ESPANYOL SCREAMER NOT IN NEV TOP THREE

STRUGGLING Norwich have been warned to watch the Wolves ace who is always thinking outside the box.

Midfielder Ruben Neves has underlined he really is the master blaster for goals from distance.

The 22-year-old’s scoring stats are astonishing. Of the 15 he’s scored for Wolves, three were penalties and the other 12 were from outside the box.

The Portugal star launched another screamer and had manager Nuno Espirito Santo (right) drooling in Wolves’ 4-0 Europa League mauling of Espanyol.

Neves used his chest to kill a ball dropping from the sky, before volleying home an unstoppable shot from 20 yards (top).

He’s no fox in the box because he doesn’t do close range, but he’s the wolf at the door who can shatter keepers with one long-range missile.

Neves said: “It’s about my position on the field. I don’t get inside the box many times, so when I get a chance to shoot outside of the box, I’ll do it.

“It’s something I do in training a lot, so I know I can do it. I know I can do even better. It’s all about training. Every chance I have, I practise that part of the game. It is important – it’s what can give you the solution when teams are defending well. I’ll keep working on improving it.”

But Neves is frank when it comes to listing where his Espanyol rocket ranks on his hit-list, saying: “To be honest, for me, I think it would come in, maybe, fourth place.

“The three above? The goals against Derby County, Sheffield United at home, and Sheffield Wednesday away were better.”

Neves certainly isn’t thinking the Canaries are easy targets considering their desperate league position.

He added: “Norwich are a really tough team. The position they are in does not reflect their quality. We’ll have to be at our best to get a good result. But we will be at home with this fantastic atmosphere. The away game at Norwich was tough.

“We struggled in the first half. We had to adjust and, fortunately, were able to get the three points. But Norwich made that a really hard game for us.”