4 video games, 4 defeats, no factors: do Wolves face a relegation battle? | Wolverhampton Wanderers

Four video games, zero factors and simply two targets scored: that is Wolves’ worst begin to a season of their historical past. Vítor Pereira’s aspect are rooted to the underside of the desk. Seventeen sides have began a Premier League season with 4 losses and simply eight have averted relegation. More worryingly, solely one of many previous 5 have managed to remain up: Everton final season.

Three straight one-goal defeats within the league – 1-0 towards Bournemouth, 3-2 towards Everton and 1-0 towards Newcastle – present Wolves are shedding by nice margins. Is this a blip or are there deeper issues? Either manner, with the three promoted groups developing within the subsequent 5 weeks, they want factors rapidly. Wolves are usually not getting blown away however there’s a clear sample from their opening video games: self-inflicted errors, an absence of innovative up entrance and a disjointed construction that collapses underneath stress.

Losing Matheus Cunha and Rayan Aït-Nouri – who collectively scored 35% of their 54 league targets final season – in the identical summer time was sure to harm their attacking intent. Wolves are the league’s third-lowest scorers with simply two targets; they’re backside within the anticipated targets (xG) desk with 2.6; and they’re backside within the large possibilities desk with simply two.

Their defeat at Newcastle on Saturday was the starkest instance of their lack of sharpness up entrance. They burst out of the blocks and created possibilities within the opening exchanges, Rodrigo Gomes forcing a fingertip save and a last-gasp sliding problem from Fabian Schär stopping Tolu Arokodare from scoring on his debut. However, after entering into 1-0 down on the break, Wolves got here out for the second half and didn’t have one other shot till the 89th minute. They completed the half with simply 0.09 xG regardless of having 46% possession – not what you’d count on from a aspect chasing a sport.

Losing Aït-Nouri and Cunha has ripped the drive out of Wolves’ assault. Last season these two gamers supplied 13 assists between them and ranked among the many league’s finest for take-ons, progressive carries and goal-creating actions – areas the place Wolves now rank close to the underside. Shorn of their creativity, Wolves look static and predictable, missing the spark to interrupt strains or maintain stress. They have more and more resorted to lengthy balls and crosses however, with their goal man Jørgen Strand Larsen sidelined with an achilles harm and nobody stepping as much as fill his boots, this method typically involves nothing.

Wolves are additionally struggling on the different finish of the pitch, conceding 9 targets (solely West Ham have conceded extra). When Pereira took over from Gary O’Neil in December 2024, he turned a panicky, error-prone backline right into a calmer, extra compact unit. He caught with the identical 3-4-2-1 each week, gave gamers clear roles and settled the group. They started to look extra structured and composed, and made fewer erratic choices, leading to fewer photographs conceded (14.6 per sport underneath O’Neil all the way down to 10.7 underneath Pereira final season) and fewer targets conceded (2.5 per sport underneath O’Neil all the way down to 1.3 underneath Pereira).

But that composure has begun to falter and errors have began to creep again in, from Emmanuel Agbadou’s unfastened move that handed Tijjani Reijnders a objective for Manchester City, to a failure to shut down Jacob Murphy and monitor Nick Woltemade’s back-post run that allowed Newcastle to attain from a easy cross. The avoidable errors that plagued the group in direction of the top of O’Neil’s tenure are resurfacing, with the backline wanting unstructured. The lack of cohesion is mirrored within the numbers; they’re conceding 13.75 photographs and a couple of.23 targets per video games this season.

It isn’t any shock the aspect look disjointed at occasions. Since their 4-0 house defeat by Manchester City on the opening weekend, Wolves have given debuts to 6 summer time signings. Pereira misplaced seven first-team regulars in the summertime window and appears to be grappling with lots of the identical issues he confronted when he first took cost. He has made extra substitutions (20) than another supervisor this season. The group look unsettled on the again, roles are undefined and gamers appear to be studying on the job.

The excellent news is that Wolves are accustomed to recovering from gradual begins. They didn’t win any of their first 10 video games final season however stayed up comfortably. Since 2018, they’ve performed 23 matches in August, shedding 14 and profitable only one. Over the final 4 seasons, they haven’t managed greater than three factors from their opening 4 video games. Fans can take some consolation from the truth that, regardless of these gradual begins, they’re now of their eighth consecutive Premier League season.

Wolves discover themselves at a crossroads. With essential gamers lacking, new signings nonetheless bedding in and essential fixtures towards the three promoted sides on the horizon, the following few weeks will outline whether or not Pereira can regular the ship or if their worst ever begin spirals right into a season-long battle towards relegation.

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