00:00Hello, I'm Nathan Judah. I'm delighted to be joined by Mr. Liam Keenley and we're straight
00:13on. We're with the midfielders, Beve. This might be a shorter video here because we're
00:16going to discuss, and maybe this is the issue, slightly narrower players, slightly central
00:21midfielders. Maybe there needs to be a little bit more width. I know we do it at the top,
00:24we do it in the forwards, but maybe central midfield needs to have a bit more of a right,
00:27a little bit more of a left, a little bit more of a balance. But let's go with the centre
00:31boys and let's go with the main man, the main man, the player of the season. And I think
00:35yours and my player of the season in the end, and that is Mr. Mario Lamina.
00:42What a player. I think he's openly admitted himself that it was his best season in football.
00:49He's played for some good clubs, Juventus being one of course in his younger days. And
00:56he dragged Wolves through some games. He really did. There's plenty of games you could pull out
01:02to say that this was a real nine, 10 out of 10 performance from Mario Lamina. And albeit,
01:09I mean, the performance was very good actually, but this is more of a goal that I'm going to
01:13mention. But that Spurs game, I know Pablo Sarabia who will come on to in the next videos,
01:17had such a big say in that. Him to score that winner, it was a real deserved moment for a
01:22player who was in really good format that time as well.
01:25That purple patch, he was pretty special wasn't he? That amount of games, seven,
01:28eight games, he was insane.
01:30Yeah, absolutely. And yeah, deservedly the supporters player of the season in my opinion.
01:35Yeah, we both agree that he was our player of the season for just his general impact and his
01:40general availability. Of course he had the sad passing of his father where he had compassionate
01:45leave. But aside from that, he was available consistently for Wolves. No injuries, always
01:49available, always ready to play. So really, really impressive season from a player who
01:55is good on the ball, tough in the tackle, got forward, a real leader in midfield.
02:00Yeah, really, really impressive.
02:02Yeah. And someone, like you say, who probably didn't hit the heights towards the end of the
02:07season, but extenuating circumstances with decimated squad, et cetera, as well, and asked
02:13to play all over the pitch as well once. I mean, he was up top and left forward as well at times.
02:19So yeah, I think a superb season and someone who will be key next season to Gary O'Neill.
02:25Let's go with someone who made his Brazilian first team debut,
02:29senior debut this season and a massive fan's favourite in João Gomes. Someone who, like you
02:34say, we don't know whether he'll be here. We think he'll be here next season, but someone who is a
02:39huge asset for Wolves and is just so likeable. And when he's playing as well, and when it's him and
02:45Lamina in the middle of the park, which I think is really Gary O'Neill's first choice to, I would
02:50say, it's a pleasure to watch this guy play. Yeah, sometimes you want to be careful about putting
02:57pressure on players too early. You look at some of the new signings Wolves have brought in, a couple
03:00of them quite young, and you want to be fair to them, give them an opportunity. And there's been
03:06times where I have done that with João Gomes early on because he still was relatively young,
03:11had arrived from South America, 15 million, big fee, or fairly big fee at least, and arrives with
03:18a little bit of expectation. But I've changed my tune in the last few months. I'm going to do it
03:22again for this video, no longer doing him the service of taking pressure off. I'm putting the
03:28pressure on. I think he's a real special player. I really do. Now, there were definitely moments
03:33that were slightly inconsistent throughout the season. I think that will come with age and with
03:38experience. So he will be able to nail that down. But you look at Spurs away, for example,
03:42the two goals he scored, some of the dominating Terrier-like midfield performances that he put
03:48on throughout the season. I've said this previously. I'll say it again. I genuinely believe
03:54he won't be, it won't be like a Ruben Neves situation. He'll be at Wolves for a long time.
03:58I think a big club will come in and spend a lot of money to take João Gomes away. I don't think
04:02it'll be this summer. Obviously, you never know, but I think he probably has got another year left
04:06at Wolves at least. But I think he's a Champions League level midfielder who will go on and play
04:12at the very highest level and win a lot of trophies. I think he's that good. We've seen
04:17lots of glimpses of it. Hopefully, we'll see more of it to come. But I think there's a real
04:21special player there.
04:36Absolutely. I'd go further than encouraging. I think it was a good season, certainly.
04:49Slow start. That was expected, really, because he'd had a small knock when they signed him,
04:54needed to build his fitness up a little bit. Had never played in the Premier League. Obviously,
04:58was on loan. Well, he'd been on loan to a few clubs, but done really well with
05:00Sheffield United the season before. It was a big opportunity for him to come in and try
05:05and force his way in with Gael Gomez and Mario Lamina ahead of him, which was tough.
05:10And similar to what I was talking about in the previous videos about Dan Bentley getting
05:14slightly closer to Jose Sarr in Gary O'Neill's mind, it was similar with Tommy Doyle where he
05:18came in and there was a clear number two between, or number one and number two with Gael Gomez and
05:23Mario Lamina. And Doyle's challenge, which he successfully did, was to get himself close
05:30enough where he is a genuine option every single week. Now he became an option through his
05:37performances. He, as I say, a slow start, needed a bit of time to get up to speed. A couple of good
05:42substitute displays, Bournemouth and Newcastle early on in the season were decent. And then he
05:48had a couple of starts, Sheffield United away being one, didn't quite go to plan for him.
05:51But it really came full circle, I think, when around Christmas, New Year time, Mario Lamina
05:57was obviously away on a compassionate leave. Gael Gomez picked up a red card at Brentford.
06:01And because of Lamina being away and then Lamina coming back and Gael Gomez being suspended,
06:08he, Doyle that is, had a consistent run of starts in the team. And that really built up what was a
06:17successful season because he was brilliant in that time, absolutely superb in that spell. And yes,
06:21he came in and out of the team for the rest of the season then. But I think it was a really positive
06:25first season in the Premier League from a young English player. And for 4.3 million, it's an
06:29absolute steal as far as Wolves are concerned. It scored a banger, wasn't that at Brentford as well,
06:33was it? It was. Yes, it was. That was FA Cup, I believe, wasn't it? In fact, that was that game,
06:39I believe, when Gael Gomez got sent off and Claude Bakker won one, which of course they
06:43went and won the replay. So yeah, brilliant goal. I think we're going to hopefully see a bit more
06:48when it comes to set pieces and long range strikes and things like that, because he's got a really
06:52good delivery. We just need to see probably a bit more of that as well.
06:56Yeah, just on some of the in-house interviews that the players had recently, they were all
07:00talking about best fee and best strike, and a lot of them said Tommy Doyle as well. So I do agree
07:06with you that I think there'll be a lot more to come from him next season. And a couple of the
07:09guys who, you know, one, I guess, who will be disappointed, although was struggling with
07:13injuries a little bit in Boubacar Traoré, who didn't see too much of, but again, will probably
07:17be important to the squad this season. And a youngster who we could have put in the midfield
07:22as the forward department, but we did put him in the midfield, and that's Towanda Chiuera, who
07:26we both really like, don't we? And I think out of the youngsters, he was the one who
07:30impressed the most, who was heavily involved around that first-team squad and then got his
07:35chance to show what he can do, and a really promising youngster who I think Wolves can
07:40expect big things from. Yeah, certainly. On Bouba, yeah, disappointed because he's got a few
07:46injuries, went away with his national team and just didn't really get any momentum in a Wolves
07:51shirt. And then ironically, while the team was struggling towards the end of the season, he gets
07:55a chance and starts to do quite well. So we've seen the player there that Wolves saw when they
07:59scouted him, the reason they brought him in on loan originally, and then signed him permanently,
08:02of course, and the reason why he's at this club in the Premier League now. So I think
08:08if it's a good summer for him, and that's something that Gary Neal pointed out himself,
08:11if it's a good summer for Bouba Khachouri, he can get in, stay fit, play games in pre-season,
08:17have more time with the coaching staff. I think you'll see a lot more from him
08:22next year. There's a player there who is, again, I use the word haphazard in possession at times,
08:29but he's got incredible energy, really athletic, and gets around the pitch so, so well. So I think
08:35there's a really good, different type of midfielder in that. And then Yechere, as you say, we could
08:40have put him in the forwards, but there were less players in midfield, so we threw him in this video.
08:45Sorry, Towanda. Yeah, massive, massive fan of him, really am. In this line of work, and obviously
08:52it's different for coaches and stuff, because they get paid to pick the team, but in this line
08:56of work, when you go and watch the 21s, you start to notice players that stand out a bit more than
09:02the others. Joe Hodge was one, Hugo Bueno was one, and Towanda Chirewa, in his short time,
09:07having arrived for this, which was only in September, was one that stood out straight
09:11away. You could tell he was a step above the players around him. And that reflected very
09:17quickly in the fact that he was travelling to games, he was going away with the team,
09:20and then got an opportunity to play. And I've been really impressed with what he offers,
09:25and obviously that start against Arsenal did really, really well, both from a tactical and
09:29defensive point of view, as well as trying to create some danger and score some goals and assist.
09:34Yeah, I think he'll stay with Wolves, I don't think he'll go on loan anywhere,
09:37and I think he'll benefit a lot from being around the first team for a full season,
09:42and hopefully getting a few more Premier League minutes under his belt. He's a player who can
09:45play as a ten, play out wide, he's versatile as well, I think he's a really good footballer.
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