Wolves star Pedro Neto can be world-class, says Ruben Neves
Ruben Neves says Pedro Neto has been Wolves’ top performer this season – and has backed him to become a ‘big player in the world’.
Neto’s stunning individual strike wowed supporters as Wolves came from behind to beat Southampton 2-1 last weekend.
He leads the way for Nuno Espirito Santo’s side for both goals and assists in 2020/21, with five and four respectively – also making him the most productive player under the age of 21 in the top flight.
Portuguese midfielder Neves has been massively impressed by the efforts of his 20-year-old compatriot, too, insisting Wolves are ‘really lucky’ to have him.
“Pedro’s been a fantastic player for us since he came,” said Neves. “This season, I think for me he’s been the best player that we have in the squad.
“He still needs to improve, as does everyone, because we always have something that we can improve, but if he keeps playing like that then he’s going to be a big player in the world of football.
“We are really lucky to have him in our team because he can give us a lot of good things that are not easy to find in a player.”
Neto danced his way past Jannik Vestergaard before firing the ball beyond Alex McCarthy from a tight angle in what could well be looked back upon as Wolves’ goal of the season.
Neves was credited with the assist and also got himself a goal at St Mary’s, scoring from the spot after Ryan Bertrand handled Nelson Semedo’s goal-bound shot.
It was his fourth goal since the turn of the year, and his third from 12 yards.
On that, Neves said: “It was a big moment for the team. It’s my job to score it, it’s my job to help the team, and thankfully I scored it.
“The team have a lot of confidence in me from that aspect of the game, and I train for that.
“We need to train all the aspects of the game and need to be prepared for everything.
“Every time we have a penalty, I’m confident, so it was a big moment.
“Fortunately, I scored and helped the team in the game, but I thought we did a fantastic second half.
“Our attitude, our spirit, it was really good and a huge three points for us.”
Neves believes the second half at St Mary’s is the blueprint Wolves must follow for the rest of the season – their next test being against Leeds on Friday, aiming to make it four unbeaten in the Premier League.
Drastically turning things around after a woeful first period, Neto and Adama Traore caused havoc as more narrow, inverted wingers.
Neves – insisting he had a ‘horrible’ first half – was able to get further up the pitch while the wing-backs of Semedo and Jonny Castro Otto made their presence felt further forward, too.
Ultimately, it was a positive, progressive 45-minute display from Wolves which Southampton found too hot to handle.
It lifted the spirits of supporters as well on the back of last week’s thoroughly-disappointing FA Cup exit at the hands of the Saints.
“We knew we were not playing well and for me, it was a horrible first half,” said Neves, with Wolves now sitting 12th in the top flight.
“We maybe started the game well, but I lost a lot of balls in that first half, really bad passes, and as a team we were not able to play, not able to press as well.
“So we needed to focus, we needed to talk at half-time and we did it.
“We reorganised at half-time, we spoke with each other because we knew we needed to do much better to get the three points and I think that second-half means a lot for us.
“That second half shows what we want to be every time, that second half shows how we were as a team before, so we’re still the same and we’ll try to do the same every time.
“I’m very proud of our second half, I’m very proud of the team.
“I’m very proud of the spirit and that’s how we want to play every game in the future.”
