Wolves journalist Liam Keen has given his thoughts on an incident surrounding Hwang Hee-chan during their most recent Premier League game.
The South Korean forward has made an impressive start to his time in England with Bruno Lage’s side, scoring four goals in his first 12 games since his summer move on loan from RB Leipzig – and had managed to keep himself out of trouble by not picking up a yellow card until last night’s game against Burnley.
However, things could have been a lot worse for him on a different day. He was involved in a clash with Burnley defender Matt Lowton, which saw both men receive a yellow card for their part in the matter, but speaking on the Express and Star YouTube channel after the game, Keen felt that it could very well have been a red card and that VAR probably wouldn’t have overturned it had Hwang been given his marching orders.
He said: “Having seen it in real time, it was right in front of us as well, I thought it was a red. Watching the replay, I can understand why it hasn’t been a red, I personally think it’s one of those situations with VAR where if the referee gives a red, they don’t overturn it; if he doesn’t give a red, they don’t overturn it.
“There’s some arguments you can say that the elbow from Lowton in the initial challenge wasn’t great either, but potentially a little bit lucky. Coming away with two yellows I think for both players is probably just about fair, but I can understand people feeling aggrieved.”
TIF Thoughts on Liam Keen’s comments about Hwang Hee-chan at Wolves…
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It certainly does come into the category of being an ‘orange card’ where it could have gone either way, and Hwang can consider himself lucky that he didn’t receive his marching orders, which not only would have left Wolves in trouble on the night, but potentially going forward as well.
As Wolves’ top scorer so far this season with his four goals, he’s clearly an important figure under Lage, with his strike partner Raul Jimenez praising him for how well he has adapted to the Premier League and the partnership that they seem to be developing together up top, while his absence for their next three games could really have hurt them as they look to continue their push up the table.
And on top of that, Wolves’ squad isn’t exactly in the best shape right now, with Lage only able to name eight players on the bench against Burnley, including two goalkeepers and a number of academy players, so his absence would have only stretched the resources at the squad even further.
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