Former Wolves Women star Claire Hakeman says he wants to see Rayan Ait-Nouri play as a winger again.
The Algerian has been struggling for minutes at Molineux of late.
The star had a really good start under Julen Lopetegui, and ended up being named the club’s Player of the Month for December.
But under the Spaniard, starts have been hard to come by.
And just lately, he’s been finding it hard to get minutes full stop.
He was an unused substitute in the recent Premier League games against Tottenham Hotspur and Fulham.
And at the weekend against Leeds United, he was left out of the matchday squad entirely.
Potentially, Ait-Nouri could now come back into the starting XI with Hugo Bueno injured and Jonny Castro Otto serving a suspension.
Hakema – a regular on Wolves TV – was speaking on the Wolves Weekly podcast, and said she would like to see Ait-Nouri play as a winger, as Lopetegui seemingly doesn’t trust him defensively.
She said: “I wouldn’t be adverse to seeing him be give some game time on that left wing again.
He had an impact at points against Everton and other games where he was played a bit further forward.
“But defensively we know… look at Newcastle, he was well out of the picture wasn’t he when they scored down that side.
“I’m not sure he trusts him defensively as much. But he’s an attacking player, he’s a luxury full-back. Maybe the defensive side of his game isn’t his strong point. But he is very good going forwards.”
Rayan Ait-Nouri as a winger might be the way forward for Wolves
The defensive side of Ait-Nouri’s game is still far from where it needs to be unfortunately.
And Lopetegui seemingly feels this way, as he has continued to pick Bueno. And then when Bueno got injured, he overlooked Ait-Nouri in favour of Jonny.
When Lopetegui first came in, Ait-Nouri did play a few games as a winger.
The position does seem to suit the £10 million star.
The issue for him is that there are plenty of options to play on the left wing already.