New signing Jhon Arias made his first appearance for Wolves on Sunday, marking the occasion with a brilliant finish.
Wolves fell short in their pre-season friendly against Girona, but aside from the result, it was a dream start for Jhon Arias in a Wolves shirt.
Arias arrived at pre-season camp last Thursday to begin training with his new team, and was ready to go by the time the Girona fixture came around.
Fans were blown away by the Colombian’s performance. Wolves journalist Liam Keen was impressed by Arias’ strength and the general feeling around this signing is overwhelmingly positive. But the 27-year-old has one area in which he feels he needs to improve.
Jhon Arias admits he needs to improve his English with help from Yerson Mosquera
Sitting down for an interview for the Wolves official website, Arias conceded leaned on fellow Colombian Yerson Mosquera in his first week, saying: “Yerson welcomed me here. He’s been in Wolverhampton for way longer than me and has been a translator for me.”
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But Arias doesn’t plan on keeping his teammate on translation duties: “It’s clear that I’m going to start taking English lessons to improve the way I pronounce and speak. I understand English quite well, but my speech is not perfect, I lack practice.”
A minor issue in the grand scheme of things.
He acknowledged that the outcome of the game was not ideal, but he remained positive, explaining: “Despite today’s result, I managed to play my first minutes, I felt good and I’m expecting a great season for me and for the team.”
If this start is anything to go on, Wolves’ new attacker will be just fine.
Wolves are missing something in attack despite Jhon Arias’ performance
When any team loses its best player, a void will be left in their wake. That’s certainly the case with Matheus Cunha.
Wolves were flat for the first half, with little creativity to be seen in the final third. The second half was better, but still not the free-flowing Pereira-ball we saw last season.
Arias and Fer Lopez have looked good in their limited time on the pitch so far, but another attacker is desperately needed by Vitor Pereira.
There’s still a ways to go in this summer transfer window, and Wolves have been active this week, but deals need to be finalised so this team can develop the chemistry required to hit the ground running in a couple of weeks time.