Wolves look to turn misfortune into valuable wins in top-six hunt

Wolves host Newcastle in the Premier League as the Midlands club look to turn recent losses into wins, starting against the Magpies.

Wolves have not won in 2020 with the club unable to beat Watford on New Year’s Day falling to a 2-1 defeat. In the FA Cup, a goalless draw against Manchester United sees the side meet again in a replay next week to determine who will be progressing into the fourth round of the Cup.

A Similar fate has been experienced with Newcastle. A 3-0 loss at the hands of Leicester started the Magpies 2020 in a bad way. Rochdale held on to a 1-1 draw against Newcastle, sending the game to a replay.

Team news

Wolves remain without Diogo Jota because of the dead leg he sustained against Watford on New Year’s Day.

Patrick Cutrone is set to join Fiorentina, but Morgan Gibbs-White is finally available after a back problem.

Newcastle’s injury problems are easing, with Ciaran Clark, Paul Dummett, Jetro Willems, Andy Carroll, Miguel Almiron and Dwight Gayle all fit again.

However, Ki Sung-Yueng, Yoshi Muto and DeAndre Yedlin are all nursing knocks and will be assessed.

Nuno Espirito Santo was pleased with his side’s improved second-half performance as Wolves had to settle for a replay against Manchester United in their Emirates FA Cup encounter.

“It was tough, but a good performance. Quality – sometimes there were moments, mistakes certainly, it wasn’t easy to play football, but I think we played better in the second-half.

“In the first-half Manchester United had the ball, we created a lot of situations, and maybe we had chances because they didn’t have players in the box. All the players coming out created us a lot of problems, to press, to recover and I think we did much better in the second-half.

“We controlled the game, dominated possession and had some good combinations, so I’m happy with that. But it was a tough game, against a very difficult team who are very organised, there were not too many spaces, but we have another one to go.

“We have to go, we want to compete. We play, we recover, we play. We are ready for it.”

Steve Bruce has challenged his Newcastle United side to rediscover their resilience as they bid to avoid a fourth straight defeat in the Premier League when they travel to Wolves on Saturday.

“We’ve got to find that resilience again and stop making individual errors. That’s cost us badly in the last couple of games, especially away from home,” he said. “We’ll have to do that tomorrow – we’ll have to defend well and hopefully create something the other way.

“Over the last two or three games in particular, we’ve gifted teams the result. And in the Premier League, it’s hard enough without making the silly mistakes we’ve made. We have to eradicate those decisions which we’ve made and the bad goals we’ve given away, because up until then we looked very, very solid and very difficult to play against.

“(Wolves) are a very, very good team. They were far too good for the Championship a couple of years ago, when I come up against them. They’ve bought extremely well, they’ve got good players and they’re a very, very talented team. It was no fluke where they ended up last year, and they’ve continued on this year. To ask them to play nearly 40 games before the end of January is totally ridiculous, but they’re managing well at the moment.”

Head-to-head

Wolves have failed to win any of their past five home league matches against Newcastle (D2, L3). Six of the nine Premier League meetings have ended in a draw, including the reverse fixture earlier this season.