Apart from the result, the thing I enjoyed most about the Spurs game was some of the high pressing we saw from Wolves in the second half.
In particular, the passage of play that saw Raul, Neves and Moutinho swarm to eventually regain the ball and put Matheus Cunha in for what should have been his first goal for the club.
It’s that type of front-foot aggression that’s been sorely lacking for years now and goes a long way to explain our woeful goalscoring record.
We signed players in January to improve our pressing so it should be happening more often.
We’ll certainly need to display similar enthusiasm on Sunday to avoid getting swept away.
Newcastle
It doesn’t take a lot to turn a brilliant season sour and if the Magpies were to finish outside of the European places it would feel like a serious disappointment given their steep upward trajectory in the last 12 months.
I thought they did reasonably well in the League Cup final but shipped a couple of cheap goals and that made it easier for Man Utd to just absorb their pressure and see out the game.
Earlier in the campaign they weren’t conceding any goals and were finding it a lot easier to put the ball in the net themselves. They’ve been struggling at both ends in recent weeks, which is why they’ve been getting edged out.
They had enough of the game in recent defeats to Liverpool and Man City to have collected results so will feel if they can apply a similar performance in their next two (with a visit to Forest next week) they’ll get a positive return.
They’ve only lost once in 12 home games so far but have only managed one victory in their last seven league matches. That record must improve if they’re to bring European football back to St. James’ Park.
Wolves
Will Julen Lopetegui reward the substitutes that helped turn the game in our favour last weekend?
And would he even consider persisting with a back three? Jonny and Semedo certainly looked more comfortable with the extra body covering their tracks.
Raul, Traore and Moutinho all had a positive impact and showed the requisite enthusiasm, fight and will to win. In that respect I think Nunes in particular is lucky if he keeps his place. He has to show more.
We haven’t seen much of João Gomes or Daniel Podence lately, but as we saw from Pedro Neto’s sudden appearance against Spurs, the manager isn’t afraid to shake things up. Anyone could start or drop out.
Predictions
Well done to Matt Cook, vicsmith, St.Kitts Wolves and Ash K for all scoring maximum with a spot on prediction last time out.
Rich now has a four-point lead at the top of the overall table at the end of Gameweek 26. He would do well at PlayUp Betting.
As always, if you’d like to join in with the Prediction League this season, it’s simple – just leave your prediction in the comment section below using the boxes provided. Then repeat for every preview article throughout the season, making sure you always use the same email address to make your prediction. Your email is what ties you to your overall score.
You can read my prediction for the game in the comment section below.
Up The Wolves!
A draw would be a fantastic result having pouched that win against Spurs and I’ll back us to get it.
I think we can keep them to one and muster a goal ourselves. This fixture has a habit of delivering the scoreline too so all the more reason to believe.
Cunha to open his account.
P.s. ignore my team graphic (I couldn’t access my computer to change it). I would probably play…
Sa
Semedo
Kilman
Dawson
Collins
Jonny
Neves
Lemina
Traore
Cunha
Raul
Extra height and power to deal with Newcastle’s giants.
That’s more like it Thomas!
If we play this team, I would fancy a draw.
If we start with a back four, and Nunes in midfield…
I wouldn’t.
I would go 5 at the back but just Raul and Cunha up front. Put an extra body in midfield and I would let Gomes loose. Keep Moutinho and Traore for the latter stages. To me Nunes is not up to it at the moment and Sahabia likewise. Both are very good players obviously but seem to need more time to adapt to the Premier League, as some often do.
With a bit of luck we can win this!
But recently, we seemed to have fallen back to the old tradition of playing well for one half of the game! But better than not playing well at all!
It will be interesting to see who is selected for left back, Jony or Ait-N and to see how Loppy is thinking.
Either way, we will have to have our best stuff to win and any complacency or less than 100% effort will not do.
The norm for Newcastle is a draw so I’ll stick with that and like the spurs game I should be wrong as my predictions are crap
On a seperate conspiracy note did blighty get the over the line graphic for arsenal’s second goal be got bugger all here to prove or disprove it
My Geordie pal Alex is coming round for a liquid breakfast Sunday
It’s an 830 am start here but clocks move so we will be chugging beer at body clock time 730am
Will Manage somehow
15 months ago I was torturing him on his Championship outlook but what a difference some oil money makes… and I confess to being surprised how well Eddie has done.., especially with underperformers like Joelinton and Our Miggy
It’s a nailed on 1-1
But wait …, we have a not so secret weapon in the shape of JLo
And Raul is due , if only from the ‘spot’… but maybe two?
Hope he picks Traore and Ait to start as these Geordies dont like it up ‘em ….and Neto awaits in second half
OODCL
I’d save Traore for the second half as he’s more effective when defenders tire and, now that it’s a 16 man game, we need our best team playing at the business end and not the start. That will mean bringing on Moutinho too. Signs are promising if we can hold out for that important first 20 minutes.
Same for me mate, but Julen‘s starting with Jao presumably to try and keep the ball early doors.
Hopefully, the current table is not what the current forms of the teams seems to be. Whilst Wolves have been improving, they have been slipping up. With that in mind, I am deleting a loss!
Fully agree with the back 3 scenario, I believe the game against Spurs, turned on its head (in our favour, of course) once we went to that formation. Semedo is a shoe in at RWB, and a tougher choice at LWB as RAN comes more into the picture if he can venture a lot more forward. Raul needs to be there if Traore is on. They work well together, whether they start or come off the bench early in the second half.
Prediction wise, I would be very happy with a draw. Let’s be different and go for a 2-2.
Newcastle the new darlings of the media. Well look at the squad and it ispretty ordinary tbh.
Almiron , ASM 1 good game in 6. . Trippier probably the most overated player in the Prem. Burn ready to be torn a new one by Adama. Wilson hamstring must be due to go again. Howes magic is wearing off expect them to finish 10th and a new manager in charge appointedby cross eyed Stavely. Get up there WWFC and do em
I’m feeling very positive at the mo. The Mighty Wolves will continue to amaze us through to the end of the season.
A purple patch in both halves will be enough to edge this one.
Top six next season??
I think I’d be happy if we can steal a point at St James’.
The Magpies are a different side this season and the home crowd are pretty awesome too.
Goals are still hard to poach, so one apiece will do me… unless, of course Traore can work his late magic again. 🙂
I’m hoping we can continue the front-foot attitude from the second half at Spurs. If we can, then I think we can nick this, as Newcastle are a bit off right now. With both sides not scoring freely, I think a single goal will be the difference.
Think it will be a tight game and a late goal from us will seal the 3 points.
I am not surprised to see so many going for a 1-1 prediction for this fixture. Despite their still lofty position the Magpies have only won once in the League since the turn of the year, whereas we are on the up, but still struggling for goals.
Also, it always seems to be thus between these two teams. It does look like a nailed on 1-1 you’d have thought and I, like many others, would take that at this stage.
However, I still worry about “struggling for goals”. So just to be different …
I would happily take a point now but there is always the potential for a bonus win. Not sure how many more chances Nunes can get….so, I’d go with putting him on the bench and consider the likes of Gomes , Moutinho, Podence, Hodge etc. – they certainly can’t be any less effective than him
I’m hopeful of a result
as stated this fixture does tend to produce binary scorelines
A look at the table would say banker home win, but recent results could easily indicate otherwise and I feel we have the necessary tools to take the points in this.
One wonders if JLo deliberately doesn’t play what one might think is our strongest eleven from the start so he has more options to switch it up when he’s assessed the opposition. If so, who knows what the starting line up will be. In fact, who cares. It’s the finishing line up that seems to count more.
Fully agree, whilst the league table never lies, recent form favours us and the home fans will be expecting a return to winning ways- Newcastle may get impatient and frustrated. It is certainly a 16 player game now and more switched on managers will consider playing their most effective players in the latter stages of a match, when opposition defenders tire.
The Dan Burn/Adama match up could again be key and I wouldn’t be surprised to see them down to 10 men if the referee offers the level of protection Traore deserves. However, we should not get ahead of ourselves, Spurs were profligate before we changed our formation and on another day we could have being playing catch up. Very happy with a point given the fellow strugglers all have hard games too. COYW
You’ve got it nailed on with your wonderment in my opinion, ‘stroker. More or less what I was saying in my own prediction above.
I think the biggest thing we can take away from the Tottenham game is that we finally have a manager that can change a game by making astute substitutions when needed. You could argue that both Nuno and Bruno didn’t have as much quality to call from the bench, but both were often found lacking when a game was running away from us.
Personally, I’d go with a back five in this game – I thought we looked much more assured in the second half, and I wouldn’t be unhappy to see Nunes dropped. He’s a talented player but his body language was absolutely rotten against Spurs, and I think it’s pretty clear that his heart isn’t it. If we could somehow manage to bag a big fee for him in the summer and keep Neves then I’d be absolutely delighted, but time will tell.
Newcastle have been a bit out of sorts lately so this might be a good time to play them, though they’ve obviously got bags of quality. I thought they were unlucky against City last weekend, with Isak looking a real threat from the bench.
UTW x
The changes – i totally agree – it takes some doing.
But the starting line ups – always seem off. Every game (liverpool being an exception)
Moutinho just cant start games anymore – its why we end up in a mess. Jonny left back? I thought collins had been out performing kilman personally. Starting Costa on his own up top?
Theres no wonder he NEEDS to make the changes he does – Tis questionable
Collins unfortunately outperforms Kilman in the catastrophic errors department (almost another against Spurs) and that’s why he hasn’t been picked to start since Dawson’s arrival. Mistakes at centre half, just like goalkeepers, regularly mean conceding and that’s something we just can’t afford when we are rather goal shy.
When I compare Wolves’ form with that of Newcastle over the last six games,
I think we should secure at least a point.
I would just love to see Jiminez score from open play.
It feels as if a few times this season we’ve come up against a team struggling for form, only for them to find their feet on playing us. Leicester, Palace, Bournemouth, Chelsea, Liverpool in the cup.
Newcastle have stalled since Christmas. We must absolutely not allow ourselves to be their launch pad tomorrow. A draw is a realistic expectation. A win; well I imagine a fair few Wolves fans would go into orbit themselves if we won another game away. And our Premier League survival would be one giant leap for “Wolves kind” closer.
Who will start tomorrow and what formation is anyone’s guess, but we must try to impose ourselves from the get go, not rely solely on JL’s sublime substitution science at half time.
It’s hard to support Nunes starting, and several of our stand out performers from the second half against Spurs were the old guard, Moutinho, Traore and Jimenez in particular. Neto will take time to get up to speed, but we have options.
A loss wouldn’t be a disaster, a draw I’d take now, and a win would be stratospheric.
We should go there with confidence, no fear, lots of belief and hopefully at full time will be saying “auf wiedersehen pet” to the Magpies, having Jimmy Nailed our second bird in a week.
UTW
Newcastle have looked jaded over the last few weeks, defence not a sound as before and Trippier free kicks have been terrible.
Joe Linton suspended and at some stage Traore up against Dan Burn
So remaining positive
Great 2nd half at Spurs, but could have been all over by half time in their favour.
Lop has to get tactics right from the start at Newcastle, though to be fair he is the first pro- active manager in terms of substitutions we have had.
The score – who knows could be anything.
The blood money bounce has deserted Newcastle and the Magpies are left picking over the rotting corpse of another false dawn and feeling short changed on the souls they traded for the greener grass that turned out to be astroturf. Wolves however come with renewed optimism that only a dominant second half and a late winner against a top 4 team can give you. This game has draw written all over it but despite our strikers woes, since the restart we’ve scored 11 in 11 in the League whilst Newcastle have scored 6 in 9, i see no reason to doubt our improvement will continue and we will further Newcastle’s descent to mid table mediocrity. I think J.Lo will stick with 4 at the back, what worked against Spurs wouldn’t necessarily work against Newcastle, it is these mid game tweaks that has delivered results rather than setting the tweaks in stone. Bournemouth aside we haven’t done too badly with this strategy up til now, the Liverpool result doesn’t look half bad given that they delivered arguably the perfect game in their next match against an in form Man U. Jiminez to start upfront with Cunha, Johnny to keep his place along with Nunes who didn’t do a lot wrong against Spurs and improved on previous games, he doesn’t impose himself enough so rarely stands out and sometimes people’s expectations of him are often more about his price tag than his actual performance imo. Although i think we’d all like to see more of Gomes but we have to have faith that J.Lo knows best. UTW
You were watching a different Nunes to myself, Happy. He can glide past players with ease but spoils things on a regular basis by his inaccurate, sloppy and lazy passing. His display against Spurs was so similar, in that respect, to many earlier ones. Hopefully, some well aimed Lopetegui rockets will have the desired effect because there’s a player in there.
Mouthino and Neves both have a pass accuracy of 76% in the oppositions half, Nunes has a 71% pass accuracy. 90%, 90%, 89% respectively in their own half. Not much between them on paper Pedant. He’s definately not the shining light we hoped for (and paid for!!) but the mechanics are there and J.Lo clearly sees that. Hoping a good pre season will realise his full potential.
Statistics don’t always tell the tale, Happy. Neves, for example, often seeks a killer ball which is much more risky whereas Nunes fails regularly with a relatively simple pass. I agree that the mechanics are there.
What I wouldn’t do to trade Matheus for Miggy Stardust. Predicting a draw like most.
-DSW
We rode our luck in the first half last week but the second half showed a super level of commitment and passion to turn the game around. Great substitutions by JLo. We snuffed out Kane, so credit to our back three. And it was great to see the way we managed the game in the last 10 minutes. We looked much more solid when Collins came on and I would start with this formation at the back. As always do we start with Traore? I’d be inclined to and leave Neto on the bench.
A good summary m’colleague and I like your prediction too, but perhaps rather recklessly, I’m going for something better on the basis of last week’s excellent result.
I’m playing two games here, Newcastle and Prediction.
The first I see a tight game with two teams nullifying each other into a 1-1 draw.
The latter is seeing most everyone predicting exactly that so let’s go positive.
See us scoring but see them scoring too
Sensing a let down for this one.
Hard to string two together…
Difficult one to call this. I believe Newcastle are unbeaten at home this season so getting a win looks incredibly difficult. They have had plenty of draws though.
I do think they are due a win, and as well as we have generally been playing under JL, we’re prone to put in a stinker, see Liverpool. Memories of this game (there aren’t many, which is the point) from last season spring to mind when we stunk the place out.
I hope we can put in a good performance and get a result but haven’t got a great feeling about this one.
If we can replicate the 2nd half against Spuds and continue with 3 at the back then I see us winning this game. Traore will destroy Burn in the second half.
Much as I admire JL’s substitutions and change of tactics (when they work; there have been a couple of misses), like others I want to see things right from the start with just a responsive tweak necessary.
I think we could win this but I’m not yet confident that we are firing fully yet so I’m going for a draw.
Blimey, that new striker playing tonight for Stoke was brilliant with two expertly taken goals. Sign him up quick, Jeff. Oh, you already have! He’s our reserve right back with attitude.
Maybe he can come back Hindsight now Lage has been shown the door. His passing needs to improve significantly though if he’s ever gonna get near starting at Wolves, his stats are abysmal. You could say Lage had an attitude problem, it was unprofessional throwing Hoever under the bus in public imo.
Always a good day out at the Toon, though the footy can be excruciating from our POV.
We won’t have the benevolent Molly woodwork to help us out this week either.
It’ll need tactical masterplan from J-Lo, beyond packing an extra pair of gloves, to see us through this one.
No doubt the Geordies are on a downer but you can see them marking this as a 3 pointer. Time to show some teeth and stick a sledgehammer through Alan Price’s piano.
At least we’ll be spared Shearer’s grin should the worst happen and we get thumped, as he’s upped sticks from MOTD in support of Links. All the jug eared sprite did was to call the Gov. a bunch of Nazi’s. Rwanda ffs.
1 lv & COYW
It’s getting harder, in my view, to predict a result. We have a great game then a pretty ordinary display or a poor half then an excellent forty-five,
Then we have to estimate the opposition’s form;by which time my brain is struggling.
So, as a Wolves ‘ fan I revert to deciding we’ ll manage a win somehow.
2-1 to Wolvy…
When we were strong and they were weak, we struggled to beat them.
Which period/decade are you referring to?
I’ve just got a feeling we’ll nick this one. Raul seems to have picked up lately so I’ll say he’ll bag a header
Keeping it going
.
I’m not to sure on this one so I’ll sit on the fence with a draw….
Hope to win – expect a draw – tipping a loss…
I agree re: high pressing if we hadn’t done it in the secound half v Spurs we wouldn’t have scored.
As I said in my blog after the Spurs game we need to mix it up……we have become to predictable and one dimensional. We need to play balls over the top know and then……..Julian and the squad could do with watching videos of Bully’s goals…..we don’t have to make 50 passes to score a goal all the time.
Possession is one thing but if you don’t do anything with it your just wasting time.
Adama to come on secound half he seems best used when teams are tiring , and I’d like to see Gomes at some point again coming on not staring he has a goal in him he seems to have that knack of being in the right place at the right time.
Feeling like we can spring a surprise. UTW
Second half was very good against Spurs be interesting to see what shape we play against Newcastle, these have been struggling for goals and seem to have gone off the book recently. Which obviously means a comfortable home win
I think we can get a goal but not a result.
Fresh start ..
This 12 months without a striker scoring now becomes a new era .. forget the past .. let’s concentrate on the present.,!
Jimenez will scare the nuts off Dan Burn and Traore will create twisted blood from .. well whosoever gets in the way ..
The Geordies to their credit have only lost 3 times this season .. but they’ve drawn an almighty 10 /11 times.. so forecasting this had suddenly become easy ..,
I’m back in the northern hemisphere now ..
Jimenez and Cunha …..2-1 to me bbaaaabbeeeezzz ..
Back to blighty I’m Jealous
Cheers P N …
My body clock is still 13 hours out of sync…
Lovely country though … we spent a few days in Pelorus Sound … (Wilson Bay) .. even the Lodge jetty had a petrol pump … amazing..
Much has been said about poor recent results for the Geordies. Yes, they do seem to have lost a little of their early season verve but the defeats in their most recent games were against Citeh, Manure and the red Scousers. Tough run for most teams and for sure they’ll be looking at us as a good chance to get back on track. Mistakenly, of course,
Been a while ….with today’s results we need to get at least a draw but we can win this
RAUL is back….. Hatrick and MOTM
ODCL
The climb to the stand at St. Jimmys leaves you out of breath;only recovering 5 x minutes from the end ready for the 3x day trek back to base camp.
Anyway , a win it’ll be for me.
SOLIDARITY with Gary. Smash the Tories! Apart from that Newcastle away is gonna be a 2 -1 win WWFC
Oooops. Did it again and got all political. Many apologies to any Tory voters on here. It’s nothing personal. And yes. I had come back from the pub. But come on the Wolves today ! Get something today and beat Leeds next week we could be almost safe.
Solidarity Cheese, even if you don’t agree with what he said, his right to say it should not be up for debate. That sort of state interference and silencing of critics belongs in Russia.
Although I tend to agree with much that you say Cheesey, even when you’ve been down the pub, there’s a place for everything.
And this ain’t it.
How refreshing to watch Match of The Day without having to listen to super egos and pundits spouting cliches and stating the bleeding obvious.
I thought it was a bit weird without all the usual shit. But then again i’m a loony any way!
I thought exactly the same DOOG. I often turned the sound off when Lineker and co. were spouting their usual rubbish and felt it improved the programme no end. Not having them there at all was even better. Long may it last !
Except that we need longer highlights but I suspect that they are contractually limited to how much they can show.
Gutted to have missed the Spurs match last week but that’s life, I guess. It was so good to hear that our old guard had clicked back into form. I’m hoping for more of the same at St. James’ Park.
Still 13th after Saturday’s matches. A Wolves win at Newcastle would be absolutely sensational.
The relegation battle continues to enthral. None of the teams in the mix are taking it lying down and so there is no margin for error. It would be great to at least take a point today. Of course, three would set us up perfectly for the arrival of dirty Leeds.
This has got a draw written all over it. Can’t see us scoring but doing everything we can to hold them back.
Hoping for a winning feeling to make the long journey home bearable.
One of the most obvious penalty and red card incidents I have EVER seen!
But the ref, and VAR ‘didn’t’.
Why am I not surprised?
Absolutely. Where are cheese when we need you?