This article is part of Football FanCast’s The Chalkboard series, which provides a tactical insight into teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…
Wolves were unable to make it four straight victories in all competitions last Saturday as they were held by Southampton at Molineux.
There can be a valid case made that it should have been three points as striker Raul Jimenez twice had a goal ruled out by VAR, but then again, the blunder which handed the visitors the lead was nothing short of shambolic.
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It was a combination of failings between Conor Coady and Jesus Vallejo which caused the opening strike. The Spaniard booted an aimless ball onto the head of Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, who found Danny Ings. He then rounded the Wolves captain with ease to slot home past Rui Patricio.
If Nuno Santo has any sense, based on that one crucial moment, he’ll never play the pair alongside each other ever again.
On the Chalkboard
Real Madrid were kind enough to send one of their most promising talents on loan to the west Midlands club. They do not tend to hand out lengthy six-year contracts to just anyone.
Vallejo also came into the season on the back of a Euro U21 Championship triumph, as captain too, so you could be forgiven for believing there’s a better player underneath this nervy fraudster somewhere.
He was only introduced into the match as Ryan Bennett went down injured early on, but Nuno must ensure that going forward, it is one or the other, mainly because they are too similar a player.
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Both are the ball-playing type, Coady with his former background as a midfielder and Vallejo as someone raised through the tiki-taka Spanish way of playing.
The Wolves skipper is averaging a passing success rate of 80.9% in the Premier League this season, but that’s down substantially on years gone by as last term he managed 84.3% while in their Championship-winning campaign it was an impressive 90.3%, per WhoScored.
For Spain’s U21’s this summer, Vallejo recorded a passing accuracy of 91.7% with his last loan spell at Eintracht Frankfurt in 2016/17 garnering 85.2%.
As you can see, their numbers are hugely similar, only making the case that they are both much the same player, and therefore when it is possible, they shouldn’t be in the same starting XI.