How Nuno Espírito Santo Rotation Unsettled Cardiff & Won The Game For Wolves – Premier League 2019/2020

Another home game at Molineux, another positively dominant performance from Nuno Espirito Santo’s Wolverhampton Wanderers. Two goals, both in the first half, from Diogo Jota and Raul Jimenez gave Wolves all three points against a despondent Cardiff City side who have now conceded 10 goals in three games.

If you recall Wolves’ previous home game against Newcastle, they produced one of their best totals, xG wise, of the season. This game was even better. Only second to the xGD (expected goal difference) from Burnley at home earlier in the season, the 2-0 scoreline doesn’t really do Wolves justice. To say it could’ve been five or six is an understatement.

Cardiff, who only really threatened from set pieces, can perhaps feel slightly aggrieved that Wolves weren’t reduced to 10 men late in the first half. Nevertheless, they didn’t do nearly enough to trouble the Wolves back line.

In this tactical analysis, we are going to look at how Wolves cemented their grip on seventh place in the Premier League. In particular, we’re going to place the microscope on Jota’s goal, as simply put, it was a work of art.

Lineups

In a rather surprising turn of events Nuno decided to shuffle his pack. Normally so predictable with his line-up, he made five changes to the side that lost against Huddersfield during the week. John Ruddy was handed his first start, in place of Rui Patricio, between the sticks. The official reason was that Ruddy needs practice before the FA Cup game against Manchester United. The real reason? Who knows? Patricio wasn’t even on the bench, so take from that what you will.

While the back three was as normal, the wing-backs were not. Matt Doherty and Jonny Castro Otto were dropped to the bench as Ruben Vinagre and Adama Traore replaced them. Lastly, Morgan Gibbs-White and Romain Saiss took the places of Ruben Neves and Joao Moutinho. While people may have been left scratching their heads with the team selection, come the end of the game, they were very quick to heap praise on Nuno.