The Wolves debrief: Best and worst on display in draw at Birmingham

There have been plenty of thrills and spills on Wolves’ return to the Championship.

And while it has brought plenty of excitement, Cesar Peixoto’s men are yet to look like they will take the division by the scruff of the neck and storm to promotion.

Sunday’s 2-2 draw produced the best and worst of Wolves so far this season.

Fer-nomenal

It may have seemed like a somewhat bold claim for Peixoto to say Fer Lopez is the best player in the Championship.

But with each passing week, he provides evidence to suggest his boss’s take - while a little biased, of course - may be completely accurate.

Lopez looked like a lost little boy upon signing from Celta Vigo for £19million last summer and promptly returned to Spain on loan for the second half of the season.

But six more months back on home soil seems to have done Lopez the world of good - he isn’t just looking like a man now, he’s looking like THE man with four goals in seven appearances already this season.

Tchatchoua chat

From the best performance of the weekend, to the worst.

Jackson Tchatchoua - another signing from that fateful summer of 2025 - has had a torrid time with Wolves.

Playing second fiddle to Kieran Trippier this season should have afforded him the chance to reset, learn and rebuild.

Instead, he has been thrust into the starting XI after just a handful of games and delivered one of the most ridiculous own goals in recent memory.

Peixoto now has to decide whether he should take him out of the firing line - surely there can be no other option than to do that, for the sake of player and team.

Cesar’s man

The head coach has longed for a left-footed right winger all summer, and he now has his man in former Aston Villa and Sunderland attacker Bertrand Traore.

After a whole pre-season, and more, without a club, it is going to take Traore some time to get up to speed - but will provide some good competition for Rodrigo Gomes on the right, as well as a slightly different option.

With a three-week international break on the horizon, there is time for Traore to get up to speed, get used to the way Peixoto wants him to play and put pressure on Gomes for his place in the team.

Rodrigo gets fans off their seats, but still has lots to learn. He provided the assist for Lopez’s opener, but then should have made it 2-0 himself not long after.

A little competition therefore wouldn’t go amiss.

Krejci’s return

While no team in the Championship had scored more goals than Wolves before last night’s set of fixtures, only one team had conceded more as well - rock-bottom Burnley.

The return of Ladislav Krejci to the defence should go some way towards rectifying that.

While the Czechia captain couldn’t immediately bring a halt to the average of two goals conceded a game so far this season, his undoubted international class and composure should begin to rub off on those around him.

He also showed he can be a danger at the other end by thumping a header home for Wolves’ second goal of the match.

Now his immediate future is secure, he can focus on his football.