Plenty of players have absolutely thrived this season under Gary O’Neil at Wolves, but it’s safe to say that Jean-Ricner Bellegarde is still finding his feet at Molineux.
The Frenchman was Wanderers’ final signing of the 2023 summer transfer window, joining from Strasbourg on deadline day.
The sale of Matheus Nunes to Manchester City enabled the club to move for the 25-year-old, and Bellegarde actually had a pretty lively start.
He made his debut against Liverpool back in September and was arguably Wolves’ best player in the first-half.
After that game, captain Max Kilman revealed that Bellegarde had impressed everyone in training leading up to the game.
But just recently, Bellegarde has struggled a bit to make an impact – but it’s important for people to be patient with the star…
Jean-Ricner Bellegarde not being done any favours by Gary O’Neil
Last season, Bellegarde mainly operated central for Strasbourg, either as a box-to-box player or an attacking midfielder.
The star scored two goals and laid on nine assists for teammates.
Since arriving at Wolves, it has been rare that Bellegarde has played in the position he was so successful in at his previous club.
Up to now, Transfermarkt notes the Frenchman has played as a central midfielder just five times.
Bellegarde has played on both wingers and also, most recently, as a central striker – and this experiment hasn’t really worked so far.
Bellegarde recently started through the middle against United and was just really ineffective. It was an honest display and he worked hard, but he very much looked like a player playing out of position, and had zero shots at goal (via Sofascore).
Against Brentford after he’d replaced the injured Matheus Cunha, he had just one shot that was off target and attempted two dribbles, both of which were unsuccessful. As someone who is normally a good dribbler and ball carrier, it can be argued that he is being misused when he is deployed up top.
He would probably be best as the attacking player in a midfield three, but that would mean dropping a winger, which O’Neil may be reluctant to do.
Matt Hobbs said when he signed that Bellegarde is ‘athletic, technical and has ability to drive with the ball’, so it seemingly does not make sense to have him as the most advanced player in the team.
Patience required over Bellegarde, just like Cunha and Sarabia
So it’s been a bit of a mixed bag so far for Bellegarde.
There is clearly a player there, as we have seen his quality in glimpses.
But it just feels at the moment that he is not really making a major impact and it probably does boil down to him being asked to play in roles he’s not overly familiar with.
Wolves fans may need to have patience with him before we see his best level.
It took Matheus Cunha and Pablo Sarabia months to find their feet at Wolves and hopefully, Bellegarde can eventually prove himself a bargain at £13 million.