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Wolves: Tim Spiers airs his surprise over Nuno Espirito Santo decision

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Image for Wolves: Tim Spiers airs his surprise over Nuno Espirito Santo decision

The Athletic’s Wolverhampton Wanderers correspondent Tim Spiers has aired that he was “surprised” at a decision which was made by Nuno Espirito Santo.

During the latest round of Premier League fixtures, the Old Gold travelled to Turf Moor on Monday evening and were beaten 2-1 by Sean Dyche’s Burnley (per Transfermarkt).

In the first half, Ashley Barnes opened the scoring for the Clarets and the two sides went in at the half-time break with the Old Gold trailing 1-0.

Despite Wolves trailing the hosts at half-time, Nuno Santo did not make any changes to his Wolves side until the 60th minute.

During the latest episode of The Athletic’s The Molineux View podcast, Spiers aired that he was “surprised” that the Old Gold’s manager made no changes at half-time. (7:28)

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To kick off this quiz on Romain Saiss, what squad number does the defensive midfielder currently wear for the Old Gold?

He said: “I could see the logic, I could see, in theory, what he was trying to do but it didn’t work and why’s he not changed it at half-time?

“I was really surprised he didn’t change it at half-time, especially seen as [Owen] Otasowie got booked just before the break and I just assumed he would not reappear for the second half.

“Not necessarily a reflection on his effort levels, he tried his best, [had] a couple of nice touches, [he] tried a bit of link-up play but generally he was getting bullied by [James] Tarkowski and [Ben] Mee.

“I was surprised he didn’t change it at half-time. He brings [Fabio] Silva and [Adama] Traore on [at] 60 minutes and there was an improvement for the last half an hour.

“In hindsight, I’d like to see what he would have done differently from the start of the game because what he did just didn’t quite work.”

TIF Thoughts on what Tim Spiers said about Nuno Santo’s lack of change at half-time…

As can be seen in what the reporter had to say, he was “surprised” that Wolves did not make a change at half-time because it was not working during the first half.

Should Nuno Espirito Santo have made changes at half-time against Burnley?

No, he should not have

No, he should not have

Yes, he should have

Yes, he should have

The main player which Spiers highlighted was Otasowie and looking at his rating from the match, it is clear to see why the journalist felt that a change was needed.

In the defeat, the 19-year-old defensive midfielder picked up a weak 6.11/10 average rating and was the Old Gold’s third-worst player to start the match (per WhoScored).

Furthermore, with Wolves having conceded again shortly after half-time, it is clear that they were made to rue the decision not to make alterations at the break.

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