Tim Spiers, Wolves reporter for The Athletic, has claimed on Twitter (via @TimSpiers) that defender Ryan Bennett was told of his omission from the team against Chelsea last Saturday just hours before the game and that it wasn’t injury-related.
Ryan Bennett's exclusion on Saturday has been a big talking point…I gather the player was told on the day of the game and it came out of the blue, certainly not injured. Team news on Thursday will be interesting #wwfc
— Tim Spiers (@TimSpiers) September 16, 2019
The 29-year-old centre-back had started Wolves’ first four Premier League games of the season but was dropped in favour of Jesus Vallejo against Chelsea at Molineux, a match that the home side lost 2-5.
Bennett was also a regular in the Wolves team last season, playing in 34 of their 38 league matches and five of their six games en route to the FA Cup semi-finals.
Although the defender has won fewer successful tackles per game this season compared to last (one v 1.7) and seen his passing success rate drop from 79.6% in 2018/19 to 76.3% so far this term, Wolves conceded as many goals without him in the team on Saturday as they had in four matches with him in the side.
These Wolves fans on Twitter questioned Nuno Espirito Santo’s decision to leave out Bennett against Chelsea and called for him to come back into the team:
Bad decision to say the least
— GWWFC(@georgewwfc__) September 16, 2019
Unusual one that..he was a big miss on Saturday…
— Pritch /_/ (@Adpritch81) September 16, 2019
I’m sorry, but there’s no way we have better options at CB on the bench than Bennett right now. All those Bennett haters screaming for Vallejo have gone very quiet.
— Adrian (@AdeTWG) September 16, 2019
Pleased for Bennett he’s probably the only player that came out of the Chelsea game with any credit!
— Leamington Wolves (@LeamWolves) September 16, 2019
I think he gets a bad rap, he is the most solid RHS centre hf Wolves have. With Boly suspended I found it tactically odd to then make an additional change to the usual centre back trio (esp against one of the prem lge top teams).
Hope he and Boly return for Palace game— Paul Shields (@snipeshields) September 16, 2019
https://twitter.com/NigelJPCox/status/1173666753374838784
Was Nuno right to drop Bennett on Saturday and do you think he should come back in for the Europa League game against Braga this week? Comment below with your views!
