Whilst last season was an improvement for Wolves as they climbed up the table from 13th the previous season to finish 10th last campaign, their performance could only really be described as mediocre. Many football fans would instantly point out Wolves’ magnificent defence, as last season they conceded just 43 goals, the fifth fewest in the league, but their campaign could be seen as a tale of two halves. They conceded just 14 goals in the first half of the season but went on to concede 29 times in the second half – a clear drop off.
With no European football coming to the Molineux for the second year in a row now, the owners of the club (Fosun Group) have been heavily criticised for not backing manager Bruno Lage in the transfer market. With a top half finish being the aim for supporters, and with other clubs around them already splashing plenty of cash this summer, Wolves will need to strengthen quickly as the 2022-23 campaign edges closer. Especially given that they’ve sustained several injuries in preseason with Chiquinho, Nélson Semedo and Raúl Jiménez all expected to be missing for some time.
Signing of the Summer – Nathan Collins
As previously mentioned, Wolves have had a very quiet summer with 21 year-old Irish centre-back Nathan Collins being the club’s only acquisition at £20m. Despite only playing 19 games for Burnley last season, Collins played a big part in their push for survival and Clarets fans were sad to see him go due to his enormous potential. His composure has often been picked out as one of his key attributes alongside his comfortability on the ball – evidenced most clearly when he scored a wonderful goal for the Irish national team back in June, dribbling from midway inside the opposition’s half before neatly slotting home. Whilst Wolves supporters won’t be expecting that every week, they can hope for an additional goal threat from set-pieces, with the 6”3’ centre-back scoring twice in the league despite limited minutes last season.
Whilst he may not be the most aggressive defender, Collins is effective and his 2.59 blocks per 90 put him in the top 2% of shot-stopping centre-backs across Europe. He’s excellent at getting the ball away from his own goal, boasting 5.5 clearances per 90, and his aerial ability is also a strong point with him winning 4.47 aerial duels per 90. These statistics reflect the role he played at Burnley last season where the backline was relied upon to get in the way of shots, deal with crosses and clear the ball upfield with regularity as Sean Dyche’s side sat in a low block without the ball.
Collins will allow Wolves to either keep their current five-at-the-back system or deploy a four-at-the-back formation, with the latter seemingly the more likely option, as he is very experienced in both. He has regularly played in a three centre-back system at international level and has played in both four-back and five-back defensive systems at club level for Burnley and Stoke. He usually occupies the right-centre-back slot in a four, and either the central-centre-back or right-sided centre-back in a five.
Key Player – José Sá
Without a doubt one of the signings of the summer from last year, former Olympiacos goalkeeper José Sá was an absolute steal at a fee of around £7m. Despite there being questions over the move at the time, with many fans puzzled as to why Wolves would sell Portugal number one Rui Patrício to Roma and replace him with someone who’s never been capped by the national side, it’s safe to say that those questions have been answered now. Some have even argued that Sá should now take over that first choice spot for his country.
Sá’s Premier League performances were outstanding last season and this is reflected in his PSxG and goals against stats. PSxG stands for Post-Shot Expected Goals, the number of goals expected after factoring in the quality of shots taken. The Portuguese had a PSxG-against last season of 48.2, but only conceded 40 goals, meaning his heroics prevented his side from conceding over eight goals across the course of the season. This puts him up there with some of the best goalkeepers in Europe when it comes to shot-stopping and his save percentage of 79.3% per 90 places him in the top 1% of goalkeepers in Europe.
These numbers are simply exceptional and will have shocked many with Sá being somewhat of an unknown quantity prior to his move to the Premier League, though perhaps his Goalkeeper of the Season award for the 2019-20 Greek Super League season should’ve indicated his quality. Whilst it is very unlikely he maintains these sorts of numbers heading into the next campaign, it is clear that Wolves have a fantastic goalkeeper between the sticks who will surely play a key part in the upcoming season.
FPL Asset – Pedro Neto
Quite an obvious pick here but it’s hard to look past Pedro Neto with the online FPL community already naming the £5.5m midfielder as the bargain of the season. It might be easy for people to forget the 22 year-old’s talents, with a knee injury keeping him out of action for the majority of last season – he only started five Premier League games and returned just one goal and one assist. But this year the young winger is back with a point to prove, and with two goals scored already in pre-season, you can expect him to be a big part of Bruno Lage’s plans.
Given that Neto has been out for such a long time, we’re going to have to go back to the 2020-21 season, where he got five goals and six assists. In that season, the former Lazio man took a healthy 3.28 shots per 90 and showed his creative nous with 4.44 shot creating actions per 90, as well as 8.69 progressive carries per 90.
The Braga youth academy graduate will have a tough job on his hands, particularly at the start of the season as he’ll have to put in a lot more work to make up for Wolves’ lack of goal threat following the injury to Raúl Jiménez. But this may result in his goal tally increasing… With Wolves not having a number nine available, Fábio Silva recently left on loan to Anderlecht, Neto could be expected to occasionally play in the striker position in a fluid Wolves attack.
Expected Eleven
Despite the lack of arrivals at the West Midlands club this summer, we could see Wolves line up very differently for the opening game against Leeds United this season as they look to switch from their standard 343 to a 4231 shape. With right back Nélson Semedo currently sidelined, and Ki-Jana Hoever being shipped out on loan to PSV, Jonny is likely to occupy the right-back position with Rayan Aït-Nouri playing at left-back. New boy Nathan Collins will slot into the right-sided centre-back position with Max Kilman partnering him. Wolves had aimed to bring in a midfielder this summer but they haven’t done so yet, so a Rúben Neves and João Moutinho pivot will continue to operate in the middle of the park. And with Jiménez out, you can expect to see a free-flowing attack containing Hwang Hee-Chan, Daniel Podence, Pedro Neto and Morgan Gibbs-White.
Despite the lack of new recruits, Wolves fans should be excited going into the new season. They have looked excellent in their friendlies and will hope to integrate new young players into the first team (Toti Gomes already showed his quality with limited minutes last season). Europe should once again be the aim and this season will be a big test for Lage as he looks to maintain that strong defence while hopefully providing more entertaining football for the supporters to enjoy.
