Wolves 1 Southampton 1 – What the stats reveal

Many have reflected on it as a fair result, but let’s have a look at what the stats from whoscored.com – specialists in the in-depth analysis of detailed football data – show.

Shot-shy Wolves

Raul Jimenez had the ball in the net twice before scoring from the penalty spot.

However, with the first two strikes chalked off following VAR checks, only the Mexican’s converted spot-kick counts as a shot on target.

Patrick Cutrone forcing a smart save from Angus Gunn before Jimenez’s second disallowed goal does not count either, so the penalty was the sole effort on target from Nuno Espirito Santo’s side against the Saints.

Wolves had four shots, in total, with attempts from Joao Moutinho, Adama Traore and Cutrone failing to test the goalkeeper.

Southampton, meanwhile, got 14 shots off, with goalscorer Danny Ings putting away one of six.

Rui Patricio was forced into action on five occasions, courtesy of shots from Ings and a couple from James Ward-Prowse, including a well-struck free-kick towards the end.

As the home side, it would have been fair to expect Wolves to ask more questions.

Vallejo’s showing

Jesus Vallejo struggled as a substitute on Saturday.

His nervousness put his defensive partners at unease, so I gave him the lowest rating of any player in gold and black on the day – a 4/10.

But, looking at the stats, it is not all bad. Vallejo had a pass success rate of 81 per cent – completing 48 of 59.

He also won the one header he went for and won the one tackle he attempted.

It is not enough to convince me that the Spaniard had a good game, and even Nuno admitted Wolves lost a bit of organisation after Ryan Bennett limped off. There was, though, at least some crumbs of comfort for the Real Madrid loanee to take away from the game as he bids to improve.

Coady cool on the ball

Make no mistake, Conor Coady messed up for the visitors’ goal.

He admitted it himself afterwards as he said: “I’ve got to deal with it better, it is as simple as that.

“We need to know when to not try and play out from the back.”

Apart from that though, Coady was very efficient. His pass success rate of 90 per cent was the best of any Wolves player and only matched by the Saints’ Ryan Bertrand.

That does not make up for the skipper’s error, of course, but, again, it was not all negative from him.

Quiet Cutrone

As always, Patrick Cutrone put himself about.

He closed down defenders and continually looked to move into space to receive the ball.

The Italian only had 26 touches, though, in his hour on the pitch.

Only Ryan Bennett (17), who went off injured early on, had fewer touches of the ball for Wolves.

So, is Cutrone not being clever enough, or does the midfield need to step up their game and get the ball into him more often?

The answer should become clear with a bit more time.

But what is for sure is that Cutrone is going to find it hard to grab goals regularly if he is seeing so little of the ball.

Commanding Boly

Finally, Willy Boly – who I felt was easily Wolves’ best defender against Ralph Hasenhuttl’s side – was a force in the air.

The Frenchman won six aerial duels, which was the most of anyone on the pitch – and twice the amount of Southampton’s 6ft 6in Jannik Vestergaard.

Jimenez was the next best in terms of headers, winning four.

Meanwhile, Adama Traore – along with the away side’s Jan Bednarek – made the most tackles, with three.

Traore, also with three, had the most successful dribbles for Wolves too.