Julen Lopetegui
Wolves boss Julen Lopetegui says Daniel Bentley deserved his Premier League debut at Manchester United after impressing following his January move from Bristol City. The former Southend and Brentford keeper was given his first Wolves start as Jose Sa was dropped to the bench, and responded with an impressive performance despite his team’s 2-0 defeat. Lopetegui said achieving Premier League safety with last week’s win at home to Aston Villa has given him more freedom to look at players such as Bentley over the final three matches.
Julen Lopetegui said: “First and foremost it is congratulations to him. He is 29 and has worked very hard to have this chance. He is a very good player and professional and he deserved to play. I thought he had a good match with three good saves. He was very calm which is always a good thing. He deserved to play and I want to see him. Of course we have made a big achievement for us, a very big achievement in the last match, three matches before the end of the season. Now of course we have to try him. I have confidence in him but of course we have to change any little thing to see different things from different players. He is already a mature person. He is an important person in the dressing room, he has helped the team a lot without playing. That is not easy. We told him he deserved to play and he has shown us he is ready to play for us.”
Goals from Anthony Martial, on 32 minutes, and Alejandro Garnacho in stoppage time gave the hosts the victory to strengthen their grip on a Champions League place. But Bentley produced excellent stops to deny Jadon Sancho, Casemiro and Bruno Fernandes.
