Wolves closed out 2023 with arguably their best performance of the season – beating Everton 3-0 at Molineux.
Wanderers fans were left delighted yesterday as Gary O’Neil oversaw a top display against one of the Premier League’s form teams in the Toffees.
Wolves were just superior to their opponents in every department, and it was nice to see such free-flowing football.
This was perhaps the most complete performance of the O’Neil era to date, with that attacking football being complemented by rock-solid defending.
But the midfield was also superb, and there must be a word for Tommy Doyle who came into the starting XI yesterday as a replacement for Mario Lemina…
Dan Bentley sums up Tommy Doyle perfectly after Wolves’ brilliant win over Everton
Doyle started yesterday with Wolves missing Mario Lemina, who had flown back to France to be with his family after the passing of his father.
Lemina is going through a very tough time, and everyone at Wolves is with him and it was very heartwarming to see the players show their support for him by holding up his shirt after the goals.
Lemina is crucial to Wolves and he could have been a huge miss yesterday. But Doyle came in and did a fantastic job in midfield alongside Joao Gomes.
According to Sofascore data, Doyle completed a very impressive 55/60 (92%) passes, and had 68 touches – for Wolves, only Max Kilman, Craig Dawson and Toti Gomes had more.
Doyle left plenty of people impressed yesterday, including number two goalkeeper Dan Bentley who commented on Doyle’s Instagram post. Doyle wrote ‘HNY Wolves. That win was for you @lemsm13, thinking of you’, with Bentley summing him up perfectly with ‘Baller’ and a flame emoji.
Doyle finding his feet at Wolves
It is perhaps no coincidence that Wolves were able to put in one of their most slick and fluid performances of the season with Doyle on the pitch.
The loanee from Manchester City – who Wolves are expected to buy for just under £5 million in 2024 – is a technician who loves nothing more than to get on the ball and dictate play from deep positions. He has said before how he prefers to operate as a holding player, and that makes sense because he has a great passing range.
He’s in a tricky spot because of how effective Lemina and Gomes are, but Doyle has undoubtedly shown that he has plenty to offer this Wolves side. He’s not as aggressive or physical as those two, but is definitely more creative
Doyle has certainly found his feet now at Wolves and hopefully he can keep getting decent minutes – you would think that eventually, he’ll establish himself as a starter.