Analysing Wolves ahead of Premier League opener

Yahoo

18 hours ago

Taking a statistical look at Wolves ahead of this weekend's Premier League opener…
Pep Guardiola starts his 10th season in English football at Molineux at 17:30 (UK) on Saturday 16 August, with radio and text commentary available on mancity.com and our official app.
After a third place finish in 2024/25, Guardiola and his players will be once again looking to challenge for the title in what would be a seventh top spot since his 2016 arrival.
The gruelling 10-month journey begins in just a few days against Vitor Pereira's Wolves, who improved greatly in the second half of last season and will have ambitions of carrying that on in this campaign.
Using Opta's data, we'll now get a closer understanding of what we're up against on Saturday…
2024/25 form
With just one point from their first eight games and then 15 from 23, Wolves' form drastically improved in the final months of the campaign.
A run of six straight victories from Matchweek 29 through to 34 was then followed by three defeats and a draw as all threat of relegation fell away in the closing weeks.
WATCH: Our last 10 goals - Wolves (A)
That means 10 of the 12 Wolves wins in the Premier League in 2024/25 came from Vitor Pereira's 22 games in charge.
It all amounted to a 16th place finish with 42 points, only behind Manchester United on goal difference.
Preferred formation
Pereira favoured a 3-4-3 setup last season.
That included three centre-backs often charged with remaining solid and tight as a unit, with the wing-backs either side of them given much more license to roam.
WATCH: Extended highlights: City 1-0 Wolves
Brazilian duo Joao Gomes and Andre were most commonly used in front of the central defenders and asked to cover a lot of ground to make up for the extra numbers in defence and the high and wide wing-backs.
Ahead of them would be two creative talents supporting a focal point of a striker.
While this was the setup last season, summer movements in the squad may yet mean a change in shape.
Transfer activity
Matheus Cunha, Wolves' top scorer with 15 goals last season, has left for Manchester United.
Both first choice wing backs have also moved on, with Rayan Ait-Nouri now lining up for us and Nelson Semedo at Fenerbahce.
Wolves have moved to replace the creativity of Cunha with Colombian international Jhon Arias, who came up against City for previous club Fluminense in the 2023 FIFA Club World Cup final.
The superbly named David Moller Wolfe is the new left wing back option.
Manager
With 10 wins from 22 games, Vitor Pereira's 45.5% win percentage is the seventh best in the division although that is a comparatively small sample size to many of the managers featured.
He enjoys the opening weekend too, having won eight of his 10 MD1 matches in his top-flight managerial career across spells with six different clubs.
The 57-year-old has not only endeared himself to Wolves fans with results on the pitch, he's also been known to frequent the pubs and bars popular with locals after a game.
Now on his 11th club since leading Porto between 2011 and 2013, the Portuguese manager has experience all across the globe.
How they score their goals
With 54 goals in 2024/25, Wolves were the joint-12th highest scorers in the Premier League.
Coming from a 16th highest xG and shots total, that shows an outperformance in terms of what's expected in front of goal.
A 9.8 outperformance of their xG (44.2) was in fact the second best in the division.
As we've said, top scorer Cunha has gone but Jorgen Strand Larsen, who netted 14 times himself, remains.
WATCH: Extended highlights: Wolves 1-2 City
They were 19th in the Premier League for headed goals with just four, but they were devastating on the break – netting eight times, the fourth most in the division.
And from set pieces, they scored nine times – the 16th best in the division.
How they defend
Wolves' 69 goals conceded in 2024/25 meant only three defences were leakier than them.
However, they only conceded an xG of 58.7 meaning the -10.3 differential between the xG conceded and goals conceded the worst in the division.
Goalkeeper Jose Sa's save percentage of 59.7% was the lowest of the 26 stoppers across the division to play at least 10 times.
Key players
A lot of the responsibility for finding the back of the net will likely fall with Jorgen Strand Larsen after his 14 goals last season. Joao Gomes' haul of three was the next best of those still at the club.
Bellegarde provided seven assists, but the four next most creative players last term have all left.
Ait-Nouri played 37 of the 38 games last season but fellow regulars Gomes, Jean-Ricner Bellegarde and Strand Larsen are all still there.
WATCH: Ait-Nouri: I'm happy to be playing for, rather than against, City!
Head-to-head at Molineux
We've faced each other 11 times at Molineux in the Premier League era, with City winning six times and Wolves four.
That's included 23 City goals and 12 for Wolves, with last year's playing of this fixture seeing John Stones head a winner in the dying embers of the game.
Home and away, we've won nine of our last 10 meetings with Wolves, with the only exception being a 2-1 in September 2023.