Gary O'Neil lifts lid on Wolves' tactical change

The £21million signing started against Newcastle on Sunday and put in an impressive performance as a defensive midfielder.

It meant switching to starting three midfielders and, after changing tactics, O’Neil feels it will pay off in the long run,

“Andre has had two days with us and did very, very well,” O’Neil said. “He’s a good player, which is the reason we took a sideways turn in the transfer window and signed a centre midfielder, even though that wasn’t the plan.

“We were trying to do some business in other areas and the players we could get and afford, we didn’t feel would help us as much.

“So we went with Andre and changed the system. We had a couple of days to work on it and it worked fairly well against a very good Newcastle side.

“There are lots of positives, but I’m sure the main focus will be on the result and we need to make sure we do a bit better next time.”

The tactical change meant Lemina played more attacking, starting on the right before playing as a number 10, but O’Neil felt he was still useful as a central midfielder in this new system.

“I don’t think he was out of position and with the ball he was an eight,” O’Neil added. “We managed to use him and Joao as eights with the ball and we saw them both link up and higher up for the goal.

“The understanding and the shape caused Newcastle a lot of problems and I thought we were pretty good with the ball.

“I liked a lot of it but of course we need to make sure it gets us results.”

Rayan Ait-Nouri also put in an improved performance as he moved back to left-back, following his dismal display against Chelsea in the last home game.

O’Neil said: “Rayan wants to be a top left-back.

“We all know how good he is going forward but that Chelsea game was an eye-opener for him.

“We’ve worked hard with him and he was good defensively and good with the ball.

“Rayan was another positive. His ankle injury is unfortunate and hopefully not too serious because we’re going to need him.”