Mateus Mané

Even though none of them are obvious.

Mateus Mane?

Mateus Mane's in there.

Well played.

I

I think that's to be expected ever so slightly as well, with the fact that there's so many young players in there.

You look at the attack, Rodrigo Gomez, 23, Mateus Mane, 19, Fer Lopez, 21 or 22.

And then you've got Sean Neve now, because Adam Armstrong's injured at the moment, 19 years old, leading the line on loan from Newcastle.

So I think it's to be expected inconsistency with the younger squad, but it's still not been perhaps as easy as some might have thought, I don't think.

So, you know, a few people wanting him to maybe start because Armstrong's really struggling.

Mateus Mane was great back in the last season, really struggling to make any impact.

Fer Lopez is really the only one that you know, we're relying on at the moment.

And then when he has quiet games, like he had against Borough, like he had against Bolton, for whatever reason, walls don't click.

It brings on to the next point because it wasn't, you know, Phil Lopez who had a free roll tonight.

It wasn't Mateus Mane who had a free roll.

It wasn't Jordan James who had a free roll.

It was your central defender who was told, you can have a free roll and go wherever you want because...

But he then is left playing up front, isn't he? And

the only other thing is potentially, could you bring Mane

into the 10?

I don't know how people feel about

It was definitely an option for me looking at the squad when it was talked of, when I found out Fer Lopez was going to be on the bench.

Rafiki Saeed, we'll talk about a bit more in depth.

He could have... theoretically started on the wing with Mane, but I think throwing a player in that's got little to no fitness this season would have been a massive gamble.

It's frustrating, isn't it? Because we keep sort of repeating how weak and uninspiring the transfer window was overall.

But that is not a position I feel like that he is set up to thrive in, and I, I feel like there has to be a way that he can.

Like he can, like he can beat his man on occasion, but I, I feel like half the time he ends up passing backwards, um, to Hugo Bueno, probably Manet's nowhere to be found, so maybe-

[laughs]

...

And I thought he was pretty good.

Uh, you know, he's-

I'd, I, I'd take Baralter over Tommy Doyle or Manetzi 100%.

Yeah.

So they've got Hugo Bueno, who actually had a very good season even though they went down last season.

He was one of the better players crosses of the ball on the overlap but he's had a bit of a quiet start to this season and then they've got Mateus Mane who's a young kid who really burst onto the scene last year in the Premier League huge talent but it hasn't again it hasn't been himself really this year he's going to play wide left and he doesn't really track back too much as well I think he could do with a goal and he started to get he had a decent game I think second half against West Brom the last game out But those two down the left-hand side haven't been as effective as the right, and I think a lot of teams have had a bit of joy down there.

So I would say down Wolves' left-hand side is probably where they will have the most luck.

cause of your debris.

He's going to hold it up for you.

So I think he needs to be making runs, making runs in behind the defence for him to be effective.

And then, yeah, I think in terms of the attacking threat, Rodrigo Gomez and Mateus Mane will support from the flanks.

And it's whether Fer Lopez, who I think is one of the top scorers, I think behind Lancashire, I think in terms of goals scored this season in the championship, whether he is going to be available or Tommy Doyle, who's actually been very good when he's come on, but didn't really do too much for Blues last year.

One thing that did kind of pop out during that game and far more so in the Preston game and maybe a bit the Stoke game after was this, and I've been running with it, this star power versus pattern of play.

Because we saw the three lads, Mane, Gomez and Lopez, and you kind of think, oh, you know, the little moments in the Blackburn game.

And of course, Lopez turned up and you're kind of thinking, yeah, you know, Buendia at Norwich type, where you've just got a player who can drag the team and who is too good for the level.

So do you get annoyed with people like me making that assertion so quickly that this is star power over pattern of play? I mean, don't get me wrong, Lopez looks...

And you look at his goal against Preston, where he's running from his own half down the pitch and smashes it in the top corner.

And you actually watch the Preston defence.

They're more bothered about Mateus Mane and Raul Jimenez.

So they're doubling up on them because they know they're good players.