WHZ View: West Ham can’t take Pedro Neto lightly v Wolves on Monday
The West Ham backline will certainly have their hands full with Pedro Neto when they travel to Molineux to face Wolves on Monday night.
The Hammers are looking to kick on with their push for European football. David Moyes’ side have been excellent in 2021, but in recent weeks have let some poor results disrupt a good run.
We’ve taken just four points from our last four games. This sort of form simply won’t do if we are to crack the top six and qualify for Europe. The Arsenal performance, in particular, was very disappointing and concerning to witness.
The international break would have given the squad a few weeks to regroup. The defence has looked shaky as of late and will need to be on top form to handle the livewire that is Neto.
In what can only be described as a disappointing season for Wolves, Neto has undoubtedly been their shining light. It’s been a coming of age campaign for the 21-year-old. The sale of Diogo Jota and injury to Raul Jiminez left big gaps in the front-line.
But Neto has done all he can to fill the void. The speedster has registered five goals and five assists in the top-flight, nearly double his overall goal contributions for last season, still with nine games to go.
According to WyScout, Neto is the fifth-best ranked lateral forward in the Premier League this season. This ranks him higher than Jack Grealish, Raheem Sterling, Riyad Mahrez, James Rodriguez and Phil Foden.
Neto is incredibly quick and is often used as an outlet for Wolves on the counter-attack. He’s made more progressive runs in the Premier League than any other player, with 137 so far.
Wolves’ number seven is incredibly direct in his play. He has attempted the second most dribbles in the Premier League this season, with 249. That works out to 8.6 attempts per 90 – Wolves will look to get him on the ball as often as they can.
Only Adama Traore has more attempted dribbles with 297. The Spaniard hasn’t been able to turn this into goals or assists, though. Needless to say, it’ll still be coming at us from both flanks.
Despite his excellent run of form, Neto was very quiet against us last time out. West Ham won the reverse fixture 4-0 in September, Wolves barely had a sniff. On the night, he came up against Vladimir Coufal as he played down the left flank.
Neto attempted 10 dribbles but was successful just twice. He won just 32% of his duels and had two shots at goal that were off target.
It should be noted that, since then, Neto has been much better. His goal involvements have Wolves 13 points better off. He’s bagged winners against Fulham, Arsenal, Chelsea and Southampton.
Without him, they’d be in 18th spot and four points away from safety. He is hugely important to Wolves.
It will be interesting to see how we handle him on Monday, but Neto must not be taken lightly. If given too much space and time, he will absolutely cause us damage, it could be a long night in the West Midlands.
In other West Ham news, the international break came at just the right time for this Hammers ace.