Wolves managed to only take a point against Nottingham Forest at the weekend – and it was not the best of games for Toti Gomes.
Gary O’Neil watched his side turn in a pretty poor performance at Molineux, although good character was shown again to come from behind in the 1-1 draw.
The head coach said after the game that his side had a ‘technical breakdown’, which arguably made his decision not to put Tommy Doyle on a particularly strange one.
It was a sloppy performance from Wolves, and one man who did struggle a fair bit was the usually very reliable Toti Gomes…
Toti Gomes did not have his finest hour against Nottingham Forest.
O’Neil once again set up with three centre-halves, with Nelson Semedo and Hugo Bueno operating as wing-backs.
Toti took up his usual position on the left of the back three, and probably spent a bit more time than usual playing inside, with Bueno not getting forward as often as Semedo on the other side.
Toti unfortunately had his worst game of the season so far against Forest.
It was he who lost possession which led to the opening goal from Forest and there were times in the game where Toti was just really sloppy on the ball.
He was heavily involved, having the most touches of any player in the game with 129 (Sofascore). He attempted 103 passes, completing 82 of those for a completion rate of 80%, which is low by his standards.
Toti is normally very reliable on the ball but he just didn’t have his eye in on Saturday.
Toti deserves to keep his starting berth for Wolves against West Ham
Toti struggling was certainly a rare sight, as he has just been so consistent since Gary O’Neil brought him into the starting XI against Manchester City.
was just a bit all over the place against Forest.
But you would like to think it was just an off day for the Portugal international, and hopefully O’Neil will see it the same way when considering his team to face West Ham United on Sunday.
If there is anyone in this Wolves squad who has enough credit in the bank to be given the chance to start again after a poor display, it’s surely Toti.
He has made 40 appearances now for the Wolves first-team and you can probably only count on one hand the number of poor performances he has given.
O’Neil – who’s previously called Toti ‘an exciting player’ – should keep the faith with him for at least one more game. If he falls short of the required standards against the Hammers, then maybe O’Neil should then consider handing Santiago Bueno another chance.
