One Wolves pairing came in for praise from Gary O’Neil after the club won their latest pre-season friendly in the US.
Wanderers’ good form continued last night, as they beat RB Leipzig amid a really productive past couple of weeks.
Wolves won 3-0, with Pablo Sarabia hitting a brace in Miami, before Rodrigo Gomes added his third goal of pre-season to cap off another exciting display.
The Wolves media team described it as their ‘most complete performance of the summer yet’, and O’Neil has to be pleased with how things are shaping up ahead of 2024/25.
After last night’s game, the manager spoke about how he felt – and stated that he was impressed with two players following the latest win.
Toti Gomes and Yerson Mosquera praised by Gary O’Neil after Wolves’ win over RB Leipzig
After Wolves sold Max Kilman to West Ham United for £40 million, there has been a greater focus on the backline.
Kilman was a fairly consistent performer for Wolves, and it sure is going to be interesting to see how the team get on without him this season.
Wolves have not yet made any moves to replace Kilman in the transfer market, with O’Neil keen to look at his existing options.
Against Leipzig, O’Neil was pleased with the performances of Toti Gomes and Yerson Mosquera (via Wolves official). He said: “Out of possession we were excellent all night, I thought the pressing was good, the defending was good, some of the emergency defending from Toti and Yerson was excellent.
“A pleasing performance. It’s nice to win, but it is just pre-season.”
Toti and Mosquera to start the season for Wolves?
It is difficult to say at the moment which centre-back pairing O’Neil will choose for that opening Premier League game against Arsenal.
He has used a variety of combinations so far in pre-season.
Toti – who has been suggested as one of Wolves’ most underrated players – and Mosquera started last night, but Craig Dawson and Santiago Bueno got the nods against Crystal Palace. Against West Ham, Toti and Mosquera were the starting pair.
In the training game against Bristol City, Toti and Bueno started together, before Dawson and Mosquera played in the second-half. Against Como 1907 in Marbella, Mosquera started with Nigel Lonwijk (with Dawson missing out) and Toti then partnering Bueno.
Toti and Mosquera starting two of the three friendlies in the US though may well point to them getting the nod against Arsenal. But we will see, because Dawson obviously has a lot of experience, whereas Mosquera has not yet played in the Premier League, and Toti still doesn’t actually have that much experience playing in a back four.
But a lot of Wolves fans would probably love to see Toti and Mosquera given a chance. They are both athletic, aggressive operators who might just be able to unsettle the likes of Kai Havertz and Bukayo Saka in that first game.