UK Edition
Wolves look to continue success against big six as they welcome Manchester United to town for cup clash
When Ole Gunnar Solskjaer arrives at Molineux on Saturday, buoyed by his Manchester United team’s astonishing run of away victories in all competitions, he will be aware that his opponents, too, are building a record of substance this season.
In the Premier League, Wolverhampton Wanderers have played nine games against top-six clubs and accrued 10 points. It is easily the best return among the 14 lower clubs; by way of comparison, Everton have taken two points from such fixtures, Bournemouth and Watford three each.
In the league, Wolves have won twice and drawn four times against the leading sextet; they have also beaten Liverpool during their run to the FA Cup quarter-finals. This is a team who have developed a habit of punching above their weight.
“We’ve had success against the big teams,” says the midfielder Diogo Jota, whose six goals this season have included a winner against Chelsea. “We know we can go out there and win the game [against United] but we also know how hard it will be. We know we will have to be at our best to get to the semi-finals.”
Jota is not alone in his sense of anticipation. At the club’s Sir Jack Hayward training centre in one of the leafier suburbs of Wolverhampton this week, the mood among the players was one of confidence. All of those who spoke with the media seemed not just aware of the record of success against the leading sides, but to have articulated the reasons behind it.
Take the goalkeeper John Ruddy, who has played in all of Wolves’ FA Cup ties this season and has spent the league games studying his colleagues’ form from the bench.
“We always have a comfort blanket of the defensive structure,” he says of the approach to big games. “We make it very hard to be broken down. But we also have that threat going forward. We showed against Chelsea we can be under the cosh for much of the game, but never fear we’re going to be undone.
“We’re solid, hard to break down, create chances on the counter attack. That has been a key when playing against the bigger teams who like to dominate possession. We are happy to let them do that knowing that we are solid and that when we do get the ball back, we can cause them problems.”
The defensive approach, based around three centre-backs, has been critical. Wolves do not leak goals. Also, in their pacy wing-backs Matt Doherty and Jonny Otto, they possess the ability to counter quickly from a deep block.
Doherty, who has scored six goals this season with six assists, agrees with Ruddy about why Wolves have prospered against the division’s leading lights.
“I think when we play against teams outside the top six, they set up to stop us playing,” he says. “Whereas, a top-six team will just worry about themselves and that probably gives us a bit more freedom. We just seem to play really well against them and the game seems to be really open.”
Defensive coherence is not the only reason for that. The manager, Nuno Espirito Santo, repeatedly refers to his players as “The Pack”, usually followed by the phrase “together we are stronger”.
And in the FA Cup, unlike some of the other managers of middling Premier League sides, he has not deliberately sent out the kind of weakened side that saw Leicester City, for instance, fail at Newport.
Against Liverpool, Shrewsbury and Bristol City, changes from the league side were minimal. Though Ruddy – one of those to have benefited from a chance in cup games – suggests that is more a reflection of the manager’s preference for a small squad: there are fewer players to be kept happy. That tightness of selection, he adds, creates a unity of spirit that helps against the top teams.
“A lot of it is the consistency within the group,” he says. “Having a small squad, but a squad of quality, no matter what opponent you’re coming up against, you always have that core group of players that know their roles down to a T. That’s been vital.”
Jota agrees. “Everyone this season has their chance to do something for the team, they know if they are not playing in this moment they could be in the next game. We have a small squad and everyone is important. Through the season nearly everyone has had their opportunity for the team.”
All the players seem aware, however, that the tie against United will test their big-game record to the limit. Not least because, Doherty points out, this is a very different United to the one against whom Wolves earned a point with a typically adroit 1-1 draw at Old Trafford in September.
“I thought it was going to be a lot tougher but they were going through a bit of a period where maybe they weren’t so happy,” he recalls. “You could definitely feel that there was tension in the stadium. But they’ve turned it around completely now, they’re a different club at the moment. They’re playing with a lot of freedom, a lot of speed on the counter-attack and a lot of confidence.”
The team on a roll against the team that rises to the occasion: this promises to be some encounter, one for which few would be certain enough to predict the outcome.