Wolves crashed to another defeat in the Premier League at the weekend, losing 2-1 to Liverpool – but one player has since come in for high praise.
Wanderers remain bottom of the table after six games played, with just one point on the board so far.
Gary O’Neil received a show of support from fans at Molineux at full-time on Saturday, but the manager now really needs to start picking up some results.
The performance against Liverpool was a strange one.
It was positive in parts, but Wolves‘ approach was questionable at times, especially towards the end.
There were some good individual performances – and goalkeeper Sam Johnstone is one player to have received plaudits.
Dave Watson and Ben Foster raves over Sam Johnstone’s save for Wolves against Liverpool
Johnstone was making his fourth appearance for Wolves on Saturday since his £10 million transfer from Crystal Palace.
There was no clean sheet again for the 31-year-old. But fans never felt that was going to be likely, against a side possessing a lot of firepower.
Johnstone made a nervy start to the game against Liverpool, playing a poor ball into Mario Lemina on the edge of his own box.
It led to a Liverpool shot but the chance was squandered. It was a moment that ‘rattled’ the goalkeeper in the eyes of journalist Liam Keen.
Johnstone, though, made a strong finish to the first-half when he denied Dominik Szoboszlai from point-blank range.
He spread himself wide and somehow stopped the Hungarian from tapping the ball in, leaving former goalkeepers Dave Watson and Ben Foster amazed.
Speaking on the Ben Foster – The Cycling GK YouTube channel, Watson said: “I think it was a magnificent save.”
Foster: “Fantastic save.”
Watson: “It didn’t get the credit that it deserved.
Foster: “No it did not!”
Watson: “He gets the luck he deserves because he’s been so explosive. In a good position, head position at it, because his head position is still, he can drive that left leg at the ball now, and it’s that last little push with the leg that earns his bit of luck.”
Foster: “It’s his head position, his shoulder position, body position, everything is open to getting the ball hitting his face if it needed to. He’ll take this anywhere it’d go. Whatever it takes, he wants to get in the way of it. He sticks that leg out there, and it’s definitely not just hit him.
Watson: “It’s a phenomenal save. The pundits talking about the ‘bad miss’ is absolute nonsense.”
A top save from Johnstone
It was incredible to see Johnstone keep that ball out of the net and it’s nice that Watson and Foster have piled on the praise because it was a moment that was rather skipped over. Or most of the focus was on how Szoboszlai should have scored.
It has been an OK start to life at Wolves for Johnstone, but his transfer to the club remains questionable for a lot of people.
As good as that save against Liverpool was, he has conceded eight goals in his four games so far, and some have not really noticed a major difference between him and Jose Sa. On Saturday some felt he actually might have done slightly better with the Ibrahima Konate header.
For the money that was spent, which could have gone on a central defender, fans had hoped for a big upgrade and that just hasn’t been the case so far.
Hopefully, he can soon really start to show why Wolves made the move they did.