Gary O’Neil has hinted at a key squad change after Wolves’ 3-1 defeat to Crystal Palace in pre-season.
Wolves’ unbeaten start to pre-season came to an end on Thursday as Crystal Palace beat the Old Gold 3-1 in the United States.
A late goal from Santi Bueno wasn’t enough to cancel out Jeffrey Schlupp, Jordan Ayew and Asher Agbinone’s strikes, with plenty to take from the game.
Gary O’Neil will be encouraged by some of the things he saw against the Eagles, as he dropped one big hint ahead of the upcoming Premier League season.
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Gary O’Neil hints at possible Wolves vice-captain selection after Crystal Palace pre-season defeat
Speaking after the game, O’Neil admitted that it was a ‘good exercise’ for his players, who were unable to replicate the result they earned against West Ham.
The boss spoke highly of his players aside from the costly goalkeeping errors, with the most significant teaching from the game coming from Tommy Doyle.
Doyle wore the captain’s armband during the fixture, prompting O’Neil to discuss Wolves’ options for a vice-captain for the season ahead, via Wolves’ official website.
“We haven’t decided on a vice-captain, but Tommy’s good with the standards he sets.”
“He’s more than capable of wearing it and still performing as you saw, because he played well.”
After praising the 22-year-old’s leadership skills, the boss also made a claim for two other player’s chances of being vice-captain to Mario Lemina.
“I don’t like calling it a leadership group, but there will be people within the group who I’ll lean on because of how they are, and Tommy will be in and amongst those.
“Matheus [Cunha] and Nelson [Semedo] are missing and two leaders for the group, so I’m looking forward to getting the group back together.”
Solid leadership group is needed at Wolves
After bidding farewell to Max Kilman, O’Neil was forced to name a new captain, with Lemina being the clear choice to take the armband from the 27-year-old.
While Kilman played every minute of the 2023/24 Premier League season, there were reservations over how suited the Englishman was to being captain.
The likes of Lemina and Craig Dawson stood out as leaders on the pitch, making O’Neil’s decision far from complicated when selecting his new skipper.
Now, it appears that the manager has firm foundations to build his leadership pack on, with Doyle another clear leader on the pitch as seen against Palace.