Tuesday talking point: The upgrade Wolves never knew they needed
- Published
Dave Azzopardi, Talking Wolves, external
When Jose Mourinho took over at Roma and wanted to sign Rui Patricio, Jose Sa seemed to be the only man Wolves wanted to replace the Portugal number one.
Many Wolves fans expressed their concerns about the club signing Sa as a replacement for Patricio. You could say their concerns in the summer were fair.
Sa hadn't had a huge amount of experience in a 'top European league' and hadn't made a single appearance for the Portugal national team.
We're now into mid-February and Sa has turned out to be one of the Premier League's signings of the season and has helped transform Wolves from a team leaking avoidable goals to one of the best defences in Europe under Bruno Lage.
It's criminal that Sa is still waiting for his first Portugal cap but you'd expect that to come this year. He already has nine clean sheets in 23 Premier League games so far this season, just one fewer than Patricio managed all last term.
Sa currently has the best save percentage out of any goalkeeper in the top five European leagues (85.2%) and one of the best goal against per 90 stats in Europe too (0.74).
Although not everybody was initially convinced by Sa, he's now quickly turning into one of Wolves' best pieces of transfer business in recent seasons.
