Endo has barely played this season, but using his numbers from last year reveals plenty of areas in which he can improve on Lemina and Gomes’ handywork. He’s a far superior passer, for starters, with his 88% completion rate well ahead of either of his potential rivals, while he generated more than one extra shooting chance for his team-mates per game on average compared with Lemina and Gomes both this year and last.

But while he may be a stronger creative player, he is perhaps less effective at forcing turnovers and shutting down opposing attacks, which is arguably the most important element of their role at Wolves. Lemina, for instance, both attempts and completes far more tackles and registers more than twice as many interceptions. Gomes’ tackling stats have tumbled to a remarkable degree this season, but he’s still recovering the ball slightly more often than Endo managed last year.

In other words, from a purely defensive perspective there are reasons to believe that Gomes and Lemina still do a better job than Endo could even when visibly playing below par – but if O’Neil wants his team to control possession better and create more chances, then Endo could do a good job.