Wolves v Bournemouth: Liam Keen and Nathan Judah preview

Express & Star

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00:00Hello, I'm Nathan Judah, I'm here with Wolves reporter Mr. Liam Keane from a sunny, slightly

00:13cold Compton Park.

00:15It's much nicer actually, isn't it?

00:16It's a little bit better in the sun, although the shadow's coming across, so we'll be quick.

00:20Heard from Gary O'Neill ahead of the big game against Bournemouth on Saturday. Wolves going

00:23for five undefeated and three wins on the bounce in the Premier League.

00:29Someone, when I was doing that, stopped on the two earlier and made it a meme, which

00:33wasn't great.

00:34But three wins on the bounce.

00:37Look, lots of questions in the broadcast section, which we will be reporting on now.

00:41We can't talk about the written section, but maybe you might have a little bit more information

00:45on expressonstar.co.uk forward slash wolves later on.

00:49But in terms of the broadcast section, Matthias Cunha and Mario Lamina were the two names

00:53that were talked about, obviously, due to Mario Lamina's superb captain's performance

00:57at centre-back against Fulham and Matthias Cunha, who's just in superlative form.

01:03First of all, on Cunha, look, Gary O'Neill, absolutely delighted, but also is desperate

01:08to keep his improvement going.

01:10Yeah, yeah.

01:11I mean, the message was loud and clear, wasn't it?

01:14This is a player that is, first of all, in exceptional form, has improved drastically

01:19under Gary O'Neill and since he arrived at Wolves, which I think is clearly very true.

01:24And the message was clear that this player is going nowhere in January.

01:28We knew that.

01:29It's something that has been widely reported and reported yesterday, but Gary sort of doubling

01:33down on it.

01:34Look, 100 percent, he's definitely not going anywhere in January.

01:39Also sort of broached the contract situation to say, look, you know, we're quite relaxed

01:43on it.

01:44I'll leave it with the club.

01:45It's nothing to do with me.

01:46I don't want to talk about it too much, but it's clearly they're going to attempt to reward

01:50a player that is in a rich vein of form.

01:52Yeah, and look, you would expect Wolves to do that.

01:56You know, they want him to sign a four or five year deal.

01:59I don't think any of us think that Mateus Cunha, of course you want to keep him for

02:02the five years.

02:03That he will be a Wolves player in five years time?

02:05Probably not, but it allows Wolves to get maximum value for when that transfer offer

02:09does come in.

02:10It makes sense for all.

02:11Cunha gets a rise in wages, Bobby gets a signing on fee, Wolves get to name their price.

02:17Yeah, and it will be certainly a record if and when he does go.

02:23It won't be January.

02:24With Wolves' model, I think there will be, you know, their resolve will be tested in

02:30the summer.

02:31There will be clubs that will be very interested, particularly if he keeps his form up.

02:35They signed him for 50 million euros or roughly 43, 44 million pounds.

02:40It would take, as you say, a record fee to make him leave this club.

02:45It would be in a really strong position to demand that, first of all.

02:49Not many clubs in the market are probably going to spend that amount of money.

02:51That sort of limits the number of clubs that he will be able to move to if and when he

02:54does go.

02:55The reality is he probably will go at some point, but if Wolves can protect themselves

02:59financially and their assets, that is the least they can do and hope that he stays injury

03:05free and in form.

03:06Ask about Mario Lumina as well.

03:08He said that he was confident they knew that Mario Lumina could play in a three, back three,

03:12but it was the back two where they had to do it because they had no other options, but

03:16they were delighted with how he played in a back two and that was the big bonus against Fulham.

03:20He described it as a decent discovery, which I thought was a great tone of phrase.

03:25And yeah, I think it was because we have seen him in a three at times, even when Wolves

03:28build up when they haven't a four at times, he's been dropping into a three, so we have

03:32seen that.

03:33We know we can do that.

03:34We know, as Gary described after the game, the Fulham game, he is strong, he is quick,

03:38so he's got attributes that mean he can play there, but the positional sense in a back

03:42four was the big question mark and he proved that he can do it against Fulham.

03:47The question is, does he do it against Bournemouth?

03:50And Gary obviously didn't give his team away, but he made it very clear that Bournemouth's

03:55physical test is going to be the biggest obstacle because they will go long, Evan Nilsson is

03:59a big guy, they are going to try and make it a very physical battle rather than a tactical

04:04one.

04:05He didn't say it outright, but it sort of hinted that Lumina won't be playing at centre-back.

04:09I think Craig Dawson will come back in, undoubtedly, and it's whether we'll play a four or a five,

04:14it will be very interesting.

04:15You said Craig Dawson there, so from a team news point of view, three players back for

04:18Wolves.

04:19Yep, Dawson from his illness, Santi Bueno from his groin injury and Paolo Stradley from his

04:24calf injury, all back and available.

04:27He didn't say it in his initial answer, but he was asked a follow-up question about Sam

04:30Johnston, who of course was ill for the Fulham game, and he said that, pretty much, if my

04:38memory is correct, so I hope I'm getting it right, he said he's fine, I expect him

04:42to be in the matchday squad tomorrow.

04:47Maybe we're reading too much into it, but from what I took from that, it was quite a

04:50relatively tallying turn of phrase, I would expect that Gary's right and he is on the

04:56bench tomorrow.

04:57If he isn't on the bench tomorrow, after Gary's saying that, that becomes a big talking point,

05:01so I'm sure Wolves will be desperate to avoid that talking point.

05:05If I was to put my money on it, I would expect him to be on the bench tomorrow and Jose Sarr

05:10starter.

05:11Absolutely, I think Jose Sarr's nailed on starter, but if we talk about a team, the

05:14Gary Neill Cup, look, there's quite a few people saying, don't change it Gary, we know

05:18all these players are back and that's great that they're back, but don't change your winning

05:21side.

05:22I think we both think that he will be changing his winning side.

05:24I think so, yeah.

05:25I think Dawson has to come in, I think Lamina goes back into midfield.

05:29Now we were talking to some colleagues in there and we said this on the podcast, Wolves

05:32are really difficult to predict, which is a great thing, also not great when we're talking

05:36about it on a video.

05:37So I'm going to go with what I said on the podcast, but with a few caveats that I'm not

05:41100% sure.

05:42Sarr in goal, Samedo, Dawson, Totti, Ait Nouri in a back four.

05:48Back four, okay.

05:49Bueno on the bench, I think I'm going to go for a three midfield, Lamina, Andre, Jalgomis,

05:55probably Lamina maybe most advanced, Jalgomis could play there as well, Andre's certainly

05:59the deepest of the three.

06:01With Belagard, Larsson and Kunja, I could see Belagard coming out and maybe a back five.

06:08I could see even Rodrigo Gomez keeping his place potentially, so there are a few big

06:12pressure marks with that, but it means hopefully that for Bournemouth and their scouts it makes

06:16it hard for them to predict what Wolves will do.

06:18Yeah, it's a difficult one isn't it?

06:19I've gone with Andre on the bench and I'm going to say that Rodrigo Gomez keeps his

06:25place.

06:26I hope he does, I thought he did very well.

06:27You can understand it, look, there's a lot of games now coming up, we're going into the

06:31Christmas schedule, you've got Everton on Wednesday night, so the games will be coming

06:34thick and fast and that's why I agree with you in terms of Santi Bueno.

06:37If there was a little bit of 50-50-ness, or I know he's trained this week, but you don't

06:42want him to pick up another injury, you don't want to be in that situation again and he's

06:45going to be used probably, I could see them playing a back three against Everton on Wednesday

06:48night.

06:49That's exactly what I was going to say, you play a four tomorrow, you go to a five away

06:52on a Wednesday night at Everton, which regardless of the quality that they have, because they

06:56do have some quality but I think they're a very up and down side, it's a tough stadium

07:00and atmosphere to go to with very loud and passionate fans, particularly midweek.

07:04I'm looking forward to the Mill Middle.

07:06It's nailed on the Mill Middle.

07:10So yeah, I think that seems to make more sense, but let's take it one game at a time, let's

07:15see how the Cherries go.

07:16Absolutely, absolutely.

07:17Let's hope the Wolves do pop that Cherry.

07:19I'm going to say Wolves 2, Bournemouth 0.

07:24I'm going to stick with my potty prediction, I'm going to go Wolves 3, Bournemouth 1.

07:28Creating goals baby.

07:29For all the build up on this one, make sure you log on to Express The Star.

07:31I don't want to cut.

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