Wolves fans have been rocked by the news that Yerson Mosquera is set to miss the rest of the season through injury.
The Colombia international sustained a serious knee injury in the defeat to Aston Villa.
After leaving the field on a stretcher, it has now been confirmed that Mosquera has sustained damage to both his MCL and ACL, leaving fans gutted.
It is a major shame for Mosquera, who had been one of Wolves‘ best performers in the opening weeks of the new season.
He will now start his long road to recovery, and Wolves will try to manage without him.
There has been a lot of talk about how Wolves should now proceed – and it may well be that a formation change now makes a lot of sense.
O’Neil should now consider three-man defence and wing-backs for Wolves
So far this season, Wolves have been leaky at the back.
It is 14 goals conceded in just five Premier League games so far, and fans have been concerned about how shaky the defence has looked.
That said, Mosquera and Craig Dawson had started to look decent as a pairing.
But Mosquera is now unavailable for the foreseeable, and this might be the thing that prompts Gary O’Neil to revert to a back three.
He has lost his best defender, and he might just feel that playing Dawson, Santiago Bueno and Toti Gomes gives more protection.
Arguably, setting up in this way would also get the best out of Nelson Semedo and Rayan Ait-Nouri in particular.
Ait-Nouri has not started the new season well, and is quite clearly more comfortable as a wing-back.
This would not be without risk, of course. Playing all three centre-backs at once could eventually become a concern fitness-wise. But it’s Wolves’ bread and butter, and has been for number of years, and the situation is starting to call for it.
It worked out for O’Neil last season
Last season, Wolves fans saw O’Neil start the season playing a back four, before reverting to a back three and wing-backs.
He did this when Manchester City came to Molineux at the end of September. Wolves won that game 2-1, and it was the catalyst for change.
We have reached the end of September again, and Wolves find themselves in a very similar position to last season.
There is a real need to become more defensively solid, and going to a back three might just be the solution, as much as it might go against what he really wants.
But he needs points on the board. As Andy Thompson said recently, Wolves need to become more results-focused now and start winning ugly.