Gary O’Neil was left frustrated after seeing Wolves lose to Bournemouth – and the manager was handed a fresh problem during last night’s match.
Wolves lost 1-0 to the Cherries at Molineux, with Antoine Semenyo scoring the goal for the visitors.
Bournemouth were worth their win, with Wolves way off the pace. Gary O’Neil admitted after the game that it was one of the worst performances of the season.
Wolves seemed tired and disjointed. Despite having key players back, there was no real quality or cohesion, especially in the first-half.
It was a tough watch, and the controversial decision to rule out Hwang Hee-chan‘s goal in the second-half just added to the frustrations.
Matheus Cunha was adjudged to have fouled Justin Kluivert in the build-up, and the goal was chalked off leading to a deafening reaction from the Molineux faithful.
A bad night at the office then, and O’Neil dropped even more bad news after the game…
Wolves down to just two centre-backs as Santiago Bueno suffers hamstring injury
With Craig Dawson out for the rest of the season after undergoing surgery, there was another start in defence for summer signing Santiago Bueno.
The Uruguay international has started to see a bit more involvement recently with Dawson out of the picture, and he’s been improving by the game.
Last night though, he only lasted until half-time, before being replaced by Matt Doherty. Nelson Semedo pushed inside to play as a right centre-back to accommodate the Republic of Ireland international.
Bueno had to be withdrawn because he picked up a hamstring injury.
O’Neil said (via the Express & Star): “We lost Santi today to a hamstring, which is disappointing. Not a big hamstring – he wanted to give it a go after half-time but felt we couldn’t lose anymore for a sustained period.
“That would leave only Max and Toti available for us in those positions, and for a team that plays with three centre-backs to have two fit would be tricky – but it is the situation we are in.”
Bueno injury is a major blow
So Wolves are currently now down to just two fit centre-backs. Bueno’s setback doesn’t sound too serious, but it’s another big concern for the manager.
Proceeding with just Kilman and Toti is far from ideal. The pair have not played as a centre-back pairing very often, with Toti mostly operating as a left-sided centre-back or left-back.
Arguably, the jury is still out on him playing in the middle of a back four.
Hopefully, Bueno can recover as quickly as possible from his hamstring injury. He has been doing fairly well recently and it would be a great shame if he had to join Dawson on the sidelines for a period.