The Joe Edwards debrief – Wolves 1 Newcastle 1

The lack of a clinical edge came back to bite Nuno Espirito Santo’s side after a rare Rui Patricio error but, on the bright side, they are now three unbeaten.

Where are the goals?

Assessing the performance against the Magpies first and foremost, you could argue Wolves showed improvement in terms of attacking intent.

In the first 20 minutes or so, especially, they were surging forward, with Nelson Semedo and Pedro Neto combining well, Daniel Podence forcing a decent save from Karl Darlow and Raul Jimenez having a couple of speculative efforts.

By the end of the game, too, they had managed 16 shots – nine more than they came up with in victory at Leeds, and two more than when they beat Fulham.

Ultimately, though, only three of those 16 went on target, with a cracker from Jimenez beating Darlow.

Now, it it just six goals from six matches, and Jimenez has got four of those.

Simply, other goalscorers must emerge, perhaps taking a change of mindset from one or two players moving forward.

Podence, for example, will always create chances and has also had a few efforts on target over the past couple of games.

But maybe he could be a bit more selfish at times. Ruben Neves, having gone 32 Premier League games without scoring, you could argue should be seen more on the edge of the box or making runs to get on the end of crosses.

The departed Diogo Jota could be frustrating to watch at times, but he still managed 16 goals across all competitions despite being largely out of sorts last term.

He had an undoubtable desire to score goals, and someone else needs to adopt that single-minded approach.

Silva’s situation

Maybe Fabio Silva could be the one to solve Wolves’ goal woes over the coming weeks. Brought in for a club-record £35million from Porto, the 18-year-old has been an unused substitute for the last three games.

Of course, it was always going to take time with Silva and the thinking with his signing was long-term, but it has been surprising not to see him at least come off the bench as of late.

The Portuguese has probably been the biggest victim of Wolves’ exit from the Carabao Cup at the first hurdle to Stoke – Vitinha, who played for the under-23s at Crystal Palace today, being another – and adjusting to the Premier League is difficult for anyone coming in from another country, let alone a teenager.

But Nuno said himself a few weeks ago that game time is what will get the best out of the striker, so hopefully we will see him play some part against Palace on Friday night – particularly if Wolves find themselves chasing a goal deep into the second half again.

Traore’s role

Adama Traore has also had to make do with a place among the substitutes in recent weeks, with Nuno seemingly deliberating how to get the best out of him in this new set-up.

Podence and Neto, despite the lack of goals, have largely played well and Traore did not do much after coming off the bench but, again, he has been playing a lesser role than you would expect.

Even when not quite at full flow, the sheer presence of Traore can strike great fear into teams and given the joy he had against the Eagles towards the end of last season, maybe it is time for him to come back into the XI.

Wolves looked too slow at times against Newcastle and the Spaniard – probably the quickest player about these days – would certainly speed things up.

Coming up

So, a home game against Palace and trip to Leicester come before – to Nuno’s dismay – yet another international break.

If Wolves defend as they have lately, they should be alright, but more dynamism is required in the final third. Let’s hope the goals begin to flow.