Gary O’Neil has done a tremendous job at Wolves so far – but the manager believes he has really been helped by the lack of injuries in his squad this season.
Wanderers sit 11th in the Premier League table at the moment, having taken 29 points.
Many fans could not have predicted Wolves would be where they are, given the frantic summer and Julen Lopetegui leaving just days before the new season.
O’Neil deserves major credit for not only steadying the ship, but setting an exciting new course.
But his life has been made easier by the fact he’s had his players available for most of the season, which is something he pointed to today…
Gary O’Neil suggests Wolves have the best injury record in the Premier League
O’Neil was talking about the fact that Wolves are already about to surpass their Premier League goal tally of last season.
Just one more goal will see Wolves go level with the 31 scored last season, which is crazy to think about considering we’re just over halfway through the campaign.
In the eyes of the manager, being more productive in front of goal has come about because most of the players in the squad have stayed injury-free.
He said (Wolves official): “We have the best – touch wood – injury record in the league. Of course, we hope it’s sustainable, but things can happen. When we lost Pedro during the Newcastle game, you heard the whole of Wolverhampton gasp, because they know, firstly how important Pedro is, but also we haven’t got loads of attacking players. We do have a bit of cover there, especially when Channy comes back, but not enough ideally for me.”
Wolves have been fortunate so far
It has certainly helped Wolves’ cause this season that there haven’t really been too many injuries at Molineux.
Obviously, the hamstring injury Pedro Neto picked up against Newcastle United was a hammer blow, with the winger spending around two months on the sidelines.
But aside from that, Wanderers have not been stung too much.
Joe Hodge has had some injury problems, and Hugo Bueno was also on the sidelines for a few weeks across October and November. But the young duo haven’t been nailed on regulars for O’Neil, and the club were able to manage.
Credit must go to the club’s medical staff, who are clearly looking after the players really well. Hopefully, Wolves will continue to get lucky on the injuries front in the second half of the season.
Fatigue could well set in and there may well be some muscle injuries later down the line, so hopefully O’Neil can add one or two new players before the transfer deadline just to pad out the squad a bit.