Vitor Pereira has been urged by Andy Thompson to drop one of his best Wolves players after his poor performance against Chelsea.
Wolves crashed to a 3-1 defeat in west London, with poor defending once again proving costly.
Wolves conceded two more goals from set-pieces, to make it 19 for the season in the Premier League.
It’s an issue that has dogged Wolves all campaign, and Vitor Pereira certainly has his work cut out moving forward.
The level of defending in general this year has been woeful at times.
There were back-to-back clean sheets when Pereira first came in and fans hoped there would be an upturn.
But Wolves are struggling again, and the defenders are coming under the microscope. For Andy Thompson, Pereira must now drop Rayan Ait-Nouri.
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Andy Thompson says Rodrigo Gomes must replace Rayan Ait-Nouri against Arsenal
Wolves fans criticised Ait-Nouri for his performance against Chelsea, feeling that he was lazy at times and struggled with his positioning.
He did not cover himself in any glory on the goal scored by Marc Cucurella, getting caught between the Spaniard and Pedro Neto.
Ait-Nouri had started at left wing-back, but was struggling so much against Noni Madueke – just as he did in the reverse fixture – that Pereira swapped him and Nelson Semedo over after 20 minutes.
Ait-Nouri has done well in the final third this season, making nine goal contributions.
But there have again been question marks over his defending, and Thompson believes the player looks tired and should now be dropped.
He said on Matchday Live Extra: “It might be time to give Ait-Nouri a little bit of a rest. Rodrigo Gomes could play left-back. He’s come up against a player who’s caused him massive problems, Madueke.
“It’s knocked his confidence, he didn’t look himself. I want to see Ait-Nouri, the player who runs freely with the ball, keeps going and attacking, goes past players. At the minute, he just seems like he’s lost that bit of an edge or little bit of confidence in his play.
“I just think maybe it might be time. You saw Rodrigo Gomes come on, he’s full of energy, he’s willing to get past and try, he’s quick and direct.”
Thompson is right, Ait-Nouri should be dropped vs Arsenal
After his performance against Chelsea, it’s hard to make a case for Ait-Nouri to start against Arsenal this weekend.
The Algerian has done well in attacking areas this season. But Wolves need to do something about the alarming rate at which they’re conceding goals.
£10 million man Ait-Nouri has struggled defensively again, and Rodrigo is worth a start at left wing-back.
He’s looked like one of Wolves’ best players in recent weeks, and is arguably better than Ait-Nouri defensively, despite being a natural winger. But we all know he played as a wing-back last season on loan at Estoril.
Ait-Nouri does appear a bit jaded at the moment, so Pereira should hand the Portuguese youngster a chance in his place.
Pereira seems to be a fan of Rodrigo and recently branded him a player for the present, so fans may well see the Wolves manager make this particular change.