'Full Of Confidence’ – The Word On Wolves
- Express and Star reporter Liam Keen previewed Saturday’s fixture
- Wolves will arrive to King Power Stadium off the back of two consecutive wins
- The Premier League fixture encounter on Filbert Way has a 3pm BST kick-off
- Leicester City were 4-0 winners over Wolves in the reverse fixture in October
Currently 13th in the Premier League and nine points ahead of Leicester, Saturday’s opponents arrive to Filbert Way with plenty of confidence, after dispatching both Brentford and Chelsea at home in the past few weeks.
City fans will, however, be hopeful of their chances this weekend, with memories of a spectacular 4-0 display in the reverse fixture, including Youri Tielemans’ special strike from outside the box.
But journalist Keen believes this Wolves side are a different shade than the one before the FIFA World Cup, and that the mood around the club has improved tenfold.
“Wolves have gone from very much being in this relegation race to not quite getting out of it but putting themselves in a very good position with seven games to go,” the Express and Star reporter told LCFC TV's Matchday Live show.
“Before the Chelsea win, the fans were quite pessimistic, but the squad has improved, the manager has improved, and everything was looking better, it was just the performances that had taken a dip.
“Then suddenly, they pulled out a very deserved win over Chelsea, and followed it up against Brentford and got a very good result with a good performance as well.
“You then come into this Leicester game, which Wolves fans highlighted as a big fixture, and it’s not quite as big for them anymore. Don’t get me wrong, they’re not there yet, but they’ve put themselves in a comfortable position to stay up now and that is credit to the manager and the team.”
Keen believes that the appointment of Julen Lopetegui in November of last year has been crucial to the Wolves' recent success and that his brand of football is starting to earn its reward and trust among the fanbase.
“You have to say that the progress is mostly due to the work from the manager,” the reporter stated. “He’s made mistakes at times and has been a bit conservative, especially away from home, because he wanted to grind results out.
“He makes a lot of changes to his line-up each week, to frustrate the opposition, and even though he’s made mistakes, he’s also produced masterclasses which have led to good wins.
“The Liverpool and Spurs wins at home (3-0 and 1-0 respectively), as well with the two last results against Chelsea and Brentford, have improved the win/loss ratio, and it has massively improved since when they were bottom at Christmas.
“A massive part of why we’ve struggled is the lack of a goalscorer. Even now, they still struggle to score goals in big quantities, but they have improved dramatically in both boxes over the last few weeks.
“Wolves had gone over a year without a recognised striker in the Premier League, and all those things point to the glaring issue – that they can’t score goals.
“But they’ve marginally got better at that and had nine shots on target against Brentford. They were much better in the final third and were more decisive. If they can keep improving on those stats, then they can make themselves safe a lot quicker.”
The ex-Sevilla manager has concentrated on the defensive side of the game, and even though goals have been hard to come by – Daniel Podence their top scorer with six – they have started to excel in keeping the back door shut.
“Lopetegui has focused heavily on keeping clean sheets.” Keen continued. “He takes the staff and players out for meals when they keep one, so it’s been an expensive two weeks for him!
“That I why they look a little negative and conservative away from home, but they’ve had to do that to get positive results, because when he came in, they were desperate for points, and now they have more of a licence to play with freedom.
“The press conferences show how the manager plays down the current situation for Wolves at the minute, but he’ll know that a win at King Power Stadium puts Wolves in a much better position and will probably be enough for them.
“Wolves will understandably want to win every game so that nothing is down to chance, and that mathematically, it’s in their own hands. They didn’t grind out the last two wins over Chelsea and Brentford, they genuinely played really well.
“You look at [Hee-Chan] Hwang’s goal off the bench at Brentford, there’s a good feeling around the squad and the whole club, and those things combined put Wolves in a really good place.
“Wolves always find it hard going to King Power Stadium; Leicester have very good players, but with the momentum in their favour, they’ll be confident of getting a result."