'They’ve Been Desperately Unlucky' – A Look At Wolves
- Leicester City visit Molineux to tackle Wolves in the Premier League on Sunday (2pm kick-off)
- Liam Keen, from the Express and Star, has pointed to reasons why the West Midlands club have struggled
- Wolves have suffered long-term injuries to key players and new stars have not yet settled in
- City fans can enjoy live coverage of the game on Sunday with LCFC Radio's Matchday Live show
With two wins in 2022/23, the West Midlands outfit currently sit 18th in the table, two places and one point above Leicester City, who travel to Molineux on Sunday (2pm kick-off). Steve Davis will be in caretaker charge of Wolves as the club search for a long-term manager following Bruno Lage's exit.
Injuries, coupled with new players struggling to settle in, have caused issues for Wolves, who ordinarily challenge in the top half of the Premier League.
"In some ways, they’ve been desperately unlucky," Keen told LCFC Radio this week. "Raúl Jiménez currently has a chronic groin injury. He’s not played since 31 August and we don’t know at the moment when he might be playing again. Saša Kalajdžić signed for £15M and, 40 minutes into his debut, he did his ACL.
"Fábio Silva is, of course, out on loan and the transfer window is closed, so they’ve had to turn to a 34-year-old in Diego Costa. He brings a bit of character and gets fans off their seats.
"He builds an atmosphere and puts his body on the line, but he’s had to get his fitness up and he’s taking a little bit of time to get into his stride. He’s not looked particularly dangerous, I think that’s fair to say. That’s been a part of [Wolves’ start to the season] because they need that focal point.
"In the games they’ve played, without starting a striker, they’re having to play 5ft 4in Daniel Podence as a false nine, or Gonçalo Guedes, who was a summer signing, and he hasn’t really hit the ground running.
"When all of these forward-thinking wide players, who historically haven’t got a lot of goals in their career, are now being relied upon as their only goalscorer, that’s a big problem.
"Wolves have not been able to find goals, they haven’t been able to create a massive load of chances either if I’m honest and that’s the main problem.
"Defensively, they’ve been decent for the majority of the time and, in midfield, they’ve got some excellent players, albeit with another signing, Matheus Nunes, not quite hitting the ground running."
Keen admits that expectations have changed in Wolverhampton, with supporters now eager to climb away from danger as soon as possible.
"Wolves spent just over £113M in the summer, although that’s not a net spend," he added. "They smashed their transfer record by brining Nunes in, for £38M, possibly rising to £42M. They spent £27.5M on Guedes and £20M on Nathan Collins… they spent a very decent amount of money on some high-profile players who should be doing a lot better than they are. Collins is probably the pick of the bunch from the summer signings so far.
"The expectations will have been very high going into the season. Bruno Lage was unfortunate with injuries.
"He wasn’t able to get a tune out of some of these new players that were taking far too long to adapt and, as a result, Wolves find themselves in what I have to describe now as a relegation battle now I’m afraid. They’ve scored five goals in 11 games, lost six of those 11, and only won two.
"In 11 games, which is almost a third of the season, that is relegation form, or at least relegation-battling form. Wolves, in the short term, their target has to be to get away from that bottom three and create a little bit of daylight into mid-table. To be honest, a good season probably would be mid-table at this point."
All times BST.