Gary O’Neil will have been thinking long and hard about what Wolves team to put out against Liverpool this weekend – and Fabio Silva might just have put forward a very strong case to start.
The manager has been putting some of his squad through their paces in the last week or so, with others away with their national teams.
It is a valuable period for O’Neil, who arrived at Molineux just a couple of days before the new season after Julen Lopetegui left.
He is very much still working out his best team and system.
The performance against Crystal Palace just the international break wasn’t great, and one man who struggled in that game was striker Silva.
However, he might just have sent a very timely message to O’Neil…
Fabio Silva’s productive international break might just mean he starts vs Liverpool
Silva found it tough at Selhurst Park.
He didn’t get into the game much, and when the ball did come to him he didn’t hold it up the best.
He made some decent runs though, but the service into him wasn’t good.
It was a showing that would have put his starting berth against Liverpool in jeopardy.
But the youngster has had a very productive international break with the Portugal U21s.
Silva has played games against Andorra and Belarus – and made a significant impact in both games.
Against Andorra he grabbed a goal and an assist.
And then earlier today against Belarus, he scored twice and made two fantastic backheel assists.
Message sent
It is very possible O’Neil was thinking about making a change to Wolves’ attack for the Liverpool game.
Silva just didn’t cut it against Palace, and then Hwang Hee-chan came on and made an instant impact.
Sasa Kalajdzic has also been looking pretty useful in the early weeks of the season.
But Silva’s two showings for the Portugal U21s might just encourage the Wolves boss to stick with his number nine.
He’s said that Silva will play a big part for him this season.
And we will see on Saturday just how much he trusts in him. It would definitely be a big show of faith from O’Neil if he did give Silva the nod against an in-form Liverpool side.