When a team is losing, that brings up a lot of negative emotions. The crowd is quiet. The players look dejected. The manager is seething. The team is conceding goals, but why do we automatically assume they are not performing well offensively?

Wolverhampton Wanderers stick out like a sore thumb when you sort the Premier League table by goals for. They have no problem scoring; their issues are in defense. 

Without looking, if I were to tell you that Ipswich Town and Southampton are stuck in the relegation battle with Wolves, where do you think they would rank for goals scored?

Ipswich Town is ranked 19th for goals scored and 16th for goals conceded. Wolves, despite ranking tied 11th for goals scored with Fulham, are at the very bottom of the league for goals conceded. Meanwhile, Southampton sits 20th for goals scored and 19th for goals conceded. Yes, you read that correctly—Wolves are tied 11th in the league for goals scored, scoring twice the amount of goals (22) as Southampton (11), and ranking higher than Newcastle United (19), Manchester United (19), and Nottingham Forest (19).

We associate losing with an inability to score because teams at the bottom of the league normally rank low in goals scored. That is an incorrect assumption.

The next assumption we make, without watching, is that it must be structural issues in the defense, but in Wolves’ case, I don’t fully agree. I think the cause is inadequate technique and awareness from their center-backs that leads to a breakdown in structure.

Of note, five of the last ten goals they conceded have been from penalties or own-goals.

They sold their best defender, Max Kilman, in the summer and never replaced him. Craig Dawson, their second-best defender, has been off and on again injured. Mario Lemina is a midfielder playing as a center-back because they lack depth at center-back with the season-ending injury of their third-best defender, Yerson Mosquera. And the rest of their center-back options are not of the level required to start in the Premier League. Toti Gomes is an okay backup center-back, and I’m not a massive fan of Santiago Bueno, but their attack is supremely talented.

If you are manager Gary O’Neil, what do you do? No matter how they defend, just based on the defensive qualities of their center-backs, they are going to likely concede at least one or two goals every match, which means they need at least two goals to have a chance to win or draw.

Do you scale back the attack to limit the damage to one goal or continue to try to outscore the opponent? I would continue to try to outscore the opponent because you have to win, and I don’t think they can win without taking on risk until they sign a center-back.