Nelson Semedo is a player who continues to divide opinion at Wolves, over three years after he first joined from Barcelona.
The 29-year-old has been heavily involved for Wolves since arriving for £29 million in the summer of 2020, but still hasn’t convinced everyone at Molineux.
Despite the narrative about Semedo being a bit inconsistent though, he has always been in the team whoever has been in the dugout.
He’s clocked up 120 appearances for the club to date, and it doesn’t look as though he’ll lose his starting berth any time soon.
One of the biggest talking points about Semedo has always been about his actual defending.
But a statistic has now emerged that is both impressive and surprising in equal measure…
Wolves star Nelson Semedo is actually brilliant in the tackle
We all know that Semedo is an attack-minded player, who is probably best suited to playing as a wing-back.
He can be a superb outlet and has blistering pace to get forward and support his teammates.
The defending has been a little suspect at times, but this season he certainly cannot be questioned when it comes to his tackling.
The Other 14 have today released the statistics for tackle success in the Premier League so fa, and Semedo ranks 2nd in the whole division.
He has made 40 tackles and been dribbled past eight times, giving him a tackle success percentage of 83.8%.
Only one Premier League player has a higher percentage at this stage of the season, and that is Manchester United full-back Diogo Dalot.
Semedo an underrated tackler, but must improve positioning
This is definitely a fairly surprising statistic, because Semedo is obviously known more for his attacking qualities.
He is clearly very good when it comes to one-vs-one defending.
But defending isn’t just about stopping players with a tackle, it’s also about ensuring goals don’t come from players in your space.
Sometimes, Semedo can be weak positionally. We have seen Wolves concede several times with the ball going to the back post where Semedo is and him not being able to clear the ball.
Just recently against Nottingham Forest, Semedo probably ought to have done better defending against Harry Toffolo coming in at the back stick.
Semedo could be a seriously top full-back if he just improved slightly in other areas, but he is certainly not a bad player as some Wolves fans on social media like to make out.