Pereira Must Now Finally Ditch "outstanding" Wolves Man After Djiga Signing

Read Time:3 Minute, 23 Second

Vitor Pereira will firmly believe that his Wolverhampton Wanderers side can beat the Premier League drop, having overseen a big 2-0 win over Aston Villa last time out.

The relegation-threatened Old Gold were full value for that victory come full-time, having restricted Unai Emery’s away side to just one big chance all game.

Whilst Pereira would have pleased with Matheus Cunha picking up another goal to add to this Premier League resume for the season, this dogged display at the back would have impressed him even more.

Already, it seems as if fresh recruit Emmanuel Agbadou has taken to the English game like a duck to water, with the ex-Stade De Reims ace now set to be joined by a new face in the heart of defence.

Wolves’ deadline signing of Djiga

Right at the death of the window, Pereira added in another new defensive body in the form of Red Star Belgrade star Nasser Djiga, with the options now available to the Portuguese head coach looking plentiful.

Indeed, in the centre-back spots, the ex-Al Shabab manager has the aforementioned Agbadou that he can rely on who won a startling 18 duels recently against Arsenal, on top of rocks such as Matt Doherty and Toti Gomes who performed in a similarly valiant manner versus Villa.

Agbadou, Doherty & Gomes’ performances vs Villa
Stat	Agbadou	Doherty	Gomes
Minutes played	90	90	90
Goals conceded	0	0	0
Touches	40	42	53
Accurate passes	23/27 (85%)	23/26 (88%)	32/40 (80%)
Possession lost	5x	5x	9x
Clearances	7	7	4
Blocked shots	1	0	0
Interceptions	2	3	2
Tackles	1	3	2
Total duels won	2/4	4/7	6/9
Stats by Sofascore

As can be seen looking at their glowing numbers above, Pereira might well feel inclined to stick with this formidable trio moving forward, with a back-to-basics approach keeping Villa very much at bay.

With the added presence of Djiga to come – who boasts five clean sheets in league action this season playing in Serbia – all of this positivity could unfortunately signal the end of this stalwart’s time at Molineux who hasn’t featured since December.

The Wolves star who needs to be sold

Indeed, Craig Dawson’s playing days at the Old Gold had already started to unravel, with the 34-year-old only making three Premier League appearances during Pereira’s tenure to date.

Only keeping one clean sheet during his 15 league games this season too, with Gary O’Neil once regularly picking the Wolves number 15 when still in charge, it does feel as if the end is in sight now for the top-flight veteran in the West Midlands.

After all, if rumours are to be believed from deadline day, the lowly top-flight outfit were willing to offload Dawson to Leicester City in exchange for former Old Gold star Conor Coady to return, before settling for the acquisition of Djiga.

That won’t exactly fill the £45k-per-week asset with much confidence that he can win back a starting spot under Pereira, therefore, with the Portuguese manager more than vindicated in his decision-making at this moment in time to try something fresh at the back, over reverting back to Dawson’s leaky displays.

Whilst Dawson will lament falling down the pecking order, new Wolves buy Djiga will hope he’s given plenty of opportunities to impress moving forward, having also bravely tallied up 5.5 ball recoveries on average this season playing for Red Star.

Once labelled as “outstanding” when at the top of his game in England by journalist Matt Law, Wolves fans will take no joy in the sad decline of their 61-game servant, but will realise all these fresh arrivals coming in means his Old Gold expiry date is near.