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What are Wolves options without Pedro Neto after his hamstring injury?

It is a question Wolverhampton Wanderers hoped they would not have to answer this season. Yet now it looms large.

How do they manage without Pedro Neto?

Wolves’ overall progress under Gary O’Neil has been clear and encouraging, but there is no doubt that the scintillating form of Neto has been the key to them scoring in nine of their 10 league games so far.

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Before limping off in the 2-2 draw with Newcastle, Neto claimed his seventh assist of the season — more than any other Premier League player at this stage.

Only Joao Moutinho in 2018-19 (8) and Adama Traore in 2019-20 (9) have provided more in a single Premier League campaign for Wolves.

“He’s an amazing player, so it’s going to be very difficult to cover his performances,” admitted Hwang Hee-chan, who on Saturday scored his sixth Premier League goal of the season. “But we have many good players, such as Sasa (Kalajdzic), Fabio (Silva) and Pablo (Sarabia).

“If you see us in training, you’d understand that our combinations are so good. It’s not just me, (Matheus) Cunha and Neto, but Sasa and Pablo all understand each other very well. So I think we have some players who can cover for Neto.”

Neto left Molineux on crutches on Saturday and, even if scans show a minor hamstring issue, he is likely to be sidelined for several weeks. So what are O’Neil’s options?

Bring in Bellegarde

Due to a combination of a three-game suspension, the international break and now an injured calf, Jean-Ricner Bellegarde has become something of a forgotten man at Molineux.

He has not played for more than a month but showed enough in his impressive debut against Liverpool to offer encouragement of a key role in the future.

Bellegarde is not a natural winger, preferring to operate in central areas, so he is not a like-for-like replacement for Neto, but he is a natural ballcarrier as his smarterscout pizza chart shows, with a carry and dribble volume of 98. This means he is probably best equipped to perform something close to Neto’s role.

He is back in training now so, if declared fit for the trip to Bramall Lane on Saturday, is bound to be a strong contender.

A explanation of the pizza chart and more on Bellegarde’s style can be found in our profile of the Frenchman.

Start with a No 9

With Neto off injured, Wolves brought on Kalajdzic and ended the game with the Austrian as their central striker and Cunha and Hwang operating either side of him.

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The system did not give them a genuine winger, with both Cunha and Hwang preferring to cut inside and support Kalajdzic, but it did give Wolves a natural focal point to their attack. It also allowed the Brazilian and South Korean freedom from the No 9 role that both have filled at times in recent weeks but in which neither appears fully comfortable.

The obvious drawback, though, is that Kalajdzic is yet to prove he is fit enough to start games after a lengthy lay-off, while alternative No 9 Fabio Silva has fallen out of favour.

Trust Sarabia

It is easy to forget, given his recent lack of game time, but Wolves have in their ranks a Spain international who went to the last World Cup and who, a year ago, was an understudy for Lionel Messi at Paris Saint-Germain.

Wolves (Photo: Jack Thomas – WWFC/Wolves via Getty Images)

Pablo Sarabia has struggled for form at Wolves and at times has looked ill-suited physically to the demands of the Premier League, but he has also shown he can find dangerous pockets of space and link attacks effectively.

He is not a man to embarrass a full-back as Neto has been doing so his presence would change the way Wolves play, but he undoubtedly has the quality to help them create chances in other ways.

Push Ait-Nouri forward

Often in the last couple of games, Wolves have switched from between a 3-4-3 system and a more old-fashioned 4-4-2, which has seen Rayan Ait-Nouri operating as a winger rather than a wing-back.

So it is fairly easy to imagine the talented Algeria international being pushed further forward for an extended spell to fill Neto’s role.

It would mean some changes elsewhere as Neto has operated primarily on the right while Ait-Nouri strongly favours the left, but Hwang is comfortable on either flank so that would not be a major issue.

Ait-Nouri has never played regularly out wide but physically he could offer the explosive bursts of pace and power that Neto brings.

Pack the midfield

For almost all of O’Neil’s short reign, Wolves have played with just two central midfielders, either in a 4-4-2, 4-4-1-1 or 3-4-3 system.

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But with Tommy Doyle impressing twice in eight days off the bench and now seemingly ready for the Premier League, and Boubacar Traore starting the last two games, O’Neil now has four genuine midfield options. Regular starters Mario Lemina and Joao Gomes are also available, along with Bellegarde.

So with their only out-and-out winger unavailable, it might be time to deploy three midfielders instead of two, perhaps harnessing Doyle’s range of passing alongside the defensive control of Lemina and the energy and pressing of either Traore or Gomes.

That would probably mean a switch to a 3-5-2 system with Ait-Nouri and Nelson Semedo providing the width.

Take a chance on Enso

It would be a left-field option, but the player in the Wolves squad potentially most similar to Neto is summer signing Enso Gonzalez.

The Paraguayan boasts the same direct style and desire to take on defenders one-on-one as Wolves’ star player.

Wolves (Photo: Jack Thomas – WWFC/Wolves via Getty Images)

If he progresses as Wolves hope, the 18-year-old could become Neto’s long-term successor if the Portugal international’s form leads to a big-money move away.

Yet while Gonzalez shares some attributes with Neto, he is a long way behind him in development terms and has been in just one matchday squad so far.

So a role on the bench is a much more likely prospect.

(Top photo: Jack Thomas – WWFC/Wolves via Getty Images)

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Abbie Anker

Update: 2024-05-17