Pre-season is always a golden chance for young players at football clubs to impress the first-team manager – and for Wolves, Nathan Fraser is looking very promising indeed.
Wanderers continue their preparations for the new season, with pretty much the whole squad back now.
The players were recently out in Portugal for a warm weather training camp.
This week they’ve been back at Compton Park and yesterday, the team took on League One side Blackpool in two 60-minute games.
Wolves have released a couple of clips from one of the games, and young Fraser can again be seen making a decisive contribution.
Nathan Fraser looking good in Wolves pre-season
Wolves beat Blackpool 2-0 in the first game, with Matheus Cunha and Pablo Sarabia getting the goals.
The club have uploaded clips of both goals.
Sarabia scored with an excellent free-kick into the top corner.
And Cunha fired in from the edge of the area.
Cunha’s goal came about as a result of some great hold-up play from Fraser.
Max Kilman pinged the ball up to him and he controlled it brilliantly on his chest. The defender marking him could only poke the ball into the path of Cunha, who scored with a powerful side foot finish.
In another friendly against Vitoria recently, Fraser showed brilliant hold-up play once more.
He held off a defender before laying the ball off the Matheus Nunes. Nunes found Sarabia, who crossed for Cunha to score at the back post.
Fraser’s play meant that the Vitoria backline was all over the place by the time the ball came into Cunha.
Fraser is a very promising talent on Wolves’ books
Some Wolves fans have been quite excited watching Fraser contribute for Wolves in pre-season.
He is still only 18, but he looks to be another top young talent coming through. Last term, he got seven goals in 23 games.
There has been some talk about Fabio Silva leaving the club this summer, with a number of other clubs interested in him.
If the 21-year-old does depart, then perhaps there could be an opening for young Fraser.
Young players getting a first-team chance has not been uncommon at Molineux in recent times, with the likes of Chem Campbell, Hugo Bueno, Luke Cundle, Joe Hodge and Dexter Lembikisa all making their debuts.
The Instagram account risingballers shared a highlights reel of Fraser last year and there are some seriously impressive finishes from him, as well as more brilliant hold-up play.
When Fraser signed his first pro deal in February 2022, the club’s official website described him as a ‘powerful and direct talent’.
Jonathan Hunter-Barrett – Wolves’ head of coaching/football operations – also called him ‘aggressive and strong’. It is little wonder Cunha has looked really good playing just off him as a second striker.
Perhaps him being involved with the first-team in 2023/24 is slightly unlikely. But Fraser is seemingly doing his level best to at least give Julen Lopetegui something to think about.