Former Molineux full-backs Andy Thompson and Lee Naylor believe one of Gary O’Neil’s key players has been looking ‘jaded’ for Wolves recently.
Wanderers fell to another defeat at the weekend, losing 2-1 to West Ham United.
After Pablo Sarabia gave Wolves the lead from the penalty spot in the first-half, West Ham turned the game around in the second through Lucas Paqueta and James Ward-Prowse.
There was controversy at the end when Max Kilman saw a goal ruled out by VAR, which deemed an offside Tawanda Chirewa to be interfering with goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski.
That decision has dominated the talk about the game, but Wolves need to improve. The second-half display was poor, which was something Mario Lemina was keen to point out after the game.
Speaking of Lemina, he is a player Thompson and Naylor think looks tired at the moment for Wolves…
Mario Lemina looks ‘jaded’ for Wolves, amid small squad struggles
After the draw with Burnley last week, O’Neil spoke about the size of his squad and how he expressed concerns about it to the board.
The manager is in a tough moment right now having had injuries to key players, and his crop are definitely being stretched.
Lemina is one of O’Neil’s main men and rarely gets a chance to rest. He’s recently had a couple of games where he’s cropped up on the left wing, which just shows where things are at right now.
Lemina has made 32 appearances across all competitions so far this term, for a total of 2727 minutes.
Andy Thompson and Lee Naylor were speaking on Wolves’ Matchday Live Extra show after Saturday’s game with West Ham, and agreed that the Gabon international has been looking tired of late.
Naylor said: “I think he has been (out of sorts) lately, if I’m honest.
Thompson added: “I said that to you. I think he probably looks a little bit jaded. I don’t know if it’s a mental or physical issue about playing in that role that didn’t suit him. I don’t know if he’s got his head around it, or he doesn’t want to play there or whatever.
“But he looked a lot more comfortable in midfield. Not in the way he has been. He’s a player who made a few mistakes in that second-half.”
Lemina dip is absolutely no surprise
It was perhaps inevitable that Lemina’s level would dip eventually.
He’s still been decent for Wolves in a tough period, but you can see that he isn’t quite the same driving force he was in the first half of the season.
As per WhoScored, only Kilman, Nelson Semedo and Jose Sa have played more Premier League minutes this season for Wolves than Lemina.
This is a natural by-product of Wolves having such a small squad. Lemina is a player who gets through an awful lot of running every game and he never gets a chance to rest up. It is little wonder he is starting to look a bit leggy.
But the £45,000-a-week warrior is certainly someone who is ‘allowed’ a dip, because he has turned in so many fantastic performances this term to help get Wolves to where they are.
The one hope for many Wolves fans would just be that he doesn’t do himself an injury. It would certainly be devastating to lose a player like him for the run-in.