Nuno Espirito Santo wants Wolves youngster Rayan Ait-Nouri to ‘speed up’ his English, after debuting for the club last week.
The teenager grabbed headlines by scoring on his debut against Crystal Palace and putting in a solid performance at Molineux.
Ait-Nouri was preferred to Romain Saiss at left wing-back, and played so well that he is probably favourite for the role again against Leicester City this Sunday.
That is certainly something a lot of fans want to see, and it remains to be seen if Nuno will put his faith in him once again.
The manager was pleased with the 19-year-old’s debut, but didn’t go overboard about him in his press conference and suggested some aspect he needs to work on, including one key thing.
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He said (official website): “He had his chance and he did well. The goal was the only thing that people really focused on, but this is not what we look at.
“He has a lot of things to improve, and he has to have the knowledge, the idea of the shape of the team, the complicity and then the communication. He needs to speed up his English, because that aspect is a big help.
“It’s not only Romain [Saiss], all the players who speak French, myself, it’s helping him, because inside of the pitch, he needs to communicate with all of the teammates, and he had to recognise the key words in terms of the dynamic of the team, when you defend, when you attack, there are key words that he needs to quickly understand and reproduce.”
Nuno right to demand more
Ait-Nouri did really well last week, but it’s good that Nuno has stated what he needs to work on.
Divulging such information publicly puts more pressure on Ait-Nouri to do what is being asked.
Hopefully the young star will soon get there with the language, as that will obviously be crucial in helping to work effectively with his teammates.