MY ACCOUNT
A clash between two crisis clubs takes place at Molineux, with managerless Wolves and struggling Nottingham Forest equally desperate to avoid defeat in an early-season relegation six-pointer.
On the face of it, it should be no surprise that a club promoted via the play-offs is struggling against an immediate return to the Championship – as is the case for Forest.
But the idea was that they were going to establish themselves in the top tier, splashing out £145million to do so.
Bizarrely, however, rather than build a strong spine, they brought in over 20 new players and then seemed surprised that disruption and chaos followed the new faces into the club.
Forest’s head scout and head of recruitment have since paid the price, with both sacked last week, and at the same time manager Steve Cooper was handed a new contract.
It paints a chaotic picture. Backing Cooper to calm nerves and steady the ship seems entirely sensible but it shows a level of foresight entirely absent during their scattergun approach to the transfer window.
How could a club be wise enough to back a manager whose side was bottom of the league and smarting from a 4-0 defeat to local rivals also be careless enough to think that signings 22 players — many arriving after the start of the season — would do anything other than disrupt the team?
Wolves, meanwhile, look like a club in stasis and stuck in limbo.
Manager Bruno Lage has been sacked but his expected replacement Julen Lopetegui turned down the offer to head to Molineux, leaving Wolves leaderless and lacking focus.
Academy coach Steve Davis will again lead out the team but if he again cannot get a tune out of an injury-ravaged Wolves squad, they could find themselves bottom of the table after 10 Premier League matches.
Team news
Davis will be without several key players and is particularly short of attacking options for Wolves.
Striker Raul Jimenez remains out, alongside long-term injury absentees Sasa Kalajdzic and Chiquinho, while Pedro Neto will also be out until after the World Cup with an ankle injury.
At the other end of the pitch, defender Nathan Collins completes the third of his three-match ban, but captain Ruben Neves returns from suspension and Boubacar Traore is expected to be available following illness.
Forest’s injury problems are clearing up but Omar Richards is still a few days away from recovering from the fractured leg that has denied him his Forest debut, while centre-back Moussa Niakhate and midfielder Jack Colback both look set to again miss out.
The stats
Wolves and Forest last met in the top flight nearly 40 years ago, with both teams winning their home fixture during the 1983-84 campaign.
There have been 26 second-tier meetings since then, with 12 Wolves wins, six Forest victories and eight draws.
Their most recent league meetings came in the Championship in 2017-18, in which both teams beat the other away from home.
This season, no Premier League team’s matches have seen fewer goals than those featuring Wolves, with Wanderers’ nine outings featuring just 1.67 goals per game.
Nottingham Forest fans have seen significantly more goals this term — 29 goals in nine games — but the vast majority have been scored against them, with Forest conceding 22 and scoring only seven.
Indeed, the only top-tier team to have scorer fewer this term is Wolves, who have netted a measly three in nine matches.
Prediction
This match has all the hallmarks of being the last to feature on Match Of The Day.
Neither side offers much in the way of threat. Wolves are cautious in attack and are missing a slew of forward players, while a new-look Forest frontline perhaps lacks a little quality and is certainly short of cohesion.
And while Forest’s sometimes naive defending could offer Wolves more chances than the hosts normally create, the importance of not losing this match combined with a lack of confidence in both squads indicates this could be a slow-burning, cagey affair.
Things could change if an opening goal is scored, but with Wolves having netted just three times in nine league games and Forest’s only away goal this season coming in the 81st minute at Everton in August, backing a goalless first half at 15/8 looks sensible.
