Former Wolves midfielder Dave Edwards has identified how Gary O’Neil can make his side more of a threat next season.
Wolves have just one game remaining of the 2023/24 campaign, in what has been an impressive year for Gary O’Neil’s side in the manager’s first season at Molineux.
The Englishman has shown the club just how far the current squad can go, with the summer now poised to be critical to enable the boss to further his depth.
While a lot of the attention in the summer will be on acquiring and retaining quality players, former Wolves midfielder Dave Edwards has pointed at a particular goal that O’Neil must aim to hit next season.
Dave Edwards says having better fitness in attack will be Gary O’Neil’s goal at Wolves next season
Reacting to Wolves’ lacklustre 3-1 defeat to Crystal Palace last weekend, Edwards pinpointed one thing that went wrong for the Old Gold.
The manager has struggled with fitness in his attack throughout the season, with limited depth becoming detrimental to form, something that Edwards acknowledged in his column for Express and Star.
‘Wolves played two up front and it did not quite work but, with Pedro Neto out injured, O’Neil is limited with what options he does have.’
The former Old Gold midfielder then pointed at the lack of fitness shown in the front line as an area that O’Neil will hope to see improve next season.
‘That will be the goal next season, having a fully fit Hwang Hee-chan, a fully-fit Matheus Cunha and hopefully having Neto at the club too. If they are available they could be a real threat.’
Having the trio fit is integral to Gary O’Neil
It’s a great shame that Wolves have suffered so many injury hiccups over the season in the front line, with Pedro Neto, Matheus Cunha and Hwang Hee-chan all absent at times during the campaign.
In the instances that the manager has had some of his forwards fit, Wolves have seen a remarkable improvement in attack in comparison to last season.
Last term, the Old Gold were the Premier League’s lowest scorers, netting just 31 goals in 38 games, a tally that was eclipsed on matchday 22 by O’Neil’s side.
A lot of Wolves’ recent dip in form comes down to the successive injuries of those leading the line, with Neto, Cunha and Hwang’s absences leaving an unfillable void in the squad.
Edwards’ claims that having the trio available more next season would make Wolves a bigger threat ring true, considering that remarkably, the three players have 45 goal contributions in the Premier League between them this term.
To put that into perspective, only five of Wolves’ goals in the league in 2023/24 have been sourced without the intervention of Hwang, Cunha or Neto with a goal or an assist, telling of how integral they are to O’Neil’s project.