This article is part of Football FanCast’s The Chalkboard series, which provides a tactical insight into teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…
Wolves failed to build on their impressive scalp of Manchester City last time out as they drew to Southampton at Molineux on Saturday.
Although, the result could have been very much in their favour after having two Raul Jimenez efforts chalked off due to VAR.
It was the visitors that opened the scoring eight minutes into the second half when Danny Ings capitalised on a Connor Coady blunder to rush through on goal and slot past Rui Patricio.
Wolves’ Mexican striker finally got on the scoresheet himself just after the hour mark as he dispatched from the penalty spot after Matt Doherty was felled by visiting skipper Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg.
But Nuno Santo limited the team’s attacking threat with one critical decision.
On the Chalkboard
In recent matches, Ruben Neves has faced the drop from Nuno’s starting line-up.
Following the 5-2 drubbing by Chelsea, the 22-year-old featured for 33 minutes off the bench in the dramatic draw with Crystal Palace and then played just three minutes in the Watford victory.
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He was recalled for the City win last time out and even managed to keep his place for this game, but he’s not been as influential as last season.
The reason for which could be down to just how deep Nuno is operating him this season, which is displayed through WhoScored’s heatmap below against Southampton.
As you can see, Neves barely crosses the halfway line, which seems daft for a player that has contributed ten goals and four assists from midfield over the previous two seasons.
The Portuguese boss needs to play him further forward again so that the team can reap the rewards from his attacking prowess.
His lessening impact is only further reinforced when delving into Understat’s xG model, where he has regressed in every single statistic, which is surely a consequence of him playing an anchorman role this season.
Last campaign, Neves recorded an xG of 3.39 at an average rate of 0.10 per 90 minutes, but now that has decreased substantially to 0.03 per 90 minutes, meaning it’s improbable that he will be able to improve on that total.
The same goes for assists per 90 minutes too, that is down from 0.06 to 0.04 while shots per 90 minutes have decreased from 2.21 to 1.47.
To add to that, his key passes leading to a shot per 90 minutes is down too, meaning his deeper presence is affecting his ability to impact games and thus is surely detrimental to the Wolves squad as a whole.
This is undoubtedly an area that Nuno needs to resolve as quickly as possible.
