Football FanCast
·25 October 2021
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Yahoo sportsFootball FanCast
·25 October 2021
While things at Wolverhampton Wanderers have undoubtedly improved under the leadership of Bruno Lage in recent weeks, with the club picking up ten points from a possible 15 over their last five Premier League fixtures, Ruben Neves’ injury prior to Saturday’s 1-1 draw highlighted something of a problem for the 45-year-old manager.
Indeed, with Lage currently only having the options of Neves, Leander Dendoncker, Joao Moutinho and the injured Bruno Jordao in central midfield, the position is one in which the Portuguese boss lacks significant depth.
However, rather than spending big in the January transfer window on a fresh face in the middle of the park, it would be wise for Lage to consider recalling Connor Ronan from his loan spell at St. Mirren, as the midfielder has highly impressed during his temporary stint at the SMISA Stadium.
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Indeed, over the 23-year-old’s six Scottish Premiership appearances for Jim Goodwin’s side, the £405k-rated man has scored three goals and registered one assist, as well as taking an average of 1.5 shots and making 1.3 key passes per game. That’s led to Goodwin describing him as “outstanding.”
And, while the Scottish top flight is undoubtedly a completely different standard to Premier League football, Ronan’s return of three goals and one assist would nevertheless rank him as the top scorer and joint top assist maker out of Wolves’ current midfielders, while his average of 1.5 shots and 1.3 key passes per game would also rank him first and second in the Wolves midfielder rankings.
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Furthermore, it is not only the number of goals the £4.4k-per-week academy prospect has bagged that have made him stand out, but also the quality of his strikes – as his most recent finish against Rangers earned praise from both Tim Spiers and Talking Wolves on Twitter, with the latter dubbing the midfielder’s long-range thunderbolt as a “beauty.”
As such, with Wolves lacking in both goals and assists from the middle of the park, it would indeed appear smart for Lage to consider bringing the 24-year-old back to Molineux this winter, as Ronan could end up saving Fosun millions in transfer fees.