Man Utd

Given the nature of the scores on the opening weekend of the ‘most competitive league in the world’, you’d be forgiven for heading into tonight’s game with low expectations.

Villa’s shellacking at Newcastle aside, there were few surprises to be found within the first round of fixtures of the 23/24 Premier League season.

And yet, were we not so profligate in front of goal, it could have been oh so different.

Despite enduring a glib pre-season, Wolves produced a display against one of the division’s most expensively assembled teams that suggested there’s more cause for optimism than many of the forecasts would have you believe. 

Gary O’Neil certainly showed his tactical acumen, despite only having a matter of days to prepare his new charges. This was a disciplined but, above all else, ambitious performance, as evidenced by our 23 shots on goal.

Of course, therein lies the problem. For all of our attacking verve, our long-standing Achilles’ heel remains. We just can’t score goals. 

It’s a shame that Matheus Cunha was the biggest culprit on that front, as this was arguably his best performance to date in old gold. I’d be keen to see him play off either Kalajdzic or Silva in the coming weeks. 

Gomes and Lemina were also impressive in the middle of the park, with Neto also offering a performance of real promise.

Ultimately, we were undone by a moment of quality that any top side can muster, with Ten Hag’s substitutions lifting an otherwise underwhelming performance from the home side.

O’Neil was aggrieved by the penalty that never was, but I still think it’s a really difficult one to call. On one hand, Onana has taken out two of our players but, on the other, if you’re awarding that, there’s going to be a lot of spot kicks given this season. 

Either way, our fate was in our own hands and we’re going to need to be more clinical if we’re going to steer clear of a dogfight this season.

Alas, fine margins shouldn’t dampen what was a surprisingly encouraging performance. I think if we play like that more often than not we’ll be just fine.

The annoying thing is we were starting to see Lopetegui’s fingerprints on the team.

Pressing with purpose from the front, breaking at pace and finally – finally – getting some bodies into the box.

I stand to be proven wrong, but everything I’ve seen or read about Gary O’Neil suggests this isn’t simpatico to his more pragmatic way of getting things done.

That leaves the lads in a bit of a pickle just days out from one of the more difficult opening fixtures.

A sunnier way of looking at it might be that this was always going to be a tough assignment so there’s nothing to lose anyway.

Yeah, I think I’ll go with that.

Man Utd

The going has been better at Old Trafford over the summer. Erik ten Hag has been able to offload the players he doesn’t want and bring in others to suit his established system. That’s what you’re supposed to do.

It is easier for the moneybags clubs of course but with investment comes expectation and that will be sky-high after laying secure foundations last season.

On paper, improvement seems inevitable given that they’ve turfed out weak links and added depth in other areas they were lacking.

Such is the way football is going, the goalkeeper could end up being their most important attacking recruit. Andre Onana is useful with his feet and is being hyped up as an essential piece of the puzzle as Utd look to build more effectively from the back.

As much will be expected from striker Rasmus Højlund when he eventually gets up to speed. He’s not ready for Monday but even in a worst-case scenario, should eventually prove a solid upgrade on Wout Weghorst. No offence Wout.

Gut feeling? Some good moments in the season, but I think they’ll finish 4th.

Wolves

Anyone up for some Gazball? I have zero idea what the head coach has in mind so instead I’ll just name the XI I think he should eventually be trying to get on the pitch from the players at his disposal.

I’m all in on Sasa Kalajdzik. I think he is exactly what we need. If he can stay fit (a big if) I have confidence he’ll create chaos, bring others into play and most importantly, score goals.

All of our attacking players will benefit from the presence of a target man. Neto, Nunes, Hwang, Sarabia, Cunha and Fabio will all produce better output with someone dragging defenders away, which is why I feel Sasa is pivotal.

Playing Doherty at left-back will probably raise a few eyebrows but I just think we need another senior pro in that back four and it means we can get his attacking capabilities into the side without losing Nelson’s running power.

The combinations with the midfielders ahead of them also work better. Pedro likes to get it wide, Doc can make good runs inside. Nelson likes to get down the wing and Nunes comes inside to join the play. These are combinations I don’t feel have been right in recent years.

Predictions

Well, we’re gonna lose sorry. I wish I could find a way to predict anything but a regulation defeat but I just don’t see it. For all the good Lopetegui did at Molineux, the away performances during his brief tenure were largely garbage so there’s a good chance for O’Neil to make a solid gain over the season. This will surely be a bridge too far though.

What I hope we’ll get is some resistance, some backbone or, failing that, anything we can cling onto and take into another tough game against Brighton next weekend.

As for the score, I’m saying 3-1 Utd. Sasa to get our goal.

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.

In case you didn’t know, we’re in the age of artificial intelligence.

And if you asked a computer to imagine a standard home victory in the Premier League, it would almost certainly spit out something resembling this sun-drenched kickabout.

A predictable defeat at the Theatre of Dreams that followed all the familiar algorithms.

Utd squandered several chances before they eventually got ahead while Wolves enjoyed their share of the ball without ever threatening.

After a couple of shaky outings for David De Gea, he’ll have enjoyed not having to make a single save in the entire game. I can’t even remember him holding the ball in his hands.

Meanwhile, at the other end, Daniel Bentley was our Man of the Match on his Wolves and Premier League debut. He made three top-class stops to keep his team in the game before that final breakaway sealed the deal.

Others were tidy in possession and diligent in their work, but nobody was able to summon anything in the final third to make a fairly average Man Utd team sweat about seeing the game out.

Hwang had one good run in behind and Podence produced a cross that wouldn’t quite drop for Raul, but those nearly moments have too often been all we can muster.

The job for the summer is clear – sweep the decks and re-imagine the entire attacking unit. Nobody should be safe because nobody has produced the goods consistently enough to be overlooked.

That’s the only way we can avoid these familiar shutouts and end what’s been three years of steady decline in front of goal.

Fortunately, today’s result doesn’t matter and for all the frustration over our meagre output, that’s still worth celebrating.

But we must learn from what we see and take appropriate action. Even a computer can do that.

It was good to hear Julen Lopetegui talking about the hard work required over the summer.

Outgoings are inevitable but I am concerned that the favourable points return since the manager’s arrival might translate to minimal recruitment.

The 1.5 points per game average we’ve achieved in the Lopetegui era would place us comfortably in the top half if extrapolated over a full season, but I think we all know that pleasing statistic masks what has been a long hard slog to safety.

None of our victories, with the possible exception of Liverpool, have been achieved with comfort and in between the good results we’ve seen some awful performances.

It needs to be foot to the floor again between now and August so the squad is battle ready from minute one next time.

Man Utd

We’ve taken care of our business and can enjoy this one, but Utd have come unstuck lately and Liverpool’s resurgence means they badly need to pocket a result.

Fortunately for them, three of their remaining games are at Old Trafford, which has reclaimed fortress status under Erik ten Hag. They’ve dominated there in all competitions and won 12 of 16 in the league, with just that single loss to Brighton right at the start blotching their record.

It’s their away form dragging them back with two defeats to Brighton and West Ham coming after they surrendered a two-goal lead to Tottenham. Winning just one of those games would have made a top-four finish close to inevitable.

Injuries and suspensions have at times pinched a thin-looking squad and it’s likely some of their better players are feeling the strain coming down the home stretch.

The goals aren’t flowing quite as freely for Marcus Rashford these days but the 29 he’s got in all competitions still makes for an exceptional season.

He came off the bench to win the reverse fixture at Molineux earlier in the season with a goal that showcased his capabilities but was way too soft from a Wolves perspective.

Wolves

Will Julen stick with the team that’s delivered the goods or use these final games to give others a chance?

We certainly don’t want a repeat of the Brighton game so best to start with the tried and tested and go from there. The lop-sided 442 has worked nicely at home and given us good defensive shape but hasn’t yet translated to success on our travels.

Cunha was sacrificed at Brighton to get another body in the midfield, which has a certain logic, but that failed experiment must come into the manager’s thinking.

It’s certainly no coincidence that the players he’s marginalised lately – Ait-Nouri, Raul, Sarabia, Podence, and Jonny are all those that haven’t looked physically up to the challenge. Any or all of those players could leave in the summer.

The above XI plus Bueno, Collins, Gomes, Adama and Hwang seem to be the squad he’s relying on to see us home. I’m not sure what’s happened to Boubacar Traore? He was reportedly back in training a month ago and Lopetegui said he’d be a useful player, which he should be in this system.

Predictions

Well done to Pauluswolf, vicsmith, Matt Cook and Sea Pigeon who all correctly predicted the winning scoreline against Villa.

Rich still holds a 4-point lead at the top of the overall table at the end of Gameweek 35.

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.

There was a sense of inevitably about that one.

With Marcus Rashford left out for miscellaneous indiscretions, the narrative was set up for him to come on and write the headlines.

He’s in a good moment the England man, so it was little surprise he took the game away from Wolves with the type of devastating forward play the old gold simply can’t produce.

That’s not to say we should have made it quite that easy for him to trot across the penalty area and blast the only goal of the game.

We lack aggression in the tackle and that was exposed once again in that match winning moment. Well played, but at the same time, too soft from our perspective.

Lopetegui had played his hand by that point, switching to a back five, so it must have been doubly disappointing for him to see them carve us open with a simple give and go.

After that, the shape of the team left us exposed to numerous Utd counter attacks and it’s a minor miracle we didn’t concede again.

Raul could have snatched a point at the death and perhaps should have done with the header that De Gae was able to palm away, but that was one of only two times the Utd keeper was forced into action.

Ruben’s earlier free kick was well struck but a save you’d expect the former Spanish number one to deal with comfortably. In open play, there was very little to celebrate.

The first half saw both teams waiting to pounce rather than seizing control, but it was the away team extending Sa in the big moments, with Semedo’s inability to defend once again exposed.

Lopetegui needs Matheus Cunha to give our attack drive and purpose but if we don’t fix the deficiencies in defence, the first half of 2023 could be every bit as challenging as the second half of 2022.

With more options to bring in and the promise of further arrivals, there is however, still enough at the head coach’s disposal to hope for a happier new year.

A point at Goodison Park wouldn’t have been an awful result.

But getting the win, particularly in the circumstances it was achieved, is the jolt of electricity Julen Lopetegui needed to get this club going.

After the previous two league victories, we couldn’t follow up so it’s important Wolves push hard this time to maintain that good feeling.

It won’t be easy against a resurgent Utd team but there’s no reason at all we can’t achieve another positive outcome.

Man Utd

Notts Forest were swept aside the other night with relative ease and there’s a fluidity about Utd we haven’t seen for a good while.

Of course it helps that they spent about £200m in the summer but you can see the value out on the pitch. Casemiro and Erikson (who was free admittedly) have given them structure and creativity in the midfield that’s been sorely lacking.

Martinez too looks a good addition. Much was made of his lack of height in those early defeats but he’s shown since that he’s a strong competitor.

Getting rid of Ronaldo was a smart move, even if it ends up costing them a few results. He was casting a shadow over otherwise encouraging progress under Ten Haag.

They need to build out their squad but a top four finish and a trophy of some description are realistic objectives for this season.

Wolves

Although we ended the game on Boxing Day playing a back three, I don’t think Lopetegui will start with it tomorrow.

Only because he said in his post-match interview he was worried about Everton’s aerial threat and given that Utd don’t have a centre forward and aren’t blessed with tremendous height, that extra body may be better deployed further forward.

I’d definitely bring Nunes into the team. I’d also consider Guedes or Traore for Hwang. Ait-Nouri could come in for Bueno but he’s been an asset from the bench so do you alter that dynamic?

Raul for Costa isn’t entirely unlikely either given the latter’s inability to score.

Predictions

Well done to WOLFSTROKER, St.Kitts Wolves, CHEESEBURGER OF DEATH, Dirty South Wolf, Dek, DancesWithWolves, DeptfordWolf, Marin Wolf, Dallas Bob, The Witley Wanderer, basherbaz and Cannock Wolf for all collecting a maximum by correctly predicting a 2-1 victory against Everton.

Rich takes the lead at the top of the overall table at the end of Gameweek 16.

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!