Profligate at one end and porous at the other – it can’t be much fun travelling to Molineux at the moment?
What has been Wolves’ most damaging flaw this season? The stalling progress of their young defenders? The complete inability to withstand attacking pressure? The apparent helplessness in the midst of a slump?
Whatever the answer, they’ve each certainly contributed to the collapse of a season that promised so much when the club’s new owners Fosun International and club-record signing Ivan Cavaleiro arrived in the summer.
And that’s part of the problem. Cavaleiro, a Portuguese Under-21 international who swapped Benfica for Monaco to the tune of £15 million in the summer before last, per Transfermarkt, is the only Wolves striker to have scored a league goal since October. Even that, a solitary striker against Fulham, was undermined by the club’s calamitous defence as Floyd Ayite netted a last-minute equaliser to tie the scores at four apiece.
Meanwhile, Icelandic international Jon Dadi Bodvarsson’s most recent Championship strike came against Birmingham in August while fellow summer signing and forgotten man Paul Gladon is yet to find the back of the net at all.
And then there’s Joe Mason, out of action since October and without a goal since the opening weeks of the campaign.
Even talismanic striker Nouha Dicko has yet to hit the goal trail after suffering a serious knee injury in September last year. As it stands, Lambert’s hopes of pushing away from the drop zone appear to rest firmly upon the shoulders of a player who has not found himself on a Championship scoresheet since May 2015.
Lambert may want a few experienced defenders in January but he could do with a striker or two as well.
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