The 2020/2021 Premier League season continued for Wolves with a 3-1 defeat to Manchester City at Molineux. Raul Jimenez’s well taken header was not enough to see Wolves take any points due to three goals from De Bruyne, Foden and Jesus. A poor first half from Wolves meant they had it all to do in the second 45 minutes. Nuno’s half time team talk did help, and Wolves could and should have altered that final score.
Rui Patricio
We are lucky to have a world class keeper as it could have been more than three. Rui was called into action numerous times throughout the first half and made some decent saves to keep out the depth of City’s of attacking talent. Conceded three on the night with the last goal from Jesus after taking a deflection off Coady… Not even Portugal’s number one could do anything about that. 7/10
Willy Boly
Not his best game in a gold shirt got drawn out of position on a couple of occasions during the match and with Adama next to him it wasn’t a surprise that City found joy down that side. In the air he did nothing wrong and always looked like winning those aerial battles. 6/10
Conor Coady
Is he in the wrong position or is it just bad luck but another deflected goal against the Captain. Like Boly, did not have an amazing game but still read the game well at times. Had a little more defending to do compared to last Monday but that can only be expected because of the opposition. 6/10
Romain Saiss
Always has a bad tackle or a game-changing mistake in him and that’s what happened in the 19th minute when he gave away a penalty with a poor decision to dive in and go to ground from a wide angle just inside the penalty area. Other than that, he defended well, but couldn’t stop the eventual result. 6/10
Adama Traore
The sooner Nelson Semedo slots into that right wing back role the better. Defensively, the Spaniard isn’t the best and we all know that. However, going forward it’s a different story. We can all agree that Adama has improved since he made the move from Middlesbrough in 2018 but this could be the season he really unleashes his potential. Teams simply can’t handle him, and he made Mendy look average at best. Some brilliant runs into the danger areas and really looked like our best chance going forward for long periods of the game. Still has work to do on his final ball but fingers crossed that’ll come. 8/10
Fernando Marcal
Won the first header of the game and looked energetic until he was forced off with an injury after only 8 minutes. Hopefully, he’ll be back for West Ham on Sunday. 6/10
Joao Moutinho
The 34-year-old looked tired at times with a couple of uncharacteristic loose passes and just didn’t have the legs in that midfield pairing. City didn’t allow him space or time to pick out a trademark pass. However, he did show his class in the second half with a beautiful dink into Podence who should have buried it. 6/10
Ruben Neves
Tough game for the wonderkid from Porto, especially in an all-round poor first half performance. Never had a chance to get a shot away from outside the box but should have tested Ederson from inside the area when Podence left it for him to have a crack, but a tame effort on his weaker left foot summed up his night. 6/10
Daniel Podence
Looked good when running with the ball, linking up well at times in the second half. His best moment of the match came after a filthy nutmeg on Kevin De Bruyne then a wonderfully floated cross for Raul to head home providing his second premier league assist in as many games. Had a few chances to score and probably should have netted at least once. He’s starting to look the real deal and we should expect big things this season from the Portuguese winger. 8/10
Pedro Neto
Held the ball up well when fired into him, made some decent runs with and without the ball. Seems to have bulked up a little and that will surely help him moving forward. He’s going to have to keep improving if he wants to nail down that right-wing spot for the rest of the season. 7/10
Raul Jimenez
Another goal from the Mexican and another with his head. Since last season, no premier league player has scored more headers. It was a great finish after a superb bit of play from Podence on the right-hand side. Raul had a quiet night overall, with very little sight of goal. 8/10
Subs:
Ruben Vinagre
Lots of stepovers, gets into good positions going forward but cannot seem to find that final ball. Defensively he was ok but Marcal surely comes straight back in at left wing-back if available for Sunday’s clash with The Hammers. 5/10
Leander Dendoncker
Didn’t have time to do much, the substitution seemed to be aimed at giving Moutinho a breather and keeping up the energy in the middle of the park. 5/10
Fabio Silva
Again, not a lot of time to make an impact, chased down what he could but it’s good to see that the 18-year-old is in Nuno’s plans straight away 5/10
Mike Warrington is part of the Talking Wolves editorial team. You can follow him on Twitter here