Wolves managed to rescue a point against Brighton at the weekend, and one player is coming in for deserved praise.
Gary O’Neil’s side appeared to be heading for another defeat in the Premier League, having gone 2-0 down after 85 minutes.
But Rayan Ait-Nouri pulled one back, before Wolves had their moment of the season.
Tommy Doyle stopped a four-on-one attack, and then released Matheus Cunha down the right side, with the Brazilian going on to score. That prompted scenes of jubilation in the away end – a stark contrast to the feeling a week previous against Manchester City.
Cunha credited Doyle for his role in the goal, and he has rightly been coming in for all kinds of praise from Wolves fans.
But another player who’s been receiving a bit of love is Pablo Sarabia, with Andy Thompson pleased to see him making an impact.
Andy Thompson hails Pablo Sarabia for his impact for Wolves at Brighton
It has been a tough old season so far for Sarabia, who has been one of the least-used players in the whole Wolves squad.
He made some important contributions last term when key players were out injured.
But he hasn’t had much of a look-in this season, with more mobile players like Jean-Ricner Bellegarde, Carlos Forbs, Hwang Hee-chan, Rodrigo Gomes and Goncalo Guedes all preferred.
Speaking on Matchday Live Extra, former Wolves full-back Andy Thompson sang the Spaniard’s praises for the way he helped change the game.
He said: “Sarabia came on – he looked like someone who could control the game for us.
“He put Sarabia on, you’ve got to get the ball to him, and they did. You can see that Sarabia, he’s got that quality.
“He’s got the initiative to go and look for that space that he needs to cause teams problems. Just give him the ball, that’s what they kept doing. We know he can pick out that pass. We know he can cause teams problems.
“He’s not going to run past anybody, but what he can do, he can definitely give that ball to someone else who can.”
Sarabia – who created an impressive three chances against Brighton (via Sofascore) – has now made five appearances this term for a total of just 198 minutes.
Sarabia showed he still has a part to play for Wolves
It has been very interesting to see how little Sarabia has featured this season for Wolves.
One might have thought that O’Neil would try to call on his more experienced players more, amid such a tough spell.
But before Saturday, Sarabia had not played in the Premier League for two months.
| Pablo Sarabia for Wolves (all competitions) |
| Appearances – 54 |
| Minutes played – 3136 |
| Goals – 5 |
| Assist – 10 |
So the £4.4 million signing deserves great credit for turning in the level of performance that he did. You could really see him trying to make things happen for Wolves, and he even busted a gut to try and provide an option for Cunha when he shot and scored right at the end.
Sarabia is thought to be a transfer target for Sevilla.
Should his minutes not increase between now and January, Sarabia could perhaps push to leave Wolves. But hopefully, that won’t happen, because he is clearly one of O’Neil’s best creators.