There is a reason Wolves spent most of the summer looking for a centre-back.
That reason was more apparent than ever last night as they digested the news they had feared since Saturday evening: Yerson Mosquera’s season is effectively over. Surgery is needed on his medial collateral and anterior cruciate ligaments in his left knee and he is unlikely to return before next season.
Whether or not Mosquera was the perfect answer to Gary O’Neil’s centre-back prayers is a debate that will now hang in the air at least until the popular Colombia international returns.
Five Premier League appearances is too small a sample size to draw any definitive conclusions about how effective Mosquera could be in England’s top division.
But what is not in question is that a part of O’Neil’s squad that was already worryingly short on numbers and experience is now looking decidedly threadbare. The failure to replace former captain Maximilian Kilman with a player with significant Premier League experience now looks more costly than ever.
Wolves did try to boost their centre-back ranks. They enquired about a raft of options in the early days of the transfer window and, in its final knockings, asked about a host of players including Chelsea’s Trevoh Chalobah, West Ham’s Nayef Aguerd and Brighton’s Igor Julio, but they were unable to do deals for any of them.
They came closer to landing Burnley’s Dara O’Shea but refused to match the deal that took the Ireland international to Ipswich Town — an initial £12million ($16.1m) potentially rising to £15million.
That Wolves then found around £20million to spend on Brazil midfielder Andre in the final hours of summer trading added to the frustration at not replacing Kilman.
Head coach Gary O’Neil explained the anomaly was to do with the payment structure in the deal that brought Andre from Fluminense being more favourable to Wolves than any that were available for their central defensive targets.
Yet his frustration at the failure to plug a gap he identified as soon as Kilman departed at the start of the window was barely concealed.
That frustration was doubtless amplified last night by confirmation of an injury Wolves feared from the moment Mosquera came together with Aston Villa forward Morgan Rogers during Saturday’s 3-1 defeat.
He left the field moments later on a stretcher with his left knee in a brace, leaving O’Neil pondering how best to cope without a man who returned to the Wolves fold at the start of pre-season and was handed a key role immediately.
He had started all five league games so far. In that time, he made 10 interceptions — Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk (13) and Fulham’s Kenny Tete (11) are the only centre-backs to have made more — and nine blocks, which is behind only Brentford’s Nathan Collins (16), Leicester’s Wout Faes (12) and Arsenal’s Gabriel (11).
Mosquera’s old-fashioned commitment to defending is clear, but he has also shown encouraging signs with his use of the ball, albeit mixed with moments of inevitable naivety from a man whose short loan in La Liga last season was his first taste of football in one of Europe’s big five leagues.
More importantly, his physical attributes of pace and recovery power were key to O’Neil’s hopes of transitioning Wolves to a high-pressing, aggressive style of defending.
Toti, who began the season as Mosquera’s centre-back partner, is no slouch either, but the Portugal international has been out with a hamstring injury, which potentially leaves the veteran Craig Dawson and relatively untried Santiago Bueno as the only central defensive partnership available for this weekend’s Molineux meeting with Liverpool.
Pace has never been one of Dawson’s many strengths and Bueno is no sprinter either, so being forced to field the pair might compel O’Neil to tweak his approach if the strength of Liverpool and his team’s poor defensive record was not already pushing him in that direction.
Wolves are unlikely to dip into the free agent market to boost numbers, not least because the non-homegrown quota in their 25-man squad is already full and homegrown, out-of-contract defenders with Premier League experience are not obviously available.
But it is clear that the need to add a centre-back in January has gone from being highly desirable to absolutely essential — at that stage, Wolves could do more tinkering with their squad to free up a spot for an overseas player.
Until then, O’Neil will have to muddle through with Dawson, Bueno, Toti and whoever else he feels can do a job in the heart of defence if further injuries hit.
Mario Lemina, Nelson Semedo and Matt Doherty have all filled in as part of a back three during their careers.
But the very fact that the trio may enter the conversation underlines the gamble Wolves took in the summer window — one that is closer than ever to backfiring.
(Top photo: Yerson Mosquera after getting injured; by Nathan Stirk via Getty Images)
