Wolves were the comeback kings last season and manager, Nuno Santo, needed that magic to happen once again at Molineux on Monday evening as they snatched a late draw from Southampton's grasp.

On-loan winger Theo Walcott netted his first goal for the Hampshire outfit in over 14 years and it looked to be the winner until an inspired substitution from the Portuguese boss clawed back some returns.

Within seven minutes of coming on, Pedro Neto fired home a rebounded Raul Jimenez strike.

Nuno was left without two key players in Conor Coady and Romain Saiss, and as a result, switched to a four-man defence for the first time in his Molineux career with Joao Moutinho returning in midfield.

As The Athletic's Tim Spiers says, there has been chatter about the maestro's demise this season, but his industrious showing in the heart of the pitch was anything but. Instead, one of his fellow teammates in the engine room looked particularly underwhelming.

It was perhaps a surprise to see Nuno tink his formation, especially as Leander Dendoncker covered for Willy Boly in central defence for large parts of last season and maybe that's where he should have been played on the night as he was wasteful and lightweight alongside Moutinho and Ruben Neves.

The 25-year-old picked up an injury on international duty but was evidently fit to feature on Monday night.

Dendoncker recorded the lowest rating (6.0) of any player, both home and away. He won just three of 14 duels (21%), lost possession 11 times, made no tackles and missed one big - and crucial - chance, via SofaScore.

BirminghamLive's Ben Husband believes Neves was the poorest of the three in midfield, grading him a measly 4/10 but forget him, it was the Belgian who underperformed compared to his usual combative output. He certainly let Nuno down here.

The €30m-rated (£26m) midfielder averages the third-most tackles per game (1.9) in the Old Gold squad, so to not record one is certainly disappointing on all accounts.

Indeed it is just the second time in the Premier League this season that he has failed to do so, the other coming against Manchester City, a team he could be forgiven for not dominating defensively.

As Wolves' third-highest earner on £90k-per-week, Dendoncker cannot afford to be inconsistent and whilst it could be attributed to the niggle picked up in midweek, he'll have to do better come the weekend.

AND in other news, Nuno should've listen to Thelwell over impressive January target ripping it up elsewhere...