Glenn Hoddle heaped praise on Julen Lopetegui after Wolves’ 1-0 victory over Tottenham Hotspur yesterday.
Wanderers bounced back from the midweek defeat to Liverpool in what was a hugely important result.
It was Adama Traore’s late strike that proved to be the difference.
The Spaniard scored with a great controlled finish after Raul Jimenez’ initial shot was saved by Fraser Forster.
Traore had started the game on the bench, with Pedro Neto coming in for his first start and Pablo Sarabia also featuring out wide.
But Lopetegui brought him on at half-time for Neto.
The manager also boldly took Mario Lemina off at the break to put Nathan Collins on to form a back three with Craig Dawson and Max Kilman.
Wolves had been underwhelming in the first-half. But those tweaks led to a huge improvement in the second-half.
Speaking after the game, Hoddle praised Lopetegui for the changes he made.
Speaking on BT Sport straight after the game, he said: “You’ve got to say, Wolves.. you (have to) give credit to them second-half. The manager changed the shape.
“He brought on Traore who was the match winner at the end of the day – he was excellent.
“All the five subs worked for him and changed the shape and Tottenham couldn’t come up with the answers.
“Lots of credit has got towards the manager Lopetegui and his team. They went out and dominated the second-half.”
Wolves manager Julen Lopetegui’s boldness paid off against Tottenham
Since coming to Wolves, Lopetegui has shown he is afraid to change things up early on in games.
It is very refreshing that he will look to do something about a situation.
One frustrating thing about Bruno Lage was that he would often make changes very late in games.
Lopetegui’s boldness is also admirable.
To take Lemina off when he had done such a good job of marking Harry Kane was a real eyebrow-raiser.
But it was something he felt he needed to do, and Wolves did ended up controlling that second-half.