On Sunday, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Leicester City will meet at Molineux to compete in the Premier League. Both teams have struggled to play well this season.
After the firing of Bruno Lage, Wolves made the announcement that Steve Davis would continue in his role as manager until 2023. This came after Wolves’ offer to Queens Park Rangers’ manager Michael Beale was rejected earlier this week.
Our Match Preview: Wolverhampton Wanderers vs Leicester City
Wolves’ lackluster start hasn’t improved since they fired their manager following a 2-0 loss to West Ham.
Davis has guided them to one victory in five games, but they’ve lost the other four, notably against Chelsea and Crystal Palace.
Their only win was an unimpressive 1-0 victory against bottom-placed Nottingham Forest due to a Ruben Neves penalty, so Wolves will be deeply upset to lose out on their first-choice manager.
Wolves are the Premier League’s lowest-scoring team, with five goals in 11 games. Bringing Diego Costa out of semi-retirement hasn’t helped.
Raul Jimenez has missed most of the season, while Sasa Kalajdzic tore his ACL on his debut.
Adama Traore, who scored his first goal of the season midweek, must continue to attack.
Leicester is the only Premier League side without an away point, thus they must improve their away play.
They’ve conceded 19 goals in five away games, including four at Arsenal, five at Brighton, and six at Tottenham.
Brendan Rodgers was on the verge of being fired after losing at Bournemouth, but a comfortable victory against Leeds United in midweek has earned him more time.
They have scored more goals than any other bottom-half team but placing in 19th reveals that their weakness has been defense.
Signs indicate they have found some solidity at the back following two shutouts this week, headed by new transfer Wout Faes, but only one clean sheet in their previous 31 away Premier League games is a significant problem.
Our Team News: Wolverhampton Wanderers vs Leicester City
After recuperating from sickness, Rayan Ait-Nouri should rejoin the team, but the young Spaniard Hugo Bueno’s superb performance in the midweek game should guarantee Bueno’s starting position at left-back for Wolves.
Even though he was only bothered by a minor injury, center defender Toti was forced to miss the midweek encounter against Palace.
However, he might make his comeback tonight as a replacement, since Nathan Collins has now served his sentence for his red card against Manchester City and is eligible to play.
Both Kalajdzic and Chiquinho have to miss the rest of the season due to torn ACLs; they won’t be able to play again until at least the spring. Jimenez (hip) and Pedro Neto (ankle) are also out indefinitely; no timeline has been provided for their recovery.
James Maddison, Leicester’s star player, will return from a five-card suspension, and after a strong showing in Thursday’s victory, Dennis Praet is set to be benched in favor of Maddison.
Although Jonny Evans is close to returning from a calf injury, Daniel Amartey’s performance at center defense this week for Leicester has led Rodgers to consider keeping the Ghanaian in the starting lineup.
Wilfred Ndidi’s thigh injury will keep him out for at least another week, although Marc Albrighton might be back on the bench after being sick.
Last month, Caglar Soyuncu damaged his knee while representing Turkey in an international tournament. Despite making many efforts to play through the pain, he has not appeared in a game since and will now have a scan.
Both Leicester fullbacks, Ricardo Pereira and Ryan Bertrand are sidelined for the foreseeable future due to injuries.
- Wolverhampton Wanderers possible starting lineup: Sa, Semedo; Collins, Kilman, Bueno, Moutinho, Neves, Nunes, Adama, Podence, Costa.
- Leicester City possible starting lineup: Ward, Castagne, Amartey, Faes, Justin, Soumare, Tielemans, Dewsbury-Hall, Maddison, Barnes, Daka.
Our prediction: Wolverhampton Wanderers 0-1 Leicester City
There have only been five goals scored in the last six head-to-head matchups between these two teams, and there is not much evidence to indicate that there will be a slew of goals scored in this matchup either.
However, Leicester has shown progress this week, and the fact that they will be getting Maddison back might be the deciding factor in the game. Wolves are having a very tough time scoring goals.