Wolverhampton Wanderers head coach Gary O’Neil says he wants to “carry the can” for the club’s form as they prepare to face champions Manchester City on the back of just one point from their opening seven games.
Pep Guardiola’s side visit Molineux tomorrow (Sunday) with O’Neil facing mounting pressure on his own position with his side bottom of the table.
That follows a summer in which the club did not sign the central defender that he wanted to replace departed captain Maximilian Kilman and after a tough start to the fixture list.
But, asked whether he was in danger of being blamed for failures elsewhere, O’Neil insisted: “I want to carry the can. It is my responsibility. It’s on me.
“There is an understanding outside of here as to the situation around the football club. I think that everyone knows. You can look at what we’ve sold and what we’ve signed and how much has gone either way. It’s all there to see.
“But that doesn’t mean that we can’t be competitive and it doesn’t mean that I just get a free ride and say ‘not my fault’.
“Everything that happens on the football pitch is my fault. Brentford was my fault. The second half against Aston Villa was my fault. Chelsea was my fault. Players making mistakes is my fault.
(Naomi Baker/Getty Images)
“I am more than happy to stand up after every game and take responsibility for the full performance, whatever goes on, and I have no no worries about that at all.
“I’ll give absolutely everything to help the team and to help the club and then when someone says to me, ‘you know what, we don’t think it’s good enough, you’re going to move on’ then I can say, ‘no problem, I’ve given you absolutely everything, I hope you do well’. But that’s not how it’s going to end here. We’re going to turn this around.
“The players are going to give absolutely everything and we’re going to show everybody what a good team we are and that this start to the season has just been a slight shortfall against really good sides.”
O’Neil claimed he is also ready to take the blame for any errors his players make.
“They’re trying to carry out what I’ve asked,” he said. “If someone slips over or can’t complete a five-yard pass, there’s not too much I can do about it.
“But they are my responsibility. If it’s not my fault, then whose fault is it?
“They’re my responsibility so I need to stop them from making mistakes. That’s what the week on the grass and the meeting rooms are for.”
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Why did O’Neil say this?
O’Neil is an intelligent manager who has read the room. While there remains some sympathy among supporters for factors beyond his control, such as a disjointed transfer window and the toughest opening fixtures of any club in the Premier League according to Opta, O’Neil knows that fans no longer want to hear excuses, even if they are valid.
He understands that the mitigating factors that he cited regularly earlier in the season are likely to irritate supporters who lost patience with him and his players during the 5-3 defeat at Brentford in their last Premier League game.
O’Neil knows his best chance to get fans back on board is to come out fighting and take blows on the chin.
What does it say about his position at Wolves?
There is no immediate prospect of Wolves making a change in the manager’s office and, having held talks with sporting director Matt Hobbs and chairman Jeff Shi since the Brentford game, O’Neil will know that.
But he is also savvy enough to know that their patience will not be infinite and if results do not improve then he is by far the most likely individual to pay the price.
(Catherine Ivill – AMA/Getty Images)
Wolves believe in O’Neil and want to back him. And yet, if his side fail to pick up a win or two in the four games before the next international break — at home to City, Crystal Palace and Southampton and away against Brighton — then the pressure to make a change might prove impossible to resist.
How important is the City game?
In terms of the result, the meeting with the champions will not be pivotal for O’Neil. Few people, even Wolves fans, expect the team to pick up anything against one of the most fearsome sides in Premier League history.
But the game will be important in terms of the signs it sends out to supporters and the rest of the league.
If Wolves show fight and togetherness and if O’Neil shows signs that he has adapted a tactical plan that has not worked in the opening weeks of the season, supporters will at least be able to take encouragement from the weekend.
If they go down to another Brentford-style embarrassment then the pressure on him will increase.
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(Top photo: David Rogers/Getty Images)
