Wolves comment: Time’s right to give Fabio Silva another shot

Results have picked up over the past several weeks and Nuno Espirito Santo’s side have thankfully climbed the table, but goals remain frustratingly elusive.

With just 28 coming in as many matches in the Premier League this season, only the bottom six teams – Burnley (20), Newcastle (27), Brighton (27), Fulham (22), Albion (20) and Sheffield United (17) – have netted on fewer occasions than Wolves.

So, Monday’s clash with Liverpool seems as good a time as ever to give Silva, the club’s £35million record signing, the nod. What’s there to lose?

This situation would have been seen as hugely unlikely a few weeks ago, of course.

Willian Jose had just come in and managed some positive early displays – linking up play nicely and offering a greater presence in attack.

However, a month is a long time in football and Jose, ultimately, is goalless from eight games in gold and black.

And against Newcastle and Villa, it must be said, the Real Sociedad loanee never looked like getting off the mark.

Frankly, it was a surprise he stayed on the pitch for so long in both games.

Silva, meanwhile, came on and was pretty lively – most notably being denied by Martin Dubravka at the death at St James’ Park.

Yes, that was another to add to a list of agonising misses for the teenager this campaign, but at least he is getting into those dangerous positions.

He put himself about to decent effect last weekend, too. The Portuguese, in truth, looks the more likely scorer at the moment.

In Jose’s defence, the barren run is not just down to him.

Coming into a side that has been so low on creativity midway through the term was always going to be difficult, despite his favourable record for Sociedad in La Liga.

He has not had a massive amount of service to work with either, and there is an argument to be made that whoever leads the line for Wolves, they are going to struggle.

Silva’s body language in his cameos has been encouraging, though.

His desire to impress has been clear. He may not be the quickest across the ground, but he frequently runs the channels and makes himself available.

He gets muscled off the ball too easily sometimes and could do with bulking up over the close season, too, but he does not shy away from a battle.

Silva, you could fairly say, has been busier than Jose, who has seemingly been too static – and also appears to have been significantly hampered by the injury of Daniel Podence, who he bounced off at first.

The £22m option Wolves have to make 29-year-old Jose’s move to Molineux permanent in the summer is not a banker, by any means.

So, it begs the question, does Nuno persist with someone who currently looks more likely to not be at the club beyond the end of the season, or instead get valuable minutes behind the big-money project over the next few weeks?

Both those players, most will agree, are a way off star man Raul Jimenez, whose presence has been so sorely missed.

The current state of affairs only reemphasises the Mexican’s sheer quality and enormous importance to Wolves.

He is world-class and it would be fantastic to see him back in action before the end of the season following surgery on a fractured skull.

Nuno expects him to recover in time to do so, too, having made excellent progress thus far and finding himself joining in with parts of sessions at Compton – albeit not doing contact training and heading balls yet.

For the time being, though, Silva could well be the best centre forward option at Wolves’ disposal.

They simply need to find more goals from somewhere if they are to have a strong end to the campaign and the 18-year-old, although far from perfect, seems worth a shout.