He was lovingly nicknamed the ‘Moroccan Maldini’ at Wolverhampton Wanderers but, during the Qatar World Cup, Romain Saiss has looked more like the real thing.
During Sunday’s 2-0 victory over Belgium, Saiss produced a performance the AC Milan legend himself would have been proud off. Alongside West Ham’s Nayef Aguerd, the 32-year-old centre-half rolled back the years while sending quite the message to his old employers.
Wolverhampton Wanderers went into the World Cup break stuck to the bottom of the Premier League table, having conceded 24 goals in just 15 games. The Max Kilman – Nathan Collins partnership started brightly, but began to look more and more brittle with almost every week that passed.
Suddenly, Wolves’ defence – a position of strength for so many years – is now starting to feel like a weakness.
Now, much has been made of the rather baffling decision to let Conor Coady, the club’s long-serving skipper, join Premier league rivals Everton on loan over the summer.
But Wolves’ failure to extend Saiss’ contract, the 32-year-old eventually joining Besiktas on a free transfer while robbing Bruno Lage of yet more vital experience at the back, is also starting to feel like a mistake.
Wolves must regret Romain Saiss exit as Morocco impress at the Qatar World Cup
“Bruno made a big mistake in some of the players he let go,” Wolves legend David Edwards tells the Express and Star. “Such as Coady, John Ruddy and Romain Saiss.
“When you lose players who have been at the football club for a long time, all of a sudden, you lose a little bit of soul out of the dressing room. People who know the football club, and know what is expected of a Wolves player.
“My worry is when the chips are down, who is in there to galvanise them and show what it means? I feel that is one area where possibly Bruno did go wrong.”
After all, there hasn’t been many performances at the Qatar World Cup quite so complete as Saiss’ against Belgium.
Not content with marking Michy Batshuayi out of the game at one end (Saiss managed a remarkable 11 clearances against a team placed second in the FIFA World Rankings, WhoScored), the veteran defender also got the slightest of touches on Abdelhamid Sabiri’s wicked free-kick late on.
It was he who diverted the ball past Thibaut Courtois. Thus, setting Morocco on their way to a genuine statement victory on the biggest of stages. That the North African nation are just one game away from the last-16 owes much to their 30-something defensive lynchpin.
‘A big mistake’
And Saiss’ outstanding display, at both ends of the pitch, looks even more impressive when you consider he was initially a doubt to start the game. Saiss picked up an injury he picked up during the 0-0 draw with Croatia on matchday one. There were never any doubts as far as coach Walid Regragui was concerned, however. If Saiss was fit enough to start, then he’d be the first name on the team-sheet.
“We were humble enough in the first-half to defend and know (Belgium) will have most of the possession. We put in a lot of effort,” Regragui beamed, via Goal. “(Then we) came out in the second half to play a bit more.
“I told the players we were going to have to put in maximum effort to get the ball off them. We wanted to stop them finding (Kevin) De Bruyne and (Eden) Hazard. Sometimes you have to be patient and wait for your chance to come.”
Spirited, dogged, and a major threat in both boxes; if Coady is showing Wolves what they’re missing at Everton, perhaps it’s time to say the same about Saiss.
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