Gary Rose, the BBC Sport journalist, recently shed light on the challenging situation faced by Wolverhampton Wanderers boss Gary O’Neil. After a damaging loss at West Ham, the pressure on O’Neil is mounting, yet he remains insistent on turning the club's fortunes around.

"Wolves' Manager Battles Amidst Relegation Woes"

Set-pieces Wolves’ undoing once again

Wolves find themselves in a precarious position largely due to their poor defensive record. They have conceded a staggering 38 goals in the Premier League this season, the most by any team in the top flight. Set-pieces, especially, have been their downfall. Excluding penalties, they have conceded a league-high 15 goals from set-piece situations this season, as seen with Tomas Soucek's back-post header on Monday. Only twice before have they conceded more such goals in the Premier League - in 2003-04 (20) and 2011-12 (18), both campaigns ending in relegation. Wolves parted ways with set-piece coach Jack Wilson in October, and this remains a significant issue for the club. Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher emphasized, "Wolves have to defend the set-piece better. They’ve conceded 15 goals from set-pieces this season. Seven more than any other team. They have a huge problem here."

‘We’ve lost £200m of talent’ – Wolves in transition under O’Neil?

Wolves appointed O’Neil in August last year, replacing Julen Lopetegui. In his first season, he ensured the club finished comfortably clear of relegation. However, in the summer, they sold defender Max Kilman to West Ham for £40m and forward Pedro Neto to Chelsea in a £54m deal. O’Neil identified player departures as making his job more difficult. He said, "The club has been through an incredible transition since I came in. We’ve signed some players who will be really good for this club for the future, but we have lost an awful lot. It makes it harder. [Since I’ve been here] we have lost £200m worth of talent. We understand it will be tough. We will knuckle down and get going again. Whenever this journey ends with Wolves I’ll be proud of it."

Were Wolves unfortunate with decisions?

O’Neil acknowledged the need to improve set-piece defending but also felt key decisions went against his side at London Stadium. For the corner that led to West Ham's opener, the ball seemed to hit West Ham full-back Aaron Wan-Bissaka last. Then, for the Hammers' second, he believed there was a foul on Wolves defender Santiago Bueno in the build-up. When asked about a potential foul on Bueno, O’Neil said, "That is crazy. He was going to head the ball away, so next phase of play is irrelevant because we would have cleared the ball." He also felt his side was not given two penalties, adding, "The foul on Goncalo Guedes was a blatant penalty. There was a little one on [Jean-Ricner Bellegarde] too, it was small contact but enough to make him fall over. It is disappointing they didn’t go our way. It was a combination of us not quite doing enough and the decisions going West Ham’s way meant we came away with nothing."

Winnable games coming up, but will O’Neil get time?

Three successive defeats have left Wolves deep in trouble in the relegation zone, but there is hope on the horizon. On Saturday, they host fellow strugglers Ipswich, who have managed just one win in 15 Premier League games so far. After that, they travel to Leicester, who are 17th and four points above the relegation zone. Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher noted, "You look at the fixture list and sometimes the club might think whether they want to bring a new manager in and it will be some decent games for the new man to start with. That will be in the back of Gary O’Neil’s mind. If everything goes well against Ipswich Town and Leicester City in the next two games, they could be out of the bottom three. O’Neil will be desperate for that chance to rectify what has happened this season."