Ivan Cavaleiro sparked bright last season if not infrequently with neither Walter Zenga nor Paul Lambert bringing the best out of the Portuguese winger.
Cavaleiro’s level of inconsistency has always been his downfall with Paul Lambert in particular not trusting him to track back and defend enough for the team.
At last season’s final podcast, Ben Husband called it that you were either ‘Team Lambert’ or ‘Team Cavaleiro’.
However under his fellow countryman Nuno Espirito Santo, Ivan Cavaleiro has lit up the Championship with skill, goals and pace.
He always showed great potential but this year he has added the final product.
He has been like a new signing for Wolves this season with the high levels of his performance.
He’s run himself into the ground for most of this season, often to the degree that he has been substituted after sixty minutes.
His work rate and closing down have been a marked contribution
from the winger this season.
This is something, twelve months ago Wolves fans wouldn’t associate with Ivan Cavaleiro, but this season it has defined him.
He has scored nine goals this season and assisted with twelve others. His interplay and trickery this season has been outstanding.
But what stands out the most is his consistency throughout the season, specifically before Christmas when Wolves were at their free-flowing best.
At the beginning of the season Nuno benched Cavaleiro, preferring to start with Jota and Bright in wide areas, with Bonatini leading the line.
He was like a racehorse in the paddock itching to get to the starting line; biting at the bit to get into the starting line-up which led to some of his best performances in a Wolves shirt.
He will be unleashed to devastating effect off the bench, and latterly in the starting line-up after cementing a place in Nuno’s plans.
Other players have made more headlines this season.
Neves’s goals, Douglas’s assists and Coady’s leadership to name but a few but Ivan Cavaleiro has defined the work rate, skill and improvement that has been so characteristic of this Wolves side.
This is why among the other candidates that Ivan Cavaleiro should be the Wolves Fancast Player of the Season 2017/18.
Ivan Cavaleiro’s best moments of the season came in November when Wolves were purring, and he won Championship Player of the Month.
His goal against Leeds United will probably go down as his best goal of the season, if not one of the best individual goals, where he was able to roll a defender, take it past another and rifle the ball into the top corner.
Ivan Cavaleiro like so many Wolves players has improved exponentially this season and at twenty-four will get even better.
A player of pace and skill alongside an improved final delivery and finish could be a stand out performer in the Premier League next season for Wolves.
Is Ivan Cavaleiro your Wolves Fancast Player of the Season 2017/18? Cast your vote here
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