Results breed confidence and Wolves haven’t gone four undefeated in the Premier League for a few years.
They’ve pushed the top sides at Molineux in a ridiculous early sequence of home matches and shown they can collect points from lesser sides on their travels. Both of those things bode well.
I enjoyed seeing Gary O’Neil explain some of his tactical approach to recent victories on Monday Night Football. He’s got good energy and communicates well – two hallmarks of a top coach.
This weekend the theme of tough home fixtures continues for his side. After this one is done we’ll already have played five of the top seven on our own patch with just over a quarter of the season contested.
Newcastle haven’t won at Molineux since we returned to the top flight, so let’s hope we can continue our solid form in this fixture and shift focus up the table.
Newcastle
I’m very impressed with the team Eddie Howe has built. It’s not just personnel, it’s their tactical setup, their style of play, their tempo, their aggression, their physicality. A lot of that comes from the coach.
You know they’re a top side because they can change a number of players around and still execute a certain level of performance.
And that’s just as well because they have some problems.
Barnes and Botman were already sitting on the sidelines and Isak and Murphy both went off injured in their defeat to Dortmund in the week.
There’s still confusion over whether Tonali can play tomorrow after getting a 10-month ban for betting. Much like Ivan Toney, I think when players plead guilty they should be pulled out immediately, but that’s not Newcastle’s problem and I suspect every club would act in the same way.
With or without him, it will be a big challenge for Wolves. They’re the league’s top scorers with 24 and have only conceded 9, which also gives them one of the better defences.
Wolves
Some decisions for Gary O’Neil to ponder and I think he’s shown that he will choose the XI he feels is best suited to the opposition, making it harder to second-guess the likely team, but he may well go for the tried and tested.
If he does, Traore, Doyle and Doherty can all count themselves unlucky. Sasa too, but it would be a big call to tinker with that front three on current form.
I think we’ve got to stick with a back three to combat Trippier’s excellent delivery and some of the battering rams in their side.
Hopefully, Bellegarde is fit enough to return to the bench because he allows us to operate in a more attacking midfield shape. Sarabia is the other option, but he still looks leggy and off the pace to me. He wasn’t great when he came on against Bournemouth.
Predictions
Well done to Liz, DebenhamWolf, Aquilador, Steppenwolfe, Wokingham Welsh Wolf, Prawny, Wolves Fan Across the Pond, AveburyWolf, Franski, The Witley Wanderer, vicsmith, Formerly Sir Fred of Paisley, CHEESEBURGER OF DEATH and Happy Claptrap who all got the 2-1 scoreline correct against Bournemouth.
I’ve been saying to people all week that I fancy us tomorrow so I have to now back that up with a bold prediction. I’m saying 2-1 Wolves. That’s based on our own form and Newcastle being stretched by injuries and fixture congestion. Sometimes a fixture comes at the right time and I think that could be the case here. They’ll still have more than enough to sort us out if we’re not up to scratch, but I’m confident.
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.
Up The Wolves!
Surprising confident.
Not that we win, Just that we are playing well.
At the start of the season, I was concerned regarding ANY team we play, I thought we Wouldn’t beat the teams we should, and would obviously lose the ones we should lose.
However, O’Neil is cooking something, and I am here for it!
I fancy a win tomorrow.
I agree that Tonali should be nowhere near the pitch having been found guilty of illegal betting. I wonder if the letter saying his ban starts has been held up in the pre-Christmas post.
Great news that Pedro Neto has said that he is perfectly happy and will not force a move from Wolves in January.
Also interesting that Ruben Neves has been linked with a return to The Premier League, with Newcastle ironically.
I wondered when the idea of sun, sea and all the money you could ever dream of would start to pall. I couldn’t bear it myself.
Let’s show the toon a clean pair of heels (Neto’s hopefully), tomorrow.
Is it ironic?
I think we all seen it coming… He wanted champions league football.
I meant ironic insofar as it’s against the team we’re playing tomorrow mate.
Ah! Right.
Yeah it is, Even more so – when he scores the winner huh 😀
Tough game this. I like what Eddie Howe has done up at the Toon. He’s put together a top team without cashing in silly money from their owners.
On the other hand, GON isn’t doing too shabby a job either so I think this will be close and exciting.
Newcastle is a top4 team in the league. With Isak out, Wilson will start who always scores. Going to be a very tough game.
Midfield is a bit of a conundrum but a nice problem to have. I thought Doyle looked good last week and gives us something with his incisive passing that the others don’t. So does Bellegarde give another option with his ability to take players on.
Would go for same back 5 and front 3 as Thomas otherwise.
Hope the ref gives Neto a bit of protection. Burn is a thug as we know from previous encounters.
A tough game but one we can try to impose ourselves. We have put a good string of results together which can hopefully continue in front of the cameras tomorrow.
A tough one to call but hopefully we can continue with the decent form we’ve shown recently and give them a good game. They’ve won here something like twice in 30 years so it’s hardly a happy hunting ground for them. These games at Molineux are always 1-1, aren’t they? Seems the safest bet.
I’m also impressed, like Prawny, with Eddie Howe’s achievements at Newcastle.
I’ve always liked his style of management.
It will be a tough game, naturally, but I’m confident that we can match them on the field.
I’m sticking out for a home win.
COYW
A challenging fixture for sure
GOD , I mean GON, handing out coaching tips on Monday, Pedro’s stats praised to the roof and the Toon turned over by the lederhosen midweek all adding to the broadcasters hype to the Saturday live game …..thus raising expectations to what could be an absolute crackerjack….crackerjack…of a game (you gotta be a certain age for that one)
I recall Mr Howe, back in his early days in the bleak NE, moved a certain Brazilian Centre forward to an attacking midfield role which seemed to work well for team and individual alike ….. I cant help but wonder if our own Mr .Tactician has thought of replicating this move with Mattheus and playing him alongside Lemina in midfield with Sasa as striker with Chang and Neto…. perhaps not tomorrow but my gut feeling is that it would work as Cunha seems to want to be at the ball rather than waiting for the play to come to him.
Other wise in total agreement with Thomas’ summary, team selection and prediction
i’ve been emailing you Thomas but not joy
my prediction score is wrong i should be on 5 points and not 2
The PL is messed up mate, as the site is having to overcome a number of technical issues. I’ll let everyone know when it’s properly up to speed and if your score still isn’t correct, we can get it sorted.
oh ok
thanks Tom
I definitely think we have a chance against NC injuries are piling up keep Bruno and Wilson quiet. Get Neto on the ball and just let him get on with it 2-1 to the Wolves. Thomas bit disappointed last week put 3-0 to Wolves thought you might have changed it always go 2-1.
I agree that this is a good time to play Newcastle. with some notable absentees, especially Isak, and potentially the rest being tired and bit grumpy from losing mid week.
Meanwhile we look like we are on the rise, scoring regularly and playing some nice stuff. GON showing some astute tactician skills (though I don’t like him giving his trade secrets away quite so easily). Lot’s of reasons to be positive.
That said, Newcastle are a quality side and have been scoring for fun whilst keeping it tight at the back. Most of their PL games seem to have been at home so difficult to assess their away form, but they look like a top six side to me.
Prediction wise – I have no idea. I think I’ll go 1-1 cos it always is against the Toon. It certainly wouldn’t be a bad result.
Sasa saves a point
-DSW
I agree Thom about GON’s MNF performance, very articulate and seems tactically switched on. Like many Wolves fan, I’m warming to him.
On current form, I fancy us to make a contest of this but Newcastle’s potency in front of goal worries me. I think they’ll just edge it.
Side note but any fellow bloggers/exercise enthusiasts use Strava? I’m getting into it and my friend count is miserable. Connect with me for mutual encouragement if you like – https://www.strava.com/athletes/113764263
Brave prediction by you Thomas. I thought you might hedge your bets with a 1-1.
Fascinating encounter, and to my mind it’s as much a clash of the coaches as the players. Eddie Howe’s rise is fully deserved. There was talk about Benitez returning once the blood-money takeover happened, as Howe was seen as a stop-gap by some. In much the same way, another young English coach in O’Neil has surpassed another experienced Spanish coach in a reversal of conventional wisdom. Aged 45, Howe has a few years on O’Neil and in experience too. We’ve seen O’Neil give that well-received class on Monday explaining his recent successful tactics. No doubt he will have surprises in store for Howe, and vice versa. These two coaches almost take me back to when I was still wearing short trousers to school, when the Revie Plan was a sensation.
I can’t rate O’Neil as highly as Howe, but he’s getting there.
I’ve had a couple of bets on a Wolves win, and with BTTS. I’ve also hedged slightly with money on a draw. Any win will leave me very much quids in. A draw will leave me all square. As for a loss, I’m not worried. This might be 2-1 or 2-2. I slightly favour the win.
Newcastle will probably have too much firepower for us – unfortunately!!
I thought GO was impressive on MNF. Did he give his secrets away? Well, it’s one thing to hear how he works but quite another to replicate it. I suspect he’s very driven.
I’m going back to 2-1 for this one, although it could easily be a higher scoring game.
Unfortunately the late kick off on a Saturday doesn’t work for me (surely it “should” be Sunday bc of Newcastle’s European game but that clearly doesn’t work for Sky).
I’m hoping that fatigue from the midweek game and then add another 4 hrs on their bums travelling will work in our favour.
The team picks itself , on the basis of 8 pts from the last 4 games, it’s tough for Doherty, Traore, Sasa and Doyle..
I’d stick with the back 5 and hope that Neto, Hwang and Cunha can work a bit of magic to create a goal of two .. that said .. they’ve got some decent players .. which will keep us on our toes ..
A dual between Sasa and Dan Burn would be intriguing…
I’m going for the bookies favourite… 1-1
Hard one to predict, but hopefully GON will have the structure right.
So glad that Neto wants to stay – he is our one really class act now Rueben no longer with us. If he leaves or gets injured we are back in trouble!
Anyway lets go for another home win.
Why not? Going for the trusted 2-1 again! COMBs!
We will step up to the plate, maybe first on MOTD. Now that would be a first.
Our really tough run of home fixtures continues.
I feel we have shown, as the season has progressed, an increasing ability to live with and, at times, outplay the form teams in the division. Newcastle are playing some great stuff this season but with the pressures of both the Champions league and a lengthening injury list, we will no doubt prove a serious test.
Three at the back please. Keep us in it early doors and our forwards are well capable of taking the spoils.
GON was for sure very impressive on MNF. But he only really spilled the beans to we fans. He knows very well that any pro manager worth his salt will be very well versed in the tactics he described.
Fascinating stuff for the likes of me though.
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Deja vu all over again
1-0 down at half time and then Sasa pulls it out of the fire late on
UTW
I’ve absolutely no idea what to predict for this one. The player’s confidence must be high at the moment and that could just make the difference, but Newcastle have been playing well and we do seem to struggle to keep a clean sheet. – Perhaps a draw then.
1-1 because it nearly always is, isn’t it?
Based on current form, I don’t see how you can leave Sasa out.
He’s scoring at a higher rate than Haaland.
He’s scoring at a rate of about 150 goals a season in the PremierLeague.
This should be a really tough game. Both sides are due a poor result. Newcastle have a few injury problems, but our defence can still be a little iffy at times.
I think we could win this, but feel a draw could still be a good result for us. It’s hard as we often do well against the Toon.
I’ll go for a draw at two each.
We’ve made great strides recently and the team seems very together. There’s a great spirit amongst them and Gary has instilled a positive, attacking and hard-working identity to the team.
Nevertheless, we’re up against one of the best teams in the league tomorrow who seem to score goals with ease. 24 scored from 9 matches equals 2.67 goals per match while defensively they’ve only conceded 9. So the average match outcome is 2.67 – 1 victories, while we’ve only scored 11 goals from our 9 games and conceded 15 for a net average result of 1.2 – 1.67. Working on the stats alone, (which isn’t perfect because one also needs to factor in the teams each of the sides have faced in their matches so far), it looks like Newcastle’s performances and results over the matches they’ve played so far are about 3 times superior to us and I’m afraid that that’s what my scorecast suggests.
As usual I’d be delighted to be proven hopelessly wrong.
PeteRobbo. Would you mind helping with my tax return????
Newcastle, even with injuries, are a tough proposition. Add to that that they are the top scorers, have the highest x goals etc and it’s going to be a long afternoon.
Hang on a minute. We beat Citeh a couple of weeks ago. And almost did Villa. We beat Bournemouth away. And we have the genius tactician, none other than Gary O’Neil at the helm.
We are Wolves.
It’s in the bag.
UTW
Next Door Neighbours Cat has been undercover at Molineux this week and informs me WWFC have a secret plan to unsettle the Toon prior to kick off. The plan is to play ‘The Barabara Dickson Album’ (1980) by Barbara Dickson in full to the Newcastle dressing room. The shock of this musical heroine warbling through the speakers will be enough to put anyone off. Even NDNC said he had to wear ear plugs during the rehearsals. By the 4th track on the CD the Toon players will run out on to the pitch 25 minutes early to escape the torture. Thus causing them to be in a state of early onset tiredness by kick off. The result will be a rampaging Neto assisting Hwang RAN and Sasa (off the bench) to three goals as WWFC get over the line by 3-2 in a splendid encounter. To rub salt in the wounds the disconsolate Toon return to their dressing rooms as Barabara Dickson once again works her magic. After the game GON said “All that stuff on Sky Monday night was just a smokescreen. The plan to play Barabara Dickson to the Toon worked a treat. I’m thinking of playing Englebert Humperdink to the Spurs dressing room in our next home game”. Eddie Howe said ” I love Barabara Dickson but unfortunately the lads listen to Speed Garage music and they got all upset when Barabara came on” WWFC 3 Toon 2.
Barbara obviously. Not Barabara.
Tough customers here.
Wolves are having a nice run, but a letdown is bound to come at some point.
Can’t see us scoring more than 1
On a broader front hope Neto really means it when he says he’ll stay till the end of the season and I hope the club is preparing for his departure next summer unlike the Jota
fiasco.
Jota left because we had Neto. Nobody knew he was going to have injury problems.
Will be great to see which manager’s tactics come out on top in this one – my money is in GON. I really hope Wolves go on the front foot from the start. Ideally would like to see Bellegarde disrupting Newcastle lines to feed our dynamic front three, but not sure of his fitness. As long as we can keep Wilson at bay, we’ve got a decent chance. UTW
A tough match but out of the darkness comes a golden light to spin the Toons into a black & white Molineux nightmare
Hoping to continue our good run. Players seem together and playing for GON. Confidence high and like a previous poster I am actually going to games again thinking that we can get a result although this one will be tough.
Let’s go Wolves!!!
Remember knocking this lot out of the Cup, Shearer, Bellamy and all. Oh Lordy George Ndah! Same result tomorrow with an 89th minute shoulder flick from SaSa as Burn tumbles to the floor!
Not sure we can keep the momentum going. Hope I’m wrong…
There is one factor that is becoming very apparent, that the squad is committed to GON and there is real pride in playing for the shirt! The pack is back!!!
In The Caribbean, we were suffering from a prolonged drought, but Hurricane Tammy brought some much needed rain and it has now been raining all this weekend, so all is good! Torrential rain! Like our LIQUID football that we are aiming for!
Five at the back for me!
Think we’ll revert to type,due a poor result and we usually get a result.when I denounce them, do I get a booby prize for never getting a prediction right
The like button seems to have disappeared! Technical challenges abound with the prediction league not updating. Feel for you Thomas et al as it’s annoying when the underlying technology goes awry. Hope you can get it fixed.
And talking of getting things fixed… step forward Gary O’N. We seem to have found a thoughtful tactician with the human touch. Has there been a better appointment outside of Spurs this season? And to think of the moaning going on only a month ago.
On a personal note, my dad got me into Wolves with a trip to see us play at home against Stoke (1973 or 74 – 1-1 I think) … he died on the 7 Oct and one of his last comments noted the mighty win over Citi. Love you dad.
Sincere condolences AW. Very sorry for your loss. My dad was also responsible for getting me to follow Wolves, but in a backfiring sort of way. He took me to watch his team Man United back in 1972, thinking I’d join along. They lost to the Wolves 2-0 that night and Wolves were my team since. I still remember him chuckle about it all.
Thank you. It’s been a trying journey at times with WW over the last 50 years but always been pleased I didn’t fall for a fashionable club!
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Happily take a point to keep our momentum going as this is another very tough fixture. Best of luck to GON, his staff and the team. COYW
Not sure we would have beaten Bournemouth had Sasa not come on. He’s a natural finisher and we need him fit and starting for the second half of this season. Kudos to GON for bringing him on. Betting on getting something from this one.
Let’s keep it rollin’
Great GON on MNF not for the tactics part but for the PR connection to us Wolves supporters.
Great to see there’s a proper bloke there, clear and concise. But then again never took to Jlo’s press conference’s and attitude
Draw or a win ?
.
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I’d be happy with a point and a good performance. Another goal for Hwang!
Yep, I think both teams would be happy with a draw.
utw.
1-1 seems very popular in recent history in this fixture – and this week’s prediction league.
Greetings,
Here they come with their bottles of Broon and Alan Price mix tapes. Smug Shearer like grins on the side after the Germans packed them off mid week with a cheery Auf Wiedersen, Pet, and a shower of Pilsner.
A right bunch, and we can be assured they’ll be taking nothing for granted given their abysmal record at the Golden Palace.
I’m sure Gazzbo needs no tactical advice from my good self, only to say don’t give them an early goal and don’t get sent off.
We’re in with a shout and playing OK.
1 lv & COYW
Good test to see where we are at
They’ve got players out and we’ve got bucket loads of confidence. UTW
Oh no
After the early results, it looks like a win this evening will take us up to tenth place. Possible top ten, wow! What pressure.
Interesting to hear that Lopetegui is still hanging around and yearns for another go in the PL. Could be in the frame for Palace, or even Fulham. Hodgson is obviously of an age. Marco Silva seems to have hit a wall at Fulham. Lopetegui probably wants to have bigger fish to fry, like Chelsea, and after today’s debacle they may be looking for a new cook!
Hopefully we can keep our good run going!
I feel optimistic-ish.
We played City at a good time and it may prove to be a good time to play Newcastle- midweek loss and short turnaround.
Yes, they have a team of very talented players but Wolves are developing a pack mentality and late winners proves they fight for their team.
Barring the Man U and Luton fiascos we could have been on equal point and we should not be considered underdogs.
I fancy a narrow win- just keep Fabio under wraps please!
let’s go with a higher-scoring draw.
More points stoken from Wolves. Can we get two appologises in one game?
apologies
If var can’t overturn that ‘penalty’ there is no hope shocking. But i wouild have took a draw to start.