Wolves journalist Liam Keen has praised the performance of defender Rayan Ait-Nouri for his role in the club’s victory over Everton.
The 20-year-old has found playing time at Molineux very hard to come by over the past two seasons. He was in and out of the side last season following his initial loan move from Angers SCO, and even when the move was made permanent this past summer, his struggles continued as he’d only made three starts under Bruno Lage before last night’s clash, two of which were in the Carabao Cup.
However, he made very good use of his opportunity against the Toffees, completing 83% of his passes, with two key passes thrown in as part of it, completing four dribbles, winning two aerial duels and bagging an assist for Wolves’ first goal on the night as they won 2-1 to move up to 7th in the Premier League table (all stats via WhoScored).
And speaking about him on the Express and Star YouTube page, Keen praised the Frenchman for his effort on the night, with particular focus on what he brings to the side going forward:
“I thought he was very good today, defensively good; going forward, he offers something very, very different to Marcal, who’s not great going forward, let’s be honest. He gets the crowd on their feet, and that’s what you need.”
TIF Thoughts on Liam Keen’s comments about Rayan Ait-Nouri at Wolves…
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So far this season, Brazilian defender Marçal has had the left-back spot pretty much to himself, and with Jonny also on the road to recovery, the competition in that position is going to be even greater moving forward once he comes back into the squad.
Given his struggles when it comes to playing in the first team, it was always going to be important for Ait-Nouri to take any opportunity that he was given, and he appears to have done exactly that with his performance on Monday night.
The only question now is going to be whether or not he’ll be able to keep his place. There’s still a lot of games left this season, but for the time being at least, seeing as he didn’t put much of a foot wrong in their last game, Ait-Nouri should hold onto the role for their next game against Crystal Palace this weekend.
In other news: Journalist claims ‘there’s potential’ for playmaker to return to Wolves