In the third of the week's positional reviews, Liam Keen and Nathan Judah look at the midfielders.
Mario Lemina, Joao Gomes and many others are under the microscope.
Mario Lemina, Joao Gomes and many others are under the microscope.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Hello, I'm Nathan Judah. I'm delighted to be joined by Mr. Liam Keenley and we're straight
00:13on. We're with the midfielders, Beve. This might be a shorter video here because we're
00:16going to discuss, and maybe this is the issue, slightly narrower players, slightly central
00:21midfielders. Maybe there needs to be a little bit more width. I know we do it at the top,
00:24we do it in the forwards, but maybe central midfield needs to have a bit more of a right,
00:27a little bit more of a left, a little bit more of a balance. But let's go with the centre
00:31boys and let's go with the main man, the main man, the player of the season. And I think
00:35yours and my player of the season in the end, and that is Mr. Mario Lamina.
00:42What a player. I think he's openly admitted himself that it was his best season in football.
00:49He's played for some good clubs, Juventus being one of course in his younger days. And
00:56he dragged Wolves through some games. He really did. There's plenty of games you could pull out
01:02to say that this was a real nine, 10 out of 10 performance from Mario Lamina. And albeit,
01:09I mean, the performance was very good actually, but this is more of a goal that I'm going to
01:13mention. But that Spurs game, I know Pablo Sarabia who will come on to in the next videos,
01:17had such a big say in that. Him to score that winner, it was a real deserved moment for a
01:22player who was in really good format that time as well.
01:25That purple patch, he was pretty special wasn't he? That amount of games, seven,
01:28eight games, he was insane.
01:30Yeah, absolutely. And yeah, deservedly the supporters player of the season in my opinion.
01:35Yeah, we both agree that he was our player of the season for just his general impact and his
01:40general availability. Of course he had the sad passing of his father where he had compassionate
01:45leave. But aside from that, he was available consistently for Wolves. No injuries, always
01:49available, always ready to play. So really, really impressive season from a player who
01:55is good on the ball, tough in the tackle, got forward, a real leader in midfield.
02:00Yeah, really, really impressive.
02:02Yeah. And someone, like you say, who probably didn't hit the heights towards the end of the
02:07season, but extenuating circumstances with decimated squad, et cetera, as well, and asked
02:13to play all over the pitch as well once. I mean, he was up top and left forward as well at times.
02:19So yeah, I think a superb season and someone who will be key next season to Gary O'Neill.
02:25Let's go with someone who made his Brazilian first team debut,
02:29senior debut this season and a massive fan's favourite in João Gomes. Someone who, like you
02:34say, we don't know whether he'll be here. We think he'll be here next season, but someone who is a
02:39huge asset for Wolves and is just so likeable. And when he's playing as well, and when it's him and
02:45Lamina in the middle of the park, which I think is really Gary O'Neill's first choice to, I would
02:50say, it's a pleasure to watch this guy play. Yeah, sometimes you want to be careful about putting
02:57pressure on players too early. You look at some of the new signings Wolves have brought in, a couple
03:00of them quite young, and you want to be fair to them, give them an opportunity. And there's been
03:06times where I have done that with João Gomes early on because he still was relatively young,
03:11had arrived from South America, 15 million, big fee, or fairly big fee at least, and arrives with
03:18a little bit of expectation. But I've changed my tune in the last few months. I'm going to do it
03:22again for this video, no longer doing him the service of taking pressure off. I'm putting the
03:28pressure on. I think he's a real special player. I really do. Now, there were definitely moments
03:33that were slightly inconsistent throughout the season. I think that will come with age and with
03:38experience. So he will be able to nail that down. But you look at Spurs away, for example,
03:42the two goals he scored, some of the dominating Terrier-like midfield performances that he put
03:48on throughout the season. I've said this previously. I'll say it again. I genuinely believe
03:54he won't be, it won't be like a Ruben Neves situation. He'll be at Wolves for a long time.
03:58I think a big club will come in and spend a lot of money to take João Gomes away. I don't think
04:02it'll be this summer. Obviously, you never know, but I think he probably has got another year left
04:06at Wolves at least. But I think he's a Champions League level midfielder who will go on and play
04:12at the very highest level and win a lot of trophies. I think he's that good. We've seen
04:17lots of glimpses of it. Hopefully, we'll see more of it to come. But I think there's a real
04:21special player there.
04:36Absolutely. I'd go further than encouraging. I think it was a good season, certainly.
04:49Slow start. That was expected, really, because he'd had a small knock when they signed him,
04:54needed to build his fitness up a little bit. Had never played in the Premier League. Obviously,
04:58was on loan. Well, he'd been on loan to a few clubs, but done really well with
05:00Sheffield United the season before. It was a big opportunity for him to come in and try
05:05and force his way in with Gael Gomez and Mario Lamina ahead of him, which was tough.
05:10And similar to what I was talking about in the previous videos about Dan Bentley getting
05:14slightly closer to Jose Sarr in Gary O'Neill's mind, it was similar with Tommy Doyle where he
05:18came in and there was a clear number two between, or number one and number two with Gael Gomez and
05:23Mario Lamina. And Doyle's challenge, which he successfully did, was to get himself close
05:30enough where he is a genuine option every single week. Now he became an option through his
05:37performances. He, as I say, a slow start, needed a bit of time to get up to speed. A couple of good
05:42substitute displays, Bournemouth and Newcastle early on in the season were decent. And then he
05:48had a couple of starts, Sheffield United away being one, didn't quite go to plan for him.
05:51But it really came full circle, I think, when around Christmas, New Year time, Mario Lamina
05:57was obviously away on a compassionate leave. Gael Gomez picked up a red card at Brentford.
06:01And because of Lamina being away and then Lamina coming back and Gael Gomez being suspended,
06:08he, Doyle that is, had a consistent run of starts in the team. And that really built up what was a
06:17successful season because he was brilliant in that time, absolutely superb in that spell. And yes,
06:21he came in and out of the team for the rest of the season then. But I think it was a really positive
06:25first season in the Premier League from a young English player. And for 4.3 million, it's an
06:29absolute steal as far as Wolves are concerned. It scored a banger, wasn't that at Brentford as well,
06:33was it? It was. Yes, it was. That was FA Cup, I believe, wasn't it? In fact, that was that game,
06:39I believe, when Gael Gomez got sent off and Claude Bakker won one, which of course they
06:43went and won the replay. So yeah, brilliant goal. I think we're going to hopefully see a bit more
06:48when it comes to set pieces and long range strikes and things like that, because he's got a really
06:52good delivery. We just need to see probably a bit more of that as well.
06:56Yeah, just on some of the in-house interviews that the players had recently, they were all
07:00talking about best fee and best strike, and a lot of them said Tommy Doyle as well. So I do agree
07:06with you that I think there'll be a lot more to come from him next season. And a couple of the
07:09guys who, you know, one, I guess, who will be disappointed, although was struggling with
07:13injuries a little bit in Boubacar Traoré, who didn't see too much of, but again, will probably
07:17be important to the squad this season. And a youngster who we could have put in the midfield
07:22as the forward department, but we did put him in the midfield, and that's Towanda Chiuera, who
07:26we both really like, don't we? And I think out of the youngsters, he was the one who
07:30impressed the most, who was heavily involved around that first-team squad and then got his
07:35chance to show what he can do, and a really promising youngster who I think Wolves can
07:40expect big things from. Yeah, certainly. On Bouba, yeah, disappointed because he's got a few
07:46injuries, went away with his national team and just didn't really get any momentum in a Wolves
07:51shirt. And then ironically, while the team was struggling towards the end of the season, he gets
07:55a chance and starts to do quite well. So we've seen the player there that Wolves saw when they
07:59scouted him, the reason they brought him in on loan originally, and then signed him permanently,
08:02of course, and the reason why he's at this club in the Premier League now. So I think
08:08if it's a good summer for him, and that's something that Gary Neal pointed out himself,
08:11if it's a good summer for Bouba Khachouri, he can get in, stay fit, play games in pre-season,
08:17have more time with the coaching staff. I think you'll see a lot more from him
08:22next year. There's a player there who is, again, I use the word haphazard in possession at times,
08:29but he's got incredible energy, really athletic, and gets around the pitch so, so well. So I think
08:35there's a really good, different type of midfielder in that. And then Yechere, as you say, we could
08:40have put him in the forwards, but there were less players in midfield, so we threw him in this video.
08:45Sorry, Towanda. Yeah, massive, massive fan of him, really am. In this line of work, and obviously
08:52it's different for coaches and stuff, because they get paid to pick the team, but in this line
08:56of work, when you go and watch the 21s, you start to notice players that stand out a bit more than
09:02the others. Joe Hodge was one, Hugo Bueno was one, and Towanda Chirewa, in his short time,
09:07having arrived for this, which was only in September, was one that stood out straight
09:11away. You could tell he was a step above the players around him. And that reflected very
09:17quickly in the fact that he was travelling to games, he was going away with the team,
09:20and then got an opportunity to play. And I've been really impressed with what he offers,
09:25and obviously that start against Arsenal did really, really well, both from a tactical and
09:29defensive point of view, as well as trying to create some danger and score some goals and assist.
09:34Yeah, I think he'll stay with Wolves, I don't think he'll go on loan anywhere,
09:37and I think he'll benefit a lot from being around the first team for a full season,
09:42and hopefully getting a few more Premier League minutes under his belt. He's a player who can
09:45play as a ten, play out wide, he's versatile as well, I think he's a really good footballer.