This article is part of Football FanCast’s Off the Bench series, which places in-game managerial decisions and squad selections under FFC’s microscope.
Wolverhampton Wanderers were defeated for the first time in 11 matches on Sunday afternoon as Jose Mourinho’s Tottenham Hotspur side came away from Molineux with all three points.
Snapshot
Lucas Moura opened the scoring with a fine solo effort after just eight minutes before Adama Traore’s strike from the edge of the box pegged them back to square one.
It looked to have been enough to secure a point against a resurgent Spurs side until Jan Vertonghen popped up with the winner in injury time to condemn Wolves to eighth in the table.
For yet another match, however, manager Nuno Santo failed to make any substitutions.
Off the Bench
It’s a bizarre move that might have cost them the match, in the grand scheme of things.
Wolves were the more dominant side throughout averaging 58% possession and 18 shots at goal, per SofaScore, so it would be fair to suggest that the scoreline was a little unfair.
Raul Jimenez had five of those shots to himself and failed to score. Likewise, Diogo Jota had four attempts and failed to score.
Yet, none of their attacking options were called upon throughout the match at all. You’ve got Patrick Cutrone sat on the bench, a £16m summer addition, who could have provided a different option for either of the aforementioned duo.
By continuing to snub him in these situations, Nuno is playing with fire as he’s surely shattering the Italian’s confidence into pieces.
Cutrone scored the winner against West Ham, yet since then, he’s only played five minutes in the Premier League – he must be wondering what he has to do to win his manager over.
Both Jota and Jimenez have played that many games this year, Wolves’ attack would have been given a huge boost late on with any sort of introduction of fresh legs.
It’s something Nuno needs to change going forward, especially with more and more games soon on the horizon.
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