This article is part of Football FanCast’s The Chalkboard series, which provides a tactical insight into teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…
Southampton travel to Molineux this Saturday to take on a Wolves side who are beginning to find their feet in the Premier League this season.
A run of six league games without a win at the start of the season has been transformed into back-to-back wins from Wolves’ last two outings against Watford and, more surprisingly, Manchester City.
Nuno Espirito Santo’s men recorded a stunning 2-0 win over the reigning champions in their own back yard before the international break, so they should be in good spirits when the Saints visit.
Southampton – contrastingly – are on a poor run having lost their last three league games, and whether or not they can put an end to that spell against Wolves partly depends on one man.
Who is it?
Yan Valery.
The right-back is currently deputising for Cedric Soares, who is out injured.
While he is just 20 years of age, Valery made a significant error in the recent 4-1 defeat to Chelsea that allowed for a glaring amount of space to open up down the left for Marcos Alonso, who took full advantage by assisting N’Golo Kante for the Blues’ third goal.
The French full-back went charging out of position in anticipation of where he thought Jorginho was going to pass the ball, before the Italian lofted it over Valery’s head and sent Alonso clean through down the left.
Why mustn’t Valery do that against Wolves?
While Wolves play a slightly different system to Chelsea with wing-backs, they still have a serious amount of talent down the left – quality players who will surely take full advantage if Valery has a similar moment of madness.
In Spain international Jonny Otto at left wing-back, Wolves have a tireless player who gets up and down that flank.
Ahead of him, Nuno has Diogo Jota playing as a left forward, a man who certainly knows where the back of the net is having scored nine Premier League goals last term, and 17 in the Championship the season before that.
In addition to the Portuguese attacker, Wolves have Raul Jimenez alongside him on the right. However, when setting up Adama Traore for his first goal against City last time out, the Mexico international stormed down the left flank, showing he knows full well how to drift into space left when a defensive player wanders too far forward, just like Valery did against Chelsea.
With Jonny, Jota and Jimenez all capable of causing trouble down the left, Valery really can’t afford to put his teammates under the cosh again with a similar moment of stupidity.
