Wolves lost to Manchester City on Sunday, but there was an inspired showing from Jose Sa in goal.
Sa has been on the bench for the past few weeks with Gary O’Neil opting to get new signing Sam Johnstone straight into the team.
Johnstone was signed for around £10 million, which was a transfer that raised eyebrows.
Some did not feel that Johnstone was much of an upgrade on Sa. But the deal was done, and Johnstone has been O’Neil’s go-to.
But on Sunday, Johnstone was not in Wolves’ matchday squad to face Man City due to injury, meaning a recall to the starting XI for Sa.
Wolves lost the game in a gutting fashion, but Sa produced a tremendous performance.
Quite simply, he cannot be dropped against Brighton.
Jose Sa deserves to start against Brighton after Man City heroics
For Sa to come in against City and produce that kind of performance after a tough past few weeks really shows great character.
The Portuguese cannot have been comfortable with Johnstone coming in and immediately displacing him.
Had he not been on top form, it could have gotten ugly for Wolves against City. He made five saves in total, with two coming from shots inside the area (via Sofascore).
Sa was hailed by Alan Shearer for his ‘incredible’ saves against City, and many fans piled praise on him on social media after the game.
But O’Neil then made some interesting post-match comments about Sa. Asked if Sa had given him a selection headache, the Wolves manager said: “No headache. Johnstone was injured today, yes.
“Not a headache, Jose has trained very well since Sam came in. He’s been excellent. Sam was injured today but Jose was always ready and put in a real good performance.”
Some fans felt O’Neil’s comments about Sa were ‘disrespectful’, perceiving them to mean that he will be recalling Johnstone despite such a great display from Sa.
O’Neil will anger many Wolves fans by dropping Sa
If O’Neil’s plan is to recall Johnstone for the next game against Brighton, then that will be highly controversial.
Because Johnstone has yet to keep a clean sheet since his transfer to Molineux, and many do not feel he has started particularly well.
It would send out a very strange message to drop Sa, after he played as well as he did against the Premier League champions of the last four years and one of the most potent sides in world football, no less.
Some are just not going to accept Johnstone being brought straight back in.
It would be somewhat understandable if Johnstone had actually made a decent enough start but in his five appearances so far, few can really understand why he was signed. He has been OK at times, but at no point has shown himself to be a major upgrade on Sa.
So O’Neil is playing with fire here – if he recalls a fit-again Johnstone against Brighton and he performs poorly and Wolves don’t get a result, fans will be very disgruntled.