Wolves v Fulham Match Preview

Wolves’ next game in the Premier League is at home to Fulham on Sunday afternoon. Both sides will be looking for a change in fortunes after poor runs of form have left them near the bottom of the table. The match kicks off at 2pm and will be broadcast live on Sky Sports.

 

Wolves Form

After beating Sheffield United in their first game of the season, Wolves have declined in form losing their following two league games and getting knocked out of the Carabao Cup by local rivals Stoke City

One of the main concerns for Wolves at the moment is the number of goals they are conceding. In their last two games, against Manchester City and West Ham United, they have conceded a total of seven goals. The usual back three of Willy Boly, Conor Coady and Romain Saiss has started to look shaky and despite the number of goals conceded, Rui Patricio has actually done a decent job in goal. Without his impact the number could have been a lot worse. 

Another concern for Wolves at the moment lies in the midfield. In their last game, the midfield pairing of Joao Moutinho and Ruben Neves seemed to really struggle. They failed to dominate and time and time again left the back three exposed, with opposition players being allowed to pressure the defence. 

I think Wolves would really benefit from the stability that Leander Dendoncker offers and I hope to see him start against Fulham. He can offer help both defensively and going forward and adds a bit more physical strength in the middle of the park.

My main concern against Fulham is the physical threat that the likes of Aleksandar Mitrovic pose and I just hope the back three will be able to deal with this.

Fulham Form

Fulham have had a rough start to the season losing three league games in a row and looking very poor defensively. With the transfer window closing on Monday, time is running out for them to strengthen their team and many fans are already predicting relegation. This game could be seen as coming at the perfect time for Wolves, who haven’t looked great themselves, but that doesn’t mean Fulham should be underestimated. 

They do have a lot of physical players and if they are allowed the time and space to pressure the back three it could mean trouble for Wolves. Aleksandar Mitrovic poses the main threat for me. He has scored two goals in three league appearances so far this season and could really bully our defenders if he gets the chance. It all depends on the service he gets from the rest of his team but he’s definitely one to watch. 

Wolves v Fulham Team News

Fernando Marcal and Daniel Podence are still doubts after both missed out on the last game against West Ham due to injury. I think we may well see Dendoncker come back into the midfield after a poor display from Neves and Moutinho last week. Providing Marcal and Podence are fit I think we could see a starting XI of:

Patricio, Boly, Coady, Saiss, Semedo, Dendoncker, Neves, Marcal, Traore, Jimenez, Podence.

For Fulham, Kenny Tete and Mario Lemina look to be out of contention due to injury while Harrison Reed looks a doubt.

Wolves v Fulham Head to Head

Wolves and Fulham have faced each other a total of 92 times with Wolves winning 43 of those meetings, Fulham winning 26 and 23 ending in draws.

The last time the two teams met was at the Molineux during the 2018/19 season. Fulham were already relegated before their visit to the old gold palace and Wolves were pushing towards a seventh-place finish. Wolves ran out 1-0 winners on the day with Dendoncker scoring the only goal in the 75th minute. It was a mostly frustrating game for Wolves as Diogo Jota came close to scoring on multiple occasions, but a lovely move by Wolves saw Dendoncker volley home a Matt Doherty cross to give the hosts the lead and ultimately all three points.

Wolves v Fulham Prediction

I think this will be an interesting game as both teams are on a bad run of form and in need of a win. I think Fulham will play very defensively and look to dull Wolves’ attacking threat but I hope to see Wolves keeping possession and making smart use of the pace they have in their attack to take the game to Fulham and exploit their weaknesses. 

Speaking ahead of the game, Nuno said:

“We played well in the first game, despite not a lot of training, but what we want to achieve is a moment that we are able to sustain our performance after performance; to avoid ups and downs.

“Knowing that ups and downs happen, but it’s how fast you react from those which is important. That was the focus we had from this week – let’s bounce back from our previous game.

“There are a lot of things we need to improve on for Sunday – more focus, better on duels. West Ham were sharper than us, were faster than us, faster on the duels and the second balls, we were not able to be creative and we defended bad.”

I think Wolves will dominate this game but I think Fulham could get on the scoresheet as Wolves’ defence has been so poor lately. I’m predicting a 2-1 win for Wolves.

Sylvie Devaney is part of the Talking Wolves editorial team – you can follow her on Twitter here.