This article is part of Football FanCast’s In Numbers series, which takes a statistical look at performances, season-long form and reported transfer targets…
Wolverhampton Wanderers moved up into fifth position in the Premier League with victory at the weekend.
The west Midlanders made it eight games unbeaten with a 2-1 win over ten-man AFC Bournemouth on the south coast thanks to first-half strikes from Joao Moutinho, fresh from signing a contract extension, and Raul Jimenez, who netted his 14th of the season.
After a tough start to life this campaign, Wolves are finally finding their feet and are replicating the sort of form that saw them reach the dazzling heights of seventh last term.
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Europa League contention combined with injuries has made Nuno Santo’s job all that more difficult, but that hasn’t stopped him from pulling off a few genius tactical decisions.
His transformation of Adama Traore has been seen since early doors with the Spanish winger well on his way to a career-year with two goals and six assists, while Leander Dendoncker has made his new centre-back role his own with a string of fine performances.
And now, the Portuguese chief has only gone and done it again. This time with Romain Saiss, who seems to be the man tasked with filling Willy Boly’s void.
His showing against Bournemouth showed exactly why Nuno has trusted him with such a responsibility, and it also only speaks volumes about how tactically spot on the boss has been recently.
Per SofaScore, Saiss won 75% of his aerial duels, recorded a huge nine clearances and managed to still display his ball-playing abilities with a passing accuracy of 91%.
Only one team has lost fewer matches than Wolves in this current Premier League season – Liverpool, who are some eight points clear of second-placed Leicester City.
This sort of achievement only emphasises how well Nuno has his side playing, and it is decisions like this one with Saiss that are testament to his managerial ability.
The Molineux-based side are continuing to perform even with gaping holes in their defence. Technically, all of their back three on Saturday were midfielders with Conor Coady’s career shift just yet another example of Nuno’s clever mind.
In other news… One Wolves loanee has been given a glowing review by Tim Spiers.
