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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’ Premier League season has been far from that of their Europa League campaign so far this year.
Nuno Santo’s men have struggled to pick up traction, drawing three and losing one of their four league matches – potentially a by-product of the added strain that competing in Europe can bring, where they’ve actually won all of their six games.
It is a common theme for teams to suffer in the league at the expense of the more prestigious competition, especially for a club of Wolves’ stature having not competed in Europe for nearly 40 years.
They’ll be hoping they can buck that trend and follow up on last season’s seventh-place finish in the league.
Nuno will have to resolve one thing, however.
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On the Chalkboard
Their main man Raul Jimenez has been a workhorse in 2019, playing over 40 times for club and country, which will only increase after this international break having been called up to play for Mexico.
His performance against Everton, even with him scoring a goal, was the first time he possibly showed some effect from playing so many matches this calendar year – which is merely a microcosm of how Wolves seem to be at the minute anyway.
WhoScored’s heatmap shows his positions from that game, and it’s a worrying sign.
He’s barely getting involved in the box, whether that is a sign of the player himself or of his service remains to be seen, but other statistics show he is some way off the mark this season in comparison to last term.
In the 18/19 season, Jimenez averaged 2.9 shots per game, but this campaign he is recording just 2.5 and the problem lies even deeper than that with a decrease coming from inside the penalty area.
The 28-year-old had two shots per match on average last season, which has gone down by 0.2 to a lower 1.8.
That isn’t a good sign considering all of his goals, per Understat’s xG model, have come from inside the area.
Nuno needs to find a way of resolving this soon or he may face a sustained period of decline in the Premier League, which won’t help Wolves achieve their ambitions considering he is their main man.
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