Breaking News: Gary O’Neil Unveils Crucial Areas Joao Gomes Must Enhance Despite Heroics in Wolves’ 2-1 Victory
Wolves bounced back from their 2-0 defeat against Brentford in emphatic fashion by beating Tottenham in their own backyard.
Gary O’Neil’s side came up with a plan to frustrate the hosts and didn’t allow them to pick up the ball in dangerous areas centrally.
The Wanderers managed to somewhat nullify the threat of James Maddison and Heung-min Son while springing on the counterattack with the pace of Hwang Hee-Chan and Pedro Neto.
Wolves opened the scoring in the first half as Joao Gomes scored a glancing header from a corner and then grabbed a second with a composed finish on the edge of the box following an electric run from Neto.
After failing to score all season for the club, two goals came at once for the Brazilian, who was labelled as the best player on the field.
Gomes was a tackling machine, flying into challenges and winning possession back for his team.
He managed to shut down Spurs’ talented operators centrally and grabbed the headlines by scoring two goals.
Yet, O’Neil has still pinpointed an area of his game where he can improve and that is in possession.
Gomes has been brilliant all season at pressing to win the ball back and outperforming his midfield compatriots in the engine room.
The 23-year-old showed that once more by winning seven ground duels, making six tackles and five clearances against Spurs.
As a result of his industry and hard work, Wolves were able to spring on the counter and wreak havoc in the final third.
Unfortunately, Gomes was often wasteful in possession and recorded a lowly 63% pass completion and misplaced his two attempted long balls.
Speaking in his post-match press conference, O’Neil praised the Brazilian for his excellence but also highlighted that he needs to protect the ball better and that is an area he’s working on improving.
He said: “We were going to be without the ball for spells, but we were going to try to make it compact and we knew he’d be able to press people and regain the ball like he did.
“And I thought he was, he was excellent at that.
“I’m very keen to still try to improve what he is with the ball.
“We work very hard on it with him, his understanding with the ball and how clean he is with it, sometimes with his passes.”
Improving in possession can take Gomes to the next level
For any player in world football, there are always areas of improvement to be made and for Gomes, it’s his shortcomings in possession that need work.
Given Wolves enjoy playing on the counter-attack, the need for him to be tidy on the ball is lessened, however, if O’Neil wants to transition into a possession-based style in the future, he will need his midfielders to be great in that department.
Currently, the youngster has struggled to become the source of creativity from deep, but once he does improve his pass appreciation and how he uses the ball, it will elevate him to the next level.
From there, he will truly become unstoppable as a midfield force, if he wasn’t already.