Wolverhampton Wanderers came away with a 1-0 win at Aston Villa and Leander Dendoncker was lauded by supporters on social media for delivering a man-of-the-match performance. The 25-year-old kept Jack Grealish at bay, substituted off Conor Hourihane and Marvelous Nakamba, and he scored the winning goal in the second half too.
Know I've gone on about him already, but think that may be the most complete performance we've seen from Leander Dendoncker in a Wolves shirt. Helped keep Grealish ever so quiet and that was such an awesome finish to win it. Showed exactly why Nuno is such a big fan of him. #wwfc
— Joe Edwards (@JoeEdwards43) June 27, 2020
Dendoncker what a performance @Wolves 🔥
— Andy Pryce (@AndyPryce12) June 27, 2020
Dendoncker was outstanding! Master stroke once again by nuno 💛🖤
— James Cole (@JimmyCole87) June 27, 2020
Dendonkey, was brilliant today.
— Chris (@cpj93070) June 27, 2020
Dendoncker was stand out player, kept Grealish in his pocket and was still able to get forward on numerous occasions and really composed finish!!
— David Bate (@dave_bate72) June 27, 2020
Nice to see Jonny and Dendoncker stealing the show today.
— Andrew Colley (@ACClowner) June 27, 2020
One of the best performances I’ve seen from Dendoncker. Correct man of the match choice
— Mike Jones (@mikejones8772) June 27, 2020
How good was Dendoncker today 🐺 +3 😎🍺🐺
— Jordon (@jordonofficial) June 27, 2020
He noticeably got forward a lot more today, top performance from him
— Kevin Gittins (@kevin_gittins) June 27, 2020
Against Villa, Dendoncker played for 90 minutes, had 34 touches, won four aerial duels, completed 70.8% of his 24 passes, created one chance, had four shots and one that hit the back of the net, made three tackles and gave away one foul.
The Belgian international joined Wolves on loan from RSC Anderlecht in 2018 and permanently for £12.42m in 2019. He’s gone on to make 75 appearances in all competitions, scoring seven goals, and has played in nearly every game this season.
Dendoncker has made 49/51 appearances across the board in 2019/20, scoring five goals, and looks a bargain acquisition. He provides steel in the engine room and breaks up attacks, allowing creative players alongside him to flourish.
Wolves have been linked with a host of midfielders (Idrissa Gueye, Alhassan Yusuf, Emmanuel Boateng, Morgan Sanson, John McGinn, Franck Kessie, Joao Palhinha, William Carvalho) this summer, but they could do a lot worse than keeping the 25-year-old.
