Wolves have been brilliant to watch at times this season – and now a very interesting statistic has come to light with 10 Premier League games to go.
The Molineux faithful has been pleasantly surprised this term, following a summer of chaos.
A host of players were sold, and Julen Lopetegui walked away from the club just days before the start of the new season.
It was a recipe for disaster – but in came Gary O’Neil and, to the surprise of many, he has Wolves challenging for European football by the end of March, and took the team to an FA Cup quarter-final.
Wolves fans have particularly been enjoying Wolves’ style under O’Neil, with many players really good at carrying the ball.
Wolves are great at advancing the ball up to the penalty area, which perhaps explains one statistic that has emerged…
Wolves haven’t scored a single goal from outside the penalty area in the Premier League so far
The likes of Matheus Cunha, Pedro Neto and Rayan Ait-Nouri love nothing more than to make space and stretch their legs.
They are all quick, and dribble the ball extremely well and this makes it quite easy for them to advance the ball into the opposition penalty area.
Given this directness, it is perhaps understandable that Wolves actually haven’t scored a single goal from outside the box so far in the Premier League.
They are the only side across Europe’s top five leagues who haven’t, which is pretty remarkable.
Tommy Doyle did score a stunning goal from just outside the area in the first FA Cup clash with Brentford back in January. But as far as the Premier League goes, Wolves have no goals from outside the box so far.
O’Neil may want this to change
This is a clear indicator of the way Wolves play these days.
There is a lot of emphasis on players getting the ball up to the penalty area, with speedy players getting beyond the opposition defence and cutting the ball across.
It’s been great to watch and obviously, Wolves have been punching above their weight in the Premier League.
But O’Neil will likely want this statistic to change. He will hope that his players can still produce the goods from further out, because it won’t always be possible to score from inside the box, especially when other teams deploy low blocks.
Wolves previously had Ruben Neves who was obviously very adept at shooting from outside the box. But Molineux probably needs a new answer to the Portuguese icon.