Nuno Espirito Santo rotated the squad in Wolverhampton Wanderers’ 1-0 defeat to Liverpool and was vindicated in his decision to give Max Kilman a rare appearance. The 22-year-old started alongside Conor Coady and Ryan Bennett at centre-back and limited Liverpool to only three shots on target over 90 minutes.
Kilman was dominant in the air, frequently turned over possession and kept Mohamed Salah quiet at Anfield which is no mean feat. Despite spending the majority of the season as an unused substitute, the Englishman showed little signs of rust and may have given Nuno a selection headache ahead of Wednesday’s meeting with Watford.
How will Wolverhampton Wanderers fare against Watford?
Win
Draw
Lose
Both brilliant today Baz
— StokeWolf64 🇬🇧🧡🐺🖤🇬🇧 (@John_StokeWolf) December 29, 2019
Yep, those boys did themselves no harm at all 👏👏👏
— The Milz Clem Fandango Millard (@MilzMillard) December 29, 2019
Forget about VAR for a minute.
Kilman and Bennett have hardly played and have put that performance in 👏🏾
Same for Neto and Vinagre but they've played a bit more.
Loads of positives and performance to be proud of. #wwfc— Baz (@Bazza1983) December 29, 2019
Superb effort that, can’t fault anyone. Kilman great for a player of his age and experience, Vinagre full of purpose, Traore unplayable again when he came on. Can’t wait for the VAR decisions to even themselves out over the second half of the season, guaranteed top 4 spot. #wwfc
— Darb (@darbayit) December 29, 2019
Max Kilman (21???) has been absolutely class! #WWFC
Against the best attacking force in the country!
— Ry (@ry_mcflyy) December 29, 2019
so many blocks today. he was everywhere
— Kyle Schaefer (@kschaef) December 29, 2019
Against Liverpool, Kilman made 42 touches, won four aerial duels, completed 64.5% of his 31 passes, made four tackles, blocked one shot, made one interception, completed one dribble and made four clearances. His surprise selection came about after Romain Saiss was rested and Leander Dendoncker was pushed into midfield, but Kilman has staked a claim for more playing time.
The 22-year-old has made 10 appearances in all competitions this season, only two of which have come in the Premier League.
