Wolves journalist Tim Spiers has been speaking on the latest edition of The Molineux View podcast to discuss all things related to the Midlands club.
The Wanderers suffered defeat on the weekend in their visit to north London which saw Tottenham Hotspur run out comfortable 2-0 victors.
Do Wolves need a new midfielder this summer?
Yes
No
One topic of discussion on the podcast was the upcoming summer transfer window and how Nuno Espirito Santo and the Wolves hierarchy will approach their business.
Spiers discussed the midfield as an area in which Espirito Santo will look to address this summer given the drop off in performances seen by Ruben Neves.
In just one of Neves’ last seven games has the Portuguese international managed to score a rating of over 7.0 on WhoScored.
Discussing summer transfer dealings, Spiers had the following to say (10:09):
“I think Neves has tailed off, but I think he had a pretty good first few months to the season for me and he will still be in my top three players of the year. With [Pedro] Neto and [Rui] Patricio, probably.
“There’s not a wealth of candidates at all, but I think he sacrificed himself for the team probably more than we think. Like I say his tackle stats are great, he’s grown in stature and leadership, in terms of his influence in terms of passing and shooting you know your two basics he has tailed off in the last couple of months.
“That’s something they need to look out for in the summer. Does a bit of a break for these players mean they’re reinvigorated next season? I don’t think that they’ll take that risk.
“And I think they desperately need to bring someone into that midfield area, which I’m told that they’re looking at. So hopefully they’ll address it.”
TIF Thoughts on Spiers’ comments…
Spiers commented on the tail off in performances he has seen from Neves. When you look at the 24-year-old’s stats for this season it is evident to see he has played a huge role in Wolves’ season, despite the supposed drop.
Neves has played 2500 minutes in the Premier League alone and with that, it is not unexpected to see a dip in performances at this stage of the season because of potential fatigue.
If Wolves are to bring in a new midfielder this season it would unlikely be as a replacement for the Portuguese star but could help in Espirito Santo’s rotation options to prevent Neves from suffering another ‘burn out’ of any sort.
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