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Can Wolves qualify for Europe? | The Keen & Judah Show
NationalWorld.com
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01/04/2024
Liam Keen and Nathan Judah discuss in detail Wolves' chances of making European football this season. The boys look at form, fixtures, fitness and their rivals.
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Sports
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00:00
[Music]
00:06
Well, hello everybody. Welcome to episode three.
00:09
It is the Keane and Judah show. I'm your host, Nathan Judah.
00:13
Opposite me, it is the Easter Bunny himself, Mr Liam Keane.
00:17
Liam, come hopping in to the chat room. How's it going, bebba?
00:21
Very well, very well. I'm feeling positive.
00:24
How about yourself? You all good?
00:26
I wouldn't say positive after two defeats, but I'm pretty good.
00:29
I had a little bit of chocolate last night, a little bit of a nibble.
00:32
And I've got a little bit of a sugar rush.
00:34
And some people might say we've both got a sugar rush with today's topic.
00:40
Yeah, that was interesting in the same way.
00:43
I know, it just came to me.
00:45
Hence why I'm so positive.
00:47
Well, especially with you enjoying, what have you just talked about?
00:51
What's your egg of choice? The sugary mess that is.
00:54
Oh, I know you don't like a cream egg, but they're top tier, mate.
00:58
Cream eggs up there. Amazing.
01:00
Absolutely horrific.
01:03
Just talking with Mark, our producer, both agree.
01:05
Cadbury's mini eggs, in whatever form it is,
01:08
probably the greatest invention of all time.
01:11
But you can have your cream egg. You can have your sugar rush.
01:14
I'll take a mini egg as well, top tier.
01:17
Sugar rush, head rush, Wolves lost two on the bounce,
01:21
two of course, Corinth City, and then Aston Villa.
01:25
Predictably, some might say on Saturday.
01:28
So what are we talking about today?
01:30
We're talking about how Wolverhampton Wanderers can qualify for Europe, baby.
01:33
Come on, come on.
01:35
Why not turn the negatives of two defeats into the hopeful scenario
01:39
of nine games to go and a European race.
01:42
Exactly. And by the way, I don't care what anyone says,
01:46
whether you're a half empty person,
01:50
they've still got a cracking chance of European football.
01:53
Yes, they need a lot to go their way.
01:55
Yes, they need to play better than what they did on Saturday,
01:57
but they still are right in this mix.
02:00
Liam Keane, first of all, we're going to take it today about Wolves.
02:05
If they finish eighth in the Premier League,
02:07
that will be good enough for a European spot.
02:11
Can you just explain to the peeps why eighth may probably,
02:15
hopefully, fingers crossed, be good enough?
02:17
Yeah, there's a couple of moving parts on this one,
02:20
but I'll keep it quite brief.
02:21
Thank you.
02:23
You're welcome.
02:24
There will be an additional Champions League spot going to two countries
02:28
based on European performance, and Italy and England are leading the race
02:33
for that extra spot.
02:34
So it will mean that fifth place in the Premier League
02:38
will become a Champions League spot, and then it trickles down.
02:41
And we're also bearing this on the assumption,
02:44
which is a fairly solid one, that the winner of the FA Cup
02:47
will be a team that is qualifying within Europe already.
02:50
So obviously City are going to be huge favourites for Liverpool,
02:53
still in there, United still in there.
02:55
Oh no, Liverpool aren't, United knocked them out, excuse me.
02:58
But yeah, you get what I mean.
03:00
So that's hopefully, and will be good news for Wolves,
03:05
and the several clubs that Wolves are chasing for a European spot
03:08
will mean that it drops down to eighth for the Conference League.
03:12
And it would be a magnificent achievement if Wolves were able to do it.
03:16
And as you say, they've got a very good chance.
03:18
Yeah, look, Wolves, despite their loss, are in 10th place on 41 points.
03:25
Eighth at this moment in time is Newcastle on 43.
03:30
Liam, if Newcastle are on 43 points and Wolves are on 41 points,
03:35
how many points away are Wolves to get to eighth?
03:40
Only two points.
03:41
Oh, look at that. I absolutely love this guy.
03:46
And look, you look at the weekend and yes,
03:48
it didn't work out on the pitch at Villa Park,
03:50
but also games kind of went for Wolves a little bit.
03:54
I know that Newcastle came back to beat West Ham,
03:57
but a draw might have been the better result, of course.
04:01
But at the same time, if any team was going to win,
04:04
you'd probably rather it be Newcastle than West Ham.
04:06
West Ham, of course, were above Wolves in the table anyway.
04:10
So it kind of closes that gap a little bit.
04:13
Newcastle got some horrendous injury worries themselves.
04:16
So, you know, you're going to have to finish above Newcastle probably
04:19
to get European football.
04:21
But it wasn't a terrible result.
04:23
You look at Chelsea and Burnley, you think Chelsea nailed on win at home
04:27
and then they draw 2-2 against a 10-man Burnley.
04:30
Again, Chelsea with a game in hand, but at the same time have faltered again.
04:34
So these are the kind of teams that are going to be in the mix for Wolves
04:38
in the fight for seventh and eighth.
04:40
Because it is those two spots you think really,
04:43
when you're looking at the Premier League table, Lee,
04:45
and when you're looking at Manchester United,
04:47
are probably going to have enough to finish sixth.
04:50
And then, of course, Liverpool, Arsenal, Man City, Villa, Tottenham
04:54
ahead of them.
04:55
So it is that seventh and eighth spot where you've got quite a few teams vying for it.
04:59
And I will go into a little bit more detail later on in the show.
05:03
But let's concentrate on Wolverhampton Wanderers first
05:05
before we go to break in about five or six minutes.
05:08
And first of all, they've got to concentrate on themselves, don't they?
05:12
Because we can talk till we're blue in the face about other teams around them
05:16
and scenarios here, scenarios there.
05:18
At the end of the day, Wolverhampton Wanderers have got to win some games
05:22
between now and the end of the season.
05:23
They've got to win some big games between now and the end of the season.
05:27
But they've got to do it.
05:28
They've got to start scoring goals.
05:29
They need players back, don't they?
05:31
What do you think Wolves need to do so they can start turning
05:34
some of these defeats around and start getting back on that bandwagon
05:37
and winning some games and hopefully some back-to-back games as well
05:40
and putting a run together?
05:41
Yeah, well, you hit the nail on the head first of all there
05:44
by saying having some players back.
05:46
And Wolves are fortunate enough that it seems Mattias Kuhn will be in the squad
05:52
for Tuesday's game against Burnley, according to Gary O'Neill.
05:56
Very close to being involved against Villa and the decision was taken
05:59
to hold him back.
06:01
Of course, the club and Gary O'Neill won't say this publicly,
06:03
but I imagine it was with an idea of being very cautious with him
06:08
and looking ahead to games that Wolves have got a better chance of winning,
06:13
particularly Burnley, albeit a great result for them is a good opportunity
06:17
for Wolves.
06:18
And that will be really key, getting Mattias Kuhn back and fit
06:21
and firing again because not just the fact that he's such a supremely
06:25
talented player, but it's the hybrid role he plays on that left No. 10 position
06:31
that is the glue or one of several glues that holds his Wolves team together.
06:38
And it's mainly on that left side where you've got Totti, Ait Nouri, Kuhn.
06:41
I always felt that those three and the role they played in the Wolves system
06:45
was really integral to how they played.
06:47
So that would be really, really important.
06:49
And then following that, a little bit of good news with other players
06:53
coming back.
06:54
Dawson is a potential for Burnley, albeit maybe slightly more unlikely,
07:00
but regardless of that, hopefully won't be too far away.
07:04
Kwanghee Chan is roughly three weeks from now, based on the prediction
07:10
for his return, hoping that with him being back on the grass and looking
07:14
and feeling good that he'll be back a bit sooner than that as well.
07:17
If they can shave a bit of that time off, that's going to be invaluable to them.
07:21
No offence to John Riddick and Belagar, but he's not been as influential
07:24
this season, and albeit they haven't had good news on his injury,
07:27
to have good news on the others is far more beneficial for Wolves.
07:31
So yeah, they're in a better place than they were before the Villa game,
07:35
which seems a bizarre thing to say after a 2-0 loss,
07:38
but to get those players back will be absolutely integral to Wolves doing well.
07:42
Yeah, look, it's been horrendous for Wolves' injury wise.
07:47
They really have, and you add that to the frustration of missing out
07:51
on strikers towards the end of the window, and Fabio and Sascha
07:56
being allowed to go on alone. It's frustrating because you look at that team
08:00
and you look at Aston Villa, and actually they played pretty well
08:03
in those first 20 or 30 minutes on Saturday, Liam.
08:06
And no disrespect to Chiuumi and Sarabia and Mario Lamina,
08:14
who had to play out of position on the left-hand side,
08:16
but that's probably the most anemic front line that Wolves have had to
08:20
wander apart in a Premier League game for probably the last five years.
08:23
I can't really argue against it, unfortunately.
08:27
Sarabia, I thought, very quiet. Yeah, just not as influential
08:34
with other players around him that I think he needs to help flourish.
08:38
Chiuumi, I think, did well enough in the circumstances,
08:41
but very isolated. And Lamina's not a forward.
08:43
It's an experiment that Wolves are having to push on with
08:47
because of limited other options elsewhere.
08:50
And that's why having Matthias Kuhnja back is going to be so integral.
08:54
Of all of those players unavailable, it's probably between him and Neto
08:59
that are the most integral to get back into this Wolves side
09:02
for different reasons, really. So to have Kuhnja back
09:05
and way ahead of schedule is going to be incredibly important.
09:10
And then with the games Wolves have got, they've got a decent enough
09:13
running that they have opportunities to pick up points.
09:17
And if you do that and you focus, as you said previously,
09:20
I think it's a good point, focus on yourself and the nine games you've got,
09:23
regardless of games in hand or how many teams other teams have got,
09:27
how many games rather, how many players they've got available,
09:29
what points they're on. If you focus on yourself,
09:33
maybe some of the home games are going to be really vital in that as well.
09:37
And Wolves have got a really good opportunity still.
09:39
Yeah, they have. And like I said at the top of the show,
09:42
they're going to have to concentrate on getting some wins,
09:44
but also they're probably going to have to upset a big team
09:48
along the way as well. You're going to have to have that
09:50
because you can't just guarantee your home wins and we'll discuss them
09:53
and the games in the second half. But you've got to probably beat
09:58
or have a big upset, I think, in there. And also with these players
10:02
coming back, Liam, you've got to, the likes of Mateus Kuhnja,
10:05
they've got to find a new way as well of producing on the pitch
10:08
and scoring goals without maybe some of their other allies,
10:12
i.e. Pedro Neto, in that side.
10:15
I tell you what, if you can get goals from all over the pitch,
10:18
it's going to help this Wolves side. And to be fair, and to Wolves' credit,
10:21
they've actually been quite good at that this season.
10:24
Mario Lamina's on a handful. You've got a couple of the defenders
10:28
that have chipped in here and there and they've needed that,
10:31
particularly in previous seasons when Wolves' top goal scorers
10:34
have been five or six goals a season. Wolves were a lot different
10:38
this year with the numbers that Hwang and Kuhnja have thrown in.
10:43
But then we've got a couple of other players that just ease that burden
10:46
slightly, whether it's going away to Brentford and Lamina
10:51
getting the opening goal there that puts Wolves in a really strong position
10:55
before that 4-1 win. These kind of moments that are going to
11:00
impact the final points. Wolves have done so well to get to where they are
11:04
right now and they're so close to having that extra push forward
11:10
onto what would be a remarkable achievement.
11:13
Yes, it will be a remarkable achievement and we will see exactly what that
11:16
points total may be straight after this break.
11:19
[MUSIC]
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