Aston Villa will take on Wolves, maybe our toughest opponent to date, at Molineux Stadium this weekend and from the stats, it could prove to be a pretty good game! Even with the Coral welcome offer the odds on separating these two are proving difficult
Wolves manager Nuno Espírito Santo has been setting up his side in with a 3-4-3 formation this season, which has guided them to 2nd in the Championship table. This setup includes Leo Bonatini starting upfront, who has scored 4 goals so far this season but they also have the option of playing Diogo Jota there in a false-nine role as they did against Burton in their last game where they cruised to a 4-0 win.
Their midfield includes 2 great defensive centre midfield players with Ruben Neves and Romain Saiss. It will be interesting to see if Conor Hourihane can get past them, as they are strong defensively but hopefully, the Irishman alongside fellow Irish counterpart Glenn Whelan can dominate that area of the pitch. It could be a crucial battle.
A big part of their good performances leads to their wing play. The wing-backs Matt Doherty and Ruben Vinagre are great at both attacking and defending down the wings and look to find pockets of space. Wolves have good depth on the wings, with the versatile Diogo Jota playing on the right a lot this season, the pacy Portuguese winger Ivan Cavaleiro, Barry Douglas, and of course Helder Costa, who has recently returned from injury. Ahmed Elmohamady and whoever is Bruce decides to use out on the left will certainly have their work cut out.
John Ruddy starts in goal for Wolves and has been very good since joining them down in the Championship. The goalkeeper was linked with Villa last season but we opted for Pierluigi Gollini in the summer and then Sam Johnstone in January.
The 3 centre-backs that played for Wolves against Burton were Ryan Bennett, Roderick Miranda, and captain Danny Batth. Despite getting dropped recently, Conor Coady is in contention to start for Wolves either in midfield or defence.
It will be hard to crack down this defence, but the sheer pace and strength of Keinan Davis, a fitter Jonathan Kodjia, Albert Adomah and the rest is surely enough to find chances in what will be a close game.
It will be no easy fixture and Wolves will give us enough to think about but I really feel that should we get an early goal we may just hold on to all three points. We have to remember that they are higher in the league for a reason so it won’t be easy but hopefully the boys in Claret and blue can come out on top.
Common get your facts straight, Connor Coady was suspended for one game not dropped. You waffle on about the pace of your forwards but none of ours esp the wing backs are slow. I would probably be more concerned about our forwards running at your back four, as we dont pump high balls for big defenders to take. John Terry will be booked or sent off as once our guys are behind them they wont catch them. Should be a good game but its going to be different than playing Burton, Bolton, Barnsley and Forest, which is what your GOOD RUN is based on. See you there..
I have predicted a red card for Terry as well Rugby. He wont be able to cope with the movement of our front 3,4,5 or 6 lol. Well known his legs have gone
Coady wasn’t dropped, he was suspended and he hasn’t played midfield all season ya Brummie muppet..
Wolves Ay We!!!!