Wolves opinion: Wolves – Europa League preview
Wolverhampton Wanderers took the Premier League by storm last season and made it to 7th place, despite being newly promoted. They had some tricky fixtures in the qualifiers but managed to saunter through.
They haven’t started their Premier League campaign in the same manner as they did last season and much of that could be due to the exertions from the Europa League qualifiers and their thin squad, which was hardly rotated last season.
Wolves will find it hard to progress through the Premier League as the top-six will always have bigger squads, which allows them to play through injury troubles. However, Wolves must look at this competition as a route to the Champions League in order to match their lofty ambitions.
Fixture analysis
Wolves were in pot 4 when getting picked and have been drawn into Group K along with Turkish giants Besiktas, who finished 3rd in their league. This will be a difficult fixture because of the infamously hostile reputation of Turkish clubs.
They also fave Slovakian champions Slovan Bratislava, which will be another difficult trip due to the distance. Their next opponent will be in Portugal, where many Wolves players hail from. The side they face is last season’s fifth-placed team in Portugal, Braga.
Prediction
Wolves must most definitely look to win this competition. They have a coach who is perfectly suited to two-legged competitions because of their strong defensive set-up.
They are more than capable of scoring goals at home and defending a lead. In the same manner, they will set themselves up to hit the opposition on the counter away from home.
Wolves can’t really progress and hold onto their top players if they don’t win trophies. They’ll need to, at the very least, make the quarter-finals and then decide as to how they want to go about for the rest of the season.