Wolves fans are delighted the club finally announced Julen Lopetegui as the club’s new first-team manager at the weekend.
The 56-year-old is the successor to Bruno Lage, and he will be starting work officially next Monday.
He has a huge job on his hands.
It’s been a really poor start to the new season from Wolves, and a lot of players have been way below standard this term.
Lopetegui’s arrival will hopefully light a fire beneath everyone, and we can see the true potential of this squad be realised.
Here are three players in particular who could enjoy new leases of life under the Spaniard…
Adama Traore
Since the departure of Bruno Lage, Traore has become much more involved for Wolves.
Before he was named on the bench against Brighton, he had started six Premier League games in a row for Wanderers.
He was among the nominees for Player of the Month for October, underlining his importance as a key player to the team in recent times.
But it still feels as though Traore can go up a few levels.
It mainly boils down to his end product, which has really always been the case with him.
On Loptegui’s official website, he says: “There are times in which it is impossible to counter-attack, and there are others in which counter-attacking is a fantastic solution. It all depends on the context.”
Arguably, there is no better player than Traore when it comes to counter-attacking, and Lopetegui might just be the man to finally get the very best out of his fellow countryman.
Goncalo Guedes
Guedes has really underwhelmed for Wolves so far, but he had his best game for the club on Saturday against Brighton.
He looked really threatening, and was fouled several times.
Fans want to see more of that from Guedes, and between getting his first goal and Lopetegui coming in, he could really start to find his feet from here on in.
Lopetegui has a bit of prior knowledge about Guedes having obviously managed Sevilla.
He has seen him up close several times over the years for Valencia, and he might be someone he’s looking forward to working with and not against.
Guedes is a hugely talented player. For whatever reason it hasn’t really worked out so far. But a new lease of life could be on the horizon for him with Lopetegui.
Matheus Nunes
Nunes, Wolves’ other marquee signing this summer, has also been a bit disappointing so far.
You can tell he’s got potential to be an absolutely top player. But we’ve only really seen his quality in glimpses so far.
Arguably, he hasn’t really been used in his best position, which is as a number 8. The insistence has been to have Nunes in and around the final third, but that doesn’t take advantage of his ability to dribble through the lines from deeper positions before moving the ball on.
If Lopetegui can get Nunes playing, then Wolves will really be in business.
Hopefully, the Spaniard does recognise that his role does need a slight tweak.