‘That was on’: Pundit defends £7m Wolves star after what he tried to do against Liverpool
Former Wolves man Lee Naylor has defended Jose Sa over the second goal that Liverpool scored at Molineux on Saturday.
Wolves lost against the Reds 3-1 – their fourth defeat in five Premier League games.
Hwang Hee-chan had opened the scoring for Wolves, after great work by Pedro Neto.
But Cody Gakpo equalised in the second-half, and then Liverpool got their noses in front after a poor clearance from Sa.
The ball fell to Robertson who exchanged passes with Mo Salah before scoring at the near post.
Sa has taken some stick for his role in that goal – but Naylor has some sympathy…
Lee Naylor defends Jose Sa after Liverpool defeat
Naylor was watching the game and giving his thoughts for the club.
He reckons that Sa was right to attempt the clearance.
He said (Wolves official): “We were praising Sa [earlier in the game] for holding onto the ball because there was nothing on, but that was on. Neto one-vs-one if the ball is correct. The ball wasn’t correct and so it puts us back under the cosh.
“I don’t mind that. But at the same time, there’s got to be some game management. In the 85th minute, you do have to look at it differently.
“On the flip side, you’ve got 10 players [between Robertson and the goal] and he has literally just run straight through without anyone saying pick him up. It’s not like they can’t see him coming! Everyone has seen that danger and not a single one of them did anything about it.”
Unlucky from Sa, but maybe he should have held it
Naylor is right with what he’s said about Sa.
The ball to Neto was on and if he executes it correctly, then there’s a chance Neto can go and score at the other end.
But £7 million signing Sa messed up his clearance, and it was a mistake that Wolves paid for.
That said, Wolves had everyone except Neto back behind the ball to defend.
The fact Robertson waltzed through and combined with Salah to score means the blame isn’t solely on Sa.
Maybe Sa should have held the ball in hindsight. But you can see he was simply trying to create a chance for Neto. If he makes that pass and Neto goes and scores, were are having a very different conversation.
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