Wolves report card: Grading the midfielders

Express & Star

Transcript

00:00well hello everybody it is wednesday it's nathan judas leem keen it is the midfielders that we are

00:14tackling today grading the midfielders for the season just gone let's go straight in to action

00:20keynote let's start with let's start let's start with someone who's been magnifique

00:26it's going to be a very high grade i think for both of us and that is mr xiao gomez um look him and andre

00:32i think have separated themselves as the main two in this side in vita perreo's system especially with

00:38vita perreo and knowing andre as well for his time in brazil and look he is he is the epitome i think of

00:44what all the fans love and that is someone who works hard for the team who's got quality who loves

00:49this football club and someone you can get behind the talent i think is immeasurable and you know

00:55sign a new long-term contract and someone who i think will be is one of the first names on the

01:00team sheet and will be for for many years to come hopefully until he gets that big move i'm sure

01:04that will come but let's enjoy him while he is here um still probably needs to work a little bit more

01:09discipline but then if you take that out of him you take that out of xiao gomez you still get the

01:12same xiao gomez so i'm not gonna dig him too much for that but you know players well the supporters

01:18play of the season quite rightly so for me it's a good solid a for xiao gomez good solid a what's

01:26the highest i've given so far was a for activity wasn't it correct i've got to do this at least

01:31once in these videos okay a plus oh he's a he loves it he loves it i could also agree with a but

01:38i've got to do it at least once in the videos and thinking ahead to the players that are coming up

01:42spoiler alert um i think this is going to be the highest one massive fan of xiao gomez i said this

01:49from the very very beginning when he came in and we you know lopati he was a huge fan of him we spoke

01:53to people behind the scenes of the pub when they people were telling us look this guy's gonna be

01:56special this guy's gonna be something good we waited we wait i mean obviously that debut was

02:00fantastic but we waited and waited to see him really in his full throttle and he's been brilliant um

02:06massive massive fan of what he offers and for all those reasons you've just described i thought

02:09he had a fantastic season again obviously first season though o'neill there's going to be drawbacks

02:14but overall absolutely brilliant and um that's enjoying while he's here because i think he's a

02:19fabulous footballer someone who might not be here next season and whether that's on loan or leaving

02:24permanently or he might still be here next season you never know but tommy doyle a difficult season

02:27for tommy doyle just couldn't get couldn't get a look in couldn't really get a look in under gary

02:31o'neill couldn't get a look in under vito perera both both spoke glowingly of him of the person

02:36of the character that he is but you know we've we've talked about him been a been a six and almost

02:40playing as a sweeper and then all of a sudden he was thrust into well he's a a front three player

02:44really whether that was just vito perera saying that he was trying to make him relevant and try

02:49and give him another role because he wasn't going to get into that that middle two i'm not too sure but

02:53his career is definitely stalling at wolves i don't think any of us saw that really we saw

02:57promising signs obviously excellent dead ball set peace taker but um tommy dole won't be happy wolves

03:03won't be happy they'll want to see him i think get some get some get some games elsewhere now

03:10an ideal world liam i would like to still see him loaned out because i think that figure that loan

03:14fee figure or would be a decent amount i think there's a lot of championship clubs maybe even

03:18some premier league clubs that will be after tommy doyle um and if he does have a good season

03:22which i'm sure he would do then that potential transfer fee could double or treble very very

03:26quickly in terms of his age but look a disappointing season for him um d minus for me

03:35okay we're slightly off we're slightly off but not by a lot um yeah i think you'll go on loan um i

03:41think that's wise as well rather than than selling him because that's that 50 salon as well with man

03:45city but you can as you say if he does move on permanently you can get more money from him he has

03:49a great season equally a lot can change in football in a year if he goes on has a fantastic season he might

03:54have a way back in a wolf's uh to in some way in some format but i think he's a good player um i

04:01thought we had some actual decent performances a lot of them off the bench but then there was a couple

04:05of poor ones i mean forest at home under veto prayer really struggled um so yeah it's a it's a shame

04:11really but veto bro doesn't seem part of those plans um i've gone c minus not too far away from

04:17i'm gonna give him a d actually d minus i'm gonna give him a d you're gonna be c minus okay yeah yeah

04:21i'm not not too far away um on this one he just didn't get enough football i think he needs to go

04:25play um bubacar traore again one probably haven't grained him too much because again someone who's

04:34you know was injured i mean he was about to go and learn wasn't he right at the start of the season

04:38and picked up that bad injury um it's a difficult season for him someone who i think sneakily will

04:43probably be involved next year um probably be someone an understudy to andre and xiao gomez there's no way

04:47i don't think he's going to start but i still think bubacar has got something about him and can

04:52definitely deliver um but again a very disappointing season in terms of his his appearances played and

04:58probably harsh to to kind of grading but we're doing that with all the squad um you know you can't

05:03really do too much apart from a d really for me completely agree that's exactly what i was going

05:07to say bad injury shame for him um when he did come back didn't play a lot did okay on a couple of

05:13occasions missed a penalty against bournemouth but you know really you know he had the bravery to step up

05:17there and take it i don't really want to knock him for that so yeah i i think d's probably about

05:22right and he's i think you know if he was was going to play next season i would have liked to

05:28have maybe seen a bit more the end of yeah last season but i don't think that means that he isn't

05:32involved um i just think there's a question mark over it but in terms of characteristics and attitude

05:38i think he's got what veto wants it's whether he sees enough in the player to give him that opportunity

05:43marshal manette see another january signing and a big success really um splits the fans a little bit

05:49i think due to potentially his finishing although that that goal on the last game of the season at

05:55brentford wasn't a wasn't a bad strike was it but um look off the ball work i think is incredible and

06:00you've did you did a lovely piece i think a month or so ago about the stats and about the ground that he

06:06covers no surprise about the amount of ground he covers because he's integral to that integral to the

06:10way that veto prayer wants to play and the way that he sets up his side um look he's he's probably

06:16always going to not be the most prolific of signings but i do expect him to score more goals and it's

06:20the positions he gets into now where he was playing i don't think was his strongest position actually i

06:25think that probably in the center midfield is probably his best role but needs must uh where

06:29he played towards in the season also the way the fact that he unlocked jorgenstrand last and to the to

06:34the amount of goals that he scored as well um very important role um not gonna win man of the

06:40match a lot of the times i don't think not the sexiest player to watch but at the same time

06:44um i think a lot a lot better than what some people give him credit for for me it was between a b plus

06:50and an a minus i'm going to give him a b plus uh with room to improve next season no i completely agree

06:55exactly what i was going to go with um i think there's room to improve but i thought he played a big

06:59part actually involves staying up um how to last and i agree i think he's probably an eight rather

07:05than a ten going forward and i'd be interested to see how that sort of the squad is made up next

07:09season with those positions and those players and where he fits into that but um yeah i thought he

07:14was a net positive signing um and wolves got over the line yeah they did um and last and by no means

07:22last on this list is andre um i think we're doing one more aren't we uh andre oh yeah we are yeah we

07:30are we are okay let's do let's do andre then we'll do one more because we're warming from the forwards

07:34okay fair enough um andre um look i i think there was a period in the middle of the season or towards

07:42the end of the season maybe middle towards the end where andre was not just the best player on the

07:47pitch but probably one of the best players in the premier league um absolutely magnificent season for

07:53him someone who wolves didn't expect to sign but because he was available uh they took the plunge not

07:57necessarily they needed a center midfielder and look i'm sure tommy dole was delighted when when

08:01andre got signed but he is again along with along with joe gomez that that too is what excites me

08:07going forward for wolves next season a brilliant partnership uh some of the way some some of the

08:13games that you had and look it's a never say die attitude i can remember that game i think was a

08:17massive game correct me if i'm wrong liam i'm not sure whether you're there or not with brentford away

08:21in the premier league where he was just it was one of the best performances no no no no bournemouth away

08:25in the preform of the way sorry brentford away was definitely not a game we should be talking about

08:29no no no no um brentford away in the premier league that's right uh born away in the premier league

08:34come on granddad get it together where he was absolutely sensational it was it was literally 10

08:39out of 10 performance and i think that period in and around there was it was just frightening from

08:43how he was playing look in the brazil national side and someone who um was probably unlucky not

08:50to be in the player of the season voting high up like the top two um i'm gonna give him an a i really

08:56do i think he's had a fantastic season he came second in the supporters player obviously okay but not

09:03the player's player surprised me i can't remember who's in the players player apart from couldn't

09:08you win um yeah it was born with the way and you're right i wasn't there i missed it um which

09:13is a shame because wolves were and andrew put in that kind of performance which i would have

09:17loved to have seen but um it was unbelievable yeah obviously you told me all about it and i was uh

09:21not really surprised because he's a player that has got that um a player that gary o'neal couldn't

09:27quite figure out how to get him into the team will get all the midfielders into the team

09:30these or prayer got the best out of him uh he's a proper number six uh a player the wolves don't

09:34really have other than him um and i thought he was i thought he's fantastic um i think a is fair

09:41i was close to a minus um but i think if i've gone xiao gomez a plus i'm going to go a okay uh that's

09:48andre and yes we're going to bring somebody from i guess forward slash midfielders because he did play

09:51in both positions again this season that's jean richtner bellegar a long time ago kino when he

09:56scored that absolute banger and it was a banger wasn't it away in forest wasn't it in that one

10:00one draw um but look since then um we didn't know whether whether bellegarde was a little bit hit

10:07and miss um whether he's in the side out of the side we didn't know what actually what kind of

10:11play he was and let's be honest when vita for error took over he didn't quite know whether he's a

10:15striker whether or forward a wide forward or whether he's a center midfielder whether someone

10:19from the right hand side of midfield and i'm not too sure we still know but what we do know

10:25is that jean richtner bellegarde is a hell of a player and someone who i think will be very

10:29important next season i still think he's probably not the starter if i'm looking at where wolves want

10:36to be next season naming their i guess their best starting 11. however he is um someone who knows

10:42where the back of the net is he went on a purple patch when wolves really needed him he was in superb

10:48form he is i think one of those players who are a bit of a confidence player um but very very strong

10:55um really good season for him and we didn't know whether he would be completely out of the squad or

10:59looking to looking to move on this season and next season i don't think that's the case whatsoever i

11:03think he'll be here and i think he'll be he'll play a lot of games next year he did dip a little

11:07bit keynote towards the end of the season um but all in all i think it was a very strong campaign

11:12for me the best one we've seen by a country mile it's a b plus for me b plus really okay i think

11:18we're going to slightly disagree on this one i think he i think he is a very talented player

11:24when you get that consistency and we haven't seen it enough in a wolf shirt but we did see it in that

11:29purple patch you're talking about in really impressive fashion and it was that villa game at

11:33home he got moved into central midfield he got played there ahead of tommy doyle at the time and

11:37that was obviously very telling from vital prayer and a very big decision to make and bellegarde was

11:42fantastic and he put a lot of those different performances in in central midfield i think next

11:47season we'll see him as one of the midfielders which means probably not starting uh and probably

11:52about right but that also depends on what was his um you know recruitment in those number 10 roles and

11:59he can be the utility man that can go between the two roles as well but i see him in probably doing

12:03that next season the problem is he put in too many inconsistent displays early parts of the season

12:09back end of the season and if you take that one purple patch out there was some disappointing

12:14performances i've actually gone b minus for for bellegarde but we're not too far not too far away

12:22but with you know arguments to be made have been slightly higher than that but overall we saw some of

12:28the best stuff in a wolf shirt from him and i think if he can replicate that consistently then he can be

12:33really important player yeah okay i agree and that brings together the end of the midfielders it

12:38ranged i think all the way from an a plus to a d um let's see what the scores are tomorrow it could

12:43be very interesting because we have got the forwards bring it on see you then oh yeah

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