Andy Thompson believes there was one Wolves player whose body language indicated that he was not comfortable during Saturday’s game with Aston Villa.
Wanderers fell to a 2-0 defeat at Villa Park – and it was a result that quite a few Wolves fans had anticipated coming into the game.
Wolves are very depleted at the moment, with Pedro Neto and Hwang-Hee chan both out for weeks, and Craig Dawson still not fit to play.
Matheus Cunha had a chance of playing yesterday, but ultimately the club decided not to risk him, with Gary O’Neil starting youngster Leon Chiwome.
It is a case of square pegs in round holes at the moment, and one man who played out of position for most of Saturday’s game was Mario Lemina…
Andy Thompson says Mario Lemina did not look comfortable against Aston Villa
O’Neil decided to deploy Mario Lemina in a wide left role on Saturday.
This followed Lemina playing there for a period of time against Fulham before the international break.
The Gabon international was outstanding against the Cottagers – but he did not have the same success against Villa.
It was tricky for Lemina as his natural instinct is to come inside. He did this a few times and Ezri Konsa had a lot of space on the right side for Villa as a result.
Lemina cut a frustrated figure at times, and Thompson believes the 30-year-old found the going tough.
He said on Wolves’ Matchday Live Extra show: “His body language wasn’t great, was it? He worked hard, but you could see that he wasn’t comfortable where he was.
“You saw him straight away, when he goes into that central midfield position when we made the substitutions, he looked a lot more relaxed and comfortable in his natural positions. I was very surprised he didn’t play Ait-Nouri in the position where he was.”
Lemina decision was strange
Lemina obviously had a very good outing against Fulham, when he moved out to the left.
But it was always going to be difficult to replicate that kind of level against a better team in Villa.
£45,000-a-week star Lemina didn’t look comfortable out wide, and then Wolves didn’t have his tenacity and combativeness in the middle.
It perhaps would have made more sense to play with Ait-Nouri as a left winger, with someone like Hugo Bueno or Matt Doherty at left wing-back.