Former Molineux defender Lee Naylor has heaped praise on Hugo Bueno for his performance for Wolves against Crystal Palace last night.
Wanderers took a giant step towards Premier League safety, beating the Eagles 2-0 at Molineux.
A Joachim Andersen own goal set Wolves on their way. And Ruben Neves scored a penalty in injury-time to all but assure Wolves will be playing Premier League football next season.
It was not a performance that was on the same level as against Chelsea and Brentford. Palace certainly made life uncomfortable at times.
But Wolves got the job done, and the result was always the thing that would matter the most after the defeat to Leicester City.
For last night’s game, Julen Lopetegui made a few changes as expected given the quick turnaround.
One man to come into the starting XI was Bueno, who replaced Toti Gomes at left-back.
Bueno has had to be patient, given the great form of Toti.
But last night he reminded everyone what a brilliant young talent he is. And his display really impressed former Wolves left-back Naylor, who was giving his thoughts for Matchday Live.
He said of the Spaniard (via Wolves official): “Second-half, it was pure pressure from Palace.
“But you have to pull your sleeves up and you have to defend at times and that what Wolves did today. I mentioned before the game that Hugo Bueno was going to have a huge task on his hands with Olise out there and I thought he stood up and was tremendous. I really do.
“That was a major battle that had to be won and he won his duels. Toti came on and he found out how hard it was to defend against him, so it just goes to show how good of a job Hugo did.”
£8 million man Olise did have some threatening moments last night. But by and large, Bueno did handle him well.
It was Bueno’s first start since he went off injured against Liverpool at the start of March.
He has surely now given Lopetegui another selection headache.
Hugo Bueno did well against the lively Michael Olise, and will be in contention to start vs Brighton
Bueno got a show of faith from Lopetegui last night, which was actually somewhat surprising.
Games against Palace usually tend to be physical battles. So it felt Toti was perhaps better suited to play.
But Lopetegui started Bueno – and the youngster did not let him down.
Ironically, it was actually Toti that struggled a little when he replaced Bueno. To be fair to the Portuguese, he was sent on when Palace were looking their most dangerous.
Undoubtedly, Lopetegui has a tough decision on his hands ahead of Saturday’s game with Brighton. But it’s certainly a good thing that he has two genuinely great options for one position.