Wolves are a team that struggles for depth. Despite the large amount of money they spent last season and the call for better planning before his departure by Nuno Santo, the Old Gold still lack bodies.
However, there is a particular area where they’re stacked for options; full-back.
Last summer, Wolverhampton Wanderers signed four of them with Nelson Semedo and Ki-Jana Hoever arriving to play on the right and Marcal and Rayan Ait-Nouri signing to play on the left.
They added to the likes of Jonny and Ruben Vinagre but the Wolves pair have both been out of the side for very different reasons lately.
The former has sustained two ACL injuries in the space of the year while Vinagre, despite possessing enormous potential, was shipped out on loan.
His career at Wolves appears to be petering out rather quickly with 20-year-old attacking wing-back Ait-Nouri signing permanently and taking up his role of back-up in the team.
Yet, Vinagre is still playing for a prestigious club, one that won the Portuguese league last term in Sporting Lisbon.
That being said, his performances haven’t been entirely up to par and nothing summed that up more than his display against Ajax in the Champions League on Wednesday night.
To put things lightly, the defender had a nightmare as Sebastien Haller scored four times in a 5-1 drubbing.
Yes, your read that right, former West Ham striker Haller was actually in the goals,
However, it wasn’t the big French striker who provided him with problems. Instead, it was Ajax’s tricky Brazilian winger Antony.
Vinagre was entrusted with playing at left wing-back but was consistently beaten by the winger and caught out of position.
For the Dutch side’s first goal of the game, Vinagre was caught up field which allowed Antony space to cut inside from the right and hit the post before the rebound was fired in by Haller.
As the second goal came about, the Wolves loanee’s positioning was abysmal. Antony again caught him out and darted in behind the defender to latch onto a ball and then play a simple ball across the box that was finished off nicely.
It got worse for the 22-year-old when Ajax found a third. He dived in on the aforementioned Ajax winger but didn’t win the ball. Antony was subsequently allowed to pass the ball into Ryan Gravenberch who then found Steven Berghuis to make it three.
From a statistics point of view, the numbers make for grim reading too. He was substituted at half time after making just 13 passes at a success rate of 72%.
Furthermore, he lost possession of the ball every 3.4 touches. With this kind of performance in mind, it’s hardly a surprise that he’s been loaned out by Wolves in successive campaigns.
This was a horror show from the young defender and one that is unlikely to please the new Old Gold boss, Bruno Lage. They’d be wise to get rid on a permanent basis when the chance allows.
AND in other news, Forget Gibbs-White: Lage must unleash rarely-seen Wolves ace who’s “very smooth”…