Sky Sports pundit Tony Cascarino has hammered Wolves manager Nuno Espirito Santo for not choosing to target James Milner in the Liverpoold defence during their 2-0 defeat to the Premier League table toppers.
Goals from Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk secured all three points for the Reds at Molineux, which keeps them top of the table heading into Christmas.
With Jurgen Klopp choosing to rotate a number of his players, Trent Alexander-Arnold ruled out through injury, it was Milner who took the role on the right of defence and Cascarino, who is a regular feature on Sky Sports’ Daily programme, hammered Nuno for not taking advantage of the makeshift cover.
He wrote in his column for the Times: “Wolves gave Liverpool a good game and this was an impressive result for the league leaders when you consider that Chelsea’s unbeaten run ended at Molineux and Manchester City drew there early in the season.
“But the home side failed to make the most of James Milner playing at right back.
“Milner is a brilliant player who is experienced and great on the ball but he’s not a full back and as soon as they saw the Liverpool teamsheet Wolves should have had Adama Traoré on the left wing running at Milner and trying to use his pace. They did switch him to that side of the pitch but it was too late.”
Opinion
Nuno has not got a lot wrong this season, especially when it comes to setting his side up against the big boys of the Premier League, but not trying to make more of Milner’s position at right back will go down in hindsight as a costly error. Adama Traore has bags of pace and while Milner is an experienced top flight stalwart he does not have the physicality to compete with the Wolves man. Had he been up against him for the full 90 minutes then the English utility man could well have been torn to shreds. Instead he had a much calmer evening on Friday and was able to help his team on the way to victory. This is something for Nuno to consider moving forward and you can be sure that if there is a weak spot in an opposition back line then the likes of Traore will be told to take full advantage from the first whistle.