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This article is part of Football FanCast’s The Chalkboard series, which provides a tactical insight into teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…
The international break is now underway for Premier League clubs – which should be a sigh of relief for Wolves considering they have played ten competitive fixtures already this season.
On top of a pre-season tour to China, Nuno Santo’s side have competed in six Europa League ties and played four Premier League matches.
Their game against Burnley was the first time they showed any real signs of fatigue as they needed a 96th minute penalty from Raul Jimenez to salvage a point.
Meanwhile, this weekend they were defeated for the first time this season in a 3-2 loss at Everton as the Portuguese manager rung the changes.
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Some of their squad will now earn a break, but because of their recent exploits including a seventh-place finish in the league last season, others will also venture around the globe for their respective nations.
When the players return from their national team duties, Nuno will need to adapt how he does things if they are to cope with the added strain of the Europa League group stages on top of this Premier League season.
On the Chalkboard
We highlighted on Football FanCast earlier this week how defensive the Wolves team appeared against Everton as Joao Moutinho didn’t start the game – he’s one of their most vital creative outlets.
There’s no issue in rotating your side, but it is how you set them out to achieve the goal of ultimately winning all three points.
It wasn’t good enough against Everton because they lacked so much in the final third – recording just 108 of their 321 passes in that zone and registering 8 shots.
Below is the heatmap from Ruben Neves in that match, per WhoScored.
You can see just how deep he is sitting – 34 of his 52 passes in the match were in his own half.
It is true that the 22-year-old is a defensive midfielder but he can offer a lot in attack too.
The Portuguese international has scored ten goals across his last two seasons with his only strike so far in the Premier League this campaign being a scorcher against Manchester United, which rescued them a point at Molineux.
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You want him to be getting into those positions more often, especially when you are playing without Moutinho for example.
Defensive duties shouldn’t be an issue as you’ve got Romain Saiss, a defensive-minded player by trade, whose primary role is being able to sit deep as well as Leander Dendoncker, who usually plays alongside Neves.
As a result, it allows the playmaking ability of Moutinho to shine through in this team.
Without him, however, they are lacking and that means that Neves should take on his role when absent.
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