Lee Naylor has suggested Wolves star Jean-Ricner Bellegarde did not take the chance that was afforded to him against Nottingham Forest.
Wolves drew 1-1 with the Reds at Molineux, with a lot of fans feeling it was a missed opportunity.
Wolves dominated possession, but it was mostly all in front of Forest and there was a real lack of creativity.
Gary O’Neil admitted after the game that there has been ‘a technical breakdown’ for his side, which made it difficult to understand why midfielder Tommy Doyle was completely overlooked.
One man who did get on though was Jean-Ricner Bellegarde – but former Wolves defender Naylor believes it was a poor cameo from the Frenchman…
Lee naylor believes Jean-Ricner Bellegarde may struggle to start vs West Ham after Forest display
Bellegarde was introduced to the action on 69 minutes as he replaced Pablo Sarabia, who had made the assist for Matheus Cunha’s equaliser.
Sarabia was somewhat unfortunate to come off, because he had been the player making things happen.
He got the assist for Cunha, and had made four key passes in the game (via Sofascore).
But Bellegarde came on in his place, and the £13 million signing from Strasbourg was unable to make a decent impact. He didn’t have too long to make his mark, but Naylor feels he may struggle to start against West Ham United this weekend.
He said on Wolves’ Matchday Live Extra show: “I’ll be honest, he came on… if you’re trying to put your hand up and stake a claim, he didn’t really come on and light up anything. He gave the ball away a few times and passed it out of play a couple of times and didn’t really do much, I’ll be honest.
“As a manager you’re looking for players to say ‘Hold on, why am I out of the team? I want to be back in the team, put me back in’. But if you’re not seeing it when you’re giving them the chance, then I’m not sure.”
Bellegarde will do well to start v West Ham
Admittedly, Bellegarde didn’t have too much time to affect the game on Saturday.
That said, we have seen his quality in recent weeks and so there was an expectation for him to deliver, as a creative player.
Wolves were looking to break down the Forest defence, but the Frenchman – who Enso Gonzalez recently revealed is very well-liked by Gary O’Neil – only touched the ball 15 times and completed 9/12 passes, with none of those being ‘key’. He also had no shots.
When Wolves’ teamsheet drops ahead of Sunday’s game with West Ham, it would definitely be a surprise if he was named among the starters.