Newcastle may have come away with the three points, but Wolves looked far better in this match, and something Vitor Pereira tried could be worth continuing this season.
Vitor Pereira fielded a very different Wolves lineup from what we expected on Saturday.
Five changes were made from the Everton match, with Ladislav Krejci and Tolu Arokdare making their debuts.
Pereira also opted for a striker partnership and three bodies in the midfield.
None of these changes hurt Wolves’ performance, and one particular adjustment actually looked like it could work well moving forward.
Vitor Pereira tried out something new with Wolves’ wing-backs
The team news was already a point of intrigue for fans with so much change, but it wasn’t until kick-off that we saw Pereira’s plan for Hugo Bueno and Rodrigo Gomes.
The two wing-backs played on the opposite flank to what we have seen so far this season.
Gomes played on the left a number of times last season, but Bueno took up an unfamiliar role on the right.
There’s an argument to be made that these were Wolves’ best performers on the day, suggesting this could be an approach we see more of this season.
Bueno dominated the stat sheet once again, leading Wolves in duels won, chances created, crosses made, and touches in the opposition box.
Having scored in his previous two games, Gomes looked dangerous cutting in from the left, almost continuing the streak within the first ten seconds of play and coming close again on a couple of occasions.
Wolves’ new wing-backs will find it tough to break into Pereira’s starting XI
When Rayan Ait-Nouri and Nelson Semedo departed this summer, Wolves looked to the market for replacements.
David Moller Wolfe and Jackson Tchatchoua were brought in for roughly £10 million each, and it was expected that they would be first-choice on each wing.
But Bueno and Gomes have been some of Wolves’ most consistent performers, creating chances and scoring goals without suffering on the defensive side of the ball.
Pereira hasn’t been given reason to drop either of them, and given the versatility they have shown, he may elect to continue picking them to start.
That being said, the new signings haven’t done much wrong so far, and once they have had the time to settle and acclimatise to the Premier League, there could be plenty of selection headaches for the Wolves boss in wide areas.