Gary O’Neil clarifies ‘unexpected’ Wolves substitution vs Aston Villa

Gary O'Neil has shed light on Rayan Ait-Nouri's premature and unexpected substitution during Wolverhampton Wanderers' 2-0 defeat at Aston Villa on Saturday evening.

The left wing-back, so often a key man, was taken off after just 63 minutes, prompting some confusion among the Molineux faithful. But it's now been clarified the 22-year-old was lacking energy following international duty with Algeria, leaving O'Neil very little choice but to make the change with two more games to come in the next seven days.

“Rayan played two full 90s for Algeria over the break and I think he didn’t look as sharp, he looked a little tired," O'Neil explained, shrugging his shoulders.

The manager then assessed the moment Ait-Nouri blundered a huge opportunity to open the scoring early on, with the attacking full-back striking straight at Emiliano Martinez from merely five yards out.

"I think 99 times out of a hundred in the Premier League that's a goal," O'Neil said. "We were the better team by a long way in the first half an hour. You could sense they realised how good we were."

As the boss alludes to, Wolves can take plenty of positives away with them despite defeat at Villa Park. The Old Gold created plenty of chances despite having no senior strikers fit. The likes of Leon Chiwome, Tawanda Chirewa and Nathan Fraser did well considering their collective lack of experience.

There's good news for Matheus Cunha, who is expected to play a role on Tuesday night as Wolves travel away to relegation battlers Burnley. Jean-Ricner Bellegarde is still unavailable, however, while Hwang Hee-chan and Pedro Neto remain long-term absentees.