Wolves drew 2-2 in their latest Premier League game against Crystal Palace and Gary O’Neil moved to praise one player who’s drawn a bit of criticism in recent weeks.
Wolves are still winless this Premier League season, and many fans are disappointed with the latest result.
Wolves had gone 2-1 up in the game. But more poor defending proved costly for the home side.
Gary O’Neil was recently backed by Fosun, but the Wolves owners will surely now have a very close eye on the situation.
Realistically, it would be no surprise if O’Neil was sacked in the event that Wolves do not beat Southampton next weekend.
O’Neil was defiant after Saturday’s draw with Palace, after there were chants of ‘You don’t know what you’re doing’ from many supporters inside Molineux.
Those chants were made when Tommy Doyle was one of three players to be taken off in the second-half.
But O’Neil defended his decision, and lavished praise on Doyle’s replacement Mario Lemina.
O’Neil hails Mario Lemina after Wolves ace ‘made us a lot better’ v Palace
It has been a tough season so far for Lemina.
The star, who was handed the captain’s armband after Max Kilman was sold, has been unable to replicate the levels he showed last season, the levels that ultimately helped him win the Supporters’ Player of the Season award.
There have been calls from some for a few weeks now for him to be rested.
On Saturday. O’Neil gave those fans their wish, with Tommy Doyle keeping his place alongside Joao Gomes and Pablo Sarabia coming in as a third attacker.
Lemina came on in the second-half, with Jean-Ricner Bellegarde and Goncalo Guedes.
O’Neil said of Lemina (via Wolves official): “I thought it helped us. We’ve got squad and we need to use it. There’s nothing wrong with Tommy Doyle’s performance but Crystal Palace are a physical side and they play long a lot. There wasn’t a lot of time on the ball, so Mario’s physicality and his strength and what he gave us in there for the last half an hour was massive.
“It completely changed how the game flowed and how the game went.
“Mario came on and he was excellent. We can leave Tommy Doyle on for every minute of every game, if we want, but we have a lot of good midfielders and we need to use the right ones for the right situation, and Mario made us a lot better today.”
Lemina was good against Palace
On balance, it was probably the right call for O’Neil to drop Lemina against Palace.
The captain has looked jaded recently, and his form just hasn’t been good enough. Certainly, he has not been at the high levels Wolves fans know he can show.
Doyle and Gomes were great against Brighton, so both had to keep their places. And the decision to start Sarabia was also fair after his showing against the Seagulls.
O’Neil is right about Lemina – he was great when he came on and gave Wolves more energy and physicality in the middle.
The £10 million signing produced a couple of brilliant turns away from his marker before driving on and getting Wolves up the pitch.
We will see if he comes back in against Southampton. But O’Neil going unchanged in the middle would be no surprise. Gomes was Wolves’ best player against Palace, and Doyle is someone who can help Wolves dominate the ball more.