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Comment: Classy Vitinha shows he is worth a chance at Wolves

On Sunday night, Vitinha pulled the strings in midfield as England Under-21s were completely outclassed by Portugal.

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But at Wolves, he has spent the vast majority of the campaign sat on the bench.

The big talking point coming out of the European Championship group stage clash was the ineffectiveness of an, on paper, strong Young Lions squad – boss Aidy Boothroyd coming under the spotlight.

They simply did not lay a glove on Portugal, and Vitinha was a large part of that. He performed admirably.

So, what should Wolves do with him now?

Of course, international youth football is not of the same standard of the Premier League, but the Porto loanee’s composure and, more so, the positions on the pitch he took up were striking.

In gold and black, he has either played as an advanced midfielder, or he has not played at all.

But against England, he was deployed as a No.6 and very much looked at home.

Vitinha was more often than not the one picking up the ball from one of the centre-halves and starting off attacking moves.

He recycled possession effectively, while also being happy to drive with the ball when possible to do so.

For the Young Lions, meanwhile, Everton’s Tom Davies – a fairly established player for the Toffees, it is fair to say – was entrusted with the same job.

And it was not a close contest. Vitinha looked a cut above his top-flight counterpart, playing the full 90 minutes of the comfortable 2-0 triumph, while Davies consistently lost possession and was, unsurprisingly, replaced by Liverpool’s Curtis Jones in the 72nd minute.

Vitinha’s performance was eye-catching, and enough to suggest he is worth a go in that role for Wolves – at least once – over the final few weeks of 2020/21.

Vitinha shone for Portugal Under-21s against England (AMA)

His story so far at Wolves has been an interesting one.

He had not made a senior start for Porto before arriving on loan last summer with an £18m option to buy (although there is room for negotiation), so he was never going to break into the XI straight away.

But he would have wanted more game time by now.

In the league, he has made 12 appearances and two as a starter – clocking up 224 minutes on the pitch. A further 198 minutes have arrived across both the FA Cup and League Cup competitions.

And on the whole, it has been very difficult to make a proper assessment of the 21-year-old.

Sure, Nuno Espirito Santo sees him in training every day and will have analysed all the intricacies of his game, but a lot of people may have been unaware of Vitinha’s versatility until a couple of days ago.

Wolves’ system and style of play has not catered to an attack-minded creative schemer and Vitinha has found himself in the same boat as Morgan Gibbs-White, the No.10 who has also largely had to make do with a place among the substitutes since his return from Swansea in January.

It seemed a case of him perhaps not fitting in.

Sunday night, though, showed that Vitinha’s future may actually be as an out-and-out central midfielder.

He was carrying out the tasks that compatriots Ruben Neves and Joao Moutinho usually do for Wolves – and he looked good doing them, too.

Yes, there is the potential this performance was something of a false dawn. The qualities he showed against an England side which did not manage a shot on target all night might not be able to carry over to the Premier League on a consistent basis.

But Wolves won’t know for sure until they try it out.

Worth noting is that Sporting Lisbon star Pedro Goncalves – the one who got away – also shone for the talented Portugal side on Sunday.

What’s there to be lost from giving Vitinha an opportunity in midfield in these last nine matches?

After all, they won’t want to repeat what happened with Goncalves.