We are finally getting back to some football, God how I have missed it! It seems like ages since the Arsenal game, well it was ages, 105 days to be exact! That’s worse than a close season without any Euro’s or World Cup breaking it up!
For purely my own purposes I’ll start with a quick recap of the Arsenal game. I’m not going to lie; I couldn’t remember too much about it (old age kicking in as my son keeps reminding me!). So I watched the highlights on whufc.com In case they were a bit biased, I also watched the Arsenal highlights too. Which were very similar proving it was quite an even match.
There were changes both ends. Bowen hit the post inside the 1st couple of minutes. Antonio should have scored from a corner when the ball was headed down to him and he was free inside the 6-yard box, but he somehow put it wide. Then Sokratis headed onto the bar for Arsenal.
In the second half Fabianski pulled off a good save from Nketiah, Antonio had another chance with a header but a strong hand from Leno clawed it away. Then our old friend VAR made an appearance and ruled ‘No offside’ for Lacazette to get the winner. Unfortunately, I think they got it right.
I’m still not liking VAR despite being an advocate for its introduction. I believed it would be beneficial to us as we always seemed to get decisions against us but nothing has changed. I still think its being manipulated to suit other teams and to be honest it’s turning into a farce, look at the Aston Villa v Sheffield game the other night!
I really have digressed! This is meant to be a Wolves preview not me ranting about VAR!
Back on track to the Wolves preview.
TEAM NEWS
For once in my lifetime West Ham seem to have a clean bill of health (give it 10 mins into the Wolves match though and that’s sure to change).
There were concerns about Ogbonna but Moyes didn’t seem to mention him in the press conference so we can only hope he is available.
I’m not even getting to crack a shit joke about Wilshere being out injured in this section, that’s amazing, it must be a first!
PREDICTED LINE UP
With practically everyone back to full fitness then, it makes it even more difficult to pick a starting 11.
The back-line sort of picks itself. It would have been nice to give Ngakia more game time but since we don’t know where he’ll be come the end of June, we might as well opt for Fredericks in the right ack slot.
Now it gets interesting.
Defensive Midfield – Rice, Soucek, Wilshere & Noble fighting it out for two positions.
Rice is a cert, so then we are left with the other three. Wilshere is a quality player but has been non-existent since signing for us, so we call rule him out of a starting spot.
Soucek and Noble then. Soucek has impressed me and since he’s signed looks like he’s what we’ve been missing as a box to box midfielder. Noble’s grit, determination and leadership is what we will need in this relegation dog fight we are in. So, I’m opting for him with Soucek replacing him at some stage depending on how the game is going or is needed.
Attacking Midfield – Anderson, Lanzini, Fornals, Bowen, Antonio, Snodgrass, Yarmolenko for the next two positions.
Yarmolenko hasn’t been involved so we’ll rule him out. Andserson and Lanzini are quality on their day but ‘their day’ has been few and far between all season. Snodgrass will give the same as Noble, but I think we need more quality in our attacking threat.
Bowen has looked great since coming in so he’s making my starting 11 as is Fornals. Fornals seems to be improving consistently, he was outstanding against Southampton and played well against Arsenal in his last two outings. He has 5 assists and 2 goals this season compared to Anderson’s 4 assists, 1 goal and Lanzini’s 2 assists, 0 goals.
Antonio is going up front with Haller.
Therefore, I’m going with the following:
The match on Saturday is a 5:30pm kick off live on SKY. I’ll have the beers cooling, the wife and daughter kicked out of the sitting room and me and the wee lad can relax and enjoy the football.
I saw a tweet from @PaulIron5 saying ‘there’s a second virus going around East London and Essex, it’s affecting those who wear claret and blue, it’s called Post COVID Optimism, symptoms are believing were suddenly a good side!’ I think its spread further as I have a bad case of it!
No doubt I’ll be instantly cured come 7:30pm!
COYI!
Twitter: @IrishIron2
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Previous H2H Blog: https://irishiron.sport.blog/2019/12/06/wolves-v-west-ham-review/
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