Villa pay for Luiz’s long-distance travel
Wolves
Aston Villa suffered a rare implosion here – and it came after they had been destabilised by the exit of the tiring Douglas Luiz.
The midfielder had been on the pitch for Brazil only 36 hours before this game, in a World Cup qualifier against Uruguay in Manaus, 5,000 miles away. Although blame has to be attributed to Villa’s defence for tossing away a 2-0 lead with 10 minutes to play and losing, it was also noticeable that they lost control of the midfield battle.
The faith that Dean Smith, Villa’s manager, has in Luiz was shown by the player starting again here. His mopping up is an asset, but the Brazilian’s performance waned as Villa started getting sloppier generally.
Luiz had offered some protection to Emiliano Buendia, who had performed encouragingly behind the strikers, and Villa’s pressing had got on top of Wolverhampton Wanderers. Both went off before the visitors launched their comeback. When one of the replacements, Jacob Ramsey, fouled Adama Traore at the death, it led to the free-kick from which Ruben Neves scored the winning goal.
It meant that Wolves somehow got out of jail after Bruno Lage, their manager, had appeared to lose the tactical battle.
Lage had used Hwang Hee-chan as a false nine and he looked isolated, not providing the spark he has already shown he is capable of delivering.
Raul Jimenez, meanwhile, had played for Mexico in El Salvador – having bottles thrown at him before scoring a late penalty in San Salvador – and was left out of the starting line-up. His loss was keenly felt by Wolves.
The Mexican stood in front of the press box and was seen looking at the bench, appearing primed to enter the field, but that did not happen until the 88th minute, when it was 2-2.
While Villa gave away untidy goals and looked disorganised at set-pieces, how Wolves were allowed to make inroads needs to be considered. Losing their grip of midfield, after Luiz departed, catalysed a change.