Wolves manager excited about Algerian international's future
Gary O’Neil believes there is a lot more to come from Rayan Ait-Nouri, but does not see his Wolves future playing further forward.
With four of Wolves’ five senior attackers sidelined with injury, the team have relied on Ait-Nouri bagging two goals in his last two games to fill the void.
But he has still, for the most part, stayed at left-wing-back in a Wolves shirt.
Despite scoring and assisting in Saturday’s FA Cup loss to Coventry, when he did move to a more advanced position, O’Neil insists he prefers to keep Ait-Nouri in his natural position.
“If you look at the game now, full-backs are used in lots of different areas,” O’Neil said. “A lot of teams play them in midfield, some teams play one higher up as a winger and the other one lower.
“Rayan’s ability and physical attributes allow him to definitely do all three of those. We’ve used him in all three.
“Whether I see him playing higher permanently, probably not. He’s very good at arriving from lower.
“I love having him in the squad and I’m excited with what we’re able to do with him.
“Tactically maybe we haven’t got to the point where we can utilise him best or some of the other players, because we’ve been in the midst of a Premier League season since the day we got here.
“But there’s definitely loads and loads of potential and we can definitely add some attacking numbers to his game with the quality he has.
“I do like him arriving somewhere lower in the pitch, generally.”
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