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Wolves have missed out on signing reported target Dani Olmo.

Sportske Novosti, a Croatian media outlet, recently claimed that a certain English outfit had tabled a huge €25m (£21.2m) offer to snatch the young midfielder away from Dinamo Zagreb and even though they didn't have concrete proof, their sources suggest Wolverhampton Wanderers were behind that mysterious bid.

Call yourself a Wolves expert? How much did each of these January signings cost?

Unfortunately, the Molineux outfit have now been beaten to the punch, with Olmo instead joining Leipzig in a deal believed to be worth around £26m, as reported by The Daily Mail.

But, if Wolves had won the race for his coveted signature, how exactly would've Nuno Espirito Santo squeezed him into the lineup and used him in his system?

The best way to actually analyse that is by looking at a potential midfield partner, Ruben Neves, and see how their profiles differ but also complement each other.

Both players have performed on the European stage this season, with Olmo turning out in the Champions League group stage and Neves performing in the Europa League, so we'll take their respective stats from 2019/20 into account with this comparison.

Before actually delving into the figures a bit more, it's also important to note that the Spaniard is predominantly an attacking midfielder by trade, while Wolves' man is more a deeper-lying midfielder.

For that reason, there are some obvious differences in their respective outputs.

But since we know Nuno prioritises systems that don't necessarily accommodate a natural no.10 - since he's mostly been deploying a midfield quartet or even a quintet in 2019/20 - it wouldn't be a stretch to presume Olmo would've been droped into a deeper midfield position to slot into the system.

But that doesn't mean he wouldn't have been effective. On the contrary, by potentially deploying him next to Neves, Wolves would've had a rather well-rounded midfield with two contrasting profiles.

The young Spaniard is a fantastic ball-carrier, as seen from his three dribbles per game and subsequently, the opposition resort to fouling him often, as evidenced from his 2.5 times fouled per game this season.

So while Olmo would've been the creative spark in Nuno's system, taking the ball from the deeper areas and moving it upfield with dribbles and passes, Neves would've remained the safer option to fall back onto.

We can see that he's been quite reliable in that aspect, edging out his counterpart with just 0.6 unsuccessful touches per game as opposed to Olmo's 2.3, which is a natural byproduct of his desire to run directly at his opponent and make a decisive impact in the final third.

Similarly, as a more defensive-minded contributor, Neves boasts 1.6 interceptions per game vs the Spaniard's one per game, once again a testament of the hard work the Portuguese talent does off the ball.

All in all, he would've definitely brought something different in the middle of Wolves' midfield and his partnership with Neves could've well proved to be a great match.

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