chat with Sky Sports after the game, O’Neil said, “Yeah, I’m upset. Well, I’m sad that we can’t take anything with us when we go home.
I thought the guys were great, both the ones who played right away and the ones who came off the bench. We tried to pile on in the middle as much as we could, making a box with four players against three. This is how I’ve always played the game.
“I didn’t make the performance, though. It was the team as a whole that played so well. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get the ball in the net, even though we had 23 shots, and I got a yellow card at the end for calling for a penalty. But, yes, we did earn something from the game.”
When Andre Onana jumped into a Wolves player, his team asked for a penalty. O’Neil said, “I thought it was a penalty when I saw it live.”But, you know, I’m not too surprised that we didn’t get it. I thought he was going to give it because he ran over to us, but he booked me instead of Onana!”
“The goalie almost took the head off of our centre forward, and when I watch it back, it looks the same. If you go for the ball and hit a forward that hard while trying to get it, it’s a foul.
O’Neil went on to say, “I get the VAR decision, but I don’t agree with it. I talked to them about it, and I also talked to them about it last season. I think the on-field referee has a hard job. If everyone else thinks it’s a penalty but the on-field referee doesn’t, you can’t just let it go.
“A lot of messages have already said it was a stonewall one. But I don’t want to think about it too much. The group gets a lot of praise for being able to work for four days and still have 23 shots at Old Trafford.
