Matheus Cunha and Rayan Ait-Nouri are players Wolves undoubtedly miss – but there’s someone else who left in the summer who the incoming Rob Edwards may wish was still around.
Wolves are rock-bottom of the Premier League table, having taken just two points from 11 games.
It’s been a nightmare season so far, but fans will now hope the tide will turn with the appointment of Rob Edwards.
Edwards has a lot of things he needs to fix.
And one of the main issues right now for Wolves is that the team is lacking creativity, having scored the fewest goals of any Premier League side so far.
Jorgen Strand Larsen in particular has been disappointing. But arguably, the service to him has been very poor.
Much has been made of how Wolves miss Cunha and Ait-Nouri, two game-changing players who delivered consistently in the final third.
But there’s another player who hasn’t been spoken about anywhere near as much who Wolves also miss – and that man is Pablo Sarabia.
Wolves miss Pablo Sarabia amid creativity crisis
Sarabia joined Wolves in January 2023 on the watch of Julen Lopetegui, and at the time, fans couldn’t quite believe he’d been signed.
The Spaniard was vastly experienced, and had played for top clubs as well as his country.
To land him for just over £4 million was seen as great business.
In the end, Sarabia probably didn’t shine as often as some would have liked, and many felt he was not overly suited to the Premier League and its physicality.
He could frustrate, but there was no denying Sarabia was another player who could just make things happen, and conjure up chances out of nowhere.
In the 2023/24 season he came to life for Wolves, and finished the campaign with four goals and 10 assists to his name. And last term, he chipped in with two goals and three assists.
Last term he had a shot-creating actions per 90 metric of 3.10, which is higher than what Rodrigo Gomes (2.70), Hwang Hee-chan (2.20), Jean-Ricner Bellegarde (1.88), and Jhon Arias (2.80) have managed this season (via fbref).
Sarabia may have struggled physically at times, but he was often superb from a technical point of view. Gary O’Neil recently claimed Sarabia was like a coach on the pitch for Wolves due to his intelligence.
Right now, Wolves are missing that player who can unpick locks, and actually provide higher quality chances. Many felt it was probably right for Sarabia to move on when his contract expired, but it’s hard to argue that his exit isn’t now being felt.
Sarabia also came in clutch for Wolves with important goals. His stunner against Tottenham Hotspur two years ago at Molineux was a beauty, and his free-kick against Manchester United at Old Trafford also won’t be forgotten in a hurry.
Vitor Pereira wanted Pablo Sarabia to stay at Wolves
There was always a strong chance Sarabia would leave Wolves in the summer of 2025, since his contract was expiring.
He hadn’t been a nailed-on starter, and there were opportunities for him to go elsewhere and receive a large signing-on fee, as well as another big salary.
And a few weeks after leaving Molineux, Sarabia joined Qatari side Al-Arabi, for whom he has already scored three goals and made two assists in 10 appearances.
Interestingly, Vitor Pereira did actually suggest he wanted to keep Sarabia at Wolves, saying back in May: “Sarabia I like him. I like his personality and quality, we will try to do our best but at this moment I don’t have the answer.
“We must wait, sometimes we are a bit impatient but we need to respect the timing of the players and the club.”
But the silky Spaniard moved on, and Wolves are still trying to find a solution to their creativity crisis.