Wolverhampton Wanderers’ best players of the season so far according to the statistics

Wolverhampton Wanderers have had a steady start to the season under new manager Bruno Lage.

They went into the second international break eighth in the Premier League table and after losing their first three games without scoring a goal, it’s a position fans and players alike can be happy with.

Lage is currently working with not only a small squad but an injury riddled one too so all things considered, it’s been pretty successful so far.

The team themselves have had a few iffy performances but they’ve certainly for the most part - even in losses - performed to a high level.

And that reflects in the ratings so far.

According to FotMob - a website that tracks player performance data - eight of the team have average scores of 7/10 or higher this campaign across all of the fixtures so far.

Everyone will have their own personal opinion on who’s been the best player so far this year but if you’re judging solely on statistics, one man is leading the way.

Ruben Neves.

The Portuguese midfielder is already a fan favourite at Molineux and it’s easy to forget that he’s only 24 years of age.

In 11 appearances this season, Neves has racked up an average rating of 7.46/10 - the standout in gold and black.

And these ratings aren’t purely down to guesswork or personal opinion - they go off of over 100 individual statistics provided by Opta and cover everything from misplaced passes to successful dribbles.

So, basically, Neves’ all round game has been really bloody good.

The two that come in in second and third may come as more of a surprise.

Adama Traore (7.35) is next highest, helped by his three man-of-the-match awards this season and Romain Saiss (7.24) is third.

Wolves’ worst rated player according to the numbers is winger Daniel Podence whose 10 appearances have seen him pick up an average score of 6.47.

Some other interesting statistics that are worth a look back-up just how important Raul Jimenez is to Lage’s side.

The Mexican forward has the most assists (2), provides the most key passes per match (1.8) & has created the most big chances (3) during the campaign so far.

No player wins possession in the final third more than Trincao (8) but unfortunately for him, his performances have been let down by him missing more big chances than anyone else (5) and having found the net only once this season despite having an xG (expected goals) of three.

Traore has double the amount of successful dribbles per match (5.6) compared to his nearest competitor Trincao (2.8) and nobody completes more accurate passes on average than Neves (45.1).

Have you taken all of that in? Good.

If you want to look at Wolves’ statistics in more detail and look at some others available on site, you can do so via the Wanderers FotMob page here.

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