Fernando Marcal has suggested the decision to turn to younger players recently may well have had an effect on Wolves’ form.
Wanderers were in contention to finish in the European places only a few weeks ago.
The club had a really strong period at the start of 2022, and a return to the Europa League was a definitely possibility.
But Wolves have had some really disappointing results in the past couple of months especially.
Wolves now cannot finish any higher than eighth going into the final game of the season against Liverpool.
That is a real shame considering the likes of Manchester United and West Ham United have also stuttered in recent times.
In the eyes of Marcal, Bruno Lage turning to players who are a bit younger might have affected momentum slightly.
He said in an interview with IG: “The season could definitely have gone better. I think we have a very good squad that could easily be already ranked for European competitions.
“But I think the club’s strategy in the middle of the season to put players a little younger to be able to also sell them ended up conditioning our performance in the race for European competitions.
“I also thank my people, because this year Thank God I didn’t have an injury. I did some work apart so that there was no injury, since last year I had to do three surgeries and hindered my work a lot and this year the goal was not to have any injuries and went well. But I ended up playing fewer games than expected due to the club’s strategy in selling the young players. We generally fall short of expectations.”
An interesting claim from Marcal about Wolves’ younger players
This is quite an intriguing remark from Marcal regarding Wolves’ strategy.
The £1.78 million man (BBC Sport) – who strongly suggested he is leaving Wolves in the same interview – is definitely right when he says the season could have gone better. Wolves were in such a good position a couple of months ago.
The team had real momentum behind it.
It’s difficult to pinpoint the exact reason for Wolves’ downfall in the final third of the season.
But arguably, the form of some of the senior players has had just as much of an effect as the younger players.