Matt Maher: Recruitment up front has been an issue for Wolves
Wolves’ upturn under Julen Lopetegui is even more impressive considering the continued lack of goals from the club’s strikers.
Today marks precisely a year since a Wolves striker last scored in a Premier League match, a remarkable and frankly, embarrassing record.
Goals aren’t only their responsibility, of course. Lopetegui has been able to engineer enough from elsewhere to get results which have put Wolves in a far better position than when he first arrived.
But while Premier League survival now feels more likely than not, a run of two or three poor results is still all it would need to leave Wolves looking nervously over their shoulders. You’d feel even more confident if the team had a regular source of goals to ensure they were getting maximum reward for their performances.
This season might have brought matters to a head, yet goalscoring is hardly a recent problem for Wolves. Since the start of the 2020-21 season, they have netted just 93 times in 102 Premier League matches.
Much of the blame can be placed on some less than stellar striker recruitment, stretching back so far as the £16million signing of Patrick Cutrone in 2019. Fabio Silva, signed for more than double that amount 12 months later, might generously be described as a long-term project. The likes of Willian Jose and Diego Costa have proven ineffective stop-gaps.
Admittedly, Wolves got unlucky with Sasa Kalajdzic, who will come back into the reckoning after recovering from his ACL injury. It is possible he, Matheus Cunha or Silva will prove the long-term answer but Wolves cannot repeat previous errors in being reactive.
They are certainly overdue a hit in the market. Their last success remains Raul Jimenez but unsurprisingly, he has not been the same player since suffering a fractured skull in November 2020.
Jimenez was the last Wolves striker to score when he netted in a 4-0 win over Watford and of late has looked the most likely to break the drought. A few goals from the Mexican between now and May would do wonders in the short-term, before the next options for solving a persistent issue are considered.
