Wolves suffered their 17th Premier League defeat on Tuesday night. The Old Gold were beaten at home by Fulham.
Despite welcoming Fulham to Molineux following a 1-0 win over Bournemouth last weekend, Vitor Pereira’s Wolves were beaten 2-1 by Fulham.
Although Joao Gomes equalised in the first half after Ryan Sessegnon opened the scoring after just one minute, Wolves were unable to take anything after Rodrigo Muniz netted the winner shortly after the half-time break.
Even though Fulham deserved their win, The Athletic’s Steve Madeley believes one player’s absence had a significant impact on the result.
READ: What Wolves fans did to Raul Jimenez and Adama Traore at Molineux after Fulham defeat
Santi Bueno not good enough during Wolves defeat
Pereira’s starting Wolves 11 against Fulham saw the 56-year-old name an unchanged side to the one who beat the Cherries last time out.
Emmanuel Agbadou is still sidelined after injuring himself against Liverpool earlier in the month, and Madeley believes the Ivorian’s absence impacts Wolves’ defensive resilience with Santiago Bueno unable to fill in.
“The absence of key January signing Emmanuel Agbadou was felt keenly. His replacement, Santiago Bueno, found it impossible at times to meet the physical challenge posed by Rodrigo Muniz,” Madeley wrote in The Athletic.
“It is difficult, for example, to imagine the aggressive, front-footed Agbadou allowing Muniz to hold the ball up and link play as easily as he did for Ryan Sessegnon’s opening goal.”
It’s tough to argue with Madeley when Bueno’s performance against Fulham saw him put in another sub-par showing.
Look better with Emmanuel Agbadou
Even though Agbadou only joined Wolves in January, he has already had a big impact on how the side plays.
Strong and very aggressive in his approach to defending, the former Stade Reims centre-back helps shape Pereira’s three-man backline.
Unfortunately, Bueno just doesn’t possess the same kind of physicality — the South American is a totally different type of defender, and one, considering how action-packed the Premier League is, that doesn’t really fit the system.
Sadly, with Agbadou ruled out, Pereira has very few options at the back, and Bueno is the smarter selection ahead of newcomer and inexperienced Nasser Djiga.