Wolves boss Nuno thrilled with young stars
Nuno Espirito Santo is delighted with the ‘fantastic’ contributions made by young Wolves stars Ruben Vinagre and Morgan Gibbs-White in Saturday’s win against Cardiff.
Left wing-back Vinagre, 19, was one of the star performers in the 2-0 victory over the Bluebirds at Molineux, and fellow teenager Gibbs-White also impressed in an attacking midfield role.
They were given a chance to impress as Nuno left several big guns out of the starting line-up, and the Wolves chief said: “You see that we have youth – Morgan, Ruben.
“We have a lot of things but it’s good, the way they prepare themselves for the competition and, after, being able to compete the way they do with not so much game time.
“It’s fantastic for me and for my team because it says they are working well.
“They have to keep on going because there are still a lot of games to be played.”
Gibbs-White and Vinagre made just their fourth and sixth league starts of the season respectively. Adama Traore made his seventh and goalkeeper John Ruddy his first, and those pair slotted in seamlessly too.
“I’m happy because of the way they work,” said Nuno.
“It’s a short squad, a very shot squad of 16 (outfield) players, so credit to them as they prepare themselves for the moment the chance comes.
“I think it is our job to prepare the squad well, so we’re always able to choose a strong XI.”
A few eyebrows were raised when Joao Moutinho, Ruben Neves, Matt Doherty, Jonny Castro Otto and Rui Patricio were left out of the XI, with Romain Saiss the other player coming in.
But the changes paid dividends and on why he made them, Nuno said: “When you have a tough cycle of games in a week, the third one is the one we believe requires some attention.”
And he insists it was not to signal that those regular starters need to up their game.
“That’s not the idea. We don’t have to pass the message that way,” added Nuno.
“We speak, we have dialogue. We are all aware of what happened at Huddersfield, we didn’t perform well, but it’s nothing to do with that.
“We have to realise the momentum. We came from a very good run of games, so it would be stupid on my part to pass on that message to them.
“We go straight, and I say what I think.”
