Journalist Liam Keen believes that Gary O’Neil gives his Wolves squad one thing that hasn’t been traceable in recent years at Molineux following the Old Gold’s 2-1 win over Fulham.
Wolves gave their hopes of finishing in a European spot a significant boost on Saturday afternoon as Gary O’Neil’s side beat Fulham 2-1 at Molineux, despite their injury woes.
The hosts were without key forwards Hwang Hee-chan and Matheus Cunha for the fixture, seeing 19-year-old Nathan Fraser earn his full Premier League debut and Jean-Ricner Bellegarde assume his position in attack.
Sadly for the Old Gold’s already shortened squad, Bellegarde was withdrawn after just 11 minutes and was later followed down the tunnel by Pedro Neto due to injury, leaving O’Neil’s options even more limited.
Despite the adversity of losing key players both before and during the contest, Wolves dug deep and secured the win, seeing the squad earn a host of praise for their resilience.
What impressed Liam Keen during Wolves’ win over Fulham
Speaking in reaction to the win on episode 331 of the E&S Wolves podcast, journalist Liam Keen identified the area of O’Neil’s side that makes the current squad better than some before them at Molineux.
“This is a Wolves team that you back now to come back from situations, and that’s something that you definitely cannot say about Wolves teams from the last couple of years.”
It was clear in the summer that O’Neil was going to face some difficult times when it came to rotating his squad throughout the campaign, with Wolves having a particularly small squad.
The Old Gold lost a host of key players in the summer and were unable to replace them due to financial restrictions, leaving the manager with little room to manoeuvre changes when injury and fatigue struck.
Keen mentioned the boss’ ability to “galvanise the squad”, who were “lacking in confidence” in the summer to turn them into a team fighting for a European finish, reinforcing his comments on how the squad is better in some ways than those before them.
Gary O’Neil has eliminated any room for excuses at Wolves
In the summer, Julen Lopetegui walked away from Molineux after failing to believe that the squad were capable of battling in the Premier League, with O’Neil proving such theory wrong as Wolves sit two points off seventh place.
Keen’s points on the current crop of talent being better poised to withstand and overcome adversity are supported by their progression in this campaign.
The result on Saturday saw Wolves equal their points tally from the 2022/23 season with 10 games still left to play, despite O’Neil being restricted financially and with little depth to work with.
As touched upon by fellow podcast host Nathan Judah, not much would have been said about the result if Wolves were to have lost against Fulham, considering their injury woes.
The manager has restored the belief that hope must not be lost under any circumstance at Molineux, with squads prior not showing a level of resilience as strong as the current group.
Taking into consideration the mess that Wolves found themselves in in the summer, it would be simply remarkable if O’Neil were to deliver European football to Molineux next season.