Jamie Redknapp believes Wolves star Rayan Ait-Nouri got his defending ‘completely wrong’ for Wolves on the first goal scored by Manchester City in Saturday’s 5-1 defeat.
Wanderers fell to another loss in the Premier League, with Gary O’Neil‘s side having been put to the sword by Erling Haaland.
The City number nine scored four times, with Julian Alvarez adding a fifth late on.
Hwang Hee-chan had made it 3-1, capitalising on a mistake by Ederson to give the visitors some hope. But City dashed Wolves’ hopes immediately, with Haaland scoring his fourth.
It was a bit of a footballing lesson for Wolves at times.
But fans are again speaking about some decisions that went against Wanderers. The opening goal has come under the spotlight a bit, with Ian Wright blasting the decision to award a penalty to City for Rayan Ait-Nouri‘s challenge on Josko Gvardiol.
For Jamie Redknapp though, the Algerian simply got his defending wrong…
Jamie Redknapp suggests Rayan Ait-Nouri lacked awareness on opening goal for Manchester City against Wolves
Wolves fans went up the Etihad optimistic about pulling off a shock result.
The Etihad Stadium is a ground Wolves have had success on before, and Wolves did win the reverse fixture back in September.
But the visitors got off to a bad start, when Ait-Nouri was deemed to have fouled Gvardiol in the area.
A penalty was given, and the decision was upheld by VAR, with Haaland converting the spot-kick. Plenty believe this was a very harsh call against Wolves.
But Redknapp chose to focus on the defending of Ait-Nouri, believing City were right to be awarded a penalty. He said on Sky Sports: “He needs to, as a defender, his body shape is completely wrong, and he also needs to be checking his shoulder at all times to see what’s coming behind him.
“He’s done it once, that isn’t enough. Your head has to be on a swivel at all times. As that ball comes in, he sees him so late.”
Ait-Nouri gave the referee a decision to make
The challenge from Ait-Nouri could have gone either way.
In a sense, the £10 million star is unlucky because Gvardiol takes a shot and then the contact comes. Quite possibly, the instant reaction of the City players put more pressure on the referee.
Ultimately, Ait-Nouri didn’t really know where Gvardiol was and needs to do a bit better in that situation.
But you can definitely sympathise with him, and it must have been tricky to have been defending from that side as opposed to his usual left-sided position.
It just wasn’t a good day at the office for Wolves. But Ait-Nouri – who is being chased by several top clubs at the moment – shouldn’t be too downbeat – he has been tremendous on the whole this season and will no doubt become a top player later in his career.
