Analysis, team news, officials and statistics. Here’s everything you need to know ahead of Brentford’s Premier League game against Wolverhampton Wanderers.
We’ve got our final home Premier League game before Boxing Day to look forward to on Saturday, with Wolverhampton Wanderers the visitors to TW8.
Both sides come into the game off the back of defeats last time out and will be looking to bounce back at the Gtech Community Stadium.
The Opposition
Wolverhampton Wanderers
Any fans looking for goals last term would seldom have found them being scored by Wolves.
Bruno Lage’s side scored 38 in 38 games – an average of just one per game and the lowest tally posted by any of the 17 teams outside the relegation zone – and conceded the least of any team outside the top seven (43)
Wolves’ tenth-place finish was a masterful exercise in how to succeed under the radar.
That said, fine margins often define football matches. Such an approach was unlikely to be sustainable for more than a season – as they would soon find out.
But before the season got underway, chairman Jeff Shi gave the green light to a £100m spending spree. To build on their solid midtable finish in 2021/22, investment was needed, and the funds facilitated the high-profile signings of Gonçalo Guedes, Matheus Nunes and Saša Kalajdžić, which certainly brought optimism to Molineux, but also heaped on greater expectation.
So there was palpable frustration when, by the start of October, Wolves were sat in the Premier League relegation zone, having won just one of their first eight games and scored just three goals, despite attempting well over 100 shots. If ever there was a sense of déjà vu, this was it.
With Raúl Jiménez sidelined and, in truth, still yet to recapture his best form, former Chelsea striker Diego Costa – a free agent after his contract was terminated at Atletico Mineiro, in his native Brazil, eight months earlier – was sensationally recruited in mid-September in an attempt to remedy Wolves’ goalscoring woes. The 34-year-old is, naturally, getting back up to speed, and has thus far been unable to provide the instant spark required.
As a result of the poor start, Lage became the third head coach to be sacked within the first two months of this season – after Scott Parker and Thomas Tuchel – when he was relieved of his duties after 15 months on 2 October.
“I honestly have no doubts about Bruno’s ability, and I’m sure he will succeed elsewhere, however the team’s form and performances over the last few months mean that we have no choice but to act,” said Shi in a statement.
Interim head coach Steve Davis oversaw a win and two defeats in his first three games in charge, but it is what is happening off the pitch, not on it, that is keeping the club among the headlines at the moment.
Julen Lopetegui was named as the preferred candidate to replace Lage, but he turned the job down due to his elderly father’s ill health and Nuno Espírito Santo was then linked with a return less than 18 months after departing for Tottenham.
Rob Edwards and ex-Borussia Dortmund boss Peter Bosz were reportedly interviewed, but the club are said to have since zeroed in on QPR’s Michael Beale, who has only been in his current role at Loftus Road since June.
By the time of this match, there will not be a new man at the helm, either. With no suitable candidates to replace Lage, following the news Beale had turned down the approach, Davis will remain in charge.
There is, for now, some stability, meaning he can set about plotting to get the team on the right track in the handful of games before the break for the World Cup knowing he has short-term security.
The Gameplan
With The Athletic’s Steve Madeley
Steve Madeley looks at how interim boss Steve Davis will set Wolves up in Hot off the Press: “They have been lining up in a 4-3-3 or a 4-2-3-1, with the exception of West Ham away when they went to a back three. Every other game has been a variation of those first two. Costa will probably be the centre-forward, Traoré - when he plays - tends to hug the right touchline, whereas Daniel Podence drifts in off the left and takes up almost a No.10 role when they are in possession and then plays wide left when they are not.”
Team News
Thomas Frank's pre-match press conference
Keane Lewis-Potter and Ben Mee are fit and available.
Christian Nørgaard is closing in on a return but tomorrow will come too soon. Pontus Jansson (hamstring), Thomas Strakosha, Aaron Hickey (both ankle) and Charlie Goode (knee) remain sidelined.
For Wolves, Pedro Neto (ankle), Sasa Kalajdzic, Chiquinho (both knee) and Raul Jimenez (groin) are all out. Toti is likely also to miss out, but Diego Costa should be available.
The Boss
Steve Davis
Steve Davis was handed the reigns at Molineux in October, following the departure of Bruno Lage.
A defender in his playing days, Davis played more than 100 games for Crewe Alexandra, Burnley and Barnsley before dropping into non-League to finish his career with Northwich Victoria and Nantwich Town.
Northwich and Nantwich gave Davis his first taste of management. He won two promotions and an FA Vase with Nantwich before moving to Crewe Alexandra as assistant manager in 2009.
He was appointed manager of the Railwaymen in 2011, a role he would hold for more than five years.
He won the League Two Play-Off final in 2012 and the EFL Trophy in 2013, while also continuing Alexandra’s tradition of bringing through young, exciting players.
After leaving Crewe in January 2017, he spent four months in charge at Leyton Orient before joining Wolves as under-18 coach in October 2020, a role he held until taking the main job earlier this month.
Opposition View
Interim head coach Steve Davis told wolves.co.uk: “[Brentford] are a very physical, organised, aggressive team out of possession and have the threats that they have going forward. We have analysed them very well; we’ve picked up on the strengths and weaknesses that they have and tried to come up with a plan this week.”
Last Meeting
Brentford 1 Wolverhampton Wanderers 2
Match Officials
Referee: Robert Madley
Assistants: Marc Perry and Timothy Wood
Fourth official: Thomas Bramall
VAR: Peter Bankes
Assistant VAR: Harry Lennard
Robert Madley will take charge of his first Premier League match in four years tomorrow, having worked his way back up the ranks following his dismissal in August 2018.
The West Yorkshire referee joined the National List of Football League referees in 2010, taking charge of his first Premier League game in 2013. The following June, Madley was promoted to the panel of Select Group Referees for the Premier League.
Madley was added to the FIFA referee list in January 2016 and took the 2017 FA Community Shield between Arsenal and Chelsea. Following his dismissal in August 2018, he moved to Norway to referee lower league matches and refereed the 2019 six-a-side World Cup final.
In February 2020, Madley returned to grassroots refereeing in England before returning to the EFL for the 2020/21 season
Wolverhampton Wanderers 22/23
122 fouls – 11th in Premier League
21 yellow cards – eighth in Premier League
1 red card – second-most in Premier League