Podcast pundit Dan Hughes has been airing his concerns about Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Portuguese left-wing back Ruben Vinagre.
Early in the first half of Wolves’ 1-0 victory over Olympiacos on Thursday night, Jonny Castro Otto had to leave the field through injury and he was replaced by Vinagre (via Birmingham Mail).
If Jonny is to miss the remainder of the Old Gold’s Europa League matches through injury, Vinagre would appear to be the Spaniard’s likely replacement as he is the only other out-and-out left-back in Wolves’ squad (per Transfermarkt).
However, in the latest episode of the Wolves Fancast, Hughes aired some concerns about the 21-year-old defender if he was to cover for Jonny for the remainder of their Europa League campaign, with their quarter-final fixture against Sevilla now looming.
He said: “I think it’s been said a few times now that [Conor] Coady has to sort of wake [Romain] Saiss up and [Willy] Boly up a few times.
“With Vinagre as well, he wants to be a left-winger, doesn’t he? He doesn’t want to be a left wing-back. He’s got no defensive mindset whatsoever.
“Then when he’s going to be up against Jesús Navas and Éver Banega, I do fear for him.
“Nuno [Espirito Santo] might need to rejig it. I mean, who have we even got that can play left-back?”
TIF Thoughts…
Seemingly, Hughes believes that Vinagre is much more suited to playing further up the pitch as he does not have the defensive abilities to play as a left-wing back.
Would you say that Ruben Vinagre is not good enough defensively?
Yes, I don't think he is
No, he's good enough
When comparing the Portuguese player’s defensive statistics against Jonny’s from the 2019/20 Premier League season, that disparity in defensive ability is apparent.
During the league season, Jonny made 2.6 tackles and 1.5 interceptions per game whereas Vinagre made only 1.4 tackles and 0.7 interceptions per match (per WhoScored).
So, evidently, Hughes’ point that Vinagre is a defensively weaker option than Jonny is a valid one.